Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 06-07/2024
Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel spark fires, destroy thousands of acres
Israel bombs a car in eastern Lebanon... and assassinates a Hezbollah official
UN calls for immediate de-escalation along Blue Line to avoid full-scale war: Statement
Israeli strike leaves four injured in Bint Jbeil
Hezbollah's warning: Unprecedented rocket attack on Israeli targets in response to assassinations
High Toll of Conflict: Hezbollah and Israeli Attacks Since October 8
Hezbollah targets Israeli artillery with drones in response to attacks
UN warns escalating exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel risk full-scale war
Hezbollah chief congratulates Iran’s Pezeshkian on vote win
Parolin Stresses Importance of Electing New President
Abi el-Mona Calls for Awakening of Conscience
ISF Arrests a Syrian Woman for Drug Trafficking, Husband Still at Large
Why Does Amos Hochstein Seek to Achieve a Ceasefire Before August 8?
Deriane: Continued Disputes Threaten to Provoke the Nation’s Collapse.
Jamaa Islamiya chief meets Haniyeh in Doha
Trapped, Starved, and Abused: The Uncertain Fate of Lebanon’s Zoo Animals
Amid International Calls for Peace, Lebanon’s Christians Gird for Potential Israeli Invasion/Joe Bukuras/National Catholic Register/July 5, 2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 06-07/2024
Hamas accepts US proposal on talks over Israeli hostages 16 days after first phase, Hamas source says
Israel says negotiators to hold fresh Gaza truce talks next week
UK seeks balanced position on Israel and Gaza, says new foreign minister Lammy
Israeli strikes kill 16 at school housing displaced Gazans, health officials say
Gaza soccer stadium is now a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians
Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran’s presidential runoff election, beats hard-liner Jalili
Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who rose to power in parliament, now Iran's president-elect
France Prepares for Fiercely Contested Second Round of Elections on July 7
France holds its breath ahead of uncertain vote
Arabs Resume Flights Over Syria After 12-Year Hiatus: A New Beginning for Regional Relations
Egypt, Syrian leaders discuss Gaza developments during call

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 06-07/2024
Imagine Hitler with Nuclear Bombs; Now Imagine Iran's Mullahs with Nuclear Bombs/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./July 6, 2024
Israel is inching toward a wider war and a nasty fight against an enemy poised to bombard it as no other foe has/Jake Epstein/Business Insider/July 6, 2024
Almost entire population in Gaza now displaced amid fresh Israeli offensive/Ibrahim Dahman, Tim Lister, Khader Al-Za'anoun and Eugenia Yosef, CNN/July 6, 2024
From Raisi to Pezeshkian — what next for Iran?/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/July 06, 2024
Is anyone surprised by Netanyahu’s partial deal or no deal?/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/July 06, 2024
Did the UK vote for Starmer — or against the Conservatives?/Peter Harrison//Arab News/July 06, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 06-07/2024
Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel spark fires, destroy thousands of acres
GABY VINICK/ABC News/July 6, 2024
Before Oct. 7, Sigal Malachi would wake up at 5 a.m. each day to water her plants, remove weeds, and produce cuttings. The co-owner of a greenhouse in northern Israel, she said her home was once a lush paradise.
Now, it's a war zone. Like others living close to the Lebanon border, Malachi is one of what the Israeli government estimates are tens of thousands of Israelis uprooted from their homes because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Forced to shutter her family business, Malachi packed her belongings and left Moshav Liman, an agricultural community in northern Israel on the Mediterranean coast, only a few miles south of the Lebanon border. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militia group, began launching near-daily rocket attacks on northern Israel on Oct. 8, the day after the Iran-allied Palestinian militant group Hamas led an unprecedented incursion from the Gaza Strip into neighboring southern Israel, igniting the war. Hezbollah has said it is striking Israel in solidarity with Palestinians and won't stop until there is a cease-fire in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where an ongoing air and ground assault by the Israeli military has caused widespread devastation. In Israel, at least 1,200 people were killed and 6,900 others injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants during the Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In Gaza, more than 38,000 people have been killed and 87,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the territory's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged cross-border fire as tensions have escalated in the region. On June 12, Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel, the largest attack on the country since the war in Gaza began. The group said it was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed one of its senior commanders in southern Lebanon.
Malachi, a 46-year-old mother of two, is one of an estimated 60,000 people who, for their own safety, have been evacuated from northern Israel in the face of the Hezbollah rocket attacks, according to the Israeli government.
But the attacks have also brought with them an environmental cost, in the form of thousands of acres of wildfires. "It's dangerous, it's coming next to the houses," Malachi told ABC News of the fires. "Even if it's not coming to the houses, it's killing forests and it's killing all the life on the ground." Yehoshua Shkedy, chief scientist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, has been monitoring the environmental damage the fires have caused. Vegetation in the north of Israel is much more widespread than in the south, he said, meaning the fire risk in the north is much higher. "If this war is going to continue, we're going to see more and more fire in the woodlands," Shkedy told ABC News. He said the fire ruins vegetation, harms soil quality, and burns small animals that cannot easily escape, including lizards, rodents, snails, and invertebrates.
"As we progress, the effects of the fire are more severe," Shkedy said. "The soil itself is getting burned sometimes – cooked. It's like in the oven, and then it's becoming infertile for quite a while."
He warned that after a hot, dry summer, September and October could be highly dangerous. "Right now we have four times more fires than we have every year," Shkedy said. "It is bad now, and it's going to be worse toward the autumn."
Gilad Ostrovsky is the chief forester of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), a nonprofit organization that for decades has helped manage Israel's forests. He said crews are treating the forests and working to reduce fire risk by creating fuel breaks – that is, buffer lines with little to no combustible vegetation that separate settlements and forests by about 70 meters, or about 230 feet.
"Those buffer lines within the forest means they are wide enough to let fire trucks get in safely, but when the fire becomes bigger and more [intense], we have to call the airplanes," Ostrovsky told ABC News, adding that using planes is also dangerous because Hezbollah could shoot them down with missiles.
"We are very worried," Ostrovsky said. With tensions increasing between Hezbollah and Israel, the prospect of future fires is concerning. Ostrovsky said flames from past fires reached some houses near the northernmost Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. Some farmers, he said, lost orchards and agricultural land to the fires. Ostrovsky said within two weeks in June, the forest fires in Israel sparked by Hezbollah rockets burned about 5,000 hectares – more than 12,000 acres – hitting the Biriya Forest national park, the Naftali mountains, and the Bar'am Forest Nature Preserve, all of them only a few miles from the border with Lebanon. Ostrovsky said even Hezbollah rockets intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system can spark fires. "Even if we are successful in not letting the missiles get in, there is a massive explosion in the air. And then thousands of pieces spread all over and each piece can start a fire," Ostrovsky said, which in turn makes managing the multiple blazes more challenging. "It's not just one place that it started. Now, because of the war and the rockets, it is starting all over, all over," he continued. "It's very hard for us to say, 'Okay, we can be prepared.' The uncertainty is very high. That's the problem."
Beyond immediate safety operations, forest rehabilitation will take years, Ostrovsky said. "In the northern part of Israel, we prefer natural regeneration," he said, noting that because northern Israel gets more rain than southern Israel and has more vegetation, regrowth can be assessed a few years after the fires to determine which sections of the forest need to be replanted. The positive news, he added, is that many volunteers arrived in June to help firefighters. Malachi, who now rents an apartment in Givat Ela, a small village east of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, told ABC News that she makes the hour-long drive back to Moshav Liman three days a week to care for her plants and property. Others also began venturing back in June to cut grass, remove dried herbs and perform other tasks to help prevent future fires, Malachi said. Yet with so many empty towns, she worries the land is more vulnerable to fire because it's been unkept for so long."It's not going to be easy and it's sad and I hope it will stop," she said of the violence. While her home has been spared, Malachi said it's shocking to see the north ablaze.
"You cry and you don't believe it's happened," she said. "You see people fighting the fire and it's scary. It's affected everybody."Malachi said it will take a long time for communities and agriculture to recover. "It's not like tomorrow we put again a new tree and try to make everything new. It's not so easy," she said, emphasizing the enormity of the fires. Yet she's confident that it will happen. "Everybody will come and help make the north again new," she said. Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel spark fires, destroy thousands of acres originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Israel bombs a car in eastern Lebanon... and assassinates a Hezbollah official
Dubai - Al Arabiya.net/06 July/2024
The Lebanese-Israeli border has been witnessing escalating tension for days. In Al-Jadeed, an Israeli march targeted, on Saturday evening, a Rapid car on the road to the town of Shaat, located north of the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. Al-Arabiya sources also reported that the targeting was carried out with two missiles from Al-Masirah. It also added that the raid resulted in the killing of a Hezbollah military official working in the field of missiles, named Maytham Al-Attar. The targeting occurred about 100 kilometers from the southern Lebanese border with Israel. A barrage of Katyusha rockets. Yesterday evening, Friday, Hezbollah announced that it had fired a barrage of rockets at northern Israel. He said in separate statements that he bombed with a barrage of Katyusha rockets the “Margaliot colony” and two border military sites “in response to Israel’s bombing of southern villages,” especially the towns of Kafar Shuba, Markba, Al-Khiyam, Yahmar Shaqif, and Kafr Tabnit, according to Agence France-Presse. While the Israeli army announced in a statement that two of its soldiers were slightly injured “by projectiles fired at the border town of Kiryat Shmona,” noting that they were taken to the hospital. He also added that he struck "the source of the launches" and fired artillery at several areas in southern Lebanon in response. It is noteworthy that since Wednesday, Hezbollah announced the launch of more than 300 missiles and a number of marches at military headquarters in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, in response to the Israeli assassination (on July 3) of the party’s leader, Muhammad Nasser, in the Al-Hush area in the city of Tyre, south of Lebanon, who is the leader. The third prominent person to be killed since the escalation began. Although the escalation is mainly concentrated in southern Lebanon, from time to time Israel launches strikes deep into Lebanon, specifically in the east of the country, targeting Hezbollah members. It is noteworthy that since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged bombardments on an almost daily basis. Which has so far resulted in the killing of at least 497 people in Lebanon, the majority of whom are Hezbollah members and about 95 civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on Hezbollah data and official Lebanese sources. Meanwhile, the Israeli side announced the killing of 16 soldiers and 11 civilians.

UN calls for immediate de-escalation along Blue Line to avoid full-scale war: Statement
LBCI/July 06, 2024
The United Nations said that it "is deeply concerned at the increase in the intensity of exchanges of fire across the Blue Line [...] which heightens the risk of a full-scale war," a statement from the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General stated in a note to correspondents. In the statement, the UN affirmed that "escalation can and must be avoided," adding, "We reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real. A political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward." The statement affirmed that UN Special Coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert recently met with Lebanese officials, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, highlighting the need for de-escalation across the Blue Line. "We echo the appeals of UNSCOL and UNIFIL urging the parties to immediately return to a cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006)," the statement concluded.

Israeli strike leaves four injured in Bint Jbeil
LBCI/July 06, 2024
Four people sustained minor injuries on Friday evening in Bint Jbeil as a result of an Israeli strike. In the details, an Israeli drone carried out an aerial attack around 10:30 PM on Friday, targeting the town of Yaroun. Less than half an hour later, the drone renewed its attacks, targeting Al Wadi area in the town of Bint Jbeil. While firefighting teams from the Union of Bint Jbeil District Municipalities were working to extinguish the fires caused by the Israeli aerial attack, the area was subjected to a violent strike carried out by warplanes, resulting in four minor injuries. Two of the injured were members of the firefighting team and were taken to a nearby hospital.

Hezbollah's warning: Unprecedented rocket attack on Israeli targets in response to assassinations
LBCI/July 06, 2024
In a dramatic escalation ahead of its tenth month of war, Hezbollah unleashed its fiercest rocket barrage yet since October 2023. The attack, a response to the Israeli assassination of Mohammad Nehme Nasser, Aziz Unit commander and a senior field leader in the south, saw approximately 250 rockets and 20 drones simultaneously launched from various points. Targets included military barracks, command headquarters, and military and intelligence bases. Rockets and drones struck Israeli bases from the occupied Shebaa Farms to the western shores near Tiberias, reaching an unprecedented depth of 35 kilometers. Hezbollah acknowledges Nasser was at risk but justifies its forceful response as a deterrent against Israel's policy of targeted killings, warning of stronger reprisals with each assassination. The retaliation for Nasser's assassination was notably more severe than previous responses, including that for the killing of Hezbollah's Nasr Unit commander, Talib Abdallah. The nature of Hezbollah's retaliation resonated deeply within Israel, prompting fears of Hezbollah's capability to dominate the Galilee region from the farms to the sea.
Informed sources underlined that the July 4th assault foreshadowed a scenario much smaller than what could unfold in a full-scale war. The political message was clear: a warning against war or even limited engagements, as such operations may start predictably but end unpredictably. The intensity and scale of Thursday's attack were intended as a deterrent, akin to the dissemination of detailed "Hudhud" video picturing Haifa, meticulously recorded during Hezbollah's drone flights, without launching an actual attack. These scenarios and assaults serve as reminders that Hezbollah holds many cards yet to be played. Despite their reluctance to war, they do not shy away from engagement under controlled conditions.

High Toll of Conflict: Hezbollah and Israeli Attacks Since October 8
LBCI/July 06, 2024
Despite Israel's secrecy about the extent of its losses due to confrontations with Hezbollah, the number of attacks carried out by Hezbollah, which Israel itself acknowledges, remains an indicator of the situation. According to the Israeli Alma Research Center, Hezbollah has carried out 2,295 attacks since October 8. The majority of these attacks originated from the border strip, such as the area around the occupied Shebaa Farms, with 96% of the operations conducted from a distance of zero to five kilometers. In contrast, those carried out at a distance of 30 kilometers from the border, targeting the Galilee and the Golan, amounted to only 0.05%. This low percentage is due to the engagement rules remaining within a certain rhythm. These painful strikes for Israel have been met with Israeli assaults on the south, sparing neither stone nor human. According to the National Council for Scientific Research, Israel carried out 5,522 assaults, including 4,977 bombing and raid operations up until July 4. Additionally, there were 382 incendiary bombs, flares, and phosphorus shells, which by June 28 had burned 1,795 hectares, spread across Bint Jbeil, Hasbaya, Marjayoun, and Tyre. Moreover, 12,000 hectares of agricultural land became unusable for their owners, causing economic disruption over an area of 2,000 square kilometers, which is the most targeted region. Israel completely demolished about 4,000 housing units and damaged the infrastructure in the border villages and those deeper within, including their schools. Most importantly, the human losses include 75 civilian martyrs and 354 Hezbollah fighters up to the time of this report.

Hezbollah targets Israeli artillery with drones in response to attacks
Associated Press/July 06, 2024
Hezbollah said Saturday that it launched suicide drones at an Israeli artillery position in Beit Hillel that had targeted Lebanese villages and civilians on Friday. According to a statement, the position went up in flames after it was “accurately” hit. Israeli media reports confirmed that two drones had exploded in Beit Hillel. Hezbollah said in statements Friday that it fired waves of rockets at Israeli positions in Kiryat Shmona, Margaliot, Ayelet and Shlomi. It called the bombardment retaliation for Israeli strikes on homes in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said in a statement that two of its soldiers were lightly injured. It said it responded to the rocket strikes by firing artillery at several sites in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that white phosphorus shells were fired from Israeli positions. Israel's army has previously insisted it respects international law in the use of such munitions. NNA reported four people lightly injured on the Lebanese side, including two firefighters.

UN warns escalating exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel risk full-scale war
Associated Press/July 06, 2024
The United Nations has warned that the increasing intensity of exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel “heightens the risk of a full-scale war.”“Escalation can and must be avoided,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He pointed to escalating exchanges across the U.N.-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon known as the Blue Line on Thursday. They followed Israel’s killing of a senior commander in Hezbollah on Wednesday. “We reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real,” Dujarric said. “A political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward.”The U.N. spokesman said the Lebanese Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee expressed support Thursday for the U.N. peacekeeping force along the Blue Line in southern Lebanon and for the 2006 U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel in the Lebanon war that year. The United Nations urges the parties to return to a cessation of hostilities and recommit to implementing the 2006 resolution. The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, also met Thursday with Lebanese officials, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, “underscoring the need for de-escalation across the Blue Line,” Dujarric said. International diplomats are scrambling to prevent near-daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah from spiraling into an all-out war that could possibly lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, which is Hezbollah’s main backer. Hezbollah says it will stop its attacks if Israel agrees to a cease-fire with Hamas in its nine-month war in the Gaza Strip.Some Israeli officials have said they are seeking a diplomatic solution and hope to avoid war. At the same time, they have warned that destruction seen in Gaza will be repeated in Lebanon if war breaks out. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is far more powerful than Hamas and believed to have a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.

Hezbollah chief congratulates Iran’s Pezeshkian on vote win
AFP/July 06, 2024
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday congratulated Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on his victory, emphasising Tehran’s role as a “strong” supporter of regional “resistance” groups. In a letter circulated on the Iran-backed group’s social media channels, Nasrallah congratulated Pezeshkian on his “blessed election” by the Iranian people. “We in Hezbollah and in all the resistance groups in the region... always look to the Islamic republic of Iran as a strong, stable and permanent support,” the letter read. Tehran provides financial and military support to Hezbollah, which was created at the initiative of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards after arch-foe Israel overran Beirut in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war. The Shiite Muslim movement is a key part of the so-called Axis of Resistance — an alliance of pro-Iran armed movements that oppose Israel and the United States. The alliance also includes Palestinian militant group Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and fighters in Iraq. Reformist candidate Pezeshkian, who advocates improved ties with the West, won a runoff presidential election against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the Iranian interior ministry said Saturday. The election came against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions because of the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear program, and domestic discontent over the state of Iran’s sanctions-hit economy. The death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash necessitated the election, which had not been due until 2025. Hezbollah has been trading regular cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since the day after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction to have retained its weapons after the country’s 1975-1990 civil conflict. Its members have long fought in Syria’s war in support of President Bashar Assad, who earlier Saturday also sent his congratulations to Iran’s president-elect.

Parolin Stresses Importance of Electing New President
This Is Beirut/Arab News/ 6 July 2024
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin addressed the situation in Lebanon and stressed “the importance of electing a new president of the Republic,” expressing hope that “the Christian component will play an active role in this regard.”Parolin’s remarks were made during a ceremony awarding the literary prize to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. He emphasized the need to continue diplomatic efforts to achieve peace, noting that “the responsibility lies with everyone.”

Abi el-Mona Calls for Awakening of Conscience
This Is Beirut/6 July 2024  
The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Lebanon, Sheikh Akl Sami Abi el-Mona, has called on Lebanese leaders to awaken their conscience, in the context of “events and persistent Israeli aggression in the region”. Speaking on the occasion of the Hijri New Year holiday on Saturday, Akl said that “discord dashes hopes”, while “understanding breeds achievements”. “Is it not more urgent today to take the initiative and start a serious consultation and an honest and frank dialogue to elect a President of the Republic?” he asked, referring to the escalation of the war in southern Lebanon.
In this context, Sheikh Abi el-Mona wondered whether the Lebanese had become “hostages to an expected external agreement”, having “lost the ability to reach an internal agreement”.He also condemned Israel, “usurper” of Palestine, Lebanon and international resolutions. In this context, he called on the Lebanese “to show greater responsibility, national solidarity, convergence on the supreme national interest and affirmation of national unity”, in the face of Israeli threats.

ISF Arrests a Syrian Woman for Drug Trafficking, Husband Still at Large
This Is Beirut/6 July 2024  
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) General Directorate carried out a raid on the apartment of a 34-year-old Syrian woman, N.R., in the Sahara Choueifat area, arresting her for drug trafficking and distribution.
In a statement, the ISF reported that information was received about unknown individuals storing drugs in an apartment in the Sahara Choueifat area and distributing them to dealers. “As part of their ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking in various Lebanese regions, specialized units began field and intelligence procedures to identify and arrest the involved individuals,” the statement added.
Following investigations and inquiries, the Information Division identified the apartment used for drug storage and the identities of those involved, including N.R., born in 1990, of Syrian nationality.
On 11-06-2024, after precise surveillance and monitoring, one of the division’s patrols raided the apartment in the Sahara Choueifat area and arrested N.R. inside. Upon searching her and the apartment, the following items were seized:
– 6 bags containing marijuana, weighing approximately 145 grams
– 6 envelopes containing hashish, weighing approximately 135 grams
– 15 plastic containers enclosing a white substance, each weighing approximately 3.5 grams
– 11 envelopes labeled “buzz extra,” each weighing approximately 2.7 grams
– 31 envelopes labeled “net extra 0.5,” each weighing approximately 2.9 grams
– 14 envelopes labeled “gram Ajnabi 0.5,” each weighing approximately 2.6 grams
– 21 envelopes labeled “1 g net al-haj,” each weighing approximately 3.5 grams
– An amount of cash and mobile phones
During interrogation, N.R. confessed to storing the drugs in the apartment with her husband, who is currently at large, and distributing them to dealers, according to the statement. Legal action was taken against her, and she, along with the seized items, was handed over to the competent authority based on the judiciary’s indication. Efforts are ongoing to arrest the second involved individual.

Why Does Amos Hochstein Seek to Achieve a Ceasefire Before August 8?
This Is Beirut/6 July 2024  
During his last visit to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein asked Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to relay a message to Hezbollah, urging the party to convince Hamas to accept President Joe Biden’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hochstein also requested caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to intervene and persuade Hezbollah to convince Hamas of the ceasefire. The US envoy aims to achieve a ceasefire before August 8, the date when the Democratic and Republican candidates for the US presidency are confirmed. This would provide momentum for Biden’s campaign and secure support for him. If Biden is unsuccessful in his reelection bid and is not back in the White House, Hochstein’s mission will likely end without achieving its purpose, unless Donald Trump (former US president and current candidate), if elected, decides to retain him and support his efforts, which US well-informed sources deem unlikely.

Deriane: Continued Disputes Threaten to Provoke the Nation’s Collapse.
This Is Beirut/6 July 2024  
On the occasion of the New Hijri Year, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdellatif Deriane stated on Saturday, “We are living in difficult times, marked by severe distress and hardship, notably the failure to elect a new president for the republic after two years of vacancy.”
He urged political forces and concerned parties to “engage in dialogue, make mutual concessions for the country’s benefit, and revive the state and its institutions.” He warned that failure to do so would “cost the nation and its citizens dearly in terms of security, politics, economy, society, and morality.” He placed this responsibility on those obstructing the presidential election, holding them accountable before God and the Lebanese people. The Grand Mufti thanked Arab countries and friendly nations for their support, emphasizing that Lebanese leaders and political forces should keep up with these efforts. He cautioned that continued disputes and rigid positions threaten to provoke the nation’s collapse. Deriane warned against those undermining national and social security by spreading lies to ignite discord among Lebanese people. He noted that Lebanon’s problems are greater now than during the 2006 war, ”with less solidarity”. “However, there is still sympathy for Lebanon, evidenced by Arab and international visits. This reality calls for internal solidarity in action: solidarity to end the war, to elect a president, and to stop the consequences of division that we see in public opinion,” he added. Deriane condemned Israel’s actions in southern Lebanon and other regions as war crimes against all Lebanese people and institutions. He praised the resilience of the Lebanese people against daily aggression and violations of Resolution 1701, which proved the miscalculations of Israel regarding national cohesion. He concluded, “National unity was and will remain the fundamental basis for resisting occupation and Israel’s aggression.”

Jamaa Islamiya chief meets Haniyeh in Doha
Associated Press/6 July 2024 
Hamas has said in a statement that its Doha-based top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has received Mohammed Takkoush, the head of Lebanon's al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, a Sunni Muslim political and armed group in Lebanon that has been fighting against Israeli forces alongside Hezbollah. The two Lebanese groups have been part of a “support front” that has maintained low-level clashes with Israeli forces with the aim of pulling them away from Gaza to ease the pressure on Hamas. In recent weeks, however, there have been increasing fears of a full-blown war on the Lebanon-Israel front. Hamas officials had also met Friday in Lebanon with Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as Israel and Hamas apparently return to the negotiating table for a cease-fire in Gaza. Hezbollah said in a statement that Nasrallah had met with a delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the Palestinian militants in negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage exchange. It said they had discussed “the latest developments in the negotiations” and “security and political developments” in Gaza and the region.

Trapped, Starved, and Abused: The Uncertain Fate of Lebanon’s Zoo Animals
Vanessa Kallas/Arab News/6 July 2024 
As a child, you probably visited a zoo with your family or school. You remember looking at photos of beautiful wild animals, but the idea of seeing them up close piques your interest. With a pounding heart, you walk through the gate for your first closeup encounter with these majestic animals. However, your heart sinks with disappointment at what unfolds. The monkeys are hanging from metal bars instead of swinging on trees. Lions are pacing their tiny cages, a far cry from their natural habitat in the savannah. You wonder why the bear pulls at its cage, eyeing the cereal in your hands with a look of despair, begging you to send some its way. The animals looked lifeless like taxidermy mounts hung on the walls of a proud hunter.
Wild animals in Lebanese zoos endure difficult conditions – they are trapped, starved, and abused. The economic crisis plaguing the country, compounded by the deteriorating security situation, relegates the fate of these animals to the bottom of the government’s concerns. Fortunately, animal protection NGOs have intervened to save these animals. Founded in 2008, Animals Lebanon has successfully closed down four crumbling zoos. It has also rescued and rehomed over a hundred animals from those zoos, relocating many endangered species to sanctuaries worldwide.
A Rescue Success Story
In March 2024, Animals Lebanon confiscated Pi, a 2-month-old lion cub, exploited by a man to promote his TikTok account. The account owner told This is Beirut of his dream “to buy a piece of land and open a zoo.” Pi has since been relocated to the Drakenstein Lion Park in South Africa. Two months later, the NGO took in Freya, another lion cub. The owner put her in their trust to send her to a sanctuary. Freya joined Pi in the sanctuary on June 26. Being brought up in captivity, the two cannot return to the wild. While Freya and Pi have a chance at a new life, the same cannot be said about the hundreds of animals still trapped in Lebanese zoos.
Frail and traumatized Pi and Freya have been sent to the Drakenstein Lion Park in South Africa.
Graphic: Vanessa Kallas
Why Do Zoos Exist?
According to National Geographic, “The wealthy created the first zoos as private collections to showcase their power. These private collections were called menageries. Wall carvings found in Egypt and Mesopotamia prove that rulers and aristocrats created menageries as early as 2500 BCE.”
It was only until the 18th century that modern zoos were created, indicating a growing interest in animal welfare.
Samara El-Haddad is a zoologist and team member at Lebanese Wildlife, an NGO dedicated to protecting species threatened by habitat loss and lack of conservation efforts. She believes zoos are only ethical when they:
1. Implement effective conservation programs for endangered species.
2. Develop educational strategies to engage the public in conservation efforts.
3. Conduct scientific research to improve animal conservation in their natural habitats.
Lebanese zoos, however, still keep animals as a sign of wealth, status, and curiosity.
Lebanese Zoos are Unethical and Illegal
In Lebanon, five privately owned zoos are currently open to the public.
Aside from being unethical, most zoos do not abide by international and local standards.
On May 4, 2017, the Lebanese cabinet approved the Animal Welfare and Protection Law, drafted by Animals Lebanon, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.
The purpose of the law is “to ensure the protection and welfare of animals and regulate establishments that handle or use such animals, in compliance with the related international conventions and regulations.”
Chapter VII of the law is devoted to zoo regulations: operations, animals, and owner obligations (Articles 20, 21, and 22 respectively).
Chief breaches of the law are that zoos illegally acquire animals and don’t ensure a suitable environment allowing them to go about their natural behaviors.
Animals such as big cats and bears are kept in tiny cages of 10 by 10 square meters.
According to the World Association for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the primary outdoor enclosure for a lion should be at least 93 square meters, with an extra 46.5 square meters for each additional lion. “The animal enclosures are too small. If there are tensions within a group of monkeys, they can’t get a meter away from each other. They also can’t hide from people if they want to. A good enclosure should imitate an animal’s natural habitat,” Jason Mier, Director of Animals Lebanon, told This is Beirut. Enclosures are also barren and lack enrichment, encouraging animals to exhibit stereotypic behaviors. “These behaviors in animals come from stress,” says Mier, “they will bite their tail or cage, pace back and forth in their enclosures, or even nip their skin or fur.” Birds, on the other hand, are often completely stripped of their natural behaviors, with many of them having their wings broken or legs amputated. “Most zoos in Lebanon would rather traffic new animals instead of caring for the ones they currently have,” he added.

Amid International Calls for Peace, Lebanon’s Christians Gird for Potential Israeli Invasion
Toni Nissi: Rmaych Residents are against the war and they are sending a message of peace everywhere by the activities they are doing inside their town
Joe Bukuras/National Catholic Register/July 5, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/131411/131411/
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Béchara Raï stated in a recent homily that the Lebanese faithful feel that their government has abandoned them.
Governments across the world are warning their citizens to evacuate Lebanon immediately in anticipation for what could be a major armed conflict on the country’s shared border with Israel.  Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim terrorist group, have been trading missile strikes along the border since last October, following the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.  More than 400 Lebanese have died from the conflict, and approximately 100,000 civilians have been displaced on both the Lebanese and Israeli sides. Hundreds of homes on both sides been damaged. St. George Catholic Church in Yaroun, Lebanon, was reportedly hit by a missile last November and took on severe damage.
The Israeli military said June 18 that plans for an “attack” on Lebanon were approved and that “decisions were made to continue accelerating the readiness of the forces in the field.” On June 21, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for peace, stressing, “The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.” “One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination,” he said.
At the conclusion of the Synod of Maronite Bishops in Lebanon on June 15, the prelates strongly condemned “what the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and southern Lebanon have been exposed to for more than eight months, in terms of killing, destruction and abuse affecting civilians, children and women before anyone else.”
The Eastern Catholic Maronites are the largest Christian denomination in Lebanon. 
The bishops called on “people of conscience in the world” to push for a “final cease-fire” so that a two-state solution may be instituted based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 181. That resolution also calls for Jerusalem to be overseen by a “Special International Regime” administered by the United Nations. 
‘Destruction for Lebanon’ The last time Israel invaded Lebanon was in 2006, during a 34-day military conflict that was set off by the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. According to the website “How Does Law Protect in War?,” more than 1,000 Lebanese died and thousands more injured in that conflict. Almost 1 million fled from their homes, tens of thousands of which were destroyed, and many who died were children. On the Israeli side, 43 civilians were killed, almost 1,000 injured, 300,000 were displaced, and 6,000 homes were affected, according to the international law organization. Israel and certain forces within Lebanon, acting independently of the state, have long been at odds, which has led to several violent conflicts, including a 22-year Israeli occupation of Lebanon from 1978 to 2000. However, the conflict has never been with a nominally Christian group inside Lebanon. Christians in the country don’t want another war, according to Charbel Bou Maroun, president of the Lebanese think tank Mechriq Center for Research and Studies, which works closely with the Catholic Church.
“War will mean destruction for Lebanon,” Bou Maroun told the Register June 28. 
The polling organization Statistics Lebanon reports that 70% of the country is Muslim and 30% Christian, reflecting statistics from the U.S. State Department. Maronites make up about half of all Christians, and Greek Orthodox make up 25%, while several other Catholic rites and Protestant denominations make up the rest, according to the polling group. The country’s constitution says that the president must be Maronite, the prime minister must be Sunni Muslim, and the National Assembly president must be a Shiite Muslim. The nation has been unable to elect a president since late 2022, adding to the country’s turmoil.
Bou Maroun, 38, of Beirut, called Lebanon’s current situation a “failed state,” citing the dire financial crisis, which would only be exacerbated by a war. The country has been in an economic disaster since 2019, with the inflation rate more than 200% and many citizens losing all their savings and being turned away by the local banks.  The World Bank called the financial collapse “the most devastating, multi-pronged crisis in its modern history.” That collapse was only worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic Beirut explosion that devastated the city and killed more than 200 people in 2020.  Nongovernmental organizations and charitable groups have been helping to keep the country afloat, while its government is in disarray. Many families are relying on relatives outside the country to send money in order to meet their needs. “The situation in Lebanon is becoming worse and worse. So any war will cause us more damage. It will cause us more troubles,” he said. “Christians are against the war. They don’t want war. Hezbollah imposed the war. We didn’t want it.”
Bishops Want Peace
In January, the country’s Maronite bishops called on the international community to help implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which calls for peace between Israel and Lebanon and certain “security arrangements” to avoid the resumption of fighting. Part of the resolution’s security arrangements include a demilitarized area between the two countries, with an exception for official forces of the Lebanese government and the United Nations. The resolution also reiterates calls for all Lebanese militias, including Hezbollah, to disarm, as outlined in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.
Hezbollah remains armed, and it has said that it will not stop attacking Israel until Israel agrees to a cease-fire in Gaza. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reported in December that about 90% of those living in southern Lebanon’s Christian villages fled their homes amid the rocket strikes between Israel and Hezbollah. However, in the 10 Maronite Catholic parishes near the Israeli border, 70% of parishioners who left have returned, citing a shortage of funds and an inability to be accommodated by family in the north, ACN reported in June. Toni Nissi, president of the committee for the U.N. Security Council resolutions for Lebanon, told the Register June 28 that he has a second home in the Maronite border village of Rmaych, where much of his family lives, and added, “The quality of life is very bad.” “We don’t have people who have been killed yet,” he said, citing no casualties in Rmaych currently, adding, “But it doesn’t mean that we are not in the middle of the war. We are in the middle of the war.”
Nissi, who has been lobbying government agencies to support Rmaych, has spent most of his time in his main residence in Beirut, but said that explosions are constantly heard by the residents in Rmaych. Last year, Hezbollah attempted to build infrastructure inside Rmaych, but was forced out by the people in the village, Nissi said, which was close to being a “bloody engagement.” Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah has used the outskirts of Rmaych to fire at Israel, but Israel has not responded, he said. In December, Xavier Stephen Bisits from Aid to the Church in Need said that “all priests and religious” have stayed in the border villages amid the conflict to minister to the people. He added that the Maronite Archeparch Charbel Abdallah of Tyre came to celebrate Mass in Rmaych “under the threat of bombs.”  Nissi said, as of July, priests and religious still remain in their villages serving the people. And for the churches in Rmaych, its business as usual, with the local St. George Maronite Church still offering daily Mass. Sunday liturgies are offered four times each week between the church and the village cathedral, the Church of Transfiguration, he said. “Rmaych is saying publicly that they are against the war, they don’t want the war, and they are sending a message of peace everywhere by the activities they are doing inside the village,” Nissi said.
Cardinal Raï: ‘It Must Be Stopped’
Earlier this year, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Béchara Raï expressed frustration in a homily with the situation in southern Lebanon. “The people of the border villages in the south express to us their pain at the state’s abandonment of them and of its duties and responsibilities towards them,” Cardinal Raï said Jan. 28, according to The Jerusalem Post. “They, both old and young, are living through the brunt of the war imposed on them and rejected by them, as they consider that Lebanon and the Lebanese have nothing to do with it,” he said. “[Southern residents] add, ‘Allow me to say it loud and clear — not as an abandonment of national or Arab issues, but rather out of my honesty with myself — I refuse to make myself and my family members hostages, human shields and sacrificial lambs for failed Lebanese policies, and for the culture of death that has brought nothing but imaginary victories and shameful defeats to our country.’” The outlet also reported that Cardinal Raï spoke against the possible expansion of the Israel Gaza war into Lebanon in December. “It must be stopped, and the Lebanese people, their homes and their livelihoods must be protected, as they have not yet emerged from the disastrous results of the Lebanese war,” he said. “We demand the removal of any rocket launcher planted between homes in southern towns that would require a devastating Israeli response.”
**Joe Bukuras Joseph Bukuras is a freelance writer and law student. He is a former journalist for Catholic News Agency.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/christians-in-lebanon-israeli-invasion

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 06-07/2024
Hamas accepts US proposal on talks over Israeli hostages 16 days after first phase, Hamas source says
REUTERS/July 06, 2024
CAIRO: Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.
The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday his office said talks would continue next week and emphasized that gaps between the sides still remained. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since Hamas attacked southern Israeli cities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to official Israeli figures. The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said. Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha, where the exiled Hamas leadership is based. A regional source said the US administration was trying hard to secure a deal before the presidential election in November. Netanyahu said on Friday that the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had returned from an initial meeting with mediators in Qatar and that negotiations would continue next week.
Fighting rages
Meanwhile, Israeli forces stepped up military strikes across the enclave, killing at least 29 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, and wounding 100 others, the territory’s health officials said. Among those killed in separate air strikes were five local journalists, raising the death toll of journalists since Oct 7 to 158, according to the Hamas-led Gaza government media office. Israeli forces, which have deepened their incursions into Rafah, near the border with Egypt, killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others, in an air strike on their vehicle on Saturday, health officials said. A statement issued by the Hamas-run interior ministry said the four included Fares Abdel-Al, the head of the police force in western Rafah neighborhood of Tel Al-Sultan. The Israeli military said forces continued “intelligence-base operations” in Rafah, destroyed several underground structures, seized weapons and equipment, and killed several Palestinian gunmen. Israel said its operations in Rafah aimed to eradicate the last Hamas armed wing battalions. In the central Al-Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps, an Israeli air strike on a house killed 10 Palestinians, medics said. The Israeli military said it eliminated a Hamas rocket cell that operated from inside a humanitarian-designated area. It said it carried out a precise strike after taking measures to ensure civilians were unharmed. Hamas denies Israeli accusations it uses civilian properties for military purposes. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas of the enclave by anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.

Israel says negotiators to hold fresh Gaza truce talks next week
Agence France Presse/July 6, 2024
Israel said that "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week. The statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman came after a delegation led by the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha on Friday. "It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties," the spokesman said in a statement. There has been no truce in the nine-month-old war in Gaza since a one-week pause in November saw 80 Israeli hostages freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The United States, which has worked alongside Qatar and Egypt in trying to broker a deal, had talked up the significance of Netanyahu's decision to send a delegation to Qatar. The United States believes Israel and Hamas have a "pretty significant opening" to reach an agreement, a senior official said. The Gaza war -- which has raised fears of a broader conflagration involving Lebanon -- began with Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants also seized captives, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 Israel's military says are dead. In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
'Ball in Israel's court' -
U.S. President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel. It included an initial six-week truce, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza population centers and the freeing of hostages by Palestinian militants. Talks subsequently stalled but the U.S. official said on Thursday that the new proposal from Hamas "moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal", though "significant work" remained. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that new ideas from the group had been "conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court."Hamdan blamed Israel for the deadlock since Biden's announcement and said the Doha talks "will be a test for the US administration to see if it is willing to pressure the Zionist entity to accept these proposed ideas."The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza's population, destroyed much of the territory's housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring "catastrophic" hunger, U.N. agencies say. The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas' demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject. The Israeli premier will probably meet Biden during a scheduled visit to Washington to address Congress on July 24, the White House said. Netanyahu has faced a well-organized protest movement in Israel demanding a deal to free the hostages, which took to the streets again on Thursday evening. The veteran hawk demands the release of the hostages but also insists the war will not end until Israel has destroyed Hamas's ability to make war or govern. The head of the World Health Organization warned that "further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel". Only 90,000 liters (20,000 gallons) of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday, but the health sector alone needs 80,000 liters each day. The WHO and its partners in Gaza were having "to make impossible choices" as a result, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Hamas-Hezbollah talks
U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope that a ceasefire in Gaza could lead to an easing of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border as well. Since the war began, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of its Palestinian ally.The exchanges have intensified over the past month after Israel killed senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted air strikes. Hamas said Friday that its foreign relations chief Khalil al-Hayya had met Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to coordinate their "resistance efforts" and the upcoming truce negotiations.

UK seeks balanced position on Israel and Gaza, says new foreign minister Lammy
Andreas Rinke/BERLIN (Reuters)/July 6, 2024
Britain wants a balanced position on the war in the Middle East and will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a ceasefire is reached and hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas are released, its new foreign minister David Lammy told Reuters. Lammy is on a visit to Germany, his first international trip following the Labour Party's thumping victory in Britain's election on Friday, which ended 14 years of Conservative government and propelled Keir Starmer to power as prime minister. "The time has come for the United Kingdom to reconnect with the outside world," Lammy said in an interview in Berlin. "I want to get back to a balanced position on Israel and Gaza. We've been very clear that we want to see a ceasefire ... We want to see those hostages out." He added: "The fighting has to stop, the aid has got to get in, and I will use all diplomatic efforts to ensure that we get to that ceasefire."Lammy did not elaborate. The Labour Party suffered significant election setbacks in areas with large Muslim populations in the election on Friday amid discontent over its position on the war in Gaza, despite a landslide victory in the parliamentary vote. Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza gathered momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal, and Israel said negotiations would continue into next week. Gaza health authorities say more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive launched in response to a Hamas-led assault on Israel last Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Lammy also said Britain would seek to reset its position globally on issues including the climate crisis as well as key relationships, such as with European and emerging powers. "Let us put the Brexit years behind us ... there's much that we can do together," Lammy said, pointing to a previously floated idea of a UK-EU security pact. Lammy will on Sunday travel to Poland and Sweden, where he will focus discussions on areas including cooperation on NATO and the war in Ukraine, Britain's foreign office said.

Israeli strikes kill 16 at school housing displaced Gazans, health officials say
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ramadan Abed/CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters)/July 6, 2024
At least 16 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza on Saturday, the territory's health ministry and the official Palestinian news agency said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. The health ministry said the attack on the school killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 50. Mahmoud Basal, spokesman of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service, said the number of dead could rise because many of the wounded were in critical condition. The attack on the school meant no place in the enclave was safe for families who leave their houses to seek shelters, he said in a statement. Al-Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, was the site of stepped-up Israeli bombardment on Saturday. An air strike earlier on a house in the camp killed at least 10 people and wounded many others, according to medics. In its daily update of people killed in the nearly nine-month-old war, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 29 Palestinians in the past 24 hours and wounded 100 others. Among those killed in separate air strikes were five local journalists, raising the toll of journalists killed since Oct. 7 to 158, according to the Hamas-led Gaza government media office. Gaza health authorities say more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive. Israel launched its operation, aimed at eliminating the militant Islamist group Hamas, in response to a Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
RAFAH OPERATIONS
Israeli forces, which have deepened their incursions into Rafah, in the south of the enclave near the border with Egypt, killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others, in an air strike on their vehicle on Saturday, health officials said. A statement issued by the Hamas-run interior ministry said the four included Fares Abdel-Al, the head of the police force in western Rafah neighbourhood of Tel Al-Sultan. The Israeli military said forces continued "intelligence-base operations" in Rafah, destroyed several underground structures, seized weapons and equipment, and killed several Palestinian gunmen. Israel has said its operations in Rafah aim to eradicate the last Hamas armed wing battalions. The Israeli military said it eliminated a Hamas rocket cell in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza that operated from inside a humanitarian-designated area. It said it carried out a precise strike after taking measures to ensure civilians were unharmed. Hamas denies Israeli accusations that it uses civilian properties and facilities for military purposes. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas of Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.

Gaza soccer stadium is now a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians
The Canadian Press/GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)/ July 6, 2024
Thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have sought refuge in one of the territory’s largest soccer arenas, where families now scrape by with little food or water as they try to keep one step ahead of Israel's latest offensive. Their makeshift tents hug the shade below the stadium's seating, with clothes hanging in the July sun across the dusty, dried-up soccer field. Under the covered benches where players used to sit, Um Bashar bathes a toddler standing in a plastic tub. Lathering soap through the boy's hair, he wiggles and shivers as she pours the chilly water over his head, and he grips the plastic seats for balance. They’ve been displaced multiple times, she said, most recently from Israel’s renewed operations against Hamas in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City. “We woke up and found tanks in front of the door,” she says. “We didn't take anything with us, not a mattress, not a pillow, not any clothes, not a thing. Not even food.”She fled with a group of 70 other people to Yarmouk Sports Stadium — a little under 2 miles (3 kilometers) northwest of Shijaiyah, which was heavily bombed and largely emptied early in the war. Many of the people who ended up in the stadium say they have nothing to return to. “We left our homes,” said one man, Hazem Abu Thoraya, “and all of our homes were bombed and burned, and all those around us were as well.”Hundreds of thousands of people have remained in northern Gaza, even as Israeli troops have surrounded and largely isolated it. However, aid flows there have improved recently, and the U.N. said earlier this week that it is now able to meet people's basic needs in the north. Israel says it allows aid to enter Gaza and blames the U.N. for not doing enough to move it. Still, residents say the deprivation and insecurity are taking an ever-growing toll. “There is no safe place. Safety is with God,” said a displaced woman, Um Ahmad. “Fear is now felt not only among the children, but also among the adults. ... We don't even feel safe walking in the street.”

Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran’s presidential runoff election, beats hard-liner Jalili
AP/July 06, 2024
DUBAI: Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, beating hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic. Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian’s modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels. A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in Friday’s election. Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator. But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming US election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk. The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country’s Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran’s economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent. Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country. However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets. The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country’s foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West. The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions. More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation. The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader. Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who rose to power in parliament, now Iran's president-elect
Jon Gambrell And Amir Vahdat/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/July 6/2024
After the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian wrote that it was “unacceptable in the Islamic Republic to arrest a girl for her hijab and then hand over her dead body to her family.”Days later, as nationwide protests and a bloody crackdown on all dissent took hold, he warned that those “insulting the supreme leader … will create nothing except long-lasting anger and hatred in the society."The stances by Pezeshkian, now Iran's 69-year-old president-elect, highlight the dualities of being a reformist politician within Iran's Shiite theocracy — always pushing for change but never radically challenging the system overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After Iran's June 28 presidential election saw the lowest turnout in history, Pezeshkian won 16.3 million votes against hard-liner Saeed Jalili 's 13.5 million votes to clinch Friday's runoff election. Pezeshkian now must convince a public angered by years of economic pain and bloody crackdowns that he can make the changes he promised. “We are losing our backing in the society, because of our behavior, high prices, our treatment of girls and because we censor the internet," Pezeshkian said at a televised debate Monday night. “People are discontent with us because of our behavior.”Pezeshkian has aligned himself with other moderate and reformist figures during his campaign to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protégé of Khamenei killed in a helicopter crash in May. His main advocate has been former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who reached Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that saw sanctions lifted in exchange for the atomic program being drastically curtailed. Iranian rushed into the streets in a carnival-like expression of hope that the deal would finally see their country enter the international community. But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, setting in motion a series of attacks across the wider Middle East. Iran now enriches uranium to near-weapons-grade levels while having a large enough stockpile to build several bombs if it chose.
That, coupled with the bloody crackdown on dissent that followed nationwide protests over Amini's death and the mandatory hijab, have fueled voters' disenchantment. Pezeshkian has offered comments suggesting he wants better relations with the West, a return to the atomic accord and less enforcement of the hijab law.Pezeshkian was born Sept. 29, 1954, in Mahabad in northwestern Iran to an Azeri father and a Kurdish mother. He speaks Azeri and has long focused on the affairs of Iran's vast minority ethnic groups. Like many, he served in the Iran-Iraq war, sending medical teams to the battlefront. He became a heart surgeon and served as the head of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. However, personal tragedy shaped his life after a 1994 car crash killed his wife, Fatemeh Majidi, and a daughter. The doctor never remarried and raised his remaining two sons and a daughter alone.
Pezeshkian entered politics first as the country's deputy health minister and later as the health minister under the administration of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Almost immediately, he found himself involved in the struggle between hard-liners and reformists, attending the autopsy of Zahra Kazemi, a freelance photographer who held both Canadian and Iranian citizenship. She was detained while taking pictures at a protest at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, was tortured and died in custody.In 2006, Pezeshkian was elected as a lawmaker representing Tabriz. He later served as a deputy parliament speaker and backed reformist and moderate causes, though analysts often described him more as an “independent” than allied with the voting blocs. That independent label also has been embraced by Pezeshkian in the campaign.Yet Pezeshkian at the same time honored Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, on one occasion wearing its uniform to parliament. He repeatedly criticized the United States and praised the Guard for shooting down an American drone in 2019, saying it "delivered a strong punch in the mouth of the Americans and proved to them that our country will not surrender.”In 2011, Pezeshkian registered to run for president, but withdrew his candidacy. In 2021, he found himself and other prominent candidates barred from running by authorities, allowing an easy win for Raisi.
In this campaign, Pezeshkian's advocates have sought to contrast him against the “Taliban” policies of Jalili. His campaign slogan is “For Iran,” a possible play on the popular song by the Grammy Awarding-winning Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour called “Baraye,” or “For” in English. Hajipour has been sentenced to more than three years in prison over his anthem for the Amini protests. Yet Pezeshkian acknowledged the challenge ahead of him, particularly after the low turnout of the first round of voting. “With all the noisy arguments between me and him, only 40% (of eligible voters) voted," Pezeshkian said during his final televised debate with Jalili on Tuesday. "Sixty percent don’t accept us. So people have issues with us.”

France Prepares for Fiercely Contested Second Round of Elections on July 7
LBCI//July 6/2024
The reordering of affairs between Macron and the left has ended, the election silence has begun, and France is set for a fiercely contested second round of elections on Sunday, July 7. The heat of the July summer is matched by the heated battle between the far-right National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen, which topped the results of the first round of elections, and the left-wing parties under the New Popular Union alliance, along with the center-right party led by Macron. The latest opinion polls before the election silence suggested that France might be left without a clear majority, with the far-right National Rally party expected to struggle to achieve an absolute majority. It is projected to win between 210 and 240 seats in parliament, while the absolute majority requires 289 seats. The polls also predicted that the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Union, would win between 170 and 200 seats, while Macron's centrist party would secure between 95 and 125 seats. Amid the ongoing political tussle, what are the potential scenarios if no party secures an absolute majority? Winning parties might resort to forming alliances to create a majority bloc. For example, Macron's party might seek alliances with other moderate or leftist parties, excluding the hard-left France Unbowed party. If coalition talks fail, the largest party or alliance might attempt to govern as a minority government. However, this scenario is challenging as the government would need to negotiate support for each piece of legislation individually, leading to a legislative gridlock. The failure to form a stable government could result in political deadlock, stalling important legislation and hindering effective governance, which might necessitate further negotiations or changes in party alliances to break the impasse.

France holds its breath ahead of uncertain vote
Agence France Presse/July 6/2024
France's tense election campaign was on hold Saturday on the eve of the final vote, but thoughts were turning to an uncertain future before polling even opens. The traditional final day pause ahead of Sunday's second round runoff will do nothing to soothe fears of stalemate and stagnation in France, a world power and pillar of the EU. Final opinion polls Friday suggested that far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) would fall short of winning an outright majority in the National Assembly. But President Emmanuel Macron's gamble in calling snap elections to force a choice between his centrist path and the extremes of left and right has not paid off. He now faces the final three years of his presidency with no clear ruling majority, and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal perhaps trying to hold together a caretaker government. According to pollsters Ipsos and Ifop, anti-immigrant, euroskeptic RN could secure 170 to 210 seats in the National Assembly -- well short of 289, an absolute majority.The Ipsos Talan poll for Le Monde, Radio France and France Televisions has the RN coming in just ahead of left-wing alliance the New Popular Front, on between 145 and 175 seats.
Outright win?
Both the far-right and left-wing groups come in well ahead of an estimated 118 to 148 for Macron's centrist allies, who held 250 seats in the outgoing parliament. French voters could therefore go to bed on Sunday night with no idea who might be able to form and lead a government, or whether a weakened Attal will shoulder on. Le Pen insists that she is still on course for victory and an absolute majority that would force Macron to appoint her 28-year-old lieutenant Jordan Bardella prime minister. "Either the RN wins an absolute majority and I can, from Sunday, embark on my project to rebuild ... or the country is blocked," Bardella warned on Thursday. Attal, for his part, has vowed to stay on "as long as necessary" in a caretaker role, while Macron's office is studying options to maintain some form of government. Macron is to remain in office until presidential and legislative elections in April 2027, but he must now face the possibility of sharing power with political foes. The prospect of France forming its first far-right government since World War II has dismayed its European allies, already perplexed by Macron's wild gamble on a snap poll. And even if the RN falls short, as polling firms now predict, France will be heading into unknown political waters as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games. In an effort to halt the far-right rise seen in the first round of voting on June 30, centrists and left-wing parties have formed second round polling pacts. Le Pen has denounced the move as a bid to steal victory "against the will of the people" by creating what she calls a "single party" to protect the political class. But it is far from certain how many voters who saw their preferred candidates drop out to give another a clear run against the RN will bother to turn out on Sunday. Fears of violence Janine Mossuz-Lavau, emeritus director at the Cevipof institute, told AFP: "With the withdrawals, the person for whom voters were intending to vote has fallen by the wayside. "Some are going to say to themselves: 'No, in these conditions, it's not possible'."With so much of the outcome uncertain, tensions are rising. More than 50 candidates and campaign activists have been physically assaulted during the four-week campaign, the shortest in modern French history. About 30,000 police will be deployed this weekend to head off trouble. French stocks held steady Friday with investors expecting the far right to fail to win an absolute majority. But analysts predict a turbulence if the RN tries to implement its costly economic program, which includes reversing Macron's hard-won pension reforms.

Arabs Resume Flights Over Syria After 12-Year Hiatus: A New Beginning for Regional Relations
LBCI//July 6/2024
After a 12-year hiatus, the Arabs are returning to the skies over Syria. The Arab Civil Aviation Organization announced the resumption of flights over Syrian airspace, signaling a new beginning for Syria's relations with neighboring countries and the Arab world.
The suspension of flights over Syrian airspace dates back to 2012, following the escalation of the Syrian crisis and the outbreak of the war, which led to deterioration in the security situation in the country. This prompted many airlines to avoid Syrian airspace to ensure flight safety. This return carries significant positive implications for aviation in the Arab region. Using Syrian airspace will help reduce flight times and fuel costs, enhancing the efficiency of air operations and benefiting both passengers and airlines. According to analysts, this decision came as an Arab reward for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after his country was neutral in the Gaza war. The decision comes amid a new Arab openness to Syria after years of isolation, something Damascus has been seeking and has now achieved. Many Arab countries have reopened their embassies in Damascus and resumed flights to and from Syria. Syria's return to membership in the Arab League in May 2023 was a decisive step towards reintegrating it into the Arab regional system, as several Arab countries strive to achieve stability in the region and end the Syrian crisis through political dialogue. The resumption of flights is a crucial first step toward rebuilding economic and trade relations with Syria, opening new horizons for cooperation in the region.

Egypt, Syrian leaders discuss Gaza developments during call
ARAB NEWS/July 06, 2024
LONDON: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday received a phone call from Syrian President Bashar Assad, during which the two leaders discussed the latest regional developments. They “exchanged views on the dangers of escalation in the region, and emphasized the vital necessity to prevent the widening of the conflict zone and to preserve regional security and stability,” Ahmed Fahmy, the Egyptian presidential spokesman, said in a statement. The two leaders stressed their rejection of attempts “to liquidate the Palestinian issue or displace” the Palestinian people. El-Sisi said that his country will continue to push for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and ensure the sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid to meet the needs of the Palestinians, while “pursuing its efforts toward reinforcing the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Fahmy added.

Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 06-07/2024
Imagine Hitler with Nuclear Bombs; Now Imagine Iran's Mullahs with Nuclear Bombs
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./July 6, 2024
The Iranian regime is rapidly pursuing acquiring nuclear weapons. This breakout must be prevented.
Iran is already supplying terror groups -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis -- with ballistic missiles. Presumably to hide behind "plausible deniability," Iran's regime does not seem particularly shy about arming these militias abroad with advanced weaponry. Why wouldn't it equip these groups with nuclear weapons as well?
Iran's regime has made no secret of its desire to annihilate Israel ("Death to Israel!") on the way to annihilating the United States ("Death to America!"). The mullahs doubtless just see Israel as standing in the way.
From Iran's perspective, Israel, smaller than New Jersey, is, as former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani indicated, a "one-bomb" country: "[T]he employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but [such a bomb] would only do damage to the Islamic World."
Consider the scenario where not just Iran's proxies, but other allies of Iran -- such as Venezuela or Cuba -- are equipped with nuclear weapons.
Does anyone imagine if Hamas had possessed nuclear weapons when they sent a "huge barrage of rockets" and bulldozed their way into Israel on October 7, 2023, that they would have hesitated to use them?
The proliferation of nuclear weapons poses an existential threat not only to Israel but, of course, creates a broader, more unpredictable global security crisis.
Immediate action is needed to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons... It is an intervention that should have been undertaken many years ago, but was unfortunately thwarted by the Obama administration. Any further delay can only lead to catastrophic consequences for international stability.
The Iranian regime is rapidly pursuing acquiring nuclear weapons. This breakout must be prevented. Iran is already supplying terror groups with ballistic missiles. Why wouldn't it equip these groups with nuclear weapons as well?
The Iranian regime is rapidly pursuing acquiring nuclear weapons. This breakout must be prevented. Iran's regime poses a danger at least as dangerous as Hitler's if he had possessed them. Given the Iranian leadership's ideological extremism, combined with its strategic ambitions and regional influence, the potential for regional and global instability that could result cannot be overstated. Allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons will simply increase the risk of a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race and devastating global conflicts.
Unlike Hitler's regime, which was state-centric, the Iranian regime prefers extensive influence over non-state actors and militant groups. Iran has established and maintained militia and terror groups across the region and beyond, to significantly expand its reach. Its network of proxies and allies will, in all likelihood, use these nuclear capabilities in asymmetric warfare on Iran's behalf. Presumably to hide behind "plausible deniability," Iran's regime does not seem particularly shy about arming these militias abroad with advanced weaponry.
Iran is already supplying terror groups -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis -- with ballistic missiles. Why wouldn't it equip these groups with nuclear weapons as well?
Iran's regime has made no secret of its desire to annihilate Israel ("Death to Israel!") on the way to annihilating the United States ("Death to America!"). The mullahs doubtless just see Israel as standing in the way.
From Iran's perspective, Israel, smaller than New Jersey, is, as former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani indicated, a "one-bomb" country:
"[T]he employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but [such a bomb] would only do damage to the Islamic World."
Consider the scenario where not just Iran's proxies, but other allies of Iran -- such as Venezuela or Cuba -- are equipped with nuclear weapons.
Does anyone imagine if Hamas had possessed nuclear weapons when they sent a "huge barrage of rockets" and bulldozed their way into Israel on October 7, 2023, that they would have hesitated to use them?
The proliferation of nuclear weapons poses an existential threat not only to Israel but, of course, creates a broader, more unpredictable global security crisis.
Moreover, unlike Hitler, the Iranian regime possesses advanced ballistic missile technology, capable of reaching long-range targets with precision. On April 13, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. Iran's missiles might soon be equipped with nuclear warheads, enabling Iran to reach any country across the globe -- in Europe, Latin America or the United States.
The Iranian regime, fervently dedicated to exporting its Islamist revolution so that everyone might share in this gift, is committed to establishing a single Islamist community worldwide. "We shall export our revolution to the whole world," the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, stated. "Until the cry 'There is no god but Allah' resounds over the whole world, there will be a struggle;" and, "Establishing the Islamic State worldwide belongs to the great goals of the revolution."
Iran's constitution, outlining its dedication to perpetuating the revolution domestically and internationally, also enshrines this mission. It states:
"With due attention to the Islamic content of the Iranian Revolution, which has been a movement aimed at the triumph of all the mustad'affun over the mustakbirun, the Constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the Revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the Constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community..."
Immediate action is needed to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, even if it necessitates preemptive strikes on its nuclear facilities and research centers. It is an intervention that should have been undertaken many years ago, but was unfortunately thwarted by the Obama administration. Any further delay can only lead to catastrophic consequences for international stability.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20745/iran-hitler-nuclear-bombs

Israel is inching toward a wider war and a nasty fight against an enemy poised to bombard it as no other foe has
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/July 6, 2024
Israel now waging war on three battle fronts — Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and SyriaScroll back up to restore default view.
Israel and Hezbollah regularly trade fire, but the two are steadily exchanging escalatory remarks.
Hezbollah has greatly increased its fighting capacity over the last two decades.
The Iran-backed militants now maintain a huge arsenal of munitions that could threaten Israel.
The threat of a wider war is looming for Israel, as is the potential that its cities and strategic military targets could face a massive bombardment in ways the country hasn't yet seen.
Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group operating out of Lebanon, have regularly exchanged fire since Hamas — which also enjoys significant support from Tehran — staged its cross-border massacre on Oct. 7.
These tit-for-tat engagements have so far been relatively contained to the border regions, but tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated in recent weeks, raising fears that the two bitter foes may be headed for an unavoidable collision course.
United Nations officials have warned that such a fight would be catastrophic and lead to widespread death and destruction.
For Israel, a larger war with Hezbollah would look very different from the full-scale conflict it's fighting against Hamas in Gaza. The Lebanon-based militants are a much more dangerous force with a lot more weapons and combatants available to them.
In a fight with Hezbollah, Israel would need a lot of munitions readily available to it because "that's a much more difficult conflict" than the one in Gaza, which has been a tough enough fight as is, Daniel Byman, a former Middle East analyst for the US intelligence community, told Business Insider in May.
Hezbollah has grown stronger
Hezbollah has spent decades building up its arsenal and military capabilities. Before the 2006 Lebanon War, a monthlong conflict fought against Israel, Hezbollah maintained some 15,000 projectiles. That figure has swelled to over 130,000 today, with some estimates putting the missile and rocket inventory as high as 150,000. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank wrote in a 2018 report that "Hezbollah is the world's most heavily armed non-state actor, with a large and diverse stockpile of unguided artillery rockets, as well as ballistic, anti-air, anti-tank, and anti-ship missiles."
Much of Hezbollah's inventory consists of various shorter-range, unguided projectiles. The analysts said that while these weapons may not be particularly accurate, they exist in large enough quantities to cause concern. The militants also possess precision-guided weapons that could reach deeper into Israel.
"Hezbollah views its rocket and missile arsenal as its primary deterrent against Israeli military action," the CSIS analysts explained, noting they are "also useful for quick retaliatory strikes and longer military engagements."
Hamas started the ongoing Gaza war with as many as 30,000 rockets and missiles, according to the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank. It's a much smaller figure, but it has still caused issues for Israel and highlighted the value of maintaining a large stockpile, especially as it continues to expend a lot in Gaza.
That war has seen "a pretty serious rate of fire. And this would be even more so with Hezbollah," said Byman, a senior fellow with the CSIS' Transnational Threats Project. "Hezbollah has a lot more firepower. Israel would be using a lot more firepower in return."
Israel operates a sophisticated air-defense network able to engage different threats, from short-range rockets to medium-range ballistic missiles in the atmosphere. The Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow systems have all been busy since Oct. 7 but, for the most part, have managed to protect the country from enemy munitions.
But a larger Hezbollah war could overwhelm some of these systems, a scenario that has caused concern in Washington.
During the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired somewhere between 100 and 200 rockets per day at Israel, according to estimates cited by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. In a future war between the two, the militants could fire in excess of 4,000 rockets per day in the early stages of a conflict, but they would eventually have to reduce that number to 1,500. Even then, it is still a significantly higher rate of fire than in 2006 and could put immense stress on Israel's defenses.
"Hezbollah's means of attack are highly impressive," the Israeli think tank INSS said in an October 2023 assessment. In a war with Hezbollah, the group's vast weapons inventory "will require Israel to divert countermeasure systems to targeted protection of civilian and military infrastructure."
The Britain Israel Communications and Research Center, an Israel advocacy organization, wrote in an October 2019 updated briefing that "even with Israel's early warning and missile interception system, missiles fired at major population centers in large numbers can be deadly, forcing civilian populations to remain in or near shelters, closing schools and businesses, and paralyzing normal life."
'No one' wants a war
Hezbollah put its firepower on display earlier this week, launching more than 200 rockets and attack drones into Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander. It marked one of the militants' biggest barrages of the nine-month-long conflict.
Beyond the aerial threat, Hezbollah also has a personnel force of more than 50,000 combatants, according to a May 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service. Hamas, by contrast, was thought to have up to 30,000 fighters at the start of the Gaza war, and it has seen thousands of its members killed and wounded since October.
Adding to Hezbollah's potential combat force, thousands of additional fighters from Iran-backed groups across the region have offered to come fight against Israel in the event of a full-scale war.
For now, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is still relatively low intensity, but fears are growing that it may not stay that way. The militants have tied their action to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying only then will the attacks stop. And as some Western nations urge de-escalation, the two enemies continue to threaten each other, saying that they will resort to force if needed.
More than two dozen soldiers and civilians have already been killed in Israel, and in Lebanon, that figure has surpassed 450. A majority of those dead are militants, but civilians have also been killed. Additionally, tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in both countries.
"One of our primary objectives from day one — since October — was to do everything we could to make sure that this conflict didn't spread," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a Brookings Institution event earlier this month, adding, "No one actually wants a war."

Almost entire population in Gaza now displaced amid fresh Israeli offensive
Ibrahim Dahman, Tim Lister, Khader Al-Za'anoun and Eugenia Yosef, CNN/July 6, 2024
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced in Gaza – almost the entire population – after the Israeli military last week ordered a further 80,000 people to evacuate parts of Gaza City amid a renewed ground operation, latest UN figures show.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has stepped up assaults in several parts of the Strip, including the Shujaya neighborhood in the north, where it previously said it had dismantled Hamas. UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, estimates that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been internally displaced – about 90% of the population of the Strip, estimated by the UN to be around 2.1 million people. The number of displaced people rose from 1.7 million since Israel launched its offensive on the southern city of Rafah in May. The fresh flurry of offensives raises questions about how and when Israel will wind down its war, which has been fought for nearly nine months with the aims of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and rescuing Israeli hostages.
Israeli officials had said its incursion into Rafah – the southernmost point of Gaza to which Hamas was thought to have regrouped after Israel’s destruction of the north – would be the final stage of its war, but the uptick in fighting in the north suggests Hamas retains an ongoing presence. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday that 80,000 people have been displaced this week after the IDF issued evacuation orders in eastern areas of Gaza City.
Renewed offensives
In Shujaya, the IDF said Saturday that its combat teams had fought “armed squads” of Hamas militants over the past 24 hours, “destroying weapons and terrorist infrastructures above and below the ground.”
It said its soldiers ambushed a group of Hamas fighters and “eliminated all the terrorists without any casualties to our forces,” and that an air strike had wiped out a terrorist squad with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers.
Gaza’s Civil Defense told CNN on Saturday that Israeli bombing in the area has continued “without stopping.”“The situation in Shujaya has been the same for 10 days and our crews cannot enter to save lives there,” it said.
Meanwhile, operations have also continued in southern Rafah, where the bulk of Palestinian civilians had initially been displaced. The IDF said it had eliminated a number of “terrorist cells” and underground structures. The IDF did not provide a figure for the number of airstrikes in Gaza over the past 24 hours.The fighting is continuing to take a huge toll on civilians, many of whom have been displaced nine or 10 times already. One man displaced in Khan Younis told CNN about the hours needed to get hold of small amounts of clean water.
“Life in tents is very difficult. We live on sand. Clothes get dirty. Hands get dirty. The body needs to be cleaned. Dining utensils need to be cleaned,” Zakaria Bakr, from the Al-Shati camp, told CNN Saturday. He said his children often have to fetch water for the family. “The children live a life that is not their own and they have never known this suffering before,” he said. On Friday, UNRWA posted a video of people in makeshift tents on a beach in the central city of Nuseirat, saying they were “building sand walls to protect themselves from the incoming tide.”“There are few safe spaces left for families to move to,” it said. “Many families rely on seawater for washing, cleaning and even drinking.”Elsewhere in Nuseirat, three journalists were killed Saturday in a strike on an apartment building, the Hamas-run government media office told CNN. Since Friday, two other journalists have also been killed in other parts of the Strip, it said.
CNN is asking the IDF for comment on the Nuseirat strike. Across the Strip, fuel shortages are threatening work at hospitals, and in distributing the trickle of aid passing into Gaza. COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for administering the delivery of aid to Gaza, said Friday that the content of 1,150 aid trucks is waiting to be collected on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. Gaza’s Minister of Health warned Saturday of “the continuing fuel crisis necessary to operate hospital generators, oxygen stations, and refrigerators for storing medicines in all health facilities.”

From Raisi to Pezeshkian — what next for Iran?
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/July 06, 2024
In a significant turn of events, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian has emerged victorious in Iran’s presidential election, defeating his hard-line rival, Saeed Jalili. The results were announced after Pezeshkian secured 53.3 percent of the more than 30 million votes counted, compared with Jalili’s 44.3 percent. This pivotal vote comes at a critical juncture marked by heightened tensions both domestically and internationally. Does the election outcome have far-reaching implications for Iran’s internal political landscape, as well as its foreign policy and relations with the global community?
First, it is essential to highlight that the voter turnout was 49.8 percent, which is historically low. The low turnout reflects several underlying issues, such as widespread public dissatisfaction with the economic situation and political process, potential disenchantment with the candidates, and perhaps a broader sense of apathy or disillusionment. Pezeshkian has navigated two distinct career paths in medicine and politics. As an Iranian heart surgeon of Azerbaijani and Kurdish heritage, he was actively involved in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, not only sending medical teams to the front lines, but also serving as a combatant and physician. After the conflict, he furthered his medical studies, focusing on general surgery at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and obtaining a subspecialty in cardiac surgery from Iran University of Medical Sciences in 1993. His surgical expertise led to his appointment as president of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 1994, a role he held for five years.
In 1994, a car accident resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, Fatemeh Majidi, and one of his daughters. In 1997, Pezeshkian transitioned into politics by joining Mohammed Khatami’s administration as deputy health minister. He was promoted to health minister in 2001, a position he held until 2005. Since then, he has been a significant figure in the Iranian parliament, representing Tabriz for five terms, and serving as the first deputy speaker from 2016 to 2020. Pezeshkian is often categorized as a reformist or moderate within Iran’s political landscape for several compelling reasons. Similar to former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, he stands for fostering improved relations with Western nations, notably the US. His advocacy for stronger diplomatic ties is rooted in the belief that such relations could lead to the lifting of sanctions, bolstered trade opportunities, economic enhancement and, ultimately, a stronger Islamic Republic. Moreover, Pezeshkian has not shied away from criticizing the Iranian government, particularly regarding its handling of protests. He has voiced concern over the authorities’ stringent measures against demonstrators, particularly highlighting issues surrounding women’s rights and the enforcement of the hijab rule. He said: “We will respect the hijab law, but there should never be any intrusive or inhumane behavior toward women.”
The low voter turnout underscores broader public disillusionment.
Nevertheless, it is important to point out that Pezeshkian has consistently shown strong support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, criticizing the US for designating it as a terrorist organization. His past public display of wearing the IRGC uniform in parliament further underscores his alignment with this stance. In addition, his approval by the Guardian Council to run for the presidency and his sustained career in Iranian politics indicate his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the foundational revolutionary principles of the Islamic Republic. Pezeshkian appears to be advocating for policies such as improving Western relations not as a challenge to the system, but as a means of enhancing its resilience and effectiveness. Like other figures considered moderates or reformists, he seeks to strengthen the Islamic Republic through different strategies, while maintaining its core principles.
The international community should temper its expectations regarding Pezeshkian’s potential to bring about fundamental changes in Iran. The reality is that the country’s domestic and foreign policies are primarily controlled by the supreme leader and the senior leadership of the IRGC. These entities wield significant authority, often overshadowing efforts by reform-minded figures, such as Khatami, in the past. History has demonstrated that even those labeled as reformists have been constrained by the overarching influence of the supreme leader and the IRGC, whose decisions hold sway in Iranian governance and strategic direction. Thus, while individuals such as Pezeshkian may advocate for certain reforms or policies, their ability to enact substantial change remains limited.In other words, Iran’s stance on regional policies, support for proxies, and approach to nuclear and ballistic missile programs are unlikely to change. Historically, when a so-called reformist assumes office, it often triggers a reactionary response from hard-liners who intensify crackdowns domestically. This serves as a clear signal to Iranian society that despite any electoral changes, the hard-liners maintain authority and control. Thus, while there may be shifts in rhetoric or emphasis, particularly on issues such as domestic reform or international relations, the core strategies and policies of Iran are typically upheld by the entrenched hard-line power structures within the country.
In conclusion, while Pezeshkian’s victory as a reformist or moderate may signal potential for nuanced policy approaches, particularly in diplomacy with the West and criticisms of domestic governance, it remains clear that fundamental shifts in Iran’s core policies — such as regional strategies, support for proxies, and nuclear ambitions — are unlikely under the prevailing influence of the supreme leader and the IRGC. This continuity suggests that while Pezeshkian and others may advocate for change, the entrenched power structures within Iran will continue to shape the country’s direction, maintaining stability according to their established principles. In addition, the low voter turnout underscores broader public disillusionment and raises questions about the election’s legitimacy. Thus, while the election outcome may appear to introduce new dynamics, it underscores the enduring dominance of Iran’s conservative elements in determining its trajectory, both domestically and on the global stage.
*Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Is anyone surprised by Netanyahu’s partial deal or no deal?
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/July 06, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rarely gives interviews to domestic media outlets. In the twilight of his political life, he prefers those journalists who pander to him, and let him embark on a free flow of propaganda without any critique. Israel’s Channel 14 television is known for this practice, and could be easily be renamed the Bibi News Channel, as it conveys to the public the messages of the one who increasingly sees himself as the supreme leader, and not an elected prime minister who is accountable to the Israeli public or scrutinized by the Knesset.
Consider Netanyahu’s so-called “interview” on this channel in which he stated, without being challenged, that in the negotiations with Hamas, he would only accept a partial ceasefire deal, but would not end the already nine-month-long war in Gaza. That statement has three major implications. First, it undermines the viability of the US-backed ceasefire proposal. Second, it was as good as saying that he is ready to give up on at least some of the 120 hostages still in captivity. And, finally, since US President Joe Biden presented the three-part plan as an Israeli proposal, it also means that Netanyahu has reneged on what he had agreed with Washington, and by that risks widening the rift with the Biden administration.
It would be disingenuous of anyone to suggest that they were surprised by the Israeli prime minister’s behavior, as we have all been accustomed, although appalled, by the way he conducts public affairs — in this case prioritizing his political survival over the release of the hostages, and prolonging a conflict in which it is obvious, including to his military high command, that destroying Hamas is not an achievable objective. In taking this approach, he is also increasing the likelihood of war with Hezbollah on the country’s northern border, while alienating regional and international allies, and deepening the divisions within Israeli society. Netanyahu is ready to allow this litany of threats to the country’s national interest simply so that he can stay in power and delay indefinitely the conclusion of his corruption trial.
The Biden proposal is not perfect, but it contains the seeds of ending the hostilities, of stopping the loss of life of many more Palestinians and the devastation inflicted on the Strip, allowing for desperately needed humanitarian aid to be delivered on a larger scale, and bringing to an end the suffering inflicted on the hostages and their families who have been living in an awful limbo regarding their loved ones’ fate.
Instead, we are witnessing Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mr. Bibi’s horror show. The former understands that talk about completely eliminating Hamas is unrealistic militarily, politically, and ideologically; the latter is a small-time politician whose unquenched thirst for power and hedonistic lifestyle dictate his behavior. The three-phase plan as proposed by Israel and introduced by Biden could create the conditions for ending this war, one that has already entered its never-ending stage at the expense of the people of Gaza, the hostages, and in the larger scheme of things, both the Israelis and all Palestinians. When a ceasefire is agreed, then and only then will the door be open for the reconstruction of Gaza, which might also create a political horizon beyond a truce. The Biden proposal is not perfect, but it contains the seeds for ending the hostilities. Admittedly, Hamas’ leadership in Gaza is playing hardball with the ceasefire negotiations, as its main interest is its own survival and that of the movement. It knows that the end of the war will be a moment of accountability for its triggering of the events that led to the calamity that has befallen Gaza, as will be the case for the Israeli government regarding its colossal failure to foresee the events of Oct. 7. In the meantime, Hamas is holding on to the hostages as its only card that might guarantee an end to the hostilities and by that save its skin. But Netanyahu’s admission that a ceasefire deal will not bring an end to the war is as good as abandoning the hostages, for whom every day that passes is a matter of life and death.
By all accounts the Israeli Defense Forces are winding down the assaults on the Gaza Strip, reducing the number of forces there, and transitioning to a stage that for all intents and purposes will be an occupation, with no “day after” or exit plan. Instead Israel is establishing what seems to be a semi-permanent plan to take a hold on what is known as Route 749, or the Netzarim Corridor, and on the Philadelphi Corridor. The first is a new road that runs across northern Gaza from east to west, dividing the north and south of the enclave, while the second runs along the border with Egypt and also controls the Rafah crossing on the Gaza side. The circle to square for Netanyahu is how to maintain a low-intensity conflict with Hamas that could last for years, while at the same time convincing the Israeli public that the damage inflicted on the militant group is irreversible and, therefore, at least this objective of the war has been accomplished.
As long as the hostages remain in captivity, Israeli soldiers are still being killed in Gaza, the security situation in the West Bank deteriorates, and the situation in the north of the country escalates toward full-scale war with Hezbollah, the Israeli public will not believe Netanyahu’s endless mantra that “we are a step away from victory.” Instead, they see how he is cynically using the war to tell the court, through his lawyers, that he will be unable to give evidence in his corruption trial until March next year, while he continues to cave in to every whim of his far-right and ultra-orthodox coalition partners.
When I was among those who argued that as a defendant in a corruption trial, Netanyahu should have suspended himself from office — as one cannot run a country, especially one as complex as Israel, and at the same time manage one’s legal affairs that might lead to a criminal conviction and a jail sentence — I could not have foreseen in my worst nightmare the scenario that would unfold on and after Oct. 7.
To suspend himself would have been the right thing to do in a more routine state of affairs, let alone in a major conflict situation. Netanyahu was not fit to govern before the war, as he was already attacking his country’s liberal-democratic institutions for the sake of a get-out-of-jail-free card. Now he is cynically toying with the lives and security of the entire nation and well beyond. Playing with the idea of a partial ceasefire is just another ploy to help him cling to power.
*Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Program at international affairs think tank Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg

Did the UK vote for Starmer — or against the Conservatives?
Peter Harrison//Arab News/July 06, 2024
When Sir Keir Starmer told an elated group of Labour Party faithful in the early hours of Friday, “We did it. Change begins now,” he did so in the knowledge that despite a landslide victory in the UK general election, he remains anything but safe.
Starmer’s win makes him only the fourth Labour leader to take the party into government since the Second World War, and only the second in the past 50 years. There were of course James Callaghan and Gordon Brown — but they became PM by default following leadership elections within the party.
Britain is traditionally a conservative country and it is rare that Labour has held power for successive terms — Tony Blair achieved it, but Brown was out after barely three years. “Ah, yes,” I hear you respond, “but Brown was appointed PM after he won an uncontested leadership competition in the Labour Party following Blair’s resignation; he wasn’t elected PM.” But both John Major and Boris Johnson did just that as Conservative Party leaders. They were both challenged and won the leadership battle before going on to win majorities at the following general elections.
Starmer’s honeymoon period is likely to be short, assuming there is one at all.
His approach now will no doubt see him pursue domestic policy, but there are many — both at home and abroad — who will want to know about his foreign policy.
If you are reading this from the Middle East, or in any way support the Palestinian cause, prepare to be underwhelmed — from the outset of the war in Gaza, Starmer has either adopted a clear stance of support for Israel, or taken the “scale back” approach, while steering clear of actual calls for action against Tel Aviv. In May, Starmer did say he wanted to recognize a Palestinian state if he won power — but with the proviso that such a move would need to come at the right time in a peace process. It is worth mentioning that at the same time Ireland, Spain, and Norway all said they would recognize a Palestinian state.
If Starmer is to hold power for longer than one term, he will likely prioritize domestic policies over foreign affairs issues, except those that directly affect the British economy.
There is a lot to focus on: Britain still faces a cost-of-living crisis, unemployment remains high, fuel bills are crippling household budgets, and families unable to afford supermarket bills are queuing at food banks.
And, of course, there is the increasingly popular, but frankly ill-founded, claim that Britain is overrun with migrants. It is not, but this remains a hot ticket issue with all political movements.
In truth, there have been momentary increases in immigration in the UK in recent years, but as the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford highlighted, both history and future predictions show that emigration will result in a consistent number of foreign nationals living in the country.
Most people who travel to live in the UK either do so to study or for existing work reasons, and are in the country temporarily. Those who moved there after Russia invaded Ukraine did so with the intention of one day returning to their homeland, and indeed many already have.
The poll saw the lowest turnout in 20 years, with less than 60 percent bothering to vote.
Starmer, while claiming to be a man of the people, will have to also please those traditionally right-wing voters who moved over to support change after 14 years of Conservative rule, but not necessarily switch their long-term allegiance away from the Tories.
And there are large numbers of people who did not vote Labour — somehow, he needs to win them over.
In the Bassetlaw constituency, where this writer votes using his mother as a proxy, a vast 56.5 percent of the registered electorate voted for the other candidates. A mere 41.2 percent voted for the incoming Labour candidate, with 2.3 percent returning blank or spoilt ballot papers.
In England, the lack of representation is highlighted even more when you consider that independent politicians claimed a combined 6,418,370 votes, while Labour claimed just 9,686,329.
The main parties need to address the electoral system if they are to put an end to the continued spiral of British politics — it is clear to anyone watching that a vast number of UK nationals remain unimpressed and yet, under the current system, are not being recognized or represented.
Why should the main parties care? They have a guaranteed future — well, they used to, but with the Reform Party and the Greens, as well as other independents, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, winning seats, there is every chance that more people might be inspired to vote next time.
And they might be more inclined to vote for the smaller parties. If that happens then the push for electoral reform will likely be unavoidable.
Starmer might have won with a historic majority. But as Boris Johnson’s majority inherited by Rishi Sunak shows, there is no guarantee that a disgruntled electorate will not change their minds again.
And while he tries to please all the people all the time, this might prove increasingly tricky for Starmer.
There is a saying in Britain, albeit a rather defeatist one, that tries to somehow support the rather apathetic view that there is no point in voting. It goes like this: “No matter who you vote for, the government always wins.”
The 2024 election saw the lowest turnout in 20 years, with less than 60 percent of people bothering to vote.
In 2022, the Electoral Commission surveyed people about their voting habits and found that contrary to popular belief, those aged 24 or below were less likely to register to vote than those aged 55 and older.
There was a 77 percent approval to the statement “It’s not really worth voting,” despite there being a 91 percent agreement with “It’s everyone’s duty to vote.”
Starmer needs to convince the apathetic to agree that voting matters if he intends to maintain the support gained in the election, or even win a second term.
The incoming prime minister is not popular — for many it was the case that he just wasn’t the Conservative Party, and after 14 years in power enough voters in the right places wanted a change.
Whether Starmer can prevent that desire for change from happening again, this time in five years against him, remains to be seen.
**Peter Harrison is a senior editor at Arab News in the Dubai office. He has covered the Middle East for more than a decade. X: @PhotoPJHarrison