Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 10-11/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video): “We Are Victorious Because Our Enemy Did Not Achieve Its Goals”: A Closer Look at The Distorted Rhetoric of Political Islam: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranian Mullahs
War between Lebanon, Israel Takes New Turn: Assassinations, Deeper Attacks
Mikati meets German FM amid fears of escalation
Bou Saab: War is not the solution
Saudi envoy to visit Beirut after meeting of 5-nation group for Lebanon
Report: Hochstein has serious proposal, Borrell relays message on Shebaa Farms
Hezbollah: Israel seeks information through deceptive calls in southern villages
No Lebanon village beyond Israel’s reach, says army chief
Hezbollah: Israel seeks information through deceptive calls in southern villages
Israel, Hezbollah trade strikes as diplomats call for calm
Israel strikes south as border clashes escalate
Lebanese Army warns of Israeli-launched thermal balloons posing danger to citizens
Judicial ruling issued in Murr family dispute
Why both Israel and Hezbollah are eager to avoid escalation into full-war
Israeli shelling kills civilian in southern Lebanon
Hezbollah denies that fighter killed was in charge of drone unit
LBCI's information denies BDL acting Governor Mansouri intention to establish new exchange rate for US dollar under Circular 151
Limited progress: Israel's actions despite US concerns on multiple fronts amidst tensions
Germany pledges support to Lebanese Army for border control enhancement
White House: Houthi attacks in the Red Sea escalate

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 10-11/2024
UN Security Council demands immediate end to Houthi Red Sea attacks
Despair in Gaza as Fighting Intensifies despite Promise to Scale Down War
Israel Faces Gaza 'Genocide' Case at Top UN Court
Legal battle to open at top UN court over allegation of Israeli genocide in Gaza
Israel Faces Gaza 'Genocide' Case at Top UN Court
Egypt President Calls for ‘Decisive Stance’ to Push for Gaza Truce
Blinken tells Abbas US backs 'tangible steps' for Palestinian state
Blinken Says Made Clear to Iran Support Provided to Houthis Must Stop
Israeli delegation in Cairo for new talks on prisoner swap
Blinken meets Palestinian leader as Israel keeps bombing Gaza
WHO Cancels Sixth Aid Mission to Gaza over Security Concerns
Zelensky says Putin won't stop 'until we all finish him'
Iraq PM: Country Seeks Quick Exit of US Forces but No Deadline Set
ISIS Attack Kills 14 Syrian Regime Forces in Badia Desert
Barzani Agrees with Leader of International Coalition to Maintain Security in Iraq
US, UK Forces Shoot Down Houthi Missiles, Drones in Red Sea
Yemen's Houthis launch 'largest attack' yet in Red Sea
White House: Houthi attacks in the Red Sea escalate
Grundberg in Muscat to Urge Houthis to Back his Roadmap

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 10-11/2024
Coptic Christmas Eve: Another Church Torched in Egypt/Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/January 10, 2024
Netanyahu, Nasrallah, and the Brink of the Abyss/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
When Lawyers Defending Their Clients Become the Accused/Elizabeth Eastman/Gatestone Institute/January 10, 2024
In Memoriam: Dr. David Pollock/The Washington Institute/January 10, 2024
Images of the ‘West,’ Our's and Israel's/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
Bomb-scarred Iran could be at heart of regional inferno/Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/January 10, 2024
Gaza and us: Between words and deeds/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 10, 2024
Sunak’s best gift for UK would be to call an election/Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/January 10, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 10-11/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video): “We Are Victorious Because Our Enemy Did Not Achieve Its Goals”: A Closer Look at The Distorted Rhetoric of Political Islam: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranian Mullahs
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126065/126065/
Date: January 11, 2024
The ideology-driven slogan, “We are victorious because our enemy did not achieve its goals,” has become a disturbing and pervasive rhetoric among various political Islamic groups and countries such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranian Mullahs.
The catastrophic nature of these political Islam groups, rooted in Ottoman thought and the Muslim Brotherhood, is characterized by an ideology that is not only sick and harmful but also devoid of any connection to humanity, reason, or logic. It is a corrupt, delusional, and detached worldview that vehemently rejects others. Its primary and most significant goal is to subjugate and oppress anyone who opposes their beliefs. Those who resist and reject this ideology are branded as deserving death, and their countries are invaded under the banners of jihad and resistance.
One of the most dangerous slogans adopted by these criminal and terrorist groups is the absurd claim: “We have succeeded as long as the enemy has not achieved its goals.” This is proclaimed without regard for the destruction, loss of life, impoverishment, and displacement experienced by their own people and countries. The statement made by Ismail Haniyeh, as mentioned below, serves as a glaring example.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, echoed the same absurd and sick slogan after the 2006 war with Israel. Despite Israel destroying Lebanon, targeting its infrastructure, displacing southern residents, and causing the deaths of over 1600 Lebanese, primarily members of Hezbollah, Nasrallah emerged after the first hour of the ceasefire and declared victory, asserting that Israel had failed to achieve its goals.
Fast forward to over 97 days after the war initiated by Hamas with Israel, Gaza lies in ruins, its residents displaced, with over 30,000 lives lost and 150,000 wounded. Ismail Haniyeh, residing in Qatar’s finest hotels, claims that Hamas has succeeded because Israel did not achieve its goals.
Leaders who share the mindset of Haniyeh and Nasrallah, along with their counterparts, are despicable. Their mission appears to be the destruction of their own countries, the killing of their own people, and a regression to prehistoric times. With such a sick, corrupt, and delusional ideology, coupled with leaders of such despicable and hypocritical nature, achieving peace and stability seems elusive for our people until they are liberated from such leaders and such a toxic culture.

War between Lebanon, Israel Takes New Turn: Assassinations, Deeper Attacks
Beirut: Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
The latest Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah’s retaliation to them have revealed a new shift in the war. Israel is now focusing on assassinations through precise strikes, while Hezbollah has limited its response by attacking military targets that would not lead to a full-scale war, said Lebanese parliamentary sources. Israel has expanded its strikes to reach 12 kilometers into Lebanese territory and has kept up its assassinations. The latest target was the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah's aerial unit, Ali Hussein Barji. Hezbollah denied those claims, saying in a statement on Tuesday "the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed."Israeli military chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Barji had led dozens of drone attacks on Israel, as Israel and Hezbollah have been waging their deadliest hostilities in 17 years. Israel has carried out two assassinations in Lebanon in a week. Last week it killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold. On Monday, it killed Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil, the most senior party officer to die in the fighting. It targeted his vehicle in the town of Khirbet Silem.
An officer in the group's elite Radwan force, Tawil had played a leading role in directing Hezbollah operations in south Lebanon and had been previously deployed to Syria, where the group has supported Damascus in the war.
Tawil’s funeral was held on Tuesday shortly ahead of which Israel launched a strike against a vehicle in Khirbet Silem, wounding four people and allegedly killing Barji. Hezbollah struck Israeli military targets in retaliation to Arouri and Tawil’s assassinations. On Saturday, it said it had hit a key Israeli observation post in Mount Meron with 62 rockets as a "preliminary response" to Arouri's killing. On Tuesday, Hezbollah attacked the Israeli army headquarters in Safed, northern Israel, with explosive drones deployed from Lebanon, hitting the position for the first time. The latest developments indicate that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is taking a new turn after it was initially limited to cross-border fire, said military experts. The Lebanese people fear the Israeli assassinations may be aimed at luring Hezbollah to make a response that could lead to the widening of the conflict, going against American demands that the war remain contained to Gaza. A parliamentary source, who has been following international contacts related to Lebanon, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah has, so far, limited its responses to Israel to military targets, noting its attacks on Mount Meron and Safed. Such attacks are unlikely to lead to the widening of the conflict, it added. This has not prevented Israel from carrying out attacks deeper into Lebanese territory. Since the beginning of the week, it struck the region of al-Ghandourieh, 12 kms deep into Lebanon, killing three Hezbollah members. On Tuesday, it hit Khirbet Silem, 10 kms deep.

Mikati meets German FM amid fears of escalation
Agence France Presse/January 10/2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Wednesday with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Grand Serail, as increasing cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and the Israeli resumed in the south. Mikati told Baerbock that Lebanon respects all international resolutions in order to achieve permanent stability in the south, while Baerbock stressed the need to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. "The time has come for a permanent and just solution to the Palestinian issue," Mikati added, calling for a ceasefire and for international efforts for a final and comprehensive two-state solution. Since the Gaza war started, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran-backed armed groups, especially Lebanon's Hezbollah but also groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Escalating tensions have prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint and discuss potential solutions -- including land border talks. In a meeting on Tuesday with U.N. chief of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was "ready for talks to achieve long-term stability in south Lebanon".
The three months of cross-border violence have killed more than 185 people in Lebanon, including 140 Hezbollah fighters and more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Bou Saab: War is not the solution
Naharnet/January 10/2024
Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said he met with Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday was to put him in the picture of the meeting that he has held in Rome with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein. “Of course Mr. Speaker knew of the visit before I went to Rome. The Rome meeting was aimed at preparing for the meetings that will be held in Beirut with the U.S. envoy,” Bou Saad said after the Ain el-Tineh talks, hoping Hochstein’s visit “will be a step towards achieving the needed stability in Lebanon.”Addressing the Israelis, Bou Saab stressed that “war cannot return the settlers to their settlements.”“It will subject them to further displacement, perhaps to more distant settlements,” he warned. “It might make this issue protract, not for months but maybe for years to come,” the Lebanese official cautioned. “War is not the solution. If the objective is to return settlers to their settlements, we have the same objective, which is the return of all (Lebanese) villagers to their border villages and farms. The solution should come through diplomatic means and efforts and no one can find any other solution,” he emphasized. Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed more than 185 people in Lebanon, including over 140 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese residents on both sides of the border.

Saudi envoy to visit Beirut after meeting of 5-nation group for Lebanon
Naharnet/January 10/2024
The five-nation group for Lebanon -- which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt -- will hold a meeting in the weekend to discuss the situation in Lebanon, media reports said. Saudi Royal Court adviser Nizar al-Aloula will take part in the meeting before heading later to Beirut to “put the Lebanese officials in the picture of the meeting’s outcome,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported. French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian is also expected to visit Lebanon, the daily said. Moreover, Qatari envoy Jassem bin Fahad Al-Thani will also visit Lebanon, amid reports that he has postponed his trip from the current period to a later date, ad-Diyar added.

Report: Hochstein has serious proposal, Borrell relays message on Shebaa Farms
Naharnet/January 10/2024
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will carry a “serious” proposal to Lebanon regarding the border situation with Israel, while EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has conveyed an Israeli message to Lebanese officials regarding the occupied Shebaa Farms, a media report said. “Hochstein’s visit is part of the U.S. attempt to contain the escalation between Lebanon and Israel, seeing as its spread to the region would threaten U.S. interests,” political sources told al-Binaa newspaper in remarks published Wednesday. “The U.S. mediator will carry to the Lebanese government suggestions and offers aimed at resolving the border conflict between Lebanon and Israel -- which means that Hezbollah’s Radwan forces would retreat to the area north of Litani and the firing of rockets at Israeli posts would stop, in return for the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the occupied territories, especially Ghajar, the 13 contested points and Kfarshouba, while the Shebaa Farms would be put in the U.N.’s custody,” the sources said. Official sources also told al-Binaa that “Hochstein is carrying a comprehensive and serious proposal as part of a full package for resolving the border conflict between Lebanon and Israel, including the Shebaa Farms, and will discuss it with the Lebanese officials during his upcoming meetings in Beirut.” Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab had met with Hochstein on Monday in Rome, ahead of the latter’s visit to Beirut, which will take place on Thursday or Friday, the newspaper said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also carried a proposal similar to Hochstein’s during his recent visit to Lebanon, the daily revealed. “Borrell relayed to Lebanese officials Israel’s readiness to agree to temporarily put the Shebaa Farms in the U.N.’s custody in return for guarantees that Hezbollah would withdraw to the area north of Litani,” the newspaper said.

Hezbollah: Israel seeks information through deceptive calls in southern villages
LBCI/January 10/2024
The media wing of Hezbollah announced in a statement on Wednesday that the "Israeli enemy continues its efforts to gather information about the resistance and the locations of its fighters in the southern villages."This comes in the aftermath of a significant loss of effectiveness in the surveillance and espionage devices installed in its border areas, as these installations were targeted and destroyed by the resistance, according to the statement. In this context, it was revealed that Israel is resorting to contacting some residents using phone numbers that appear to be Lebanese, both landlines and mobiles. The objective is to inquire about specific individuals, their whereabouts, and the status of certain houses. In these calls, various identities are assumed, sometimes posing as members of the Internal Security Forces in southern regions, other times as Lebanese General Security centers, and occasionally impersonating relief organizations offering assistance.The statement added, "The caller, speaking in fluent Lebanese dialect, attempts to extract information about the family members and their locations or other relevant data concerning the surroundings.""This is done under the guise of expressing concern and a willingness to assist. The enemy exploits this information to verify the presence of resistance fighters in certain houses they intend to target," it continued. Moreover, the statement noted, "A general appeal was made to the public, especially the residents of front-line villages, urging them not to cooperate with any inquiries about the surroundings and individuals' movements and to promptly cut off such calls. Citizens are encouraged to report these incidents promptly to the relevant authorities without delay."

No Lebanon village beyond Israel’s reach, says army chief
AFP/January 10, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army chief said Wednesday that his troops could destroy any village inside Lebanon, ramping up rhetoric against the Hezbollah militant group based across the border. The Israeli military has been exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah — a key ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas — almost every day since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7. Israel’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi told a gathering of soldiers in Gaza that their actions in the besieged Palestinian territory had convinced him that they could take the fight into Lebanese territory if needed. “We’ve fought in Gaza, so we know how to do it in Lebanon if we have to,” he said, according to a statement from the Israeli army. “After what you did (in Gaza), there is not a village in Lebanon that you cannot enter and destroy.” Since the start of the border escalation, 188 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 141 Hezbollah members and more than 20 civilians, among them three journalists, according to a tally compiled by AFP. The Israeli army says 14 Israelis have been killed, including nine soldiers. While Hezbollah says it is targeting Israeli military sites in support of Gaza, the Israeli army says its air and artillery strikes are aimed at disrupting the Shiite group’s infrastructure and the movements of its fighters around the border.

Hezbollah: Israel seeks information through deceptive calls in southern villages
LBCI/January 10/2024
The media wing of Hezbollah announced in a statement on Wednesday that the "Israeli enemy continues its efforts to gather information about the resistance and the locations of its fighters in the southern villages."This comes in the aftermath of a significant loss of effectiveness in the surveillance and espionage devices installed in its border areas, as these installations were targeted and destroyed by the resistance, according to the statement. In this context, it was revealed that Israel is resorting to contacting some residents using phone numbers that appear to be Lebanese, both landlines and mobiles. The objective is to inquire about specific individuals, their whereabouts, and the status of certain houses. In these calls, various identities are assumed, sometimes posing as members of the Internal Security Forces in southern regions, other times as Lebanese General Security centers, and occasionally impersonating relief organizations offering assistance. The statement added, "The caller, speaking in fluent Lebanese dialect, attempts to extract information about the family members and their locations or other relevant data concerning the surroundings.""This is done under the guise of expressing concern and a willingness to assist. The enemy exploits this information to verify the presence of resistance fighters in certain houses they intend to target," it continued. Moreover, the statement noted, "A general appeal was made to the public, especially the residents of front-line villages, urging them not to cooperate with any inquiries about the surroundings and individuals' movements and to promptly cut off such calls. Citizens are encouraged to report these incidents promptly to the relevant authorities without delay."

Israel, Hezbollah trade strikes as diplomats call for calm
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/January 10, 2024
BEIRUT: Israel has continued its strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon amid mounting fears of a war on the border.
Hezbollah also struck back against targets in Israel despite warnings from Israeli officials. Reports in local Lebanese and Israeli media say that Israel’s provocative targeting of Hezbollah could lure the group into all-out conflict. Since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas-led attack, the group has continued to carry out low-level strikes on Israel, alarming the Lebanese government. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has attempted to ease tensions. In talks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, he said: “Lebanon respects all international resolutions, starting with the armistice agreement, to achieve permanent stability in southern Lebanon.” Mikati urged support for the Lebanese army “to enable it to carry out its duties.” He added: “The time has come to find a permanent and just solution to the Palestinian cause, starting with a ceasefire and launching an international path for a final and comprehensive solution based on the two-state principle.”Meanwhile, Israel ramped up efforts on its northern border, using incendiary material to ignite forest fires in Lebanon. The Lebanese Army Command said in a statement: “A joint army and UNIFIL patrol in the outskirts of the border town of Labbouneh found three hoses used to pump incendiary materials that were placed by the Israeli enemy, from inside the occupied Palestinian territories to Lebanese territory. A specialized army unit worked to dismantle them in the presence of UNIFIL members.
“During this time, army and UNIFIL members were exposed to enemy fire, but no casualties were reported.”The statement added: “Another joint patrol found in the outskirts of the town of Aita Al-Shaab two similar hoses that were extended from the Israeli enemy’s Tal Al-Raheb military center, and a specialized army unit dismantled them.”
The Lebanese army is monitoring the situation on the southern border with the help of UNIFIL. The Israeli army targeted a house in Kfar Shuba using a drone, killing a Hezbollah member, Nabegh Ahmed Al-Qadiri, from Kafr Shuba, and resulting in injury to the house’s owner, Ibrahim Qasab.
Al-Qadiri’s home was destroyed by Israeli artillery bombardment, so he had sought refuge in Qasab’s house. The Israeli army announced strikes on “targets in Lebanon, including military infrastructure in Kafr Shuba.”
The Israeli bombardment of Lebanese border villages and towns from Naqoura to Kafr Shuba continued. With the assistance of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army, the Lebanese Red Cross successfully retrieved a partially decomposed body from Metulla. Israeli news outlets reported on Wednesday that “Hezbollah launched a powerful missile, which landed in an undisclosed settlement, resulting in significant destruction to nearby homes within a hundred-meter range.”
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that “the great destruction inflicted by Hezbollah on the northern settlements can be described as unprecedented.”Baerbock urged the need to implement Resolution 1701 in southern Lebanon, during her meetings with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Wednesday. Among the provisions of the resolution are the cessation of hostilities and the absence of armed Hezbollah personnel within UNIFIL’s area of operations. The German stance was expressed a day before by US presidential adviser Amos Hochstein, who will arrive in Beirut on Thursday for a brief visit. He will meet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun and the head of General Security, Brig. Gen. Elias Al-Baysari. The visit is part of international efforts to prevent military escalation on the border, with hostilities already leading to mass evacuations from hundreds of settlements in northern Israel. Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who had met Hochstein in Rome, said: “A war will not bring Israeli settlers back to their northern settlements, but rather push them further away and prolong the issue for a year.”He added: “The solution is not in war but in diplomatic efforts.”

Israel strikes south as border clashes escalate
Associated Press/January 10/2024
Israeli warplanes struck Wednesday the outskirts of al-Labbouneh, al-Naqoura and Kfarshouba. Hezbollah later announced the killing of one of its members, Nabegh al-Qadiri from Kfarshouba, saying he died "on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel. Lebanon border clashes have been escalating as Hezbollah targeted on Saturday and Tuesday two Israeli bases in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Beirut last week that killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri, and for a drone strike on Monday that killed Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil. Sheik Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, said in a speech during the al-Tawil's funeral that his killing will not stop attacks along the border. Thousands of people took part in al-Tawil's funeral in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm. His coffin, draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag, was carried through the streets to the cemetery. Shortly before the funeral Tuesday, an Israeli drone strike on Khirbet Selm killed a Hezbollah member. The Israeli military claimed that the man killed was in charge of Hezbollah’s drones in the south. Hezbollah in a statement denied it. On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed three other Hezbollah members and Hezbollah attacked eight Israeli posts along the border. The increasing cross-border attacks have led to fears of a second conflict against the backdrop of the ongoing Gaza war. Hezbollah says that by keeping Israel’s northern front active, it is helping to reduce pressure on Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has lost some 150 fighters in the near-daily exchanges of fire.

Lebanese Army warns of Israeli-launched thermal balloons posing danger to citizens
LBCI/January 10/2024
In an official statement on Wednesday from the Army Command - Orientation Directorate, it has been revealed that the Israeli Army has been intentionally releasing thermal balloons above Lebanese villages and towns. The concerning aspect is that some of these balloons, containing explosive and incendiary materials, fall perilously close to residential areas and between houses without detonating. The Army Command urges citizens to be cautious and avoid approaching or touching these balloons due to the inherent risk of explosion. Amid potential danger to the public, the military emphasizes the importance of promptly reporting the presence of these balloons to the nearest military center.

Judicial ruling issued in Murr family dispute
Naharnet/January 10/2024
The Lebanese judiciary has "seized all the assets of Gabriel, Jihad and Carole Murr," accusing them of "embezzlement," Lebanese network MTV, which was founded by the Murr family, reported on Wednesday. “The ruling seizes all the properties, real estate, companies and shares of Gabriel, Jihad and Carole Murr, which proves their embezzlement of funds, after they had accused (MTV chairman) Michel Murr of this for years,” MTV said. A statement issued by Jihad and Carole Murr meanwhile accused Michel Murr of “spreading fake news against the members of his family and his father, the last of which was the report about the seizure of assets.” “This is only a precautionary seizure based on a lawsuit containing several fallacies and unjust accusations and is not a final judicial verdict,” the statement said, adding that legal procedures will be followed to lift the “precautionary seizure.”

Why both Israel and Hezbollah are eager to avoid escalation into full-war
Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame/Associated Press/January 10/2024
The killing of a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Jan. 8, 2024, has raised concern that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could escalate into a regional war. Wissam al-Tawil, the head of a unit that operates on Lebanon's southern border, was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike just days after a senior Hamas leader was assassinated in Beirut and amid sporadic attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli targets. But how likely is a full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah? The Conversation turned to Asher Kaufman, an expert on Lebanon-Israel relations at the University of Notre Dame, to assess what could happen next.
What do we know about the latest strike?
We know that it was an Israeli drone that killed al-Tawil. Hezbollah has since released picture of him with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the group's secretary general, and Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Quds Force – one of Iran's main military branches – who was assassinated by the U.S. in 2020. This suggests that al-Tawil was a major target for Israel, as he clearly had connections with top figures in Lebanon and Iran. The fact that it was a drone attack is also important. This suggests that the operation was based on good Israeli intelligence on al-Tawil's whereabouts. This wasn't a chance encounter. This was clearly a calculated and precise attack. After the operation, Israel said al-Tawil was responsible for a recent missile attack on Israel's Mount Meron intelligence base in northern Israel. That attack was in response to the earlier assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut. So what we are seeing is a pattern of tit-for-tat strikes.
So this doesn't mark an escalation?
I don't see the killing of al-Tawil as an escalation, as such. Rather, it is a targeted retaliation by Israel to the earlier Hezbollah strike on one of their facilities. There are some important things to note in that regard. It was just 10 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border. This is still within the geographical area where the two sides have been exchanging fire since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel. So this is still within the realm of border skirmishes, to my mind, and falls short of full war. Is it in the interests of Israel to escalate conflict? I don't think either side is interested in full-blown war, for different reasons. For Israel, the pressure is from outside the country. There is immense international pressure on Israel not to start a full-blown war with Hezbollah. Indeed, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently in the region and visiting Israel with that message: Do not start a war with Hezbollah. I think there is a realization, certainly in the international community, that a full-blown war between Hezbollah and Israel will decimate Lebanon and also lead to major destruction in Israel.
What about pressure within Israel?
Certainly within Israel there is a strong lobby for war with Hezbollah. The thinking among Israeli military hawks here is a powerful military blow against Hezbollah would allow people living in the north of Israel to return to homes they evacuated when it looked like war might be in the cards. Indeed, the Israeli Ministry of Defense wanted preemptive war with Hezbollah after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. But U.S. President Joe Biden stopped that from happening for the same reason that Blinken is currently trying to dissuade Israel from further escalating the conflict. And what about Hezbollah? How might it respond?
Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, is between a rock and a hard place. The majority of Lebanese people clearly do not want a war. But any attack resulting in the deaths of high-ranking Hezbollah figures will be met by internal demands for action. But there is a tipping point for Hezbollah, as there is for the Israelis too – which is why this tit-for-tat pattern is such a risky matter. On the Lebanese side, if Israel hits strategic Hezbollah assets deep in Lebanon – that is, outside the border areas – or launch an attack that leads to mass civilian deaths then it might lead to full-blown conflict. But so far that has not been the case. The attacks by Israel have been surgical and precise. In the case of the Hamas leader killed in Beirut, it was only Palestinians killed. It was a humiliation for Hezbollah for sure – it happened in Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut. But it wasn't on Hezbollah assets, such as personnel, strategic sites or command centers. Israel has limited its attacks largely to the border area. Public sentiment is still very strongly against war in Lebanon. Certainly there is strong sympathy for Gazans. But the prevailing sentiment in Lebanon is that support cannot come at the price of Lebanese lives.And that suits the Hezbollah hierarchy at present. They know that the threat of war is their most important card. Once played, they can't use it again.
Is there a diplomatic way forward?
Both parties are looking at diplomacy. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that his country's preferred path is "an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement." Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of returning Israeli citizens to their homes in the north would be done "diplomatically" if possible. But added, "If not, we will work in other ways."Similarly in Lebanon, the talk is of a diplomatic solution – notably by enforcing United Nations Resolution 1701, which calls for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River and for Israel to withdraw to the international border. So it isn't that there isn't a credible diplomatic path. And the fact that both sides use the language of diplomacy suggests there is no appetite for full-blown war. Indeed, the U.S. has long been trying to get Israel and Lebanon to resolve disputes over their shared borders.
Both sides signed a U.S.-brokered maritime agreement in 2022, and there have been attempts at a similar deal in regards to the land boundary. There remained disagreement over 13 spots along the border. But since Oct. 7, the U.S. has tried to use the prospect of a negotiated land solution based on U.N. Resolution 1701 to diffuse tension between Israel and Lebanon. The Lebanese government has said it welcomes U.S. efforts to resolve the disputes. On the Israeli side, too, they are going along with U.S. attempts to keep U.N. Resolution 1701 on the table – I think, mainly to keep America on side. Does Iran have any role in influencing Hezbollah's response? Iran has immense influence over Hezbollah – it pays for military operations and equipment.
But Hezbollah is not only an Iranian proxy; it has domestic considerations, and its interests lie with the Lebanese political scene. For that reason, Hezbollah is attuned to the domestic popular pressure in Lebanon against a war.
Also, I don't think Iran wants to see an escalation. Like Hezbollah, Iranian leaders know that threat of war – through their proxies in the region – is their most valuable asset. And I don't think Iran is ready to use it.
Iran might also be concerned that if fighting escalates, then it will be drawn into war. Iran has so far played a smart game since the Oct. 7 attacks – it has stayed away from the battlefield, while supporting the sporadic attacks on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria. But a full war between Israel and Hezbollah may draw Iran into direct confrontation with Israel and the U.S. And that is something that leaders in Tehran will most likely not want, especially after a terror attack in Iran on Jan. 3 exposed how vulnerable Iran is internally. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/why-both-israel-and-hezbollah-are-eager-to-avoid-tit-for-tat-attacks-escalating-into-full-blown-war-220745.

Israeli shelling kills civilian in southern Lebanon
AFP/January 10/2024
A civilian was killed on Wednesday due to Israeli shelling targeting the vicinity of his home in a border town in southern Lebanon, according to a local official cited by Agence France-Presse. The Mayor of Kfarkela, Hassan Sheet, stated that one of the town's residents "was killed by Israeli artillery shelling while he was in the garden of his home," confirming that he was "a civilian with no party affiliation." The official Lebanese National News Agency reported the "martyrdom of citizen Hassan Ali Tawil due to the fall of an Israeli artillery shell near his home" in Kfarkela.

Hezbollah denies that fighter killed was in charge of drone unit
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/January 10/2024
Hezbollah has denied that a man in charge of Hezbollah’s drones in the south was killed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday. After Israel claimed it killed Ali Hussein Barji, who it said was in charge of Hezbollah’s drones in the south, Hezbollah denied the claim and an official said Barji was only a fighter. Barji was killed in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm in an Israeli drone strike shortly before the funeral of Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil. In a statement on Tuesday evening, Israel's army said it had "eliminated" Ali Burji, one of four Hezbollah fighters killed on Tuesday. It described him as "the commander of the southern Lebanon region of Hezbollah's aerial unit" who was responsible for the attack on an Israeli base earlier in the day. Hezbollah did not name Burji as a commander in his death notice, with a source close to the group telling AFP he was "absolutely not" the commander of its aerial unit or the man behind Tuesday's attack. Hezbollah later denied Israel's claim in a statement, adding that the commander "in charge of Hezbollah's drone unit has not been the target of any assassination attempt like the enemy claimed". Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed Tuesday at least four members of Hezbollah, a day after a similar attack killed al-Tawil. Since the war on Gaza started, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and its other regional enemies, in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Escalating tensions have prompted a succession of Western diplomats to converge on Beirut to urge restraint and discuss potential solutions -- including land border talks. In a meeting on Tuesday with U.N. chief of peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was "ready for talks to achieve long-term stability in south Lebanon". The three months of cross-border violence have killed more than 185 people in Lebanon, including 140 Hezbollah fighters and more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

LBCI's information denies BDL acting Governor Mansouri intention to establish new exchange rate for US dollar under Circular 151
LBCI/January 10/2024
LBCI's information denied that the Banque du Liban (BDL) acting Governor Wassim Mansouri intended to establish a new exchange rate for the US dollar under Circular 151. The report clarified that Mansouri is against the idea of multiple exchange rates and will adhere to what is stipulated in the budget when the Parliament approves it. He remains committed to implementing laws. The information further highlighted a growing awareness of the necessity to enact financial laws concurrently with budget approval in Parliament to prevent any chaos between banks and depositors.

Limited progress: Israel's actions despite US concerns on multiple fronts amidst tensions
LBCI/January 10/2024
Israel did not deter US concerns about the risk of the fighting on the northern front expanding into confrontations that compromise multiple fronts. The Israeli army chose the timing to continue its operations, which began with the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut during meetings between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli officials, to execute three specific operations against Hezbollah. Concerns about escalating operations in Lebanon coincide with hospitals in the north receiving instructions to elevate their readiness and prepare to receive dozens of casualties. This contradicts Israel's communication to Blinken that it prefers a diplomatic solution first, while security officials warned that igniting this region will not achieve Israel's objectives. Tel Aviv's attempt to show agreement with Washington on the army continuing the second phase of its objectives against Hezbollah, even at a lower level, did not materialize on the ground. This is on the Lebanese-Israeli border. As for the Gaza Strip, Blinken did not make progress. Israel did not present its vision for the post-war situation in the Gaza Strip, linking it to the results of Blinken's meetings in Ramallah, hoping that its position will crystallize on Thursday. As for easing the fighting, compliance with the US demand was in line with the second phase of the ground operation initiated by the army in Gaza. However, Israeli consensus on rejecting the return of a million Palestinians to their homes across the sector, for various reasons, left Blinken without tangible accomplishments to conclude his meetings. Israel found in Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's call for Islamic countries to support Hamas with weapons a fundamental excuse to reject the return. In this scene, Palestinians hope for the implementation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's promise to Blinken to allow a United Nations mission to visit the northern Gaza Strip, closely inspect the infrastructure's condition, and map out the region's needs. This comes as the percentage of those suffering from a severe health and food crisis there has risen to 90% of Gazans.

Germany pledges support to Lebanese Army for border control enhancement
AFP/January 10/2024
During her visit to Beirut on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged to provide 15 million euros (16 million dollars) to support the Lebanese army amid growing concerns over escalating tensions on the borders with Israel in the aftermath of the Gaza war.
Baerbock, who visited Beirut, explained that the aid, earmarked for purchasing fuel and implementing medium-term measures, including training soldiers in border surveillance, aims to assist the Lebanese army in securing the southern borders with Israel more effectively. Speaking on the sidelines of her visit to a German frigate in the port of Beirut, she emphasized that the army must be capable of exercising "effective control" in the region to "contain armed militias and terrorist organizations." The German minister, who held several meetings in Beirut, including with the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Army Commander Joseph Aoun, warned that any escalation of the conflict "would be a catastrophe for both countries." She called on Hezbollah to withdraw from the border area with Israel, as stipulated by UN resolution 1701, emphasizing that "the war in Gaza should not be used against Hamas as a pretext to open another front and provoke a regional war."Resolution 1701, which ended a destructive war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, strengthened the presence of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), with Germany among the participating countries tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the two sides in southern Lebanon.

White House: Houthi attacks in the Red Sea escalate
Reuters/January 10/2024
The White House stated on Wednesday that the attacks carried out by the Houthis in the Red Sea are "escalatory," and the United States will consult with its partners on the next steps if these attacks persist. John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said, "Despite what the Houthis may claim, they are threatening and targeting commercial ships that have relationships with countries around the world, many of which have no connection to Israel whatsoever... These attacks are illegal and escalatory."

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 10-11/2024
UN Security Council demands immediate end to Houthi Red Sea attacks
ARAB NEWS/January 11, 2024
United Nations, US: The United Nations Security Council demanded on Wednesday an “immediate” end to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea. The resolution passed “demands that the Houthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security.”It was adopted after Russia, as well as China, Mozambique and Algeria abstained. The intensifying attacks have caused shipping companies to bypass the route and instead divert around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, significantly adding to journey times and cost. The UN earlier said it continued “to be very concerned about the situation in the Red Sea, not only because of the situation itself, and the risks that it causes to global trade.”The resolution “condemns in the strongest terms the at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since November 19, 2023, when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew,” according to the text seen by AFP. Since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, and Israel’s war in Gaza in response, the Houthis — who control swathes of Yemen — have stepped up their attacks on international maritime traffic in the Red Sea. They claim to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s main ally, the United States, formed an international coalition in December to protect maritime traffic from Houthi attacks, in the strategically important zone through which at least 12 percent of world trade passes. The resolution, noting the “large-scale” violations of the arms embargo against the Houthis, also reiterates the need for all member states to “to adhere to their obligations.”It “condemns the provision of arms” to the Houthis, which are close to Iran. According to a November report by experts mandated by the Security Council to monitor the arms embargo, the Houthis are considerably strengthening their military capabilities on land and at sea. The resolution, tabled by the United States and Japan, calls for “the root causes” of the situation to be addressed, “including the conflicts contributing to regional tensions.”Russia sought to introduce three amendments to the draft resolution, one of which have added “the conflict in the Gaza Strip” to the list of factors contributing to tensions.It did not pass after the amendments were defeated at a vote.

Despair in Gaza as Fighting Intensifies despite Promise to Scale Down War
Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza intensified on Wednesday despite a pledge by Israel that it would pull out some troops and shift to a more targeted campaign, and pleading from its ally Washington to kill fewer civilians. Israel has said this week it is planning to begin drawing down troops, at least from the northern part of Gaza, after weeks of US pressure to scale down its operations and shift to what Washington says should be a more targeted campaign, Reuters said. But the fighting appears to be as intense as ever, especially in the southern and central areas where Israeli forces launched ground advances last month. In Rafah, on the southern edge of the enclave, relatives wept by the bodies of 15 members of the Nofal family laid out at a hospital morgue on Wednesday morning after their home was obliterated by an Israeli air strike overnight. Most of the white shrouds were tiny, with children inside. A man partly opened one and caressed the face of a small boy with his hand. Relatives gently restrained another man who was wailing at the feet of the bodies. At the site of the strike, where a huge crater had been blasted in the floor of a building, neighbors clambered through the ruins, strewn with bloodsoaked mattresses and broken toys. Um Ayman al-Najjar, whose daughter and niece were killed, was bundled against the cold in the wreckage: "We woke up surrounded by all this rubble on top of our heads, hit after hit. I don't know how we got out, stepping above things, blood shedding from us."Israel has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza since launching its campaign to eradicate the Hamas militant group that runs the enclave, after Hamas fighters killed 1,200 Israelis and captured 240 hostages in a rampage on Oct. 7. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his fourth trip to the region since the war began, went to Ramallah on Wednesday and met Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The PA, which exercises limited self rule in the West Bank and accepts Israel's right to exist, lost control of Gaza in 2007 to Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Blinken has also met Israeli leaders and visited nearby Arab states, in search of a future settlement for the Gaza Strip, which has been laid to waste by Israeli bombardment creating a humanitarian crisis for its 2.3 million residents. Washington wants Israel to give the Ramallah-based PA a future role in governing Gaza; Israel, which says it wants control of Gaza's security indefinitely, is reluctant. Blinken said on Tuesday Israel had to make "hard choices" and must keep alive hopes of an independent Palestinian state if it wants to normalize relations with Arab neighbors. "Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people living side by side in peace with Israel and as neighbors," he said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
WORDS WRITTEN IN BUTTER
Despite a public assertion by Israel since the New Year that it is scaling back the war, Gaza residents say they have seen no let-up. The northern half of the enclave is still off-limits, and the southern half has become a full-blown war zone in recent weeks. Nearly the entire population has been driven from their homes at least once, many displaced several times as Israeli forces advance. Um Ahmed, a mother of five from Gaza city now sheltering in a tent in Rafah, said Gazans had hoped Blinken's visit meant they would be allowed to return to their homes. “It is like words written in butter, it soon disappeared with the rise of the sun. That was the words of Blinken, fake,” she said. Residents of Bureij, Nusseirat, and Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip reported intensive bombardment overnight, with Israeli tanks that launched an offensive there around Christmas pushing deeper into Bureij and Maghazi. In Nusseirat, a new wave of displacement was under way, a day after Israel dropped new warning leaflets for residents of several districts to evacuate their homes and head west to Deir al-Balah. Israeli bombing was also taking place there, with the Palestinian Red Crescent releasing video showing ambulances arriving at a hospital with the dead and wounded, including children. In a sign of the intensity of the fighting, Israel reported nine of its soldiers killed in Gaza on Tuesday, one of the deadliest days for its troops of the war. Israel, still deeply shaken by the Hamas Oct. 7 killing spree, says it will not stop fighting until it has eradicated the Islamist group and recovered more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza. Three months after the Hamas attacks, Tali Kizhner knelt and caressed the foot of a concrete wall inside a bomb shelter where her 22-year-old son Segev had tried to hide with dozens of other young people that fled from a music festival. The gunmen tossed in grenades and opened fire to kill them. "I wanted to know where his last moments were, whether there was anywhere to hide. What happened there. To feel it," she said.

Israel Faces Gaza 'Genocide' Case at Top UN Court
The Hague: Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
Israel and South Africa face off at the UN’s top court from Thursday, after Pretoria accused Israel of “genocidal acts” in Gaza, charges the Israelis have dismissed as “blood libel.”In an 84-page submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa urged judges to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza, according to AFP. South Africa says Israel “has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Israel has angrily hit back at the accusations, with government spokesman Eylon Levy vowing to fight the South African case he described as “absurd blood libel.” “How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti-Jewish racists,” Levy added. Israel pledged to destroy Hamas after the movement's unprecedented attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel launched a military campaign that killed at least 23,210 people mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The ICJ rules on disputes between states and while its decisions are legally binding, it has limited power to enforce them. In March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to “immediately suspend” its invasion of Ukraine — a directive Moscow has ignored. Johann Soufi, a lawyer and international justice expert, told AFP there would be an “extremely significant symbolic impact” if the court ruled against Israel. “Of course there is the problem of implementing the decision. But at the end of the day, international justice is all there is left,” said Soufi, who worked for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. South Africa has filed the case against Israel because both countries have signed the UN Genocide Convention, created in 1948 as a response to the Holocaust. Any country that has signed the convention can sue another at the ICJ if they disagree on the “interpretation, application or fulfilment” of the rules designed to prevent genocide.
South Africa said it was “acutely aware of the particular weight of responsibility in initiating proceedings against Israel for violations of the Genocide Convention.”It also “unequivocally” condemned the Hamas attack but said "no armed attack... no matter how serious... can provide any possible justification for breaches" of the Genocide Convention. Pretoria's case is that Israeli action in Gaza is "intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.” It says Israel's “genocidal act” stems from the killing of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, forced displacement, and preventing adequate aid access, resulting in starvation. South Africa wants the ICJ to impose so-called “provisional measures,” or emergency actions, while the broader case is being considered -- which would probably take years. The circumstances could not be more urgent, argues Pretoria, describing an “exceptionally brutal military campaign by Israel in Gaza, which is extensive and ongoing.”Other measures requested by South Africa include reparations and reconstruction of Gaza, plus the safe return of displaced Palestinian refugees. The case has been dismissed in Washington as “meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”Levy, the Israeli government spokesman, said South Africa was giving “political and legal cover” to the Hamas attacks and was “criminally complicit with Hamas's campaign of genocide against our people.” “History will judge South Africa for abetting the modern heirs of the Nazis,” Levy added.

Legal battle to open at top UN court over allegation of Israeli genocide in Gaza
Associated Press/January 10/2024
A legal battle over whether Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide opens Thursday at the United Nations' top court with preliminary hearings into South Africa's call for judges to order an immediate suspension of Israel's military actions. Israel stringently denies the genocide allegation.
The case, that is likely to take years to resolve, strikes at the heart of Israel's national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust. Israel normally considers U.N. and international tribunals unfair and biased. But it is sending a strong legal team to the International Court of Justice to defend its military operation launched in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. "I think they have come because they want to be exonerated and think they can successfully resist the accusation of genocide," said Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia.
Two days of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice begin with lawyers for South Africa explaining to judges why the country — long a supporter of the Palestinian cause — has accused Israel of "acts and omissions" that are "genocidal in character" in the Gaza war and has called for an immediate halt to Israel's military actions. Thursday's opening hearing is focused on South Africa's request for the court to impose binding interim orders including that Israel halt its military campaign. A decision will likely take weeks.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. About two-thirds of the dead are women and children, health officials say. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. In the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas overwhelmed Israel's defenses and stormed through several communities, Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mainly civilians. They abducted around 250 others, nearly half of whom have been released. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed the case as " meritless " during a visit to Tel Aviv on Tuesday. "It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews," he said. The world court, which rules on disputes between nations, has never adjudged a country to be responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007 when it ruled that Serbia "violated the obligation to prevent genocide" in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. South Africa "will have a hard time getting over the threshold" of proving genocide, said McIntyre. "It's not simply a matter of killing enormous numbers of people," she added in an email to The Associated Press. "There must be an intent to destroy a group of people (classified by race or religion for example) in whole or in part, in a particular place."In a detailed, 84-page document launching the case late last year, South Africa alleges that Israel has demonstrated that intent.
Israel responded by insisting it operates according to international law and focuses its military actions solely against Hamas, adding that the residents of Gaza are not an enemy. It asserted that it takes steps to minimize harm to civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory. An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement called South Africa's case a "despicable and contemptuous exploitation" of the court. The ICJ case revolves around the genocide convention that was drawn up in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II and the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. Both Israel and South Africa are signatories.
In its written filing, South Africa says it went to the court "to establish Israel's responsibility for violations of the Genocide Convention; to hold it fully accountable under international law for those violations" and to "ensure the urgent and fullest possible protection for Palestinians in Gaza who remain at grave and immediate risk of continuing and further acts of genocide." A team of lawyers representing South Africa will present three hours of arguments in the wood-paneled Great Hall of Justice at the world court on. Israel's legal team will have three hours on Friday morning to refute the allegations.
Among South Africa's delegation will be former U.K. opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose leadership of the left-of-center Labour Party was stained by allegations of antisemitism. He is a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause and a fierce critic of Israel. Human Rights Watch said the hearings will provide scrutiny in a U.N. courtroom of Israel's actions. "South Africa's genocide case unlocks a legal process at the world's highest court to credibly examine Israel's conduct in Gaza in the hopes of curtailing further suffering," said Balkees Jarrah, the group's associate international justice director.
The U.N. court, headquartered in the ornate Peace Palace in a leafy suburb of The Hague, deals with disputes between nations. The International Criminal Court, based a few miles (kilometers) away in the same Dutch city, prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Israel is back on the ICJ docket next month, when hearings open into a U.N. request for a non-binding advisory opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Israel Faces Gaza 'Genocide' Case at Top UN Court
The Hague: Asharq Al Awsat/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 10/2024
Israel and South Africa face off at the UN’s top court from Thursday, after Pretoria accused Israel of “genocidal acts” in Gaza, charges the Israelis have dismissed as “blood libel.” In an 84-page submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa urged judges to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza, according to AFP. South Africa says Israel “has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”Israel has angrily hit back at the accusations, with government spokesman Eylon Levy vowing to fight the South African case he described as “absurd blood libel.”“How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti-Jewish racists,” Levy added. Israel pledged to destroy Hamas after the movement's unprecedented attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel launched a military campaign that killed at least 23,210 people mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The ICJ rules on disputes between states and while its decisions are legally binding, it has limited power to enforce them. In March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to “immediately suspend” its invasion of Ukraine — a directive Moscow has ignored. Johann Soufi, a lawyer and international justice expert, told AFP there would be an “extremely significant symbolic impact” if the court ruled against Israel. “Of course there is the problem of implementing the decision. But at the end of the day, international justice is all there is left,” said Soufi, who worked for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. South Africa has filed the case against Israel because both countries have signed the UN Genocide Convention, created in 1948 as a response to the Holocaust. Any country that has signed the convention can sue another at the ICJ if they disagree on the “interpretation, application or fulfilment” of the rules designed to prevent genocide. South Africa said it was “acutely aware of the particular weight of responsibility in initiating proceedings against Israel for violations of the Genocide Convention.”It also “unequivocally” condemned the Hamas attack but said "no armed attack... no matter how serious... can provide any possible justification for breaches" of the Genocide Convention. Pretoria's case is that Israeli action in Gaza is "intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”It says Israel's “genocidal act” stems from the killing of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, forced displacement, and preventing adequate aid access, resulting in starvation. South Africa wants the ICJ to impose so-called “provisional measures,” or emergency actions, while the broader case is being considered -- which would probably take years. The circumstances could not be more urgent, argues Pretoria, describing an “exceptionally brutal military campaign by Israel in Gaza, which is extensive and ongoing.”Other measures requested by South Africa include reparations and reconstruction of Gaza, plus the safe return of displaced Palestinian refugees. The case has been dismissed in Washington as “meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”Levy, the Israeli government spokesman, said South Africa was giving “political and legal cover” to the Hamas attacks and was “criminally complicit with Hamas's campaign of genocide against our people.”
“History will judge South Africa for abetting the modern heirs of the Nazis,” Levy added.

Egypt President Calls for ‘Decisive Stance’ to Push for Gaza Truce
Asharq Al-Awsat/J/January 10/2024
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that providing more aid to Palestinians in Gaza requires a "decisive stance" from the international community to push for a ceasefire, according to an Egyptian presidency statement. Sisi met with Jordan's King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian Red Sea city of Aqaba where the three leaders rejected what they said were any efforts or proposals aimed at "liquidating the Palestinian cause".

Blinken tells Abbas US backs 'tangible steps' for Palestinian state
Associated Press/January 10/2024
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday about reforming the Palestinian self-rule government, as part of U.S. efforts to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza that also include concrete steps toward a Palestinian state. Blinken says he has secured commitments from multiple countries in the region to assist with rebuilding and governing Gaza after Israel's war against Hamas, and that wider Israeli-Arab normalization is still possible, but only if there is "a pathway to a Palestinian state."
In their meeting Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken told Abbas that the U.S. supports "tangible steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state," according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. He said the two discussed administrative reform. The vision outlined by Blinken faces serious obstacles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and the autocratic, Western-backed Palestinian leadership, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, lacks legitimacy in the view of many Palestinians.
The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight, fueling a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny coastal enclave. The fighting has also stoked escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militants that has raised fears of a wider conflict.
BLINKEN PRESSURES BOTH SIDES ON WHIRLWIND TRIP
On his fourth visit to the region since the war began three months ago, Blinken has met in recent days with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. He says they are open to contributing to postwar plans in return for progress on creating a Palestinian state.
The Saudi Ambassador to the U.K. went even further on Tuesday, telling the BBC that the kingdom is still interested in a landmark normalization agreement with Israel, but that it must include "nothing less than an independent state of Palestine.""One doesn't come without the other," Prince Khalid bin Bandar said.
After meeting with Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials on Tuesday, Blinken delivered a stark message, saying Israel must stop undercutting the Palestinians' ability to govern themselves with its expansion of settlements, home demolitions and evictions in the West Bank. But he also said the Palestinian Authority "has a responsibility to reform itself, to improve its governance," and that he would discuss that with the 88-year-old Abbas, who has not stood for elections since 2005 and lacks support among his own people. The Palestinian Authority governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank under interim peace deals reached in the 1990s and cooperates with Israel on security matters. But it has been powerless to prevent the expansion of settlements in occupied territory it wants for a future state, and there have been no serious or substantive peace talks since Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been unable to get Israel to make even relatively minor concessions to the Palestinians, like turning over all the tax revenue it collects on their behalf, or allowing the reopening of a U.S. Consulate to serve Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Later Wednesday, Abbas was set to met with the leaders of Jordan and Egypt, two U.S. allies who have long served as mediators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Jordan's Red Sea city of Aqaba.
WAR RAGES ON WITH NO END IN SIGHT
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it crushes Hamas and returns scores of hostages held by the group after its Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Israeli officials say the campaign will continue through the rest of the year, and its own postwar plans call for open-ended military control over the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. Nearly 85% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes by the fighting, and a quarter of its residents face starvation, with only a trickle of food, water, medicine and other supplies entering through an Israeli siege. Blinken said more food, water, medicine and other aid needs to enter and be distributed effectively, and he called on Israel to "do everything it can to remove any obstacles."The offensive has reduced much of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to a moonscape, raising concerns over whether the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled from those areas will ever be able to return. Far-right members of Netanyahu's government have called for them to be resettled elsewhere, which critics say would amount to ethnic cleansing. Blinken said the U.S. was opposed to any such scenario and that resettlement is not the policy of the Israeli government. He also said he had secured agreement on a U.N. inspection mechanism in northern Gaza to evaluate how and when people can return.
HEAVY FIGHTING IN CENTER AND SOUTH
The military is now focusing major operations on the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days in continuing strikes across the territory, including in areas of the far south where people have been told to seek refuge. An airstrike late Tuesday hit a four-story house west of the southernmost city of Rafah, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 20 others, including women and children, health officials said. Associated Press reporters saw the dead and wounded being brought into nearby hospitals. Jaber Abu Hamed, who fled his home in Gaza City last month and is sheltering near the main hospital in Khan Younis, said he heard constant gunfire and explosions. "The ambulance sirens didn't stop," he said. Since the war began, Israel's offensive has killed 23,357 Palestinians and wounded more than 59,000, according to an update Wednesday from the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. About two-thirds of the dead are women and children, health officials say. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. In the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas overwhelmed Israel's defenses and stormed through several communities, Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mainly civilians. They abducted around 250 others, nearly half of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. The Israeli military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high toll on Hamas because the militants fight in densely populated areas. It says it has killed some 8,000 militants — without providing evidence — and that 186 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

Blinken Says Made Clear to Iran Support Provided to Houthis Must Stop
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 10/2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Wednesday the gravity of the threat posed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen to global commerce, and renewed US warnings of a response. "I’m not going to telegraph or preview anything that that might happen," Blinken said in Bahrain, the latest stop in a Mideast tour seeking to calm the region. "We've also repeatedly tried to make clear to Iran, as other countries have, as well, that the support that they're providing to the Houthis, including for these actions, needs to stop," Blinken told reporters. "There will be consequences for continued attacks in Red Sea by the Houthis," he warned. The Houthis fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the United States and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major naval engagement, authorities said Wednesday. No damage was immediately reported.
The assault happened off the Yemeni port cities of Hodeidah and Mokha, according to the private intelligence firm Ambrey. In the Hodeidah attack, Ambrey said ships described over radio seeing missiles and drones, with US-allied warships in the area urging "vessels to proceed at maximum speed."
Off Mokha, ships saw missiles fired, a drone in the air and small vessels trailing them, Ambrey said early Wednesday. The British military’s United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations also acknowledged the attack off Hodeidah. The US military’s Central Command said the "complex attack" launched by the Houthis included bomb-carrying drones, anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile. It said 18 drones, two cruise missiles and the anti-ship missile were downed by F-18s from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as by American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers the USS Gravely, the USS Laboon and the USS Mason, as well as the United Kingdom's HMS Diamond."This is the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19," Central Command said. "There were no injuries or damage reported."
"Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," the UKTMO added. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps described the assault as "the largest attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea to date," saying the Diamond used Sea Viper missiles and guns to shoot down multiple drones. "The UK alongside allies have previously made clear that these illegal attacks are completely unacceptable and if continued the Houthis will bear the consequences," Shapps said in a statement. "We will take the action needed to protect innocent lives and the global economy."
The Houthis say their attacks aim to end the pounding Israeli air-and-ground offensive targeting the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Red Sea links the Mideast and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal, and its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it and an estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually. A US-led coalition of nations has been patrolling the Red Sea to try and prevent the attacks. There's been no broad retaliatory strike yet, despite warnings from the US. However, Tuesday's attack appeared to be testing what response, if any, would come from Washington.

Israeli delegation in Cairo for new talks on prisoner swap
Associated Press/January 10/2024
An Israeli delegation landed in Cairo on Wednesday for a new round of talks with Egypt on a possible swap of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, an Egyptian official said. Egypt, the Gulf nation of Qatar and the United States have served as mediators between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza for almost 17 years. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas following its deadly Oct. 7 attack in which the militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages. About half the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, and mediators have tried since then to reach agreement on another round of exchanges, accompanied by a halt in fighting. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been meeting with leaders in the Middle East since the weekend, and is expected in Cairo on Thursday. Efforts to negotiate another swap were disrupted by the assassination of a top Hamas official in Beirut last week, widely blamed on Israel. The Egyptian official said Wednesday that Egypt and Qatar were trying to win freedom for civilian hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in return for a cease-fire and the release of additional Palestinian prisoners by Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief reporters. In addition to civilians, Hamas and other militant groups also hold Israeli soldiers. Hamas still insists on ending the war before talking about releasing the hostages, a demand Israel has rejected outright. “They (Israel) will never recover their hostages unless all our prisoners in the occupation prisons are released,” Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday in Qatar.

Blinken meets Palestinian leader as Israel keeps bombing Gaza
AFP/January 10, 2024
GAZA STRIP: US top diplomat Antony Blinken on Wednesday met the head of the Palestinian Authority and traveled to Bahrain on his Middle East tour aimed at stopping the Israel-Hamas war from escalating. The Israeli military said it killed dozens of “terrorists” and hit another 150 targets in Hamas-run Gaza, where the health ministry said 147 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours. The bloodiest ever Gaza war has raged since the unprecedented Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and killed more than 23,000 people in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to its health ministry.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke with Blinken of the need “to stop the Israeli aggression against Palestinian people” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, which has also been torn by deadly unrest, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Blinken told Abbas that Washington supports “tangible steps” toward the creation of a Palestinian state — a long-term goal which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has opposed. The secretary of state reiterated the US position that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.As Blinken arrived under tight security at Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah, protesters held up signs reading “Stop the genocide,” “Free Palestine” and “Blinken out.” Some scuffled with Palestinian security forces in riot gear. In Bahrain, Blinken said Abbas was “committed” to reforming the Palestinian Authority to provide “effective” governance for his people. Blinken was in the Gulf state for talks with King Hamad on preventing a regional escalation of the war, according to the State Department. Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the Jordanian city of Aqaba to discuss with King Abdullah II a “push for an immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, Jordan’s royal palace said. Washington sees a future in Gaza for the PA, whose ruling Fatah faction is a rival of Hamas. But Netanyahu has long sought to weaken the semi-autonomous body. Since the Gaza war started, fears have grown of a widening conflict between Israel and Iran-backed armed groups, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah but also groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Yemen’s Houthi militia have carried out numerous attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a vital artery for international trade. The United States has set up a multinational naval task force to protect shipping from the attacks, which Blinken on Wednesday said were “aided and abetted” by Iran. On Tuesday, the rebels “launched a complex” attack, US Central Command said, adding that US and British forces had shot down 18 drones and three missiles, with no casualties or damage reported. The Houthis later said they had fired a “large number” of missiles and drones at a US ship, with an adviser telling AFP it was the largest such attack since their campaign started. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned the Houthis of “consequences” if they continued their “illegal attacks.”
The war started when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including at least 25 believed to have been killed. Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 23,357 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. The Israeli army says 186 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an Israeli strike on an ambulance in central Gaza killed four medics and two other passengers on Wednesday, as the territory’s health system collapses during Israel’s siege and bombardment. Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced inside the territory that had already endured years of blockade and poverty before the war triggered an acute humanitarian crisis. Blinken — while voicing continued US support for top regional ally Israel — has urged steps to reduce the suffering. Dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine mean the “daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly children, is far too high,” Blinken said Tuesday. The World Health Organization called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “indescribable” on Wednesday and pleaded Israel to allow more aid deliveries. Desperate Gazans on Tuesday climbed onto one truck carrying flour and canned goods and tossed the food to the crowd below, AFP footage showed. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari has said Israel was “ready and willing to facilitate as much humanitarian aid as the world will give.”
One of the many displaced Palestinians, Hassan Kaskin, 55, said: “We have lost our money, our houses, our jobs. We are losing our youths as well. “We’ve sacrificed our children for our homeland.” Blinken is on his fourth tour of the Middle East since the outbreak of the war, and was due to head to Egypt, after earlier stops in Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Washington has floated a post-war scenario in which a reformed Palestinian Authority governs Gaza as well as towns and cities in the West Bank. A post-war plan outlined by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant envisions local “civil committees” governing Gaza after Israel has dismantled Hamas. Hamas seized sole control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, ousting Abbas’s Fatah party, with which it had shared power after sweeping parliamentary elections. The United States and European Union have blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organization.
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh said last week he was “open to the idea” of a single Palestinian administration in Gaza and the West Bank.

WHO Cancels Sixth Aid Mission to Gaza over Security Concerns
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 10/2024
The World Health Organization cancelled another planned medical aid mission to Gaza on Wednesday over security concerns, the sixth such cancellation in two weeks, and sounded a fresh alarm over the spread of infectious disease there. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was the sixth mission to northern Gaza cancelled by the UN agency because requests to visit had not been approved or assurances over security provided since its last visit, on 26 December. "Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortage and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need," he told a virtual press conference from Geneva. "We call on Israel to approve requests by WHO and other partners to deliver humanitarian aid." The Israeli offensive launched in the wake of a deadly rampage by Hamas in southern Israel on Oct. 7 has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, left many homes and civilian infrastructure in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicine. Fighting has intensified recently despite a pledge this week to scale down the war. The WHO said on Wednesday only 15 hospitals in Gaza remain functional, even partially. The deteriorating conditions are also a perfect breeding ground for infectious disease, the agency said. For example, the number of diarrhea cases among children under 5 was 20 times higher in November 2023 compared to the average of the previous year, said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza. He added that he was hopeful a WHO mission planned for Thursday to northern Gaza could go ahead. But he added that about 16 or 17 of 21 planned missions from the wider UN have already been cancelled so far this month. Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, said it would be a "gargantuan" task to restore the public health system in Gaza even with a ceasefire.

Zelensky says Putin won't stop 'until we all finish him'
Agence France Presse/January 10/2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not stop at Ukraine and attack other neighbours unless allies joined forces to stop him. "He (Putin) won't finish this (war), until we all finish him together," Zelensky said during a news conference in Vilnius, adding "Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova may be next" if Ukraine did not withstand Russia.

Iraq PM: Country Seeks Quick Exit of US Forces but No Deadline Set
Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
Iraq wants a quick and orderly negotiated exit of US-led military forces from its soil but has not set a deadline, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said, describing their presence as destabilizing amid regional spillover from the Gaza war. Longstanding calls by mostly Shi'ite Muslim factions, many close to Iran, for the US-led coalition's departure have gained steam after a series of US strikes on Iran-linked militant groups that are also part of Iraq's formal security forces. Those strikes, which came in response to dozens of drone and missile attacks on US forces since Israel launched its Gaza campaign, have raised fears that Iraq could once again become a theater for regional conflict. "There is a need to reorganize this relationship so that it is not a target or justification for any party, internal or foreign, to tamper with stability in Iraq and the region," Sudani told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Giving the first details of his thinking about the future of the coalition since his Jan. 5 announcement that Iraq would begin the process of closing it down, Sudani said the exit should be negotiated under "a process of understanding and dialogue"."Let's agree on a time frame (for the coalition's exit) that is, honestly, quick, so that they don't remain long and the attacks keep happening," he said, noting that only an end to Israel's war on Gaza would stop the risk of regional escalation. "This (end of the Gaza war) is the only solution. Otherwise, we will see more expansion of the arena of conflict in a sensitive region for the world that holds much of its energy supply," Sudani said. A US withdrawal would likely increase concern in Washington about the influence of arch foe Iran over Iraq's ruling elite. Iran-backed Shi'ite groups gained strength in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion. The Pentagon on Monday said it had no plans to withdraw US troops, which are in Iraq at the invitation of its government. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest oil producer, has been among the fiercest critics of Israel's Gaza campaign, describing the mass killing and displacement of Palestinian civilians as a textbook case of genocide, claims Israel vehemently denies.
But Iraq's government has repeatedly also said the attacks by armed groups on foreign forces and diplomatic missions in Iraq were illegal and went against the country's interests, and says it has arrested some perpetrators and prevented attacks. At the same time, Baghdad has condemned US strikes on bases used by the groups, as well as a recent strike against a senior militia commander in the heart of Baghdad, as grave violations of sovereignty. Critics say the armed groups, including Kataeb Hezbollah and Haraket Hezbollah al-Nujaba, use their status as members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security force that began as a grouping of militias in 2014, as a cover.When striking at US forces, they operate outside the chain of command under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq; when the US retaliates, they mourn their losses as members of the PMF and reap the rewards of rising anti-US sentiment. US-led forces invaded Iraq and toppled former leader Saddam Hussein in 2003, withdrawing in 2011 but then returning in 2014 to fight ISIS as part of an international coalition. The US currently has some 2,500 troops in Iraq.
With ISIS territorially defeated in 2017 and on the demise ever since, Sudani said the coalition's raison d'etre had long-since ended.
YEARS IN THE MAKING
But calls for the coalition's withdrawal have been around for years and, so far, little has changed. Iraq's parliament in 2020 voted for its departure days after the US assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi militant commander in a strike outside Baghdad airport. The next year, the US announced the end of its combat mission in Iraq and a shift to advising and assisting Iraqi security forces, a move that changed little on the ground. The Gaza war has put the issue back in center stage, with many Iraqi groups that brought Sudani's government to power and are close to Tehran calling for the final exit of all foreign forces, a move long sought by Iran and its regional allies. The chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech on Friday that US strikes in Iraq should pave the way for the final withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, which would also make their presence in northeastern Syria untenable. Sudani said he was seeking the coalition's exit because Iraq could now defend itself from terrorism and should exert full sovereignty over its territory - thereby avoiding giving anyone an excuse to draw Iraq into regional conflict. "Ending its presence will prevent more tensions and the entanglement of internal and regional security issues," Sudani said. He said Iraq was open to establishing bilateral relations and engaging in security cooperation with coalition nations, including the US. This could include training and advising Iraqi security forces as well as weapons purchases. The US "is not an enemy to us and we are not at war with it, but if these tensions continue it will definitely impact and create a gap in this relationship," he said.

ISIS Attack Kills 14 Syrian Regime Forces in Badia Desert
Damascus: Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
At least 14 members of the Syrian government forces were killed in a surprise attack by ISIS on a military bus in central Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Tuesday. The observatory said ISIS militants “launched a brutal attack on a military transport bus in the Tadmor desert in the eastern countryside of Homs,” resulting in the death of “at least 14 members of the government forces” with others sustaining injuries. This is the second such attack this year. Last week, ISIS killed nine Syrian regime troops and militiamen in an attack on military posts in the eastern desert, according to the British-based monitor. ISIS often targets positions or buses carrying soldiers or public officials, especially in the vast Syrian desert, where its fighters regrouped after losing their last piece of territory in Syria in March 2019. Despite strikes launched primary by the US-led international coalition and others launched by Syria’s ally, Moscow, against ISIS leaders, positions and movements, the group’s militants still retain a presence in the vast Badia desert and continue to carry out deadly attacks against Syrian forces and pro-regime fighters in central and eastern Syria, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the east and northeast of the country. Meanwhile, the SDF on Tuesday reported that three of its members were killed last Saturday in a Turkish drone strike near Ain Issa in the Raqqa governorate, north of Syria. SDF has published the names of its three fighters. They are Khaled Hassan Al-Shawakh and brothers Imad and Muhammad Ali Rajab Al-Halat.

Barzani Agrees with Leader of International Coalition to Maintain Security in Iraq
Baghdad: Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
President of the Kurdistan Region Nechervan Barzani received on Tuesday Major General Joel B. Vowell, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve of the Global Coalition in Iraq and Syria, to discuss terrorism and attacks by factions against coalition bases.The visit came days after the federal government decided to form a bilateral committee to make arrangements for ending the mission of the US-led international coalition in the country. According to a statement by the Kurdistan Region Presidency, the two officials discussed the recent drone strikes against coalition bases in Erbil and “emphasized the importance of safeguarding the Coalition Forces and diplomatic representatives in Iraq.”Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, pro-Iranian armed factions have launched dozens of attacks with drones and missiles on the locations of US forces in Iraq and Syria, in response to what they consider American support for Israel in the war. Military bases operated by US forces in Iraq and Syria were targeted by around 100 armed attacks during the past three months, most of which were carried out by explosive drones. The issue of ending the mission of the international coalition in Iraq has stirred heated debate in Iraq, especially the ruling pro-Iran Coordination Framework, which insists on the need to end the task of these forces. Other forces believe it isn't in Iraq’s interest to lose the assistance provided by the US to the country. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, former Ambassador and Diplomat Ghazi Faisal ruled out the ability of the Iraqi government to end the coalition’s mission for a number of reasons. “The pressure via text message on Washington does not express and is not consistent with the government’s constitutional and legal responsibilities and its duties in international and regional relations. [The government] is acting purely in a reactive manner without considering the national interest,” he stated. Earlier this week, the government launched a survey by sending text messages to citizens, asking them if they oppose or support the deployment of the international forces. The presence of US forces in Iraq is based on an agreement that allows them to work within the framework of the mission of the international coalition to eliminate ISIS. But the Iraqi government says that its forces have “become capable” of protecting the country. The US Department of Defense said on Monday it does not currently plan to pull out its forces, numbering about 2,500 soldiers, from the country. “Right now, I’m not aware of any plans (for withdrawal). We continue to remain very focused on the defeat ISIS mission,” US Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told a news briefing.

US, UK Forces Shoot Down Houthi Missiles, Drones in Red Sea
Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
US and UK forces shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by Yemen-based Houthis on Tuesday into the Southern Red Sea towards international shipping lanes, the US military's Central Command said. US Central Command said there were no injuries or damage reported, adding that this was the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19, Reuters reported. Iranian-backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel's war in Gaza. Various shipping lines have suspended operations, instead taking the longer journey around Africa. The Houthis have vowed to continue attacks until Israel halts the conflict in Gaza, and warned that it would attack US warships if the militia group itself was targeted. US Central Command said 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile were shot down by US and British forces.

Yemen's Houthis launch 'largest attack' yet in Red Sea
Associated Press/January 10/2024
Yemen's Houthi rebels fired one of their largest barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the U.S. and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major naval engagement, authorities said Wednesday. No damage was immediately reported. The attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis came despite of a planned United Nations Security Council vote later Wednesday to potentially condemn and demand an immediate halt to the attacks by the rebels, who say their assaults are aimed at stopping Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, their targets have increasingly tenuous — or no — relationship with Israel and imperil one of the world's crucial trade routes linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe. That raises the risk of a U.S. retaliatory strike on Yemen that could upend an uneasy cease-fire that's held in the Arab world's poorest country. The assault happened off the Yemeni port cities of Hodeida and Mokha, according to the private intelligence firm Ambrey. In the Hodeida incident, Ambrey said ships described over radio seeing missiles and drones, with U.S.-allied warships in the area urging "vessels to proceed at maximum speed."Off Mokha, ships saw missiles fired, a drone in the air and small vessels trailing them, Ambrey said early Wednesday. The British military's United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations also acknowledged the incident off Hodeida. The U.S. military's Central Command said the "complex attack" launched by the Houthis included bomb-carrying drones, anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile.
It said 18 drones, two cruise missiles and the anti-ship missile were downed by F-18s from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as by American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers the USS Gravely, the USS Laboon and the USS Mason, as well as the United Kingdom's HMS Diamond. "This is the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19," Central Command said. "There were no injuries or damage reported.""Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," the UKTMO added. The Houthis, a Shiite group that's held Yemen's capital since 2014, did not formally acknowledge launching the attacks. However, the pan-Arab satellite news network Al Jazeera quoted an anonymous Houthi military official saying their forces "targeted a ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea," without elaborating. The Houthis say their attacks aim to end the pounding Israeli air-and-ground offensive targeting the Gaza Strip amid that country's war on Hamas. However, the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue. The attacks have targeted ships in the Red Sea, which links the Mideast and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal, and its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. That strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it. An estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually. A U.S. draft resolution before the U.N. Security Council, obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press, says the Houthi attacks are impeding global commerce "and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security." The resolution would demand the immediate release of the first ship the Houthis attacked, the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company that it seized in November along with its crew.
An initial draft of the resolution would have recognized "the right of member states, in accordance with international law, to take appropriate measures to defend their merchant and naval vessels."The final draft is weaker, eliminating any U.N. recognition of a country's right to defend its ships. Instead, it would affirm that the navigational rights and freedoms of merchant and commercial vessels must be respected, and take note "of the right of member states, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms."
A U.S-led coalition of nations has been patrolling the Red Sea to try and prevent the attacks. American troops in one incident sank Houthi vessels and killed 10 rebel fighters, though there's been no broad retaliatory strike yet despite warnings from the U.S. However, Tuesday's attack appeared to be testing what response, if any, would come from Washington. Meanwhile, a separate, tentative cease-fire between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen's exiled government has held for months despite that country's long war. That's raised concerns that any wider conflict in the sea — or a potential reprisal strike from Western forces — could reignite those tensions in the Arab world's poorest nation. It also may draw Iran, which so far has largely avoided directly entering the wider Israel-Hamas war, further into the conflict.

White House: Houthi attacks in the Red Sea escalate
Reuters/January 10/2024
The White House stated on Wednesday that the attacks carried out by the Houthis in the Red Sea are "escalatory," and the United States will consult with its partners on the next steps if these attacks persist.
John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said, "Despite what the Houthis may claim, they are threatening and targeting commercial ships that have relationships with countries around the world, many of which have no connection to Israel whatsoever... These attacks are illegal and escalatory."

Grundberg in Muscat to Urge Houthis to Back his Roadmap
Aden: Ali Rabih/Asharq Al Awsat/January 10/2024
Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg held talks in Muscat on Tuesday with Omani officials and the spokesman of the Iran-backed Houthi militias to “operationalize” a roadmap for peace. The roadmap would build on the commitments made by the Yemeni parties, through Saudi and Omani mediation, towards restoring peace in Yemen. This was Grundberg’s first visit to Muscat since his announcement that he had received commitments from the Yemeni government and Houthis to form a roadmap for peace. The envoy’s latest tour of the region also took him to Saudi Arabia where he met Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad al-Alimi in Riyadh. Grundberg’s office said he met with Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam in Muscat “to discuss the UN roadmap which will operationalize the parties' commitments to a nationwide ceasefire, measures to improve living conditions in Yemen, and the resumption of an inclusive political process under UN auspices.” He also met with senior Omani officials to discuss the continued regional support and coordination to the UN mediation. Alimi’s meeting with Grundberg on Sunday tackled the latest developments in Yemen and the international pressure needed to push the Houthis to seriously approach peace efforts, end the suffering of the people and restore Yemen’s state institutions, reported Yemeni state media. Alimi underscored the PLC and government’s support to the UN peace efforts, saying they were keen on offering all facilitations to the envoy so that he can fulfill his mission. Grundberg had told Asharq Al-Awsat last week that he received from the Yemeni parties commitments over, among other things, “a nationwide ceasefire, opening roads in Taiz and elsewhere in Yemen, the payment of public sector salaries in Yemen, resuming the exportation of oil, further easing of restrictions on Sanaa airport and the Hodeidah port, the release of conflict related detainees, and commencing preparations for an inclusive, Yemeni-owned political process under UN auspices.”“The parties have also committed to the departure of non-Yemeni forces, to reconstruction, and to engage in an inclusive political process to reach a comprehensive and lasting political solution,” he added. “Discussions over the past months have resulted in the parties’ agreement on a set of commitments. I am grateful to the role both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman played to reach this point. The regional and international support over the past period aimed at bringing the parties closer to convening under UN auspices towards advancing an inclusive, sustainable political settlement,” stressed Grundberg. Meanwhile, US envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking met al-Alimi and Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek in Riyadh on Tuesday as part of Washington’s peace efforts in Yemen and to prevent the escalation of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 10-11/2024
Coptic Christmas Eve: Another Church Torched in Egypt
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/January 10, 2024
Sadly, but certainly not surprisingly, another Christmas has come and gone in Egypt, with yet another Islamic terror attack on a church gathered for prayer. On Jan. 6, 2024—Christmas Eve according to the Orthodox calendar, which millions of Christians spend by worshipping in church—Muslim fanatics torched a prayer tent in the village of Mansheyet Zafarana in the Abu Qurqas district, Minya Governorate. This was déjà vu. Exactly five years earlier, on Christmas Day, 2019, Muslim fanatics torched the actual church building that had once stood in that village. After getting governmental approval for this year, Coptic Christians set up a prayer tent with chairs inside, near where their torched church once stood, in an effort to celebrate Christmas of 2024. Not ones to concede to such a small concession, Muslims have now torched that church tent as well. The before and after images of the inferno (above) are telling.
Coptic leader Bishop Philopater, Bishop of Abu Qurqas, issued a statement thanking God that there were no casualties in the fires. He hinted that Christmas celebrations in his diocese were to be restricted to religious rites, with no ceremonies, “in solidarity with” that village’s (Muslim majority) community.
According to the most recent reporting, there is no information of security services taking any measures following this attack. After the original church building was burnt in 2019, the Coptic community in the village, and the diocese, applied through the official channels for a permit to rebuild it. Five years later, however, the authorization has yet to be granted by the presidential commission that handles such matters in Egypt. Permission was only given for the tent—though that too is now gone. This incident is hardly the first time that Muslims torch, not just churches, but church tents specifically set up for holiday worship, both in Egypt and several other Muslim nations (as noted here). Also, the church building that was torched on Christmas Day, 2019, in Mansheyet Zafarana, was only one of many that were attacked by Muslims or closed down by complicit authorities during that time. The reader is left with a trip down memory lane, based on contemporary reporting of what was happening to Coptic churches in Egypt during Christmas of 2019:
An Islamic terror plot to bomb a packed Christian church on the evening of January 6, [2019] when Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas, was foiled by police. According to one report, “[F]our explosive devices were planted around the Church of the Virgin Mary and St Mercurius in … Nasr City. Three were removed safely but the fourth, concealed in a bag, exploded when police bomb disposal technicians attempted to deactivate it. Police Major Mostafa Ebeid was killed in the blast, which wounded two other officers and a bystander. The explosion was the latest in a series of incidents apparently targeting Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, occurring the day before Orthodox Christmas eve….”More generally, between late December and early January, authorities forcibly shut down four more churches in Egypt after angry Muslim mobs rioted to protest their existence. In one instance, on Friday, January 11, more than one thousand Muslims surrounded the St George Church in Minya and demanded its immediate closure. Not only did authorities comply, they evicted the two priests who were holed up inside the church and hauled them off in a vehicle used for garbage. The move prompted “an elated response from a jubilating, gloating mob,” along with triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar!” (“Allah is greater!”) Police “behaved with the priests as they would with killers,” one human rights lawyer said. “What happened frightened us,” added another clergyman. “I am a priest and it is possible for the police to cuff me if the extremist neighboring Muslims protest or gathered in front of my church. Things are getting worse, but let us pray to make God keep us in peace.”… A January 15 report discussing this attack comments that, “In total, Egyptian authorities have closed four churches within the last four and a half weeks. No formal procedures against the attackers of these churches have begun.”

Netanyahu, Nasrallah, and the Brink of the Abyss
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126055/126055/
Since the outbreak of its war on Gaza, Israel has killed about 139 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. Israel's targeting of Hezbollah members is not new; they have regularly come under fire on Syrian territory. Now, things are changing, especially after the Israeli war on Gaza. Israel is increasing the number of attacks and hitting higher-value targets, taking out prominent figures like the commander of the Al-Radwan Force. The locations of the assassinations are also noteworthy, and none more so than that of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, who was hit in the middle of the southern suburbs in an operation that Israel has penetrated Hezbollah. I am almost certain that the party's leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, heard those explosions go off. Israel’s escalating assassinations of Hezbollah members coincide with government statements about changing the rules of war in Gaza and moving to another phase that includes assassinations. It seems that this phase does not only apply to Gaza and Hamas but also to Israel’s approach to dealing with Hezbollah. All that raises a set of questions. Is Israel pursuing assassinations to avoid a war with the party, or is it a prelude to a new war? How many of these commanders can Hezbollah afford to lose, to say nothing about keeping face while Israel demonstrates that it has deeply penetrated the party?
This penetration is real and significant, and it extends to the party's most sensitive sites, such as the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel has breached the party's security system and identified prominent figures, their responsibilities, and their movements precisely. This has not happened to Hamas or Al-Qassam in Gaza, at least not yet. Accordingly, how much can Hezbollah endure, especially after Hassan Nasrallah has reiterated his famous phrase after each assassination: it "will not go unpunished," and Hezbollah maintains the right to respond. Moreover, three months ago, the Iranian foreign minister said that "the fingers of the resistance are on the trigger."Hassan Nasrallah says that the actions of the party are intended to relieve pressure on Gaza. Meanwhile, the assassinations of Hezbollah members in Lebanon are relieving pressure on Netanyahu, who is trying to extend his political life. Netanyahu has no plan or project to achieve this except prolonging and expanding the war. Thus, we are now on the “brink of the abyss.” The brinkmanship of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Hassan Nasrallah is motivated by completely different assessments and political aspirations. Netanyahu wants to extend his political life, while Hassan Nasrallah is receiving blows without real support, in an astonishingly penetrated camp. Nasrallah’s real battle is protecting Iran's strategic interests in the region, not the politically and economically faltering country it operates from, Lebanon. And so, the real danger now in this "brinkmanship" could precipitate a broad war on Lebanon. This is a real and predictable prospect. However, no one knows how it would end or its real cost for the region. As for Netanyahu and Nasrallah, the cost means the end of an era of evil, and perhaps the beginning of another that is worse.

When Lawyers Defending Their Clients Become the Accused
Elizabeth Eastman/Gatestone Institute/January 10, 2024
Ensuring the integrity of elections is... a fundamental requirement to support the legitimacy of the American democratic republic.
We do not have to speculate about the motives of The 65 Project. The head of the group has admitted that their goal is "to deter right-wing talent from signing on to any future GOP efforts" to challenge elections, not only by bringing bar complaints but to "shame them and make them toxic in their communities and their firms."
The 65 Project's straight-faced motto, incidentally, is, "Defending Democracy and the Rule of Law." If only!
We are witnessing a shift in the legal system from lawyers representing and defending clients to lawyers becoming the accused, and, as a form of pseudo-juridical destruction, being charged with unfounded claims.
One of the many great provisions in the American Constitution provides that everyone is entitled to a defense. The "right to counsel" is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment and the "due process" clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
What, however, are the implications when the lawyers who provide that defense are threatened with disbarment proceedings, crushing legal costs to defend their licenses, exclusion from participation in the broader legal and academic communities, and having their reputations smeared, all because they represented clients who were deemed unpopular or took on cases fraught with controversy?
Lawyers throughout America are being subjected to these very ordeals due to their participation in cases related to the 2020 presidential election. One of the principal groups pursuing this strategy operates under the name "The 65 Project."
The group targets lawyers who litigated 2020 election irregularities or represented President Donald Trump. It does this by filing complaints against them in state bar associations, contending not only that the lawsuits were meritless but that anyone involved in them should be sanctioned — up to and including disbarment.
This may be the first time in our nation's history that election controversies have denigrated into such "lawfare." Election controversies are not uncommon, and heretofore, they have not led to such actions by disciplinary bodies. Lawyers brought legal challenges in the contested 2000 Bush v. Gore election and the 1960 Nixon v. Kennedy election, for example. In 1876, still in the intense aftermath of the Civil War, Congress even created an Electoral Count Commission to resolve which of two slates of electoral votes from several southern States should be counted.
Litigation over election disputes has also been frequent in state elections. In a 1994 Pennsylvania state Senate race, for example, evidence of fraud uncovered after the certification of the election resulted in the election being de-certified, the previously-declared winner being removed from his seat in the Senate, and the actual winner being certified and seated instead. In 2018, an illegal ballot-harvesting scheme in a North Carolina congressional race resulted in that State's Board of Elections throwing out the results and ordering a new election. As recently as December 2023, a judge ordered a new election in the Caddo Parish, Louisiana race for sheriff due to extensive vote irregularities. Also in 2023, a Connecticut superior court ordered a new mayoral primary election in Bridgeport due to absentee-ballot fraud. Cases of election fraud continue to come to light, but those who challenged 2020 election activity in court filings have been marked for persecution.
The 65 Project website makes the claim that defending democracy and the rule of law informs and propels their efforts, but scrutinizing elections or challenging irregular and fraudulent activities through litigation threatens neither.
Democracy is the rule of the people. Publius, in Federalist Paper No. 39, invokes the spirit of democracy to define a republic as "a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people." Publius continues, "It is ESSENTIAL to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it." Voting for representatives to govern is one of the means by which the people exercise their sovereign authority and give their ongoing consent to be governed. Ensuring the integrity of elections is thus a fundamental requirement to support the legitimacy of the American democratic republic.
Not only is The 65 Project's mission misguided, it also strikes at the heart of deep-rooted and long practiced American legal traditions. Lawyers are an integral part of a larger judicial system that serves the functions of resolving disputes, administering justice, and maintaining social order. The American judicial tradition traces its roots to early colonial practices, which varied from a Magistrate who conducted trials, to plainly written laws that allowed for persons to plead their causes to systems of arbitration courts that had laymen (also called "common peacemakers") presiding, and eventually to the presence of judge, lawyers, and jury in the current adversarial system.
Do The 65 Project participants fear that the 2020 or future election irregularities would be exposed in fair courtroom hearings? Do they work to discourage or strike fear in lawyers who consider pursuing such cases by putting them in the crosshairs of bar associations that have prodigious resources and in some states one-party control of appointments that makes impartial outcomes questionable? We do not have to speculate about the motives of "The 65 Project." The head of the group has admitted that their goal is "to deter right-wing talent from signing on to any future GOP efforts" to challenge elections, not only by bringing bar complaints but to "shame them and make them toxic in their communities and their firms."
The 65 Project's straight-faced motto, incidentally, is, "Defending Democracy and the Rule of Law." If only!
The actions of groups like The 65 Project diminish and compromise the bar associations, the legal profession, the adversarial system, and the country. We are witnessing a shift in the legal system from lawyers representing and defending clients to lawyers becoming the accused and, as a form of pseudo-juridical destruction, being charged with unfounded claims. If we do not put a lid back on this pandora's box, controversial clients will not have the benefit of representation, disputed issues will not get a hearing, constitutional issues will remain unresolved, the legal system will lose worthy advocates, and due process will be effectively thrown out.
The efforts by The 65 Project need to be forcefully repudiated. Lawyers who are subjected to these frivolous bar complaints need to be supported financially and defended by their peers, and all claims of irregular and fraudulent activity in local, state, and national elections need to be heard thoroughly and resolved in the courts. The 65 Project website tracks their work. Use the information there to find the lawyers that they are targeting and, if possible, please send money to their legal defense funds.
*Elizabeth Eastman holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate School, an M.A. in Liberal Education from St. John's College, and a B.A. in French Literature from Scripps College. She was the 2020-21 Senior Scholar in Residence at the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. John Eastman, her husband of 32 years, just finished a ten-week bar trial in California defending his bar license. A good summary is here.
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In Memoriam: Dr. David Pollock
Washington, D.C. - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy extends its deepest condolences to the family of Dr. David Pollock, 73, who passed away yesterday after a long illness. A world-renowned expert in public opinion polling in the Middle East, Dr. Pollock was the Institute’s Bernstein Fellow and longtime director of its Fikra Forum.
“David was a remarkably versatile scholar-practitioner who made a tremendous impact on U.S. foreign policy as a teacher, U.S. government official, and Washington Institute expert,” said Segal Executive Director Robert Satloff, the Howard P. Berkowitz Chair in U.S. Middle East Policy. “David’s legacy is monumental. He will be dearly missed as a brilliant analyst, generous colleague, and a devoted friend.”
With bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard, David’s policy work was firmly rooted in the foundation of his academic training. As a visiting lecturer at Harvard and assistant professor at George Washington University, he taught Middle East history and policy to hundreds of students who went on to distinguished careers in government and academia.
David began his government career in 1986 as chief of Near East/South Asia/Africa research at the U.S. Information Agency, where he supervised the government's study of public opinion, elite attitudes, and media content across the three regions. From 1996 to 2001, he served in several other State Department policy advisory positions covering South Asia and the Middle East, including four years as regional expert on the secretary of state's Policy Planning Staff.
In 2002, David was named senior advisor for the Broader Middle East at the State Department, where he provided policy advice on issues of democracy and reform in the region, with a focus on women's rights. He also helped launch the department's $15-million Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative and the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council, working directly with advocates across the Middle East.
Throughout his government career, David traveled frequently across the Middle East, meeting with officials, dissidents, and everyday citizens. A brilliant linguist, he was comfortable speaking with people of all backgrounds from Morocco, to Jerusalem, to Iraq.
David brought this wealth of experience and broad network of contacts to the Institute in 2007 when he took responsibility for the Institute’s incipient Arabic-language program and pioneered its polling initiative. Under David’s direction, the Institute created an Arabic language website and vastly expanded its Fikra Forum, a bilingual English-Arabic blog that gives voice to diverse Middle East writers who often cannot publish openly in their native countries. The website and Fikra Forum provide the Institute’s scholarship to Arabic speakers who may not otherwise have access to top-notch policy-related research.
A pioneer in Middle East polling, David devised and executed polls that assessed popular opinion in Arabic-speaking countries across the Middle East. His polls often appended political questions to generic market research studies to lessen the chance that respondents would be deterred by their content. The results — hotly sought after by U.S. official and regional governments alike — were often cited by international media. Indeed, his final poll of Saudi attitudes in the wake of the Hamas-Israel war was featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other leading outlets in the last month.
Fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and Kurdish, and an articulate communicator, David was a frequent guest on Middle East and U.S. media outlets, explaining U.S. policy to the Middle East, and Middle East affairs to American audiences.
“David’s breadth, depth, and unique talents cannot be overstated. His passing is a loss to his family, to the Institute, and to the vast community of those ardently pursuing a peaceful, democratic Middle East,” said Satloff.
David is survived by wife Judy Kirpich, son Max and wife Leslie Frey, and daughter Jody and husband Adolfo Patrón.
Written tributes can be sent via email to editor@fikraforum.org.
Washington Institute extends its deepest condolences to the family of Dr. David Pollock, who passed away yesterday after a long illness. A world-renowned expert in public opinion polling in the Mideast, Dr. Pollock was the Institute's Bernstein Fellow & longtime director of @FikraForum
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Images of the ‘West,’ Our's and Israel's
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/Jnuary 10/2024
If its link with the West is among the most robust sources of Israel’s power, it could potentially become among the weakest. In the face of the West’s intense military, political, and financial support, there is a Western paradigm that the Jewish state favors and gravitates towards. What is this paradigm?
It is true that the settler colonialism that has been part of its history since its inception is not unique to Israel. Settlers established many of the world’s countries, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)... Nonetheless, an important distinction remains. Those processes unfolded earlier on, before the values of our contemporary world went into circulation. As for Israel, which was established as a political entity later on, the arrival of its settlers coincided with the end of Western settler colonialism and the democratic West’s denouncement or disavowal of that practice. This reflected itself in the discrepancy between the direction taken by the West following World War II, with decolonization and the retreat of Europeans from their former colonies, and the arrival of Europeans (and non-Europeans) to Palestine and their establishment of a state alien to the region - a process that required expelling the Palestinian population and replacing them.
Both this and that indicate that the Westerness that has characterized Israel is old and colonial; it has been rusted by time and its changes, with its descendants disavowing the actions of their ancestors.
As for the Jewish state, it remained stuck there. When the Cold War broke out shortly after its establishment in 1948, very few countries were more rigidly and closely aligned with the NATO camp: from its support for dictatorial military regimes loyal to the West, to the affection it shared with countries and hotbeds of racism in Africa. Nasserist Egypt’s (and Baathist Syria) siding with the Soviet camp deepened this Israeli inclination and widened the distance separating the Israelis from their socialist and kibbutz origins. Year after year, Israel's closest friends changed: from the United States’ Democrats to its Republicans, from Britain’s Labor to its Conservatives, and here it is today, reconciling with some extreme right-wing movements and overlooking the anti-Semitism of their recent past.
With the end of the Cold War, Israel’s position stood out starkly. Indeed, Western countries abandoned the awkward ties to dictators and racists that their global competition with the Soviets had imposed, while Tel Aviv neither walked away nor felt awkward.
One thing that mitigates the obsolete colonial character of the Israelis’ Westness is their parliamentary democracy, which is also Western - even if only Jewish citizens fully enjoy this democracy, while others live under a flawed democracy, and things have gone further in this direction over the past few years.
The Israeli image of the West thus encompasses three elements: the colonial past, military and technological progress, and parliamentary democracy. Were it not for the last element, the combination of the first two would have left us with a disastrous recipe for fully-fledged modern barbarism. It is correct, in any case, to assume that this blemished image of the West in the Jewish state will continue to be governed by the struggle between these elements for a long time.
On the other hand, it remains difficult to argue that there is an image of and about the West in mainstream Arab culture. It is true that satire dominates this non-image, but this satire says more about the frailty of the coherence of satirists than it does about the coherence of the satirized.
After that old, self-contradictory, formula claiming that Zionism and Israel were created by the West and that, at the same time, Israel controls the West (and the second half is not free of anti-Semitism), we are now faced with formulas that do make not much sense: the narrative that Zionism and Israel are product the West should have spared us our immense astonishment at the extent of the West’s bias in favor of the Jewish state in its war on Gaza; makers do not abandon what they have made.
The same could be said about our claims that the West is morally and ethically dead and that its democracy is a lie and a ruse, at a time when we only see protests, petitions, and debates over there. As for some among us claiming that the West is weak and that its influence is diminishing in favor of China, Russia and others, while at the same time addressing and appealing to it and not other global powers, that is another flagrant indication that we are drawing our image of the West with the brush of riddles, behaving like a blind man running in the dark. Of course, our denunciation of the West in the name of democracy lacks any credibility. We are not well placed to present ourselves as eminent democracy professors, we who have a terrible record in dealing with the extremely vicious repression that our region has witnessed and that has befallen our peoples or ethnic and religious minorities. Here, our condemnation of our oppression of one another remained timid, to say nothing about our efforts to push back against it. Both this and that should make us question whether our strong appetite for what is known as the “critique of Orientalism” is a response to a deep and unhidden desire to avoid critiquing our “Occidentalism” or our failures to understand the West and the world, and by extension, to understand ourselves. The fact is that the image of the West in Israel will not emerge as a weakness until the West goes further and further in breaking with its colonial past - a rupture that has been weakest in our region for several reasons, one of the most important of which is Israel itself. Thus, our changing, at least on the consciousness front, could push the West to change how it operates in our region as it changed in the West itself and in other parts of the world that have demonstrated levels of understanding that we have not. We would be better off with something to do and say in this regard.

Bomb-scarred Iran could be at heart of regional inferno
Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/January 10, 2024
Two explosions last week surged through crowds at the mausoleum of former Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Kerman. Thousands of people were there to mourn their great national hero, who had been killed by American missiles in Baghdad four years earlier. The first bomb was ignited just 700 meters from the shrine; the second exploded 15 minutes later about a kilometer away, killing many of those who had fled from the earlier attack.
Nearly 90 people were killed, making this the most lethal attack in Iran since the truck bombing of the Islamic Republican Party’s headquarters in Tehran in 1981, in which 74 people were killed.
As the nation reeled from these double blows, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei blamed the country’s “malicious and criminal enemies,” without identifying anyone specifically. But other officials were quick to point fingers at the US and Israel. This was a particularly charged accusation since, a day earlier, Israeli missiles had killed senior Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut. He had been Hamas’ principal link with Hezbollah and Iran. A week before that attack, Israel had killed Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior Quds Force official, in Damascus.
Tensions were defused when Daesh subsequently claimed responsibility for the horrendous Kerman attack. Its statement identified two suicide bombers who had detonated their vests amid the gathering of “polytheists” at the grave of the “hypocrite” commander.
The popular mood in Iran is one of rage at the failure of the state authorities to provide security to their people
Since then, 12 people have been arrested in six different provinces. Officials have identified one bomber as a Tajik, but no other details have become public so far. There were earlier attacks in Iran attributed to Daesh, but none that caused casualties on this scale.
The popular mood in Iran is one of rage at the failure of the state authorities to provide security to their people, particularly when they otherwise harshly handle all expressions of internal dissent. News reports are awash with people angry at Iran’s failure to respond effectively to several earlier attacks from the US, Israel and Daesh. Officials’ tough rhetoric has been condemned as “empty and fake,” while there have been calls for an end to the policy of “strategic restraint.”
Observers have warned that Daesh has been emboldened largely because there had been no response to earlier American and Israeli attacks. One senior official even called on Iran to launch a joint attack with its allies to deter future assaults by Israel.
Though there are Daesh stragglers in Syria and Iraq, the Kerman bombing is believed to be the handiwork of the entity in Afghanistan, which is referred to as Daesh Khorasan. It remains deeply hostile to the Taliban administration in Kabul and has targeted it on several occasions. As Iran has now moved fresh troops to the Afghanistan and Pakistan borders, it is likely that it will target the group’s positions, most probably in the Afghan province of Herat. However, given the mountainous terrain, the extent of the damage is likely to be minimal.
The principal concern now is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may opt for a regionwide conflict
While Iran will have to contend with the threat from Daesh Khorasan, it will remain a sideshow compared to the challenges emerging from the Gaza war. Iran is at the heart of the ongoing conflict: It is close to Hamas and is the powerful sponsor of militias in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. They constitute the regional “axis of resistance” and are together engaged in a war of attrition, hitting Israeli and US targets.
Since early October, Hezbollah has been regularly targeting Israeli assets and has tied down several military units at Israel’s northern border, while diverse militias from the PMU have launched more than 100 attacks on US targets in Iraq. Both have invited Israeli and US retaliation, including targeted killings. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have proven most effective as, since November, they have threatened global maritime flows. They have been demanding increased humanitarian aid for the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli mass killings in Gaza, with no strategic objective or endgame in mind, have aggravated regional security concerns and brought the long-standing Iran-Israel “shadow war” to the center of the regional scenario.
The principal concern now is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may opt for a regionwide conflict. Following the rejection of his judicial reforms by the Supreme Court, he is facing popular calls for his resignation, arrest and incarceration. Hence, he may judge this to be a good opportunity to exterminate both Palestinian resistance and Hezbollah and turn Israel’s guns on Iran.
With Iran hit hard by the Kerman tragedy and with a long record of Israeli violence that remains unavenged, its leaders may find themselves no longer able to sustain their commitment to “strategic patience.” This dangerous situation calls for the US to abandon its pusillanimous approach and insist on an immediate ceasefire, to be followed by a dialogue on Palestinian aspirations. Otherwise, the tragedy of Kerman could plunge the Middle East into a regional conflagration.
*Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian diplomat.

Gaza and us: Between words and deeds
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 10, 2024
Is it in our interest to know the truth about what is happening in our region, or are we too innocent to handle the bitterness?
My personal feeling, and I hope I am wrong, is that we are too innocent and helpless to deal with the challenges that 2024 will bring, especially after the past few months have exposed the intentions and approaches of many.
The Near East region is changing before our eyes, geographically and demographically, while we are expected to be distracted by visits and regional tours, and to believe the diplomatic statements that Washington and some Western capitals have been regurgitating incessantly. Meanwhile, some of the misled and “misleaders” in our Arab world and its surroundings are comforted by hollow threats and empty rhetorical escalation.
Many were concerned with listening to what Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Lebanese Hezbollah, would say after Israel’s assassination of the prominent Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri and members of his entourage in the Dahieh southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. But Nasrallah did not say anything new. Moreover, Hezbollah is, in the first place, an integral part of Iran’s strategy. Iran, whose Revolutionary Guard leaders have long and repeatedly threatened that “the annihilation of Israel” was a few minutes away, is still taking its time to achieve this “accomplishment” it promises, despite the horrific humanitarian conditions that the Israeli machine has left in the Gaza Strip over the past three months, which have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
Tehran has delegated the task of skirmishing and voicing positions to its Arabic-speaking proxies
As usual, Tehran has delegated the task of skirmishing and voicing positions to its Arabic-speaking proxies. It has fought and will continue to fight to enhance its regional influence — termed “resistance” — using the bodies of others, and building on the ruins of their nations and societies.
Of course, Tehran expects a reward in return. It expects to be, as it has been for decades, included in the settlements and solutions that will be imposed on the remnants of the Near East after the West has handed Iran all of its entities, one after another, on a silver platter.
In Iraq, Tehran is waging a local “proxy war” through its militias under the pretext of avenging Gaza. Meanwhile, Washington does not seem troubled, and neither does Israel ... the Iraqi state, Iraqi identity, and Iraqi sovereignty have all become things of the past.
In Syria, the “red lines” offered by former US President Barack Obama not only saved the regime, but also buttressed Iranian hegemony over the capital of Syria and its “middle belt” from the Iraqi border in the east to what was once the Republic of Lebanon in the west. Now, Syrian territory has been divided into spheres of influence, drug factories, arms smuggling routes, and exporters of strife and unrest to neighboring countries.
In Lebanon, where “decisions of war and peace” are made by Iran that has financial and security hegemony through Hezbollah, the country’s chemistry has changed, and its situation has changed. This could not have been achieved without the “resistance” — that is, Iran’s plan for regional dominance. Under the guise of this “resistance,” Hezbollah retains its arms, unlike all the other Lebanese parties and forces. With these arms, it skirmishes, maneuvers, and extorts.
Yemen’s Houthis are playing a new role in Iran’s “war of agitation” in the Red Sea
Now, after having endorsed the demarcation of Lebanon’s maritime borders with Israel, it awaits the arrival of “demarcation engineer” Amos Hochstein, the US special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, to negotiate the next step and strike a deal on the land borders. In his latest speech, Nasrallah did not rule out a de-escalation “if Israel stops its operations in Gaza.” In tandem with the rhetorical escalation, the exchange of rocket and artillery fire continues across the border, within the limits of the so-called “rules of engagement,” bearing in mind that most of the targeted Israeli sites have been evacuated for a while now.
Based on the above, Yemen’s Houthis are playing a new role in Iran’s “war of agitation” in the Red Sea and near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.
This new element has increased the significance of international intervention to protect maritime trade. It also increases the need for Iranian “services” that will help Tehran get a share once the region is split, especially after it has been affirmed that Tehran has no intention of “destroying Israel.” On the contrary, Tehran’s threats over the years have strengthened Israel’s expansionist right-wing, and US political and military support for Israel.
A few days ago, pro-Israel electronic activists attacked me on X, accusing me of being an idiot for discussing the “intersection” of interests between Tel Aviv and Tehran. But I am convinced that actions always speak louder than words.
The Biden administration is fully aware that Iran has no intention of attacking Israel. It opposed expanding the war to displace the people of Gaza into a regional conflict because, firstly, it agrees with Israel on the need to liquidate the Palestinian question, and second, it wants to maintain Iran’s regional role in the Middle East. Those who are still in doubt should consider the conditions of areas under Tehran’s control in the Arab Levant, and remember Obama’s words: “The Iranians are not suicidal.”
*Eyad Abu Shakra is managing editor of Asharq Al-Awsat. X: @eyad1949

Sunak’s best gift for UK would be to call an election
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/January 10, 2024
The UK is on course for yet more uncertainty in 2024, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seems intent on keeping hold of power for as long as he can. The people of the country are yearning for an to end the 14 years of Conservative Party rule, which has oscillated between austerity and Brexit and left many people lamenting its failure to yield any benefits for the country, with the politicians in power seemingly in it for their own benefit rather than putting the country first.
Sunak’s delaying tactics — with the election seemingly set to take place in the autumn rather than in May — demonstrates that he and his party are still deluding themselves that the country will trust them to “finish the job.” The only certainty is that the majority of voters are intent on seeing the end of their chaotic rule, which has brought disrepute to politics in the country and shaken the image of Britain abroad.
While Tory governments have been busy sloganizing about “taking back control” and launching a new “Global Britain,” the signs are that the UK is increasingly unable to control its borders and it lacks the skilled laborers, doctors, nurses, hospitality workers and truck drivers required to deliver on the mantras of the various Conservative governments that made cutting taxes and economic growth the centerpiece of all their empty promises.
It seems to be a zero-sum game for Britain and the best choice for Sunak might be to end the game now and call for elections in May in the hope that a new page is opened in the government of the UK. The first job would be to clear up the mess left by successive Conservative governments obsessed with austerity and a small state, while adamant about leaving the EU at all costs, including ending freedom of movement.
It seems to be a zero-sum game for Britain and the best choice for Sunak might be to end the game now
Many would argue that Sunak’s decision to delay the general election until the autumn — some think it will be on Nov. 14 instead of May 2 — will not save him from defeat, even with the most ambitious of tax cuts and promises to curb the arrival of small boats across the English Channel and immigration across the board. He may also promise to rejuvenate the National Health Service and ply it with funds to reduce the waiting lists that have ballooned in recent years.
The inevitable is likely to happen, given the 18 to 20-point lead the Labour Party has scored in the polls for the best part of the past year. This is not because it has offered more popular policies, but because of the sense of fatigue and uncertainty felt across the board and a sense that the years of attrition the Conservatives have caused to the country must stop.
Maybe Sunak is still hoping for an economic miracle, with voters noticing an improvement by the end of the summer. As inflation falls and the cost-of-living crisis eases, maybe interest rates will start to show signs of reversing course. Lower interest rates would benefit voters, who would start to feel richer if the cost of the mortgage on their homes started to fall. All this would be in the hope that Sunak could make his election message: The economy is on the right track and therefore no one should vote Labour for fear of ruining it. But as one British commentator has said: “Slogans cannot turn a storm into sunshine.”
Many believe that the powerful ‘time for change’ tide is likely to sweep away the Conservatives whenever the election is held
Whatever Sunak promises in his last few months in power, and even if he applies several tax cuts to bribe parts of the electorate, many believe that the UK’s powerful “time for change” tide is likely to sweep away the Conservatives whenever the election is held. This is not because opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow Cabinet have the answers to all the ills of the country, but simply because the Conservatives have had their chance and their time has come to an end.
Three in every four Britons want a change of government, including nearly half of those who voted Tory at the last election in 2019. A YouGov survey published this week gave Starmer’s Labour Party a 24 percentage point lead over the Tories. It is expected to win 46 percent of the vote (up 3 percent on last month) compared to the Conservatives’ 22 percent (down 2 percent). Also, when asked who would make the better prime minister, 30 percent backed Starmer and only 18 percent favored Sunak.
However, one cannot envy Starmer, who is tipped by most pollsters to win the election, as he and his party will inherit a country that has been torn apart in the last decade. Their best efforts to remedy the country could be insufficient, as there might not be enough money in the treasury to revive the UK’s public services, which have been mismanaged for years under the Conservatives.
Unlike his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, Sunak could be remembered for showing leadership and doing the right thing for the nation, but only if he calls for a general election to be held as soon as possible. Clinging on to power for the sake of what he believes is “finishing the job” might be honorable in ordinary circumstances, but maybe not this time. Finishing the job or finishing the country, Sunak must make the right choice.
*Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.