Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 08-09/2024
Lebanon Will Not Emerge from the Quagmire of Persian Occupation Unless the Maronites Fulfill Their Leading Role through Leaders Who Believe Their Sacred Duty is to Protect the Lebanese Temple/Elias Bejjani/June 07, 2024
Question: “Is it ever right to lie?”/GotQuestions.org/June 08/2024
Is all-out Israel-Hezbollah war inevitable?
South Lebanon: Two Killed in Drone Attack
Israeli airstrike kills two in southern Lebanon
Two dead, fires in south Lebanon after Israeli strikes
Large fire erupts at Lebanese army and UNIFIL positions near Blue Line: NNA
Shifting Tides: The Evolving US-French Approaches to Lebanon's Crisis
French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian Visits the Vatican, Discusses Lebanon
Lebanese Army Commander heads to US, seeking enhanced military assistance
Large fire erupts at Lebanese army and UNIFIL positions near Blue Line: NNA
Razi El Hage to LBCI: Our past dialogues have been unfruitful; 'Resistance Axis' impedes functioning of the state
Europe at the Crossroads: Elections, Islamophobia, and the Battle for the Continent's Future
US Embassy Assault: Investigating Weapon Origin
Ghada Aoun Sidelined
20 People Arrested in US Embassy Shooting
ALES Reveals Lebanon’s Largest Sinkhole
Why Israel-Hezbollah tensions risk boiling over now
Cultural Diplomacy: China’s Soft Power in the Land of the Cedars (2/3)

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 08-09/2024
Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7. At least 55 dead in Gaza strikes
Israel rescues 4 hostages in Gaza; Hamas says 210 Palestinians killed in Israeli assault
Israeli move on Nuseirat will not affect swap deal, says Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Israel bombs Gaza as Gantz poised to quit government
Blinken to push ceasefire proposal in 8th urgent Mideast trip since war in Gaza erupted
Gaza aid through U.S. pier will resume in coming days, Israel says
Israel PM asks war cabinet minister Gantz not to quit after ultimatum
Israel's war cabinet minister Gantz delays statement after hostage rescue
Israel cannot force its choices on Hamas, group's leader says
US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy are working together to put pressure on admin
Colombia will suspend coal exports to Israel over war in Gaza
Developing countries call on US to lift Palestinian UN veto
GCC to hold 160th ministerial council in Doha on Sunday
Iran helicopter crash shows Tehran's reliance on an aging fleet as well as its challenges at home
Attacks in Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions leave 28 dead, Moscow-backed officials say
Macron is hosting Biden for a state visit as the two leaders try to move past trade tensions
The US is considering deploying more nuclear weapons to deter Russia, China, and North Korea, US official says
Kidnapping of Yemeni UN employees by Houthis widely condemned

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 08-09/2024
The West Keeps Rewarding the Terrorist Group Hamas/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/June 08/2024
Biden’s ceasefire plan offers a glimmer of hope for Gaza/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/June 08, 2024
Fragmented Libya is a hot spot for many emerging threats/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/June 08, 2024
Arab and Muslim Americans’ best election strategy is obvious/Ray Hanania/Arab News/June 08, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 08-09/2024
Lebanon Will Not Emerge from the Quagmire of Persian Occupation Unless the Maronites Fulfill Their Leading Role through Leaders Who Believe Their Sacred Duty is to Protect the Lebanese Temple
Elias Bejjani/June 07, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/130496/130496/
In brief, without diminishing the capabilities and patriotism of others, without arrogance or a sense of superiority, and without distorting history and truth, but from a perspective of sincere faith and patriotism, we firmly believe that Lebanon will not rise from its fall, fragmentation, and the tragedy of occupation unless the Maronites rise. Lebanon will not be liberated in the absence of Maronite leaders, in heart, mind, and spirit, who believe their role is sacred, and that they are the protectors of the temple because its glory was given to their Church, and not to others. Their role is to lead all those who want their country to be free, sovereign, independent, a beacon of civilization, coexistence, openness, freedom, and equality. The disintegration of the Lebanese factions and the shortcomings of their leaders, for whatever reason, are not important and will not be influential if the Maronites have leaders who understand their role and can assume it with courage and selflessness. Everyone will stand and rise when the Maronites lead and march forward. The primary and most dangerous problem in Lebanon today is the absence of civil, spiritual, and elite leaders from the Maronites. We do not say that the current Maronite leaders, without exception, are traitors or collaborators, but they are nationally deficient and emasculated figures, lacking vision and possessing shallow and weak faith. Thus, they do not meet the requirements of the current time. In reality, they are weak and incapable figures, and this is why we need to change them. Yes, we Maronites created Lebanon, and this is a fact, not arrogance; we created it to be a homeland for us and for others. Presently, it is in a state of loss, fragmentation, chaos, and occupation because our current leaders are not the men can deal with the ongoing crisis locally, regionally and globally.
What non-Maronite Lebanese must understand is that Lebanon will not rise unless the Maronites rise and lead, as is their historic sacred role in protecting the temple. The most important thing is that we, the Maronites, understand and fulfill this role. Otherwise, we are neither true Maronites nor do we deserve the sacred temple nation whose glory was given to us.

Question: “Is it ever right to lie?”
GotQuestions.org/June 08/2024
Answer: The Bible nowhere presents an instance where lying is considered to be the right thing to do. The ninth commandment prohibits bearing false witness (Exodus 20:16). Proverbs 6:16-19 lists “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who pours out lies” as two of the seven abominations to the Lord. Love “rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). For other Scriptures that speak negatively of lying, see Psalm 119:29, 163; 120:2; Proverbs 12:22; 13:5; Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9; and Revelation 21:8. There are many examples of liars in Scripture, from Jacob’s deceit in Genesis 27 to the pretense of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Time after time, we see that falsehood leads to misery, loss, and judgment. There are at least two instances in the Bible where lying produced a favorable result. For example, the lie the Hebrew midwives tell Pharaoh seems to result in the Lord’s blessing on them (Exodus 1:15-21), and it probably saved the lives of many Hebrew babies. Another example is Rahab’s lie to protect the Israelite spies in Joshua 2:5. It is important to note, however, that God never condones these lies. Despite the positive outcome of these lies, the Bible nowhere praises the lies themselves. The Bible nowhere states that there are instances where lying is the right thing to do. At the same time, the Bible does not declare that there is no possible instance in which lying is an acceptable option. The question then remains: is there ever a time when lying is the right thing to do? The most common illustration of this dilemma comes from the life of Corrie ten Boom in Nazi-occupied Holland. Essentially, the story is this: Corrie ten Boom is hiding Jews in her home to protect them from the Nazis. Nazi soldiers come to her home and ask her if she knows where any Jews are hiding. What is she to do? Should she tell the truth and allow the Nazis to capture the Jews she was trying to protect? Or, should she lie and deny that she knows anything about them? In an instance such as this, where lying may be the only possible way to prevent a horrible evil, pe rhaps lying would be the best of the available options. Such an instance would be somewhat similar to the lies of the Hebrew midwives and Rahab. In an evil world, and in a desperate situation, it may be the right thing to commit a lesser evil, lying, in order to prevent a much greater evil. However, it must be noted that such instances are extremely rare. And, even in those situations, lying would still be a sin, because it would still be violating the character of the God of truth (Hebrews 6:18). The vast majority of lies are due to people seeking to protect themselves, promote themselves, or harm someone else. That is why the Bible so clearly, strongly, and consistently condemns lying as a sin.

Is all-out Israel-Hezbollah war inevitable?
Agence France Presse/June 08, 2024
Israeli leaders have increased their warnings to Hezbollah as cross-border violence escalates by the day, but experts believe that the risk of all-out war remains limited.
- Is the violence intensifying? -
Hezbollah says it is fighting in support of its ally Hamas, which is battling Israel in an eight-month-old war in the Gaza Strip triggered by the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel. The Iran-backed Hezbollah has made intensive use of drones in recent days to attack Israeli military positions, triggering significant forest fires in northern Israel. On Thursday evening, Hezbollah used anti-aircraft missiles against Israeli warplanes for the first time. "There has been a real escalation in recent weeks, with a much higher number of rocket launches," said Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical analyst for Le Beck International, a Middle East-based security consultancy, adding that the number had tripled in May compared with January.
"Hezbollah is also making use of effective new weapons, notably 'kamikaze' drones, while expanding its operational area to new towns," Horowitz said.
However, the group has refrained from striking deep inside Israel, and its chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly warned that Hezbollah has used only a fraction of its powerful arsenal. Israel has intensified its strikes targeting Hezbollah inside Lebanon, both close to the border and in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a network of bases and tunnels. After eight months of violence there have been at least 455 people killed in Lebanon, including around 90 civilians and nearly 300 Hezbollah fighters, more than the losses it suffered during its last war with Israel in 2006.
On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
- Are the threats real? -
There have been more and more bellicose declarations coming from Israeli leaders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" on its northern border. His extreme-right ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has said Israel should invade Lebanon and push "hundreds of thousands of Lebanese" out of the border area. Israel's army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, meanwhile, has said Israel is "ready to go on the offensive in the north."Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, however, said this week that "our decision is to not widen the battle, and we do not want a total war."Nevertheless, he added, "if it is imposed on us, we are ready.".l U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Thursday for an end to hostilities, saying there was a risk of "a broader conflict with devastating consequences for the region."He spoke on the same day heads of state and government from Britain, France, Germany, and the United States signed a joint declaration calling for "maximum restraint to avoid further regional escalation."
Preparing for war or talks?
Michael Young, an analyst at the Carnegie Center for the Middle East, said that so far both Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in "controlled escalation."
He said he saw "not so much preparations for war -- although war remains always a possibility -- but more preparation for negotiations."Young said both sides were anticipating an end to the fighting in Gaza, "and therefore that a solution must be found for the Israeli-Lebanese border.""As we get closer to negotiations the possibility of an escalation will increase because both Israel and Hezbollah want to impose their conditions on any negotiation outcome," he added. Horowitz, meanwhile, said "internal tensions play a role in the statements by Israeli leaders," as does public opinion, which is impacted by the thousands of Israelis displaced from the north of Israel by the violence. "Despite these belligerent statements, I believe that Netanyahu knows a war with Hezbollah would be an extremely risky gamble," Horowitz said. The war in July 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah caused nearly 1,400 deaths over 34 days, including 1,200 on the Lebanese side, most of them civilians. Hezbollah struck deep into Israel before a ceasefire, concluded under the auspices of the United Nations, established a fragile peace. Previously, Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and besieged Beirut to force out Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. It then occupied southern Lebanon, with the help of local militias, withdrawing only in 2000. However, the departure from Lebanon of the PLO gave rise to an even more formidable enemy for Israel in the form of Hezbollah.

South Lebanon: Two Killed in Drone Attack
This Is Beirut/June 08, 2024
Gradual increase in the pace of escalation took center stage in southern Lebanon on Saturday, amid Israeli threats to invade border areas. An Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle near a gas station between Aïtaroun and Blida on Saturday. Two people were killed, including one of the station’s owners.
In the morning, a large fire broke out in the Lebanese army and UNIFIL Nepalese battalion positions, opposite the Manara settlement, on the northeast outskirts of Mays al-Jabal along the Blue Line, due to Israeli bombardment. As the fire widely spread, mines were exploding before the Lebanese Civil Defense, while UNIFIL and Islamic Scouts (pro-Hezbollah) worked to bring it under control. The Israeli army declared attacking multiple sources of rocket fire from southern Lebanon. Earlier, it stated that “a number of rockets were fired from Lebanon on Zar’it-Western Galilee, without causing any casualties.”Bayt Lif, Marj, Hula and Wadi Dallafa were targets for heavy Israeli artillery, amid intense machine gun fire at the houses and neighborhoods of Hula. Israeli spy planes flew above the Beqaa valley, while warplanes carried out occasional mock raids above Shebaa farms and the Arkoub region. For their part, Hezbollah announced in a statement “targeting a group of moving Israeli soldiers at Al-Raheb position with artillery shells at 1:10 AM.”The pro-Iranian formation also declared “launching a drone aerial attack on a new artillery position, in Senaim-Shebaa farms, targeting positions and settlements of Israeli officers and achieving accurate hits.” In addition, Hezbollah confirmed that its artillery bombed the Zar’it barracks. Yesterday, the Israeli army had set fires on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab with incendiary bombs, and sprayed the area with flammable materials. Israeli media had reported that Hezbollah tried to strike one of the three main air bases in Israel, “Ramat David” in southern Haifa, with an explosive drone. Israel also targeted a joint training center for the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL in Ras al-Naqoura, with two drone strikes.

Large fire erupts at Lebanese army and UNIFIL positions near Blue Line: NNA
LBCI/June 08, 2024
On Saturday, the National News Agency (NNA) reported that a large fire erupted at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL (the Nepalese Battalion) opposite the Manara settlement on the northeastern outskirts of Mais al-Jabal, near the Blue Line.
It added that civil defense teams from the Islamic Risala Scout Association and the Lebanese Civil Defense and UNIFIL vehicles have been dispatched to work on extinguishing the fire. In a later update, the agency added that several landmines exploded due to the fire, affirming that firefighting operations are still ongoing.

Shifting Tides: The Evolving US-French Approaches to Lebanon's Crisis
LBCI/June 08, 2024
Between yesterday and today, the US and French approaches to the Lebanese issue have evolved from agreement and understanding to undisclosed disagreement and divergence. At the forefront of these differences today is the approach to solutions in Lebanon, from the presidency to UN Resolution 1701.
France's renewed vigor in the Lebanese arena during President Emmanuel Macron's tenure became evident following the August 4, 2020 explosion. France then sought to solidify its role in one of its last spheres of influence in the region and to reclaim its historical role as Lebanon’s "tender mother."
Macron sponsored a Lebanese dialogue at the Pine Residence to produce an economic reform paper, approach the investigations into the port explosion, and conduct parliamentary elections. The famous French paper remained ink on paper because Paris does not have the leverage to influence a country primarily under American and Iranian influence. It is true that France took advantage of some margins, opening channels of dialogue—sometimes with Tehran and other times with Hezbollah, which the US classifies as a terrorist organization—with US approval. However, these efforts did not reach their conclusion.
Lebanon entered a phase of presidential vacancy, revealing differences between the two countries regarding the approach to resolving the presidential crisis. Washington was not pleased with the initial French initiative that attempted to promote the candidacy of the former minister Sleiman Frangieh, supported by both the Amal Movement and Hezbollah. Furthermore, divergences appeared within the quintet of ambassadors, with Washington rejecting France’s attempt to present itself as the spokesperson or sponsor of any dialogue or proposal.
Despite both sides advocating for a ceasefire in the south, Washington treated the French paper on the south with indifference. Implicitly, it believes that the solution is exclusively linked to its mission through Amos Hochstein. Meanwhile, France seeks to ensure that Washington does not monopolize the solution in Lebanon. In recent years, US-French divergences over the Lebanese issue have distanced potential solutions. However, when the two countries agreed, they produced solutions or decisions. UN Resolution 1559, which called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon during the presidencies of George Bush and Jacques Chirac, united the two countries. They were also aligned on Resolution 1701, which ended the second Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006. Thus, before the French-US summit between Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden, French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Lebanon—not to offer a presidential or southern solution, but to explore and search for any new developments amid Lebanon's stagnation, hoping that his president might bring something new that could serve as a basis for a joint approach with the US president regarding Lebanon.

French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian Visits the Vatican, Discusses Lebanon
LBCI/June 08, 2024
French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that he visited the Vatican yesterday.
He stated on his account on the "X" platform: "I was at the Vatican yesterday as the personal envoy of the French President to discuss the issue of Lebanon with Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States."

Lebanese Army Commander heads to US, seeking enhanced military assistance
LBCI/June 08, 2024
Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun has left Lebanon for the United States. During his visit, he will hold meetings to discuss enhancing American support for the military institution, considering the challenges it currently faces.

Large fire erupts at Lebanese army and UNIFIL positions near Blue Line: NNA
LBCI/June 08, 2024
On Saturday, the National News Agency (NNA) reported that a large fire erupted at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL (the Nepalese Battalion) opposite the Manara settlement on the northeastern outskirts of Mais al-Jabal, near the Blue Line.
It added that civil defense teams from the Islamic Risala Scout Association and the Lebanese Civil Defense and UNIFIL vehicles have been dispatched to work on extinguishing the fire. In a later update, the agency added that several landmines exploded due to the fire, affirming that firefighting operations are still ongoing.

Israeli airstrike kills two in southern Lebanon
Reuters/June 8, 2024
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Two people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun, Lebanon's state news agency NNA said on Saturday. The Israeli military said in a statement that its soldiers had identified a Hezbollah militant in the Aitaroun area, and that soon afterwards an Israeli aircraft had carried out an airstrike that hit the individual. Israeli forces launched two missiles targeting a cafe at a petrol station, causing significant damage to the premises and to the surrounding area, NNA said. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said its fighters retaliated by firing rockets on Malkia, in northern Israel, followed by a salvo of missiles at a military command centre in northern Israel using the Falaq 2 rockets. A security source told Reuters it was the first time the group used that model of rockets, having used the Falaq 1 previously. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "identified a Hezbollah terrorist in the area of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, and shortly afterward an IAF aircraft struck the terrorist," the Israeli military said in a statement. The IDF said on Saturday jets had also struck infrastructure in the area of the town of Khiam after tanks had earlier fired at a Hezbollah military structure in the Kfarkela area. The conflict between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel, which has been fought in parallel to the Gaza war, has intensified in recent days, adding to concerns that an even wider confrontation could break out between the heavily armed adversaries. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, says its attacks aim to support Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza. The fighting - the worst hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel since they fought a war in 2006 - has forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes on both sides of the border.

Two dead, fires in south Lebanon after Israeli strikes
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on Saturday killed two people and sparked wildfires in southern Lebanon, state media said, with Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah announcing the death of one fighter. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in the eight months since the Gaza war began, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack. The deadly clashes have intensified in recent weeks, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday that “an Israeli drone carried out an air attack with two guided missiles, targeting a cafe in Aitarun and killing the cafe’s owner, Ali Khalil Hamad, 37, and a young man named Mustafa A. Issa.” The agency also reported a “violent airstrike” on the border village of Khiam. Shortly after, Hezbollah said it launched Katyusha rockets on a town across the border “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks against southern villages and safe houses, and the targeting of civilians, notably in Aitarun where two people were killed.”The Shiite Muslim movement later announced that one of its fighters was killed by Israeli fire. It identified him as Radwan A. Issa, without providing further details. The Israeli army said in a statement that “one of its planes struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Aitarun region,” adding that they also struck targets in the area of Khiam. More than eight months of border violence, which began on October 8, has killed 458 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including about 90 civilians, according to an AFP tally.On the Israeli side of the border, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army. “Israeli artillery bombarded today the outskirts of the town of Alma Al-Shaab with incendiary phosphorus shells, causing fires in the forests that spread to the vicinity of some homes,” NNA reported earlier on Saturday. It added that the fire had reached “large areas of olive trees.”Lebanese authorities and several international rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus rounds in its strikes on its northern neighbor. White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used as an incendiary weapon.
Its use as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is allowed for illuminating battlefields and can be used as a smokescreen. Rescuer Ali Abbas of the Risala Scout association, affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement, told AFP that “Israel deliberately bombs forested areas with phosphorus with the aim of starting fires.”According to him, rescuers on the grounds have been struggling to extinguish the flames, while the Lebanese military avoids sending helicopters to assist for fear of more Israeli attacks. Further east, the NNA reported that “a large fire broke out at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL,” the UN peacekeeping mission, in the area of the border village of Mais Al-Jabal. It is located near the UN-demarcated Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel. A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that fires broke out near military positions but have not reached them or caused any casualties. The UN peacekeepers in a statement reported a “bushfire near one of their positions in Hula,” which was put out with help from Lebanese troops and civil defense forces. “The fire didn’t cause any damage to UNIFIL assets or personnel,” it said.The NNA said “several land mines exploded, and firefighting operations are still continuing” in the area.

Razi El Hage to LBCI: Our past dialogues have been unfruitful; 'Resistance Axis' impedes functioning of the state
LBCI/June 08, 2024
MP Razi El Hage considered that "every document issued by the Church throughout history has its significance," adding: "The 'Bkerki document' should not be taken lightly, as it outlines risks and strategies to address them."He said in an interview on LBCI's "Nharkom Said" TV show, "We will have a document and we expect from the political forces to apply it seriously, away from personal interests." He added, "We do not reject understandings, we reject new customs. Our experience with previous dialogues was unpleasant and unfruitful, and we did not see that the other party committed to what was agreed upon."El Hage considered that "the Quintet Committee is seeking 'conciliatory and facilitative' efforts, trying to ease matters." He highlighted that the members of the Committee are impartial to the challenges and do not advocate for any specific candidate. He pointed out that "the 'Axis of Resistance' impedes the functioning of the republic and takes control of the presidential election process."He expressed, "We are open to dialogue, but it must adhere to constitutional principles. We refuse to trivialize the constitution.""We are ready at all times for presidential elections, and we are ready in terms of names and votes," he affirmed. He further mentioned, "In six days, it will mark one year since the previous call for presidential elections, the last of which occurred on June 14, 2023." Regarding the Syrian refugee file, he said, "We demand that aid be given to Syrians inside Syria."

Europe at the Crossroads: Elections, Islamophobia, and the Battle for the Continent's Future
LBCI/June 08, 2024
Millions of Europeans will directly elect their representatives to the European Parliament, which plays a crucial role in determining the continent's political, economic, and social future. This makes European parties, from the right to the left, strive to dominate the majority within it. When we talk about direct election by the people, it is essential to understand the dynamics of social and economic developments that influence their voting decisions. This is something that far-right parties in Europe have grasped very well. In recent years, these parties have blatantly played on the strings of Islamophobia, without any euphemisms, to gain power.First of all, what does Islamophobia mean? Islamophobia is the fear or hatred of Islam and Muslims. It manifests in various ways, such as discrimination, verbal or physical attacks, negative stereotypes, and discriminatory policies.
In recent years, Islamophobia has been fueled by public fears related to immigration and the integration of Muslim minorities into the mainstream cultures in Europe. Tensions have also escalated due to attacks carried out by Muslim extremists on European soil.
Notable examples include:
• The assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 after he criticized Islam in some of his works.
• The attacks in London and Madrid in 2004.
• The Charlie Hebdo massacre of journalists in Paris.
Such terrorist acts have led many Europeans to view Islam as a threat and Muslims as enemies.
Such terrorist acts have led many Europeans to view Islam as a threat and Muslims as enemies. So, how are European fears being translated? Recent elections in Europe have revealed the continued rise of the far-right in many countries, such as France, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Netherlands. What stands out in these countries is the contradiction with principles they have long upheld. These countries were pioneers in laws supporting social rights, the environment, farmers, and LGBTQ+ policies, which are considered leftist. So why are they leaning towards the right? Some believe that Muslim communities face this discrimination in Europe because they do not integrate into the societies they live in. As we await this crucial election, the answer lies with the European voter—will the continent lean to the left, embracing cultural and social differences among its peoples and minorities on its lands, or will it continue its shift towards the right?

US Embassy Assault: Investigating Weapon Origin
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/June 08/2024
All information on the assailant behind the US Embassy attack in Awkar, north of Beirut last Wednesday, stems from Qays Farraj’s family and acquaintances. His interrogation remains challenging, if not impossible, due to his severe health condition resulting from gunshot wounds. Current evidence strongly suggests that the assailant acted independently, influenced by ISIS ideologies obtained through online sources and contacts in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Additionally, he has been receiving religious education at a school associated with a Syrian sheikh in al-Suwairi, Western Bekaa. Analysis of his communications reveals a motive for revenge: firstly, against US forces combating ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and secondly, seeking retribution for victims of the Gaza conflict at the hands of the Israeli army, armed with American weapons.
The Information Branch of the International Security Forces (ISF) is expected to hand over the driver of the van who transported the assailant from the Bekaa to Beirut, along with another individual. The military intelligence has yet to identify the source from which the assailant procured the weapon and ammunition. This distinction is vital in establishing whether he acted independently or had backing from an external party. The evidence of the weapon purchase will conclusively identify the seller. If this information remains undisclosed, suspicions of individual involvement will linger, which could potentially obscure the investigation. According to security sources, the attacker fired his Kalashnikov rifle for over fifteen minutes, releasing approximately a hundred rounds. Initially targeting the embassy’s main entrance, he wounded one guard with three bullets. The injured guard is currently undergoing treatment at the American University Hospital. Despite exchanging gunfire with embassy security personnel, it was the Lebanese armed forces (LAF), deployed in the area, who ultimately managed to shoot the perpetrator.
Security sources refrained from commenting on any security breaches in the vicinity of the embassy, stating the impossibility of inspecting every vehicle and passerby on the public road directly in front of the building. They emphasized that individuals could easily conceal weapons and cross this route. The sources highlighted that the problem lies not in road monitoring capabilities, but in the surveillance and tracking of extremist individuals and groups. They advocated for stringent control measures and prevention of any attempts to evade apprehension. According to the same sources, the US embassy’s incident reignited concerns about extremism. However, this doesn’t imply that Lebanon is inundated with such groups, as some may promote. While there are individuals holding extremist ideologies in various parts of Lebanon, it’s crucial to acknowledge that any one of them could act independently, operating as a lone wolf. This phenomenon is observed in many countries, some of which have experienced incidents like stabbings, car-rammings, and shootings motivated by ISIS ideology.

Ghada Aoun Sidelined
Youssef Diab/This Is Beirut/June 08/2024
Following the issuance of a circular by the Acting Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Jamal Hajjar, instructing the judicial police, along with all ministries and public administrations, to disregard the directives of Mount Lebanon Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal, Ghada Aoun has been effectively sidelined from her duties and suspended de facto from her authority.
In response to this action, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and its leader, Gebran Bassil, have escalated their campaign against Judge Hajjar and anyone supporting his efforts to curtail the power of the so-called “mandate judge,” a reference to Michel Aoun’s presidency, during which Ghada Aoun’s authority was expanded. Consequently, this group now faces a scenario where the concerned judge is sidelined, indicating a notable decline in her authority and influence.
Amidst the recent shake-ups in the judicial arena, This Is Beirut has gleaned from legal sources that “those aggrieved by Ghada Aoun’s actions in the previous phase are considering taking legal action against her, including judicial proceedings.”
In the face of attempts by the FPM and its leader to politicize the judicial ruling that curtailed Judge Aoun’s powers, stripping her of the authority she previously used against opponents of former President Michel Aoun and his political allies, a former judicial figure confirmed to This Is Beirut that “the decision by the Acting Public Prosecutor, Judge Jamal Hajjar, represents the minimum action for now.”
This source further states, “The circular issued by Hajjar to the security services isn’t the sole reason for Judge Aoun’s removal from the judicial police apparatus. In fact, she effectively excluded herself from this framework by refusing to comply with the Acting Public Prosecutor’s written request to file certain cases. Additionally, she declared her intent to continue with an approach marked by defiance and arrogance.”
Moreover, according to the judicial authority, “Article 38 of the Penal Procedure Code explicitly states that all public ministries and the judicial police fall under the authority of the Public Prosecutor, Hajjar, who did not condone the irregularities established by this magistrate in her practices.”
The judicial authority further addresses the claims made by MP Bassil regarding Hajjar’s alleged removal of Judge Aoun to hinder the Optimum case investigation, stating, “The six files requested by Hajjar from Ghada Aoun to review the legality of her procedures do not include the Optimum case. Rather, these files pertain to lawsuits filed by depositors, with deposits not exceeding one million dollars, through specific attorneys, adversely affecting thousands of depositors and their substantial funds held in banks.”
“Furthermore, the Mount Lebanon Prosecutor failed to notify Hajjar of the existence of a file related to Optimum, further substantiating her breach of the law, which mandates her to keep the Public Prosecutor informed of significant cases.”
To dispel any doubt, the former judicial authority emphasizes that Hajjar “acted upon the decision of the Higher Judicial Council, which instructed him to take action against Mrs. Aoun, based on dozens of complaints lodged against her.”
In response to the skepticism expressed by Judge Aoun and her political allies regarding the appointment of Hajjar as Public Prosecutor, it was pointed out that Hajjar “has been exercising his full authority since assuming office. He regularly convenes meetings with various ministers, including Justice Minister Henri Khoury, who is affiliated with the FPM, as well as with the Higher Judicial Council. Additionally, he engages with senior officials, including those aligned with Judge Aoun’s political faction, as she concludes her judicial tenure with rather lackluster outcomes.”

20 People Arrested in US Embassy Shooting
This Is Beirut/June 08, 2024
Twenty people have been arrested, including the gunman, in connection with Wednesday’s shooting at the American Embassy in Awkar, according to a judicial source quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity. The Lebanese Army said it had wounded the assailant, before arresting him and taking him to the hospital. Qais Farraj, a Syrian, claimed to be acting in support of Gaza, where war has been raging between Hamas and Israel since October 7. Among those detained were his father, his brother, clerics who taught him, and “people with whom he was in continuous contact,” according to the same source, overseeing the investigations conducted by the Lebanese Army and police intelligence services. Investigators are trying to determine whether the detainees are linked to the “jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS) or other terrorist organizations,” the same source added, but “the data available so far rules out the hypothesis of an organized operation.”On the evening of the attack, the US State Department had said that Washington was “aware that the individual who was arrested was wearing what appeared to be an ISIS insignia”, adding that it was “conducting a thorough investigation with the Lebanese authorities into the true motivations”.

ALES Reveals Lebanon’s Largest Sinkhole
This Is Beirut/June 08, 2024
The Lebanese Association for Speleological Studies (ALES) has revealed that the Qattine Azar sinkhole, discovered in Aintoura al-Metn, is the most developed underground system in Lebanon and the Levant.
ALES announced, during a press conference held on Friday at the French Cultural Mission in Beirut, that this sinkhole, with a depth of 507 meters, is the second deepest in Lebanon after the Fouar Dara sinkhole (622 meters). It extends “over 11,867 meters, in the form of corridors, galleries, shafts and river tributaries,” according to the press release issued by ALES. “The immense reservoir of water at the bottom of the sinkhole makes it an important element in any sustainable development project in the region,” according to the text. In this context, the association announced the publication of a special issue of its specialist scientific journal, Spéléorient Hors-Série. The volume includes documentation covering 27 years of exploration of the Qattine Azar sinkhole, encompassing scientific data, images and maps. According to the press release, between 1996 and 2021, ALES members worked hard in the Qattine Azar sinkhole, exploring 9,517 meters of it. In 2022, a joint French-Lebanese mission involving ALES and the Continent 8 team explored a further 2,350 meters of the underground system.
Since 1996, ALES has been working with the Technical Office for Development, the Ministry of Water and Energy, and the Council for Development and Reconstruction, to study groundwater usage possibilities. A project has been implemented to extract 6,000 cubic meters of water per day, contributing to the daily consumption of 27 villages in the Higher Metn region, which suffer from a shortage of fresh water.

Why Israel-Hezbollah tensions risk boiling over now
Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN/June 08, 2024
Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah are ramping up cross-border attacks after months of low-intensity fighting, prompting the Israeli military to warn this week that it is prepared to launch a large-scale attack on its northern border. With both sides trading fire for more than eight months, experts say Israel feels it can no longer ignore its northern front or delay taking action there.A full-blown war appears to have become more likely – even if both sides have no desire for one, analysts believe.
Here’s what we know:
Why are Israel and Hezbollah fighting?
Lebanon and Israel have officially been in a state of war for decades. Israel launched a devastating invasion of Lebanon in 1982, sending tanks all the way to the capital Beirut, after coming under attack from Palestinian militants in the country. It then occupied southern Lebanon for 22 years until it was driven out by Hezbollah in 2000. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, which Beirut classifies as an enemy state. Much of the Western world has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Since then, the two sides have traded fire sporadically, but tensions boiled over in 2006 when Israel went to war in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. More than 1,000 Lebanese were killed in that conflict, mostly civilians, as well as 49 Israeli civilians and 121 soldiers. Two years later, Hezbollah returned the remains of the kidnapped soldiers in exchange for the release of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as the bodies of militants Israel was holding. The latest hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah started after Hamas led an attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250, according to Israeli authorities. That prompted Israel to go to war with Hamas in Gaza, during which it has levelled much of the territory and killed more than 36,000 Palestinians. Hezbollah has said that its current round of fighting with Israel is to support the Palestinians in Gaza. The military capability of the Lebanese group has grown since 2006, when it relied largely on inaccurate Soviet-era Katyusha rockets. Today, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says his group boasts more than 100,000 fighters and reservists. The group is also believed to possess 150,000 rockets that could overwhelm Israel’s defenses if an all-out war breaks out.
Why are tensions flaring up now?
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has been gradually intensifying since October 8, said Heiko Wimmen, project director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. It’s a “slow-motion escalation” that “inches upwards,” he said. But both sides have come closer to war of late as clashes across the border have grown in number and scale. “There is clearly an escalation,” said Wimmen, particularly in terms of deaths on each side of the border and the type of weaponry Hezbollah has been deploying. An Israeli reservist was killed in a Hezbollah strike on a village in northern Israel on Wednesday, bringing the total number of soldiers killed on the Israeli side to 19. Israel and Hezbollah have also been striking much deeper into each other’s territory than they were at the beginning of the war, when fighting was confined to a roughly 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius of the border on either side. Hezbollah has fired 35 kilometers into Israel, while Israel has targeted areas of Lebanon more than 120 kilometers north. Cross-border attacks from Lebanon this week led to large fires blazing through Israel’s northern region, which Israel attributed to rocket fire from southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah said it had launched a “swarm of drones” at Israeli military sites. On Wednesday Hezbollah said it had targeted Israel’s Iron Dome defense system in the northern village of Ramot Naftali, using a guided missile. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told a briefing Thursday: “I can’t confirm that at this stage. I can’t confirm that this happened at all.” Amal Saad, a lecturer at Cardiff University and an expert on Hezbollah, said the group’s escalation “is a marked departure from prior flare-ups that have occurred since October 8.”“This stage transcends merely responding to Israeli attacks and restoring deterrence; it involves conveying new messages and strategies,” Saad wrote on X.
The conflict has become “very visible” and “difficult to ignore,” said Wimmen, of the International Crisis Group, adding that Israeli officials feel compelled to respond, or at least be seen as responding, amid pressure to react from far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. There is a push within government and the Israeli army to take action in the north, Ronni Shaked, a scholar at the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told CNN. “Nobody can live in this situation.”What are both sides saying? Rhetoric has been fiery from both sides, but experts say neither side wants a full-blown conflict. Netanyahu in December warned that Beirut would turn into Gaza if Hezbollah chose to start an all-out war. But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this week poured cold water on the prospect of a wider war, saying the IDF isn’t interested in broadening the war to eliminate Hezbollah. The military is “telling us right now that it doesn’t want to… launch an attack in the north, fight and defeat Hezbollah, and overwhelm it and create a security zone.”During his visit to the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for “very intense action” in the north. “Whoever thinks that they can hurt us and that we will sit idly by is making a big mistake,” the prime minister said. “One way or another, we will restore security to the north.”Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s second-in-command, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the group had assessed that recent threats from Israel were not serious. “Either way, we have decided not to widen the battle and we do not want an all-out war. But if it is imposed on us, we are ready and we won’t retreat,” Qassem said, adding that Hezbollah will end its attacks on Israel once the war in Gaza stops.
Is a full-blown war likely?
Experts say that while both sides may not choose to start an all-out war, their escalatory actions may still trigger one inadvertently. Wimmen of the International Crisis Group said that Israel and Hezbollah are unlikely to take a conscious decision to start a war. However, the more intense the conflict becomes, the deeper each side strikes into the other’s territory and the heavier the weapons used, the more likely it is that “something goes wrong,” he said.Netanyahu is under intense pressure from the opposition and members of his coalition to take action in the north, especially given that so many Israelis have been displaced from the area. More than 53,000 Israelis have been forced to leave their homes in the north, the IDF said. In Lebanon, more than 94,000 people have been displaced from areas and towns near the border with Israel since the conflict started, according to figures released Tuesday by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. “All Hezbollah strongholds must be burned and destroyed. War!” said Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in a statement this week. Opposition leader Yair Lapid also slammed the government, saying: “The north goes up in flames and Israeli deterrence burns with it. “The government has no plan for the day after in Gaza, no plan to return the residents to the north, no management, no strategy. A government of total abandonment,” Lapid said on X. The US has cautioned against escalation, worried it might spin out of control. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday the United States is “incredibly concerned” about the risk of escalation, adding that the Biden administration is engaged in diplomatic conversations “to try to avoid that conflict from escalating beyond control.” Shaked, the Truman Institute scholar, said that despite Hezbollah’s assertions that its attacks on Israel are in support of Gaza, the group’s strategy is likely to be closely coordinated with its closest ally Iran – especially with so much at stake.
CNN’s Tamar Michaelis, Jonny Hallam, Mike Schwartz, Abbas Al Lawati and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting,

Cultural Diplomacy: China’s Soft Power in the Land of the Cedars (2/3)
Marie de La Roche Saint-André & Malo Pinatel /This Is Beirut/June 08/2024
“The art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” This simplified version of the words of Chinese thinker Sun Tzu in his eleventh-century essay, The Art of War, resonates today as Beijing challenges American leadership on the global stage. Central to this strategy is a soft power extending beyond Chinese borders, particularly in the cultural arena. Lebanon is no exception. As with many other countries, China is making significant investments in the Land of the Cedars. These investments span infrastructure projects, language courses, student exchange programs and the cultural allure propagated through social media. In essence, the Middle Kingdom is demonstrating the formidable reach of its soft power.
‘Convince and seduce’
In 1990, Joseph Nye’s defined soft power as the ability of a state to “convince and attract both other states and their civil societies.” Culture plays a pivotal role in this, akin to Hollywood’s role in projecting American influence. This concept is often contrasted with hard power, which refers to a state’s ability to impose its will through coercion. While China began integrating the principles of soft power in the late 1990s, it officially incorporated this strategy into its political agenda in 2007 under President Hu Jintao. In the following years, this shift led to the creation of a substantial cultural industry.
This includes organizing globally impactful events such as the Olympic Games, as well as investing in the media sector (radio, TV, etc.), social networks (notably TikTok) and cinema. Simultaneously, Beijing has implemented a vigorous cultural diplomacy by establishing numerous dedicated institutes around the world.
A flagship: the Confucius Institute
In Lebanon, Beijing’s endeavor began with the establishment of a Confucius Institute as early as 2006 in Beirut. Much like other institutions such as the Alliance Française, which serves as a model, this institute primarily focuses on teaching the Chinese language and providing insights into Chinese culture. Located within the campus of Univsersité Saint-Joseph (USJ) on Damascus Street, the Confucius Institute in Beirut is presently led by Nisrine Abdelnour Lattouf. Its teaching staff mainly consists of Chinese nationals. The institute primarily conducts classes on Friday evenings, catering for approximately a hundred students, and offers access to a specialized library. “We often host activities showcasing Chinese culture,” explains Mrs. Abdelnour Lattouf to This is Beirut. “Recently, we have also introduced courses on various aspects of Chinese culture, including geographical and political aspects of the People’s Republic.”
However, the Confucius Institute does not confine its courses to its premises alone. Since the onset of the crisis in 2019, it has forged partnerships with other institutions, such as Notre-Dame de Jamhour College. “We found it more convenient for teachers to visit school campuses,” Mrs. Abdelnour Lattouf clarifies. “This allows interested students to take these classes on-site.” “They have the option to learn this language as part of their extracurricular activities,” she adds. The initiative primarily aims to address the economic concerns of Lebanese individuals grappling with the crisis. Additionally, it seeks to enhance the allure of the Chinese language within Lebanon by strategically targeting its education sector.
Chinese soft power in action
The Confucius Institute in Beirut remains dynamic amidst these changes, leveraging China’s broad cultural influence abroad. Angela, a student at the Institute, attests to this, stating, “It’s primarily a cultural fascination. I became intrigued by Chinese culture, including its pop culture, films, literature, series and music, and I thought, why not give it a try?”Social media platforms, notably TikTok, play a significant role in fueling this interest. Despite facing criticism from Western political figures as a tool for Chinese influence, TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance.
Li Xiaoyan, a Chinese professor at the Confucius Institute in Beirut, acknowledges the influence of the largest non-Western social network. “Some adults are interested in learning Chinese because of TikTok,” she observes. However, she adds, “others, in the medium term, begin to see China as an appealing destination for travel or potentially work in the future.”In 2019, a document leak revealed that the app instructed its moderators to censor videos mentioning topics such as Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence and the Uyghur issue. TikTok has since responded, claiming to have revised these guidelines. However, suspicions remain, particularly regarding its algorithm. Kept secret, it has since faced regular accusations of promoting a positive image of the People’s Republic.
Musical diplomacy
Beyond the Institute, the Chinese government is extending its efforts into other areas of the cultural field. It is funding the construction of the National Higher Conservatory of Music in Lebanon with a donation of $62 million. The project is being carried out by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC), a state-owned enterprise. This project features the key elements of the “New Silk Roads.” The president of the conservatory, Hiba Kawas, enthusiastically describes the project as “truly unique, as it represents, in a way, a symbol in our region.”“I believe the Chinese government’s approach was a long-term one,” she adds. “The fact that they initiated the relationship with Lebanon through this project, which is purely cultural, shows how much Chinese policy relies on musical diplomacy and recognizes its power, its true power.”Since antiquity, politics and music have been intertwined in China. “Music has the power to transcend borders,” stated Xi Jinping in November 2023, in a letter addressed to the Philadelphia Orchestra. And in Lebanon’s case, it is indeed about strengthening exchanges between the two countries.
A broader vision
This rapprochement goes beyond language and music, as demonstrated by Caracalla troupe’s “Sailing the Silk Road” performance in 2018, for the 60th anniversary of the Baalbeck International Festival. The performance took place in Beijing, at the invitation of the Chinese authorities. However, China’s soft power is not limited to cultural events. It also seeks to embed itself in their dissemination. Thus, in December 2023, the caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makary, signed a cooperation agreement in the media field with the Chinese Minister of the National Radio and Television Administration, Cao Shumin. In addition to technical cooperation, the agreement included the exchange and distribution of media programs, as well as logistical support for media teams in both countries. It also involved cooperation in the administrative policy management of media institutions. Are these merely agreements between two amicable countries? Let’s not forget that on August 19, 2013, Xi Jinping defined his approach to propaganda and international messaging by emphasizing the importance of “telling China’s story well.” The Chinese leader stressed the concept of “external propaganda.” In other words, the aim is to present the People’s Republic in its finest image, particularly through the media. This initiative now extends far beyond the cultural field, deeply embedding itself in the political sphere.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 08-09/2024
Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7. At least 55 dead in Gaza strikes
Sam Mednick, Jack Jeffrey And Wafaa Shurafa/JERUSALEM (AP)/June 8, 2024
Israel said Saturday it rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, in the largest such hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza. Heavy fighting raged in central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued, and at least 55 people, including children, were killed in multiple attacks Saturday as people fled for safety, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in two separate locations in a complex special daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Argamani, has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since she was abducted from a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!” Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies. Hamas killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home. The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday with more than 36,700 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
Saturday’s operation is the largest recovery of alive hostages since the war erupted, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven. Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town, and a woman was rescued in the aftermath of October's attack. Israeli troops have so far recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Saturday's rescue “a heroic operation” and said the army will continue fighting until all the hostages are returned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to embrace a deal announced last month by U.S. President Joe Biden, but far-right allies threatening to collapse his government if he does. Argamani spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu. In an audio message released by the government, Netanyahu is heard asking Argamani how she's feeling and said he hasn't given up on the hostages. She tells him she is “very excited,” saying she hasn't heard Hebrew in so long. Her friend, Yonatan Levi, reacted to the news with a sense of disbelief. “Wow. Don’t know what to say. So excited such a crazy reality. So happy now and joyful,” Levi said. The rescue comes as Israel is intensifying operations across central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued. The bodies of the dozens of Palestinians killed Saturday were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where they were counted by Associated Press reporters. They later saw more injured and dead arrive at the hospital from Nuseirat and the eastern Deir al-Balah areas, as plumes of smoke rose in the distance. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in Nuseirat, killing over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children. Israel said that some 30 militants were inside the school at the time and on Friday released the names of 17 militants it said were killed in the strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue. One of the alleged militants was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

Israel rescues 4 hostages in Gaza; Hamas says 210 Palestinians killed in Israeli assault
REUTERS/June 08, 2024
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in Gaza on Saturday while over 200 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in the same area, according to Hamas officials, in one of the bloodiest Israeli assaults of the war. It was not immediately clear if the hostage rescue and the Israeli air assault were part of the same operation but both took place in central Gaza’s Al-Nuseirat, a densely built-up and often embattled area in the eight-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian territory’s ruling Islamist group. An Israeli military spokesperson said the hostage rescue operation unfolded under fire in the heart of a residential neighborhood, where he said Hamas had been hiding captives among Gaza civilians under guard by armed militants. Israeli forces returned fire, including with airstrikes, added the spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. An Israeli special forces commander was killed during the operation, a police statement said. Israel named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41. They were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health, the military said. They were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the deadly raid by Hamas-led Palestinian militants on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on Oct. 7, which precipitated the devastating war in the Hamas-run enclave. Hamas’ raid killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to an updated tally by the territory’s health ministry on Saturday.
CALL TO PRESIDENT
Gunmen took around 250 hostages back to Gaza on Oct. 7. There are 116 now left in the coastal enclave, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead in absentia. Israeli News 12 broadcast footage of Argamani reunited with her father, smiling and embracing him. Video of Argamani’s kidnapping, showing her shouting “Don’t kill me!” as she was driven into Gaza on a motorbike, circulated soon after she was taken on Oct. 7. A smiling Argamani was shown speaking by phone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog from hospital surrounded by family and friends, in footage released by the president’s office. “Thank you for everything, thank you for this moment,” she said. “I am so excited to hear your voice, it brings tears to my eyes ... Welcome home,” Herzog said. Poland praised the rescue of the hostages and said that one is a dual Israeli-Polish citizen.
BLOODY SCENES
A different picture unfolded back in Gaza, where Palestinian health ministry officials and local medics said that an Israeli military assault in Nuseirat had killed scores of people including women and children. The ministry did not say how many of the fatalities were combatants. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said later the death toll had risen to at least 210 Palestinians with many more wounded, after medics and health officials gave earlier tolls of up to 100 dead. There was no immediate confirmation of the highest figure from Gaza’s health ministry. Social media footage that Reuters could not immediately verify showed bodies spilling entrails onto bloodstained streets. “It was like a horror movie but this was a real massacre. Israeli drones and warplanes fired all night randomly at people’s houses and at people who tried to flee the area,” said Ziad, 45, a paramedic and resident of Nuseirat, who gave only his first name. The bombardment focused on a local marketplace and the Al-Awda mosque, he told Reuters via a messaging app. “To free four people, Israel killed dozens of innocent civilians,” he said. Emergency response teams sought to ferry the dead and wounded to hospital in the nearby city of Deir Al-Balah but many bodies were still lying in the streets, including around the market district, Ziad and other residents said. Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombing during the war and there has also been fierce ground fighting in its eastern areas.
The Gaza war shows no signs of slowing even as Israel’s chief ally the United States presses for a ceasefire and a deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for releases of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. The war has destabilized the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’s main backer Iran and its heavily armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officials are threatening to go to war with on Israel’s northern border.

Israeli move on Nuseirat will not affect swap deal, says Palestinian Islamic Jihad
REUTERS/June 08, 2024
CAIRO: Israel’s military operation on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp will not affect the current prisoner-hostage swap deal, said Mohammad Al-Hindi, deputy chief of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is an ally of Hamas. Al-Hindi said that conditions for the deal remain the same, in comments to Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.

Israel bombs Gaza as Gantz poised to quit government
Agence France Presse/June 08, 2024
Israel pressed its bombardment of Gaza on Saturday as an Israeli war cabinet minister looked set to carry through on his threat to quit a government under mounting pressure over its conduct of the military campaign. Strikes rattled various parts of the Gaza Strip and appeared to be focused on central areas of the Palestinian territory, witnesses and AFP journalists reported. The onslaught persisted, despite scrutiny on Israel after its warplanes carried out an attack Thursday on a U.N.-run school that a Gaza hospital said killed 37 people. The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, saying it targeted a base of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and killed 17 "terrorists". Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, accused the army of providing "false information". The group said three people Israel listed as dead were actually still alive. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that ran the school, condemned Israel for striking a facility it said had been housing 6,000 displaced people. In a post on social media platform X, the agency said the "school turned shelter" had been hit "without prior warning"."Targeting UN premises or using for military purposes cannot become the new norm. This must stop and all those responsible be held accountable," it said. Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational centres -- charges the militants deny.
'Defenceless' -
The war, now in its ninth month, has brought widespread devastation to Gaza, with one in 20 people dead or wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Most of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced. This grim reality was underscored by a strike whose aftermath, depicted in an AFP video, saw men salvaging what they could from a bombed-out Gaza City building and carrying away a shrouded body in a debris-strewn alley. Maher al-Mughair, who lives nearby, recounted the attack on Friday, saying: "We heard what sounded like a drone firing a missile, followed by another coming from an F-16 fighter jet. "So we checked and found women and children in pieces. What did the children and women do wrong? They are defenceless people, merely civilians," he told AFPTV. In the same city on Saturday, five people were killed and seven wounded when an Israeli warplane bombed the Mhana family's home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Gaza emergency services said. Elsewhere, medics at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said six people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli rocket attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where witnesses said gun battles raged. The Israeli army said it struck "dozens of terrorist cells and infrastructures" in Deir al-Balah and Bureij in the past day. Troops were also carrying out operations in Rafah. The war was sparked by Hamas' October 7 attack, which allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,194 Israelis. Militants from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Political fallout
Israel faced growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognising a Palestinian state.
Israel's U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, said Friday he was "disgusted" that the Israeli military would be on an upcoming United Nations list of countries and armed forces that fail to protect children during war. A diplomatic source later told AFP that Hamas as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad would also be included in the annual UN report, which highlights human rights violations against children in conflict zones and is expected by the end of June. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad are designated as terrorist organisations by several countries, including the United States and the European Union. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address the U.S. Congress next month, also faces pressure from within his right-wing government. The office of war cabinet member Benny Gantz has announced a news conference for Saturday, the deadline he gave Netanyahu last month to approve a post-war plan for Gaza. Israeli media have speculated that Gantz, a centrist former military chief who had been one of Netanyahu's main rivals before joining the war cabinet, was likely to carry through on a threat to resign. However, any such move is not expected to affect the stability of Netanyahu's government, a coalition of his right-wing Likud with far-right and ultra-orthodox Jewish parties.
U.S. diplomacy -
Latest efforts to mediate the first ceasefire in the conflict since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled a week after U.S. President Joe Biden offered a new roadmap. Biden, under pressure for the war to end ahead of a November presidential election, said the plan was to halt the fighting for six weeks while hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The plan would also involve the stepped-up delivery of aid into Gaza. The G7 group of world powers, and Arab states, have backed the proposal, with 16 world leaders joining Biden's call for Hamas to accept the deal.
Hamas has yet to respond to Biden's proposal. Israel has expressed openness to discussions but remains committed to destroying the Islamist group. Major sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal -- demands Israel has rejected. In a new diplomatic push, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday on his eighth Middle East trip since the war began. The top U.S. diplomat would "emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table" which "would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Blinken to push ceasefire proposal in 8th urgent Mideast trip since war in Gaza erupted
Associated Press/June 08, 2024
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will push for a breakthrough on President Joe Biden's cease-fire proposal when he returns to the Middle East next week on his eighth diplomatic mission to the region since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, the State Department said Friday. Blinken, who is currently in France accompanying Biden on a state visit timed to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II, will fly from Paris to Cairo on Monday to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other officials before traveling to Israel, Jordan and Qatar, the department said. Blinken will then go to Italy to join Biden at the summit for the Group of Seven advanced economies. In all of his meetings, Blinken "will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table, which is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month" and "discuss how the cease-fire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. "He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance, and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods," he said in a statement. "It would unlock the possibility of achieving calm along Israel's northern border — so both displaced Israeli and Lebanese families can return to their homes — and set the conditions for further integration between Israel and its Arab neighbors, strengthening Israel's long-term security and improving stability across the region."
In Israel, Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. In Jordan, he will participate in an emergency international conference on aid to Gaza, and in Qatar he will meet with officials who are attempting to mediate the cease-fire deal.
The lightning tour comes as the Biden administration is pushing hard for Hamas to accept a three-phase cease-fire proposal that would include the release of hostages taken from Israel and held by the militant group and potentially pave the way for an end to the conflict and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have lobbied Arab nations heavily to use what influence they have with Hamas to get it to accept the deal that the president announced last week. Hamas has said it views the offer "positively" but also called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions. But there has been no definitive response so far, and in the absence of one, Blinken will press the case in his meetings in Egypt and Qatar, the two countries with the closest ties to Hamas. However, Blinken may also have trouble selling the proposal — or at least its implementation — to Netanyahu.
Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it. And, Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all fighting until Hamas is eradicated. Despite Blinken's roughly once-a-month visits to the region since the war began following Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, the conflict has ground on with more than 36,000 Palestinians killed in eight months of Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians, who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
As the crisis has escalated, Israel has come under increasingly harsh international criticism for its actions and just this week has been excoriated for airstrikes in Gaza that have reportedly killed dozens of civilians. On Friday, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people, including children, just a day after 33 were killed at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families, health officials said. Since mid-October, Blinken has shuttled between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors, trying to boost aid to civilians in Gaza, prevent the conflict from spreading throughout the region and build support for plans for the reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza — all while vocally backing Israel's right to defend itself. Israel's offensive in Gaza has heightened political pressure in the U.S., with pro-Palestinian protests springing up at universities and resulting pushback from some who say the demonstrations have veered into antisemitism.

Gaza aid through U.S. pier will resume in coming days, Israel says
Reuters/June 8, 2024
Humanitarian aid entering Gaza by sea via a U.S.- built pier will resume in the coming days, the Israeli military said on Saturday, after repairs to the structure were completed. "The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has begun securing the coastal area of the U.S. military's Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) capability - in Gaza. The pier's re-establishment will allow for the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza in the coming days," the Israeli military said. The U.S. Central Command said on Friday it had re-established the temporary pier anchored off Gaza's coast, which had been temporarily removed after part of the structure broke off, two weeks after it started operating. The aid is meant to alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza which has been unfolding in the eight months since Israel launched an offensive in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel. More than 36,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the start of the Israeli offensive, which has laid to waste much of the enclave and displaced most the population.

Israel PM asks war cabinet minister Gantz not to quit after ultimatum
AFP/June 08, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday asked war cabinet minister Benny Gantz not to resign after threats to quit over the lack of post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip. Gantz said last month he would resign from the emergency body if Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8. “I call on Benny Gantz — do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity,” Netanyahu said on social media platform X. Gantz canceled a news conference that was scheduled for Saturday, his office said, after the Israeli military said security forces had rescued four hostages alive from Gaza earlier in the day. Without directly addressing speculations he had been planning to resign, Gantz appeared on Israeli television on Saturday evening after the captives were freed. “Alongside the justified joy over this achievement, it should not be forgotten that all the challenges Israel is facing... have remained as they were,” Gantz said. “Therefore, I say to the prime minister and the entire leadership — today, too, we must look responsibly at what is right and how we can continue from here.” His centrist National Union Party submitted a bill last week to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and hold early elections. Gantz has been seen as a favorite to form a coalition in the event that Netanyahu’s government is brought down and early elections are called. The former army chief, one of Netanyahu’s main rivals before he joined the war cabinet, had said this week that returning hostages from Gaza was a “priority.”
The army said Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday. All four had been kidnapped by Hamas militants from the Nova music festival on October 7, the military said in a statement, adding the four had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition.” During their October 7 attack on southern Israel, militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Israel's war cabinet minister Gantz delays statement after hostage rescue
Reuters/June 8, 2024
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has delayed a statement he was due to give later on Saturday in which he was widely expected to announce his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency government. Last month, Gantz presented the conservative prime minister with a June 8 deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza, where Israel has been pressing a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas. But following news that Israeli forces had rescued four Israeli hostages alive from Gaza, the minister's spokespeople said his statement would be postponed. They did not give a new time for the address, in which political commentators in leading Israeli newspapers said he was expected to announce his resignation. The departure of Gantz's centrist party would not pose an immediate threat to Netanyahu's governing coalition, which controls 64 of parliament's 120 seats, but it could have a serious impact nonetheless. With Gantz gone, Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad, at a time of increasing diplomatic and domestic pressure eight months into the Gaza war. Netanyahu would have to rely more heavily on the political backing of ultra-nationalist parties, whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a return to a complete Israeli occupation of Gaza. This would likely increase strains already apparent in relations with the United States and intensify public pressure at home, with the months-long military campaign still not achieving its stated goals - the destruction of Hamas and the return of 120 remaining hostages held in Gaza. Gantz's exit might also indicate limited prospects of success in the latest ceasefire efforts, according to political analysts, who say he would have been more likely to stay on if a deal appeared more probable. Polls have shown Gantz, a former army commander and defence minister, to be the most formidable political rival to Netanyahu, whose image as a security hawk was shattered by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. He joined a unity government soon after Oct. 7, saying he was putting aside political considerations in the national interest.

Israel cannot force its choices on Hamas, group's leader says
Reuters/June 8, 2024
Israel cannot force its choices on Hamas and the group will accept no deal that does not achieve security for Palestinians, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday in response to an Israeli military offensive in Gaza's al-Nuseirat area. Israeli forces have rescued four hostages alive from two separate locations in the central Gaza area of al-Nuseirat on Saturday, the military said. "Our people will not surrender and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy," Haniyeh said in his statement. "If the (Israeli) occupation believes that it can impose its choices on us by force, then it is delusional," he added. At least 55 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli attacks on Nuseirat and other areas in central Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said on Saturday.

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy are working together to put pressure on admin
Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN/June 8, 2024
Former Biden officials explain why they are working to get him to change US policy in GazaScroll back up to restore default view.
A group of US officials who publicly resigned over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy are banding together to support ongoing dissent and put pressure on the government to change course. More than half a dozen people from across the US government have left their jobs in public protest, saying they could no longer work for the administration, and even more have quietly departed. Many of the officials who resigned publicly said they would instead seek to have an impact outside the government. President Joe Biden has faced pressure both abroad and at home over his support for Israel eight months into the war in Gaza with Hamas – a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of civilian lives, displaced millions and brought extreme hunger throughout the enclave. Although the rhetoric from the administration has become harsher – with warnings that Israel must do more to protect civilians and allow more aid in – the policies have remained largely unchanged. The former officials who resigned publicly – Josh Paul, Harrison Mann, Tariq Habash, Annelle Sheline, Hala Rharrit, Lily Greenberg Call, Alex Smith, and Stacy Gilbert – said that they felt their perspectives, expertise and concerns were not being heeded, and that the administration was willingly ignoring the humanitarian toll caused by Israel’s military campaign. They spoke of the damage they felt US policy on the war is having on the country’s credibility and a sense that the administration did not fully grasp that impact.
All the officials who have resigned publicly and spoke with CNN said they have many colleagues who are still within the government but agree with their decision to leave.
Providing support and advice to those colleagues – whether they choose to leave or continue to dissent from within – is one of the key reasons that they have come together collectively. Another key reason, they said, is to increase the pressure on the administration to change course.
“We’re thinking about how we can use our shared concern and to continue to press together for change,” said Paul, a State Department official who publicly resigned in protest in October, becoming the first US official to do so.
“When you have numerous career professionals and presidential appointees … who have resigned over this policy, it’s an indicator that something is going wrong,” Mann told CNN. Some of those who publicly resigned had particular breaking points; others said it was the collective toll of incidents throughout the conflict. Gilbert, a career diplomat with more than two decades of experience, told CNN she had been working on the highly-anticipated report on Israel’s use of US weapons and whether it had restricted humanitarian aid – but then, “at some point, the subject matter experts who were working on that report were removed, it was moved up to a higher level.”She did not see the report until its public release on May 10. It found it “reasonable to assess” that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law but stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law. It also concluded that Israel had not withheld humanitarian aid to Gaza in violation of the law. Gilbert said that while the first conclusion was “more honest than I’d seen us be,” the second was “absolutely not true.” “It is not the opinion of experts in the US government, experts on humanitarian assistance. It is not the opinion of organizations on the ground in Gaza. So to see that in the report, stated so clearly, that we assess that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance – it was appalling, It was absolutely appalling. And that’s when I decided to resign,” she said, calling the report’s conclusion a “political” one. “To say it undermines our credibility is an understatement,” Gilbert said. Gilbert left the State Department in May.
Biden administration officials have said that they respect differences of opinions.
“We listen to people. We want to hear their opinions. We want to hear the expertise that they bring to bear. But ultimately, it is the president, the secretary, other senior officials that make the decisions about what the policy of the United States ought to be,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said this week. US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power said in an interview with NPR this week that “we have a lot of views at USAID that are critical of US foreign policy. We have views that believe we are pushing and doing everything we can, and my job is to hear those views, and particularly those that are informed by facts on the ground and ideas about what more we can do.” “Because the situation is abhorrent. Civilians are living in unimaginable terror and in unimaginable deprivation. So if there weren’t people, particularly in an agency like USAID, that is rooted in humanitarian and development mission, who are unhappy about where we are, that would be disappointing in its own right,” she said.
‘Resignees’ aiming to use ‘collective power’
The “resignees,” as Smith called them, have all been in touch with each other and are “hoping to use our collective power to speak in press releases to make our voices well, to speak for many of the staff who are still employed and cannot speak because they would like to keep their jobs, which is a very fair thing.”“If we can be a resource to help others find their voice, find a way to try to affect some policy change, that would be useful,” said Gilbert, noting there may be new ways that people within the administration make their disagreement over the policy heard.
“The strategy may be changing from writing one dissent cable that many people sign on to individuals writing their own” she said, referencing the formal State Department channel to express opposition, so that “people have a way to express what they feel in particular about this and to get a response to each person individually based on their dissent to this policy.” Someone from the department’s leadership commits to sit down with those who file dissent cables.
Mann said he has advised people with concerns to both “put them in writing and ask your supervisor or ask your chain of command to give you an assurance with their name on it that what you’re doing is in compliance with both international and US law and with the ethical standards of the organization that you work for.”Smith, who worked for four years at USAID, said he had always found the policies toward Gaza to be “lacking” and that his frustrations about the US policies around the war had been building. The “final straw,” however, was the cancelation of a presentation he was slated to give on the maternal and child health impacts of the “collective punishment of civilians,” he said. “It was apparently the final straw also for USAID because they did come back with that ultimatum that I could resign or be terminated because of personality differences,” he told CNN. He left the agency in May. Some of the officials who publicly resigned said they realized in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that the response from the Israeli government was likely to be extreme. Greenberg Call, a former Interior Department employee who became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign, told CNN, “I spent the first few weeks after that reeling from dealing with the trauma and the impact of that and the grief of losing people, but I also knew almost immediately that whatever was going to happen, as a reaction, as a response, was going to be really brutal, really, really horrible.”
She said she was “disappointed” from the outset by the administration’s response, but “wanted to see what I could do from the inside because of the proximity to power that I had.”She told CNN she felt the concerns she shared were ignored, and “if anything, I was somewhat marked as a troublemaker.”
“There did just come a point where I personally could no longer be in integrity with myself and be representing the administration,” she said. She left in May. Mann, an Army officer who worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, made the decision to resign in November, just weeks after October 7. He is Jewish and the first member of the intelligence community to publicly resign. “It was the function of basically hopelessness about the course of the war in Gaza,” he said, telling CNN that it seemed clear to him early on that “the Israelis were going to be indiscriminately killing huge numbers of civilians,” and that was not going to impact US support. Mann explained that leaving was a “very slow and drawn-out process,” so he didn’t actually leave his job until this week – and he didn’t tell people the reason for his resignation until recently for fear of becoming “persona non-grata.”
“I realized after the fact that if I had aired my concerns to my colleagues, and maybe also to my superiors earlier on, I think I would have found a lot of sympathetic ears. And I wish that I’d done that,” he said. Many officials told CNN they spoke with other officials who had resigned publicly to seek advice before going public with their own resignations. “There’s no manual for how to publicly resign from your job in protest, so it was helpful to talk to people who had done it,” Greenberg Call said.

Colombia will suspend coal exports to Israel over war in Gaza
Manuel Rueda/BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) /June 8, 2024
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Saturday that his country will suspend coal exports to Israel over the war in Gaza, as relations sour between two countries that were once close military and commercial allies. Petro wrote on the social media platform X that coal exports will only resume “when the genocide” in Gaza stops. Petro also posted a draft decree, which says that coal exports will only resume if Israel complies with a recent order by the International Court of Justice that says Israel should withdraw its troops from the Gaza strip. According to Colombia’s National Statistics Department, coal exports to Israel were worth more than $320 million in the first eight months of last year. That's a small fraction of the nation’s overall coal exports which were worth more than $9 billion in 2023. Israel imports more than 50% of its coal from Colombia, according to the American Journal for Transportation, and uses much of it to feed its power plants. Petro, who was elected into office in 2022 as Colombia's first leftist president, broke diplomatic ties with Israel in May saying that he could not maintain relations with the “genocidal” government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both governments have continued to keep consulates in each other's territories and conduct trade. Colombia has long depended on Israel for military hardware that includes assault rifles and intelligence equipment. The South American nation has also bought more than 30 fighter jets from Israel over the past three decades, and depends on Israeli companies for their maintenance. New military purchases have been halted however as relations between both countries deteriorate. Critics of Petro have said that the president’s decision to cut ties with Israel jeopardizes Colombia’s security capabilities as its military fights drug cartels and rebel groups in rural parts of the country. Unlike previous Colombian presidents, who kept strong ties with Israel, Petro has been an outspoken critic of the middle eastern nation, and initially refused to condemn the Hamas attack that preceded Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Developing countries call on US to lift Palestinian UN veto
Reuters/June 8, 2024
The D-8 group of developing nations called on Saturday for the U.S. to lift its veto on the full membership of Palestine as an independent and sovereign state in the United Nations. The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012. In a declaration after a meeting in Istanbul of its council of ministers, G-8 members Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey also demanded all countries stop supplying weapons and ammunition to Israel. The U.N. General Assembly last month backed a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the U.N. Security Council "reconsider the matter favorably". The Palestinian push for full U.N. membership comes several months into a war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the U.N. considers to be illegal. As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has exceeded 36,000 and a humanitarian crisis has engulfed the enclave, human rights groups and other critics have faulted the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel and largely defending Israel's conduct. On Saturday, Israeli military said they rescued alive four hostages who were seized by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack in which Israeli said 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted. A Palestinian health official said on Saturday that at least 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Nuseirat and other areas of central Gaza.

GCC to hold 160th ministerial council in Doha on Sunday
ARAB NEWS/June 08, 2024
RIYADH: The 160th Ministerial Council meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council will convene in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Sunday in the presence of the foreign ministers of the Gulf countries. Two joint ministerial meetings will also be held on the sidelines, the first between the GCC and Turkiye with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and the second with Yemen Yemen, represented by Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsin Zindani, the GCC said in a statement. GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi said that the ministerial council will discuss a number of reports on the implementation of the decisions of the Supreme Council that were issued at the 44th summit in Doha in December 2023, as well as memorandums and reports submitted by ministerial and technical committees and the General Secretariat, related to joint Gulf action. He said that the session will also discuss dialogues and strategic relations between the GCC countries and other countries and blocs around the world, and regional and international developments. Albudaiwi said that, out of the keenness of the GCC countries to intensify and strengthen their relations and partnerships with countries, allies, and regional and international organizations, the Gulf-Turkish meeting will be held where several topics will be discussed, the most important of which is the joint action plan and ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries. The GCC-Yemeni meeting will discuss and the bloc’s firm position “in support of the legitimate government in Yemen and the resolution of the Yemeni crisis through a political solution in accordance with the three references, represented in the GCC Initiative, the outcomes of the comprehensive National Dialogue Conference, and Security Council Resolution 2216,” he said. The meeting will also look at ways tostrengthen the joint GCC efforts to assist the Yemeni people to ensure their stability and security, he added.

Iran helicopter crash shows Tehran's reliance on an aging fleet as well as its challenges at home
The Associated Press//June 8, 2024
By the time Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi boarded his window seat on a helicopter ferrying him, the foreign minister and six others, thick clouds already had begun forming around the mountaintops along the Azerbaijan-Iran border. Despite the worsening weather, the helicopter lifted off for a trip about 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest to a new oil pipeline near Tabriz.Within an hour, the Bell 212 helicopter had crashed into a cloud-covered mountainside. While the cause of the May 19 crash remains unknown, the sudden death of the hard-line protégé of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exposed the contradictions and challenges facing the country's Shiite theocracy. The Iranian military investigators probing the crash have previously faced international criticism over their report on troops shooting down a Ukrainian airliner in 2020. The hourslong desperate rescue attempt after the helicopter crash saw Tehran even reach out to the United States for help, just weeks after launching an unprecedented attack on Israel and as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Even the type of helicopter that crashed links back to Iranian history, both before and after the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Iran is a culture of dualities,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who studies Iran's military. “Some aspects, they seem so good and well-managed, well-oiled and very capable. ... In many levels, it's quite lacking.”Iranian military investigators have released two statements on the crash, largely ruling out possibilities rather than offering a suspected cause. They've rejected the possibility of an onboard “explosion caused by sabotage" or a “cyberattack” targeting the Bell 212, a two-blade, twin-engine helicopter more widely known as the Huey for its use by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. “The recorded conversations between the flight crew show that the last contact with the pilots up to the time of the incident and when they stopped responding lasted 69 seconds,” the investigators said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “No emergency declaration was recorded during that time.”In conspiracy-minded Iran, some officials still insist foul play could have caused the crash. However, some other officials have begun to ask why the helicopter took off from the site of the new Giz Galasi Dam when the weather had started to turn.
Mostafa Mirsalim, a member of the country's Expediency Council, wrote on the social platform X that he had asked prosecutors to “address the mistakes that led to the loss of the president and his delegation,” without elaborating.
Abbas Abdi, a prominent journalist, also wrote on X that the flight path taken by Raisi's helicopter suggested the pilot didn't follow a standard Iranian practice of shadowing main roads in rural areas. That can both help navigation and provide a safe landing area in an emergency. Former Iranian Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Abolhassan Banisadr both survived helicopter crashes while in office.
The helicopter involved in the crash, nearly 30 years old, came directly from a Bell manufacturing plant in Montreal, Canada, to the Iranian air force, according to data from the firm Cirium. It counts 12 Bell 212 aircraft registered in Iran that are still in service.
Bell Textron Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas, said it "does not conduct any business in Iran or support their helicopter fleet, and we do not have knowledge about the active state of the helicopter involved in this accident.”
But despite being decades old, the Bell 212 and its military counterpart the Huey still are flown around the world. In the United States, Hueys still fly as part of America's nuclear forces to support its silos and for some VIP missions, said Roger D. Connor, an aeronautics curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Over 440 still fly worldwide, according to Cirium. “It’s a simple aircraft to fly by medium helicopter standards. It doesn’t typically have much automation which can have both positive and negative implications for operators,” Connor said. “More automation means more opportunities for pilot confusion in certain circumstances, but also better capabilities in low-visibility conditions.”Iran's use of the Bell 212 remains pervasive, in part due to the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who struck deals to purchase hundreds of the helicopters and had plans to build a local variant, Nadimi said. Those already in the country at the time of the Islamic Revolution ended up being a key component of Iran's bloody war against Iraq in the 1980s. But as Western sanctions dried up the supply of parts, fewer of the aircraft were airworthy, despite efforts to locally overhaul them. That saw Iran engage in covert means to secure parts, sparking several U.S. criminal cases for those involved, who sought everything from safety equipment to full engines and night-vision goggles for the aircraft. Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame sanctions for the crash. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded by saying America was “not going to apologize for our sanctions regime at all” as Iran has used aircraft to “transport equipment to support terrorism.”“Ultimately, it’s the Iranian government that is responsible for the decision to fly a ... helicopter in what was described as poor weather conditions, not any other actor,” Miller said. Meanwhile, questions remain over why Iran couldn't find the helicopter for hours, even though one of the victims reportedly talked by cellphone with officials. Such calls, in theory, can be triangulated by security services. Also, it remains unclear if the helicopter had any emergency tracker, which are common on aircraft. While the investigation continues, Nadimi said he believed that the Bell 212 that flew Raisi did not have advanced avionics that could have been useful for low-visibility flight. However, he stressed that the major issue in the crash likely involves who allowed the flight to take off as the weather turned poor and whether the pilot faced pressure from his VIP passengers to make the journey no matter what. “Pilot error, human error might be to blame, but there was a chain of events that caused this crash, not just pilot error," Nadimi said. “That helicopter should have been able to clear that terrain and fly safely to its destination. They should not have been dispatched for flying.”

Attacks in Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions leave 28 dead, Moscow-backed officials say
Susie Blann And Elise Morton/KYIV, Ukraine (AP) /June 8, 2024
Russia-installed officials in the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Luhansk said Ukrainian attacks left at least 28 people dead as Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange drone attacks overnight into Saturday. A Ukrainian attack Friday on the small town of Sadove in Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region killed 22 and wounded 15 people, Moscow-backed governor Vladimir Saldo said. Russian state news agency Tass cited Saldo as saying that Ukrainian forces first struck the town with a French-made guided bomb, then attacked again with a U.S.-supplied HIMARS missile. He said Ukrainian forces had “deliberately made a repeat strike to create greater numbers of casualties” when “residents of nearby houses ran out to help the injured”. Further east, Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed governor in Ukraine’s partially occupied Luhansk region, said Saturday that two more bodies had been pulled from the rubble following Friday’s Ukrainian missile attack on the regional capital, also called Luhansk. Russian state news agency Interfax cited regional authorities as saying this brought the death toll to six. Pasechnik also said 60 people were wounded in the attack. Pasechnik declared Saturday a day of mourning in the region, with public events canceled. Ukraine did not comment on either assault. Meanwhile, drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine persisted. Ukraine launched a barrage of drones across Russian territory overnight Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday. Twenty-five drones were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s southern Kuban and Astrakhan regions, the western Tula region, and the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula. On Saturday morning, officials said air defenses for the first time shot down Ukrainian drones over the North Ossetia region in the North Caucasus, some 900 km (560 miles) east of the front line in Ukraine’s partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that one drone had been destroyed, whereas regional Gov. Sergei Menyailo reported three downed drones over the region. Menyailo said that the target was a military airfield.
Ukrainian air defense overnight shot down nine out of 13 Russian drones over the central Poltava region, southeastern Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and the Kharkiv region in the northeast, Ukraine’s air force said Saturday. Dnipropetrovsk regional Gov. Serhiy Lysak said the overnight drone attack damaged commercial and residential buildings.

Macron is hosting Biden for a state visit as the two leaders try to move past trade tensions
The Associated Press/ June 8, 2024
President Joe Biden is being feted by French President Emmanuel Macron with a state visit Saturday as the two allies aim to show off their partnership on global security issues and move past trade tensions. Biden and Macron attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday and met separately the following day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris. The leaders both used those engagements used to underscore the urgent need to support Kyiv's fight against Russia's invasion. But Macron and Biden have often chafed at the pace of support for Ukraine, especially as the United States, by far the largest contributor to Kyiv's defense, was forced to pause aid shipments for months while congressional Republicans held up an assistance package. The state visit began with a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, including a wreath-laying at France's tomb of the unknown soldier, and a military parade along the Champs-Élysées leading to the Élysée Palace, where the two held official meetings and were delivering public statements. Later, there is a state dinner at the palace for Biden and his wife, Jill. “Proud to be here," Biden said at the Arc de Triomphe. "A great honor.”Biden hosted Macron in December 2022 at the White House for the first state visit of his presidency as the COVID-19 pandemic receded. Jill Biden flew back to Paris aboard a U.S. government plane after spending Friday in Delaware to support their son, Hunter Biden, who is standing trial on federal gun charges. As the president's trip draws to a close, the far right is likely to emerge as one of the biggest winners in Sunday's European Parliament election while Macron’s pro-European Union movement is flagging. A top French official said Macron and Biden have a friendly and warm relationship and stressed that the U.S. president is spending five days in France, reflecting the importance he attaches to the visit. The official spoke anonymously, in line with customary practices for Macron's office. The official said the U.S. presidential campaign was not a factor in the discussion. Macron hosted then-President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee this year, for Bastille Day in 2017, and he came to Washington for a state visit in 2018 before their relationship soured. U.S. and French officials said Ukraine would be at the top of Saturday's agenda, but the centerpiece of the weekend event would be the strength of the alliance, fortified at Normandy 80 years ago, but with roots far deeper. “It's probably a good thing for us to remember that we didn’t win our independence either without some foreign help or foreign assistance, specifically from France,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday.
Max Bergmann, a former U.S. State Department official who leads Europe research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S.-French relationship is strong despite occasional disagreements. “There’s always tension in Franco-American relations because the French try to do stuff," he said. "They’re bold, they throw up proposals, and that leads to some friction when we push back.”For example, he said, France proposed putting Western trainers on the ground in Ukraine, leading to questions of whether this is “really giving Ukraine a major, tangible benefit” or has the “potential to be escalatory and dangerous.”Regarding Macron, Bergmann said, “he’s the one that pushes the boundaries and throws up ideas.”Kirby said the two leaders would have an announcement Saturday on deepening maritime law enforcement cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. They also were to discuss economic and climate challenges.While praising the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine, Macron said earlier this year that Europe must become “capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary," arguing the continent should rely less on the U.S. for its own defense. He also warned Western powers against showing any signs of weakness to Russia as he repeatedly said that sending Western troops into Ukraine to shore up its defense should not be ruled out. The leaders were also set to discuss their efforts to bring about a cease-fire to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as the U.S. and Israel await Hamas' response to a Biden-promoted cease-fire proposal that would allow a surge of humanitarian assistance into the territory.
Macron is expected to raise U.S. trade practices that he has often criticized, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which favors American-made climate technology such as electric vehicles. Macron said the U.S., like China, has "decided not to respect the rules of global trade” by shoring up protections and subsidies while Europe’s industry remains open and is stuck in overregulation. The French official said Europe has to defend European interests, after watching the U.S. do the same with its own, but said Macron hopes to find a mutually acceptable outcome.
Gary Hufbauer, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said trade with China is a sticking point between the U.S. and Europe, particularly France. The U.S. has been more eager to restrict trade, particularly regarding technology. Biden is also moving toward tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and batteries, which could affect European cars that include Chinese parts. Overall, Hufbauer said, “Europe wants to maintain much more trade with China than the U.S. wants.”

The US is considering deploying more nuclear weapons to deter Russia, China, and North Korea, US official says
Cameron Manley/Business Insider/June 8, 2024
North Korea launches 'nuclear attack submarine' ahead of talks with PutinScroll back up to restore default view. The US is considering deploying more strategic nuclear weapons, a senior Biden official said. Russia, China, and North Korea are increasing their nuclear capabilities rapidly, said Pranay Vaddi. The US must modernize its nuclear arsenal to deter threats and preserve stability, the official said. The US is considering deploying more strategic nuclear weapons after years of post-Cold War cutbacks, a senior Biden administration official said. Speaking at the annual meeting Arms Control Association (ACA) on Friday, Pranay Vaddi, the top National Security Council arms control official, said, "We may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision."Vaddi warned that adversaries of the US, specifically referring to Russia, China, and North Korea,"are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace, showing little or no interest in arms control."Along with Iran, these countries "are increasingly cooperating and coordinating with each other in ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the United States, our allies and our partners and exacerbate region tensions," he said. Vaddi's comments contrast with the US government's position on nuclear proliferation outlined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the ACA meeting last year. Sullivan said that the US did not need to "deploy ever-more dangerous nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence" or engage in a Cold War-style arms race. "We've been there. We've learned that lesson," Sullivan said. In February last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin withdrew from the 2010 New START treaty, which placed controls on the number of nuclear weapons that Russia and the US could have at their disposal. The limits meant that neither country could have more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads. Putin said that to resume treaty activities, the US would need to stop its support for Ukraine and force France and the UK to attend arms control talks. At the time, President Joe Biden called Putin's decision a "big mistake."Last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened nuclear strikes on the West, Reuters reported. The former president held office from 2008 to 2012 and currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council. Reuters reported that Medvedev said, "Nobody today can rule out the conflict's transition to its final stage." In May, Russia announced drills with tactical nukes near Ukraine, which it said are being held in response to recent "threats" from the West. Speaking about the growing threat of a nuclear conflict, Vaddi said, "We will have no choice but to adjust our posture and capabilities to preserve deterrence and stability." "We need to persuade our adversaries that managing rivalry through arms control is preferable to unrestrained competition," he said.

Kidnapping of Yemeni UN employees by Houthis widely condemned
SAEED AL-BATATI/Arab News/June 08, 2024
AL-MUKALLA: Human rights groups on Saturday strongly denounced the Houthis’ abduction of scores of Yemenis working for the UN and for US organizations in Yemen. Yemeni Human Rights Minister Ahmed Arman said on Friday that the Iran-backed militia had kidnapped around 50 Yemeni personnel from various UN agencies, the US Embassy, US-funded NGOs, and other foreign organizations in Sanaa after storming their residences. The Houthis also reportedly abducted Yemeni workers in other Yemeni provinces under their control. On Saturday, Arman told Arab News that the Houthis had resumed their raids on residences in Sanaa and abducted more Yemenis working for foreign organizations, but did not provide the names of those people or the organizations they work for. In a joint statement, 118 Yemeni human rights organizations said the Houthi intelligence and security services had conducted simultaneous raids on the homes of Yemenis working for the UN and other international organizations in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Saada, and Amran, abducting them and taking their mobile phones and laptops.
“The Houthi militia’s continued crimes constitute a blatant breach of national and international laws and standards, as well as a manifest disrespect for all international and regional attempts aimed at restoring peace in the country,” the Yemeni groups said in their statement. The Houthis have not provided an official explanation for their campaign, but they have previously accused Yemeni workers employed by foreign embassies or organizations of collaborating with their enemies. When asked by Arab News to comment on reports that the Houthis were continuing to target Yemeni UN agencies’ personnel, Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said: “We have nothing new to report.”The Houthi raids occurred as the US military said it had intercepted a fresh barrage of Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait. The US Central Command said on Friday night that the Houthis had fired four ballistic missiles from regions under their control over the Red Sea in the previous 24 hours, none of which hit any navy or commercial ships.
CENTCOM forces destroyed four drones and two ballistic missiles in Yemeni areas controlled by the Houthis before they reached their targets on international shipping routes. The US military also destroyed one Houthi drone launched into the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and a Houthi boat in the Red Sea. Houthi media said on Friday that US and UK planes had carried out four airstrikes on the airport in the western province of Hodeidah, and another on the province’s Al-Salif port. Four more US and US airstrikes hit a military base north of Sanaa on Friday, according to the Houthis.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea announced on Friday that their forces had launched drones and missiles at two ships in the Red Sea for allegedly breaching their ban on sailing to Israel. According to ship-monitoring apps, one of the ships, the Elbella, is a Malta-flagged container ship heading from Jeddah to Egypt, while the other, the Aal Genoa, is a Cyprus-flagged general cargo ship sailing from Poland to the UAE. Since November, the Houthis have sunk one ship, seized another, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at international naval and commercial ships in what the Yemeni militia claims are actions in support of the Palestinian people intended to force Israel to end its assault on Gaza.

Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 08-09/2024
The West Keeps Rewarding the Terrorist Group Hamas
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/June 08/2024
Spain, Ireland and Norway recently formally recognized Palestinian statehood.... It is unprecedented in world history for a terrorist group to attack another country, murder its people and take hostages, only to then be rewarded with a recognition of statehood – cordially facilitating its future actions, including against countries in Europe.
We have already seen this April "thousands of protestors" in Germany demanding a Caliphate with sharia law.
The West's reward also sends a message that... the West will eagerly accept any antisocial behavior rather than stand up for the values of civilization that have defined it for centuries.
The aim of anti-Israel protestors seems to be that stability can only be achieved after everyone has conceded to the terrorists' demands. Sadly, many politicians, perhaps hoping for votes from wherever they can get them, might be only too happy to comply.
Perhaps Ireland, Norway and Spain would like to offer sanctuary to Gazans from Hamas?
[The] intended beneficiaries of ...[Israel's] enormous sacrifice, have instead been undermining and demonizing Israel every step of the way, especially its fearless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts "The Churchill of the Middle East," who now finds himself, courtesy of the unlawful International Criminal Court, with an international warrant out for his arrest.
The only reason countries are recognizing a Palestinian is that they will not have to live next to it. As Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and former New York City Council president Andrew Stein recently pointed out:
"Consider the fact that no Arab or Muslim nation has been willing to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Perhaps these nations recall that anyone who has tried to help the Palestinians has lived to regret it. When Jordan took them in, the Palestinians tried to overthrow the government of King Hussein in 1970. The attempted coup, known as Black September, ended with the Palestinians being expelled to Lebanon. Once there, a civil war erupted between the Muslims, backed by the PLO, and the Christians, resulting in the PLO being expelled once again, this time to Tunisia in 1982. After Kuwait offered roughly 400,000 Palestinians visas and jobs, and Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990,the PLO sided with Iraq. After the liberation of Kuwait, an estimated 200,000 were expelled and another 200,000 were not allowed back."
The more countries that will join Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in its assault by recognizing a Palestinian state, the more power and influence they will have in Europe to double their demands. Wait until Iran has its nuclear bombs and the ballistic missiles to deliver them. They will not even have to use them, only threaten to, as Putin is now doing in Ukraine so that US President Joe Biden will prevent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from winning.
Such actions jeopardize stability not only in the Middle East but even more in Europe. Ireland, Norway and Spain seem to be under the illusion that if they pet the kitty, the kitty will like them. Unfortunately, that is not always the way kitties work. All that cuddling up to terrorists and their promotors really achieves is to weaken the West's credibility in defending its values, and the way of life we naïvely take for granted in the West.
It is unprecedented in world history for a terrorist group to attack another country, murder its people and take hostages, only to then be rewarded with a recognition of statehood – cordially facilitating its future actions, including against countries in Europe.
It is astonishing and difficult to comprehend how, after the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the West has progressively adopted policies that support the terrorist organization Hamas and its influential backers, Qatar and Iran.
This policy is particularly perplexing given the violent nature of the attack and the well-documented connections, especially between Hamas and the Iranian regime, which has been a significant supporter of Hamas both financially and militarily. The West's stance also raises questions about the strategic and ethical considerations behind such policies, considering the implications for regional stability and the ongoing threat posed by these groups.
Spain, Ireland and Norway recently formally recognized Palestinian statehood, a decision that comes just seven months after Hamas invaded Israel, and savagely raped, tortured, beheaded, immolated and kidnapped Israeli and Western civilians. It is unprecedented in world history for a terrorist group to attack another country, murder its people and take hostages, only to then be rewarded with a recognition of statehood – cordially facilitating its future actions, including against countries in Europe.
We have already seen this April "thousands of protestors" in Germany demanding a Caliphate with sharia law.
The West's reward also sends a message that the West is fearful and willing to capitulate in the face of horrific acts. It suggests that instead of standing firm against terrorism and taking decisive action to hold perpetrators accountable, the West will eagerly accept any antisocial behavior rather than stand up for the values of civilization that have defined it for centuries. This perception can only torpedo West's ability to contain terrorism inside its gates, and, as in Germany, can only have serious repercussions for domestic and global security.
The aim of anti-Israel protestors seems to be that stability can only be achieved after everyone has conceded to the terrorists' demands. Sadly, many politicians, perhaps hoping for votes from wherever they can get them, might be only too happy to comply.
Perhaps Ireland, Norway and Spain would like to offer sanctuary to Gazans from Hamas?
The only reason countries are recognizing a Palestinian state is that they will not have to live next to it. As Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and former New York City Council president Andrew Stein recently pointed out:
"Consider the fact that no Arab or Muslim nation has been willing to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Perhaps these nations recall that anyone who has tried to help the Palestinians has lived to regret it. When Jordan took them in, the Palestinians tried to overthrow the government of King Hussein in 1970. The attempted coup, known as Black September, ended with the Palestinians being expelled to Lebanon. Once there, a civil war erupted between the Muslims, backed by the PLO, and the Christians, resulting in the PLO being expelled once again, this time to Tunisia in 1982. After Kuwait offered roughly 400,000 Palestinians visas and jobs, and Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990,the PLO sided with Iraq. After the liberation of Kuwait, an estimated 200,000 were expelled and another 200,000 were not allowed back."
This short-sighted agenda of course requires isolating Israel, which has been fighting not only for its survival but also the survival of Europe and the West with these intended beneficiaries of such an enormous sacrifice, instead have been undermining and demonizing Israel every step of the way, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called by Andrew Roberts "The Churchill of the Middle East," who now finds himself, courtesy of the unlawful International Criminal Court, with an international warrant out for his arrest.
While the sanctimonious parliamentarians of Europe help Adolf Hitler finish what he started in the comfort of the volcanoes that have only intermittently blown under them so far – the Munich Olympics and the Berlin Christmas Market; the rapes in Cologne on New Year's Eve; the slaughter of Theo van Gogh; riots in Sweden; Denmark's Mohammad Cartoon furor and the murder at its Free Speech Society; London's 7/7 Underground bombings and the London Bridge attacks, Manchester's Ariana Grande Concert; the massacres at France's satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Paris's Bataclan theater, and the Bastille Day truck-ramming on Nice's croisette, the shooting of schoolchildren in Toulouse, as well as murders of individuals too plentiful to count (for instance, here, here, here and here) -- Iran and Hezbollah have been raining rockets down on the north of Israel, eager to go full bore on a country, smaller than New Jersey, by widening a second front.
The decision to recognize Palestinian statehood reassures the terrorists that the West is willing to overlook the ongoing threats and violent actions not only against Israel but against itself. Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah can clearly see that the longer they can keep their jihad on Israel going, the more the victim, Israel, will be demonized -- not the terrorist perpetrators -- and the better it will be for terrorism.
The more countries that will join Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in its assault by recognizing a Palestinian state, the more power and influence they will have in Europe to double their demands. Wait until Iran has its nuclear bombs and the ballistic missiles to deliver them. They will not even have to use them, only threaten to, as Putin is now doing in Ukraine so that US President Joe Biden will prevent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from winning.
Iran and Qatar have a long history of spreading Islamism and funding terrorist groups – Qatar through bankrolling terrorist groups and blanketing a good part of the globe with jihadi messages from Al Jazeera; and Iran by using its IRGC militia and proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- to take over more and more countries in the Middle East. So far, Iran had pocketed Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, as well as the Gaza Strip, and now appears to be eyeing the West Bank and Sudan.
Such actions jeopardize stability not only in the Middle East but even more in Europe. Ireland, Norway and Spain seem to be under the illusion that if they pet the kitty, the kitty will like them. Unfortunately, that is not always the way kitties work. All that cuddling up to terrorists and their promotors really achieves is to weaken the West's credibility in defending its values, and the way of life we naïvely take for granted in the West.
**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
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20687/rewarding-hamas-terrorists

Biden’s ceasefire plan offers a glimmer of hope for Gaza
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/June 08, 2024
The painstaking efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel in Gaza are inching forward, albeit at a regrettably slow pace. However, after US President Joe Biden last week presented a road map for a possible halt to the deadly hostilities, an end to the war seems closer than it has been until now. Biden outlined a three-phase proposal that he presented as being an Israeli offer, following months of negotiations through mediators, to which Hamas responded positively, at least in principle. Yet there is always the suspicion that although the two sides might agree to the general principles of such an agreement, they could dig their heels in when the finer details, which for now remain opaque, are being negotiated. A major obstacle to any deal is that there is not an iota of trust between the two sides. Mutual hatred and the notion of a zero-sum game in which only one side can prevail in the conflict are ingrained in their perceptions of each other. This profound distrust means that whatever both sides might agree to, each will still believe the other will violate it, given the opportunity. Israeli authorities would like a guarantee that if they halt their military operations and Hamas then fails to release the hostages, they would be free to resume the fighting. Hamas, and especially its leaders, would like assurances, which they most probably will not receive, that Israel will not continue to pursue them by other means. But the logic behind acceptance of the ceasefire proposal — which rather than being an authentic Israeli offer, as it was presented, seems more likely to be the result of intensive international pressure, especially from Washington — is hard to dispute. After eight months of war there is hardly anything that either side can achieve, militarily. Hamas, through the atrocities it committed on Oct. 7, provoked Israel into a reaction. But Israel, by declaring its goal to be the complete destruction of Hamas, set itself up to fail, especially since its military strategy of maximum destruction, with little concern for civilian lives, meant it surrendered the moral high ground and left it internationally isolated, with no clear strategy for ending the war.
Moreover, if the Netanyahu government was genuinely interested in seeing the hostages return home alive, it should have acted months ago to advance a deal similar to the one now on the table.
Although not without flaws, Biden’s proposal brings an element of rationality to the process of ending the war, as it addresses in its three phases the immediate need to stop the fighting, the release of the hostages, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
It is perplexing why this road map was not presented toward the end of last year or even at the beginning of this year, by which time it had become apparent that there could be no decisive military conclusion to a war that threatened to drag on interminably while innocent people continued to suffer immensely and the stability of the region was shaken.
The first phase of the proposed road map is critical because it sets in motion an immediate, full and complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza. This would be followed by Hamas releasing the first batch of the hostages it holds, including the most vulnerable, in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, permitting displaced civilians to return to their homes in all parts of Gaza, and allowing a greatly increased number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the territory each day.
Netanyahu’s situation is precarious, and the reasons for that are mostly of his own making. In other words, phase one would allow the restoration of some degree of normality to this hellish situation while negotiations take place during phase two over the “cessation of hostilities permanently,” the release of the remaining hostages and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. This would end the war and allow for phase three, the massive reconstruction project, to begin. Nevertheless, however smooth the transition from phase to phase might appear on paper, in reality the start of the process would only be the beginning of an extremely bumpy road. The first phase of the plan appears to be more detailed and thought through than the other two, mainly because of a belief that the six weeks of a ceasefire it provides would create the physical and mental space to cultivate at least the buds of constructive engagement between the two sides. For Hamas, the end of hostilities and the release of many hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, in addition to the eventual complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and increased deliveries of humanitarian aid, might be just enough to convince it to agree to the deal. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s situation is much more precarious, and the reasons for that are mostly of his own making. First and foremost, the proposal means Hamas would remain a political and military force, albeit one that is badly damaged — an outcome that by Israel’s own war objectives would represent a failure. Even worse, every day brings with it the bitter news of more hostages being killed in captivity. Many Israelis blame their government for this, and rightly so, through its failure to negotiate in good faith for their safe release while this was still possible. The insistence by the Netanyahu government that military pressure would ensure the safety of the hostages proved to be hollow.
Netanyahu knows the three-phase plan is the best available option for Israel, but not necessarily for his own political survival, which is his number one, if not only, priority. To achieve this, he needs to maneuver between the far-right parties that are threatening to leave his coalition government should he accept the Biden road map, and the National Unity alliance, whose leader Benny Gantz presented an ultimatum to Netanyahu that expired on Saturday, a main demand of which was that the prime minister take action to secure the release of the hostages.
Concurrently, the High Court of Justice is deliberating the drafting into military service of ultra-Orthodox youths, who until now have been exempt from mandatory military conscription. Should the judges order the government to conscript these men, their representatives are likely to abandon the sinking ship of the coalition. Netanyahu could, in a final act of desperation, accept the ceasefire deal and then call a general election in one more attempt to manipulate the Israeli electorate by persuading them the war has been successful. Whatever happens, the Biden ceasefire proposal is badly in need of elaboration to ensure that the events of Oct. 7, and what followed, can never happen again. One obvious mistake, moving forward, would be to conclude that a permanent end to hostilities can be achieved without addressing the entirety of the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For now, an end to the fighting, the release of the hostages, and the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza would be much-welcomed initial developments. But the process cannot, and should not, stop there without moving on to agreement of a comprehensive, fair and just peace settlement within a relatively short framework of time.
*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

Fragmented Libya is a hot spot for many emerging threats
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/June 08, 2024
The southern Mediterranean shores are fast becoming a permanent theater for worsening geopolitical tensions and their cumulative impacts on human suffering, especially with Libya’s dual crises of arms trafficking and migration. This volatile mix, worsened by the country’s protracted political deadlock, has come to reflect the broader security risks facing North Africa, the Sahel, southern Europe, and, by extension, the US. Historically, the post-2011 destabilization of Libya brought about an alarming proliferation of small arms and light weapons. The raiding of a massive state military arsenal, once among the biggest in the region, led to weapons ranging from pistols to man-portable air defense systems falling into the hands of non-state actors. This proliferation has been linked directly to the enhanced operational capacities of various armed groups, notably impacting conflict dynamics in the Sahel and Sinai. For instance, an influx of firearms and munitions allowed Mali’s insurgent factions to increase the intensity of their attacks on state forces, complicating peacekeeping efforts there and, ultimately, leading to an unceremonious French exit from the region.
Recent revelations of Russian military deliveries to Tobruk, defying a decade-old UN arms embargo, are a stark reminder of the surge in illicit activities that continue to thrive in a fractured state. The brazen act signified Moscow’s escalating involvement, as well as the impotence of international resolve. An embargo, long-declared “totally ineffective” by a UN panel, has consistently failed to stem the flow of arms, sparking new conflicts and inflaming existing ones, as well as empowering warlords such as Khalifa Haftar. His control over eastern Libya, bolstered by external support, has essentially “green-lit” wide-ranging transnational criminality and created new, complex risks that continue to fester as the world’s attention remains fixed elsewhere. The influx of weaponry worsens an already tenuous security situation across the region. Libya, with its strategic location and porous borders, now functions as a near-permanent hub for trafficking in arms, which feeds conflicts in neighboring countries, such as Sudan, and significantly contributes to the Sahel’s endless turmoil. Following the end of large-scale skirmishes, Libya remains diced up among countless well-armed groups. Not only do they blur the lines between state and non-state actors, they also leverage their military capacities to engage in, and profit from, Libya’s trafficking economies. This fragmentation and militarization are now potent catalysts for derailing the country’s fragile political processes and resisting counter-trafficking initiatives.
Moreover, the proliferation of arms funds the operations of extremist groups and criminal networks that are deeply embedded in the lucrative smuggling routes crisscrossing North Africa. The ease with which these groups acquire military-grade weaponry is shocking, to say the least — given the impromptu markets for arms on social media, where transactions are openly facilitated. Early this year, for example, munitions ranging from hand grenades to anti-aircraft cannons were being advertised on forums by militants, with some sellers claiming that the origins of some of their lethal wares to be as far away as the Czech Republic, hinting at the transnational contours of Libya’s descent into an open market for the world’s small arms. It not only further jeopardizes Libya’s already troubled political landscape, but also heightens the risk of dangerous spillovers and cross-border violence, hampering local and international efforts even to gauge the scope of this crisis. The influx of weaponry worsens an already tenuous security situation across the region.
Another growing worry, especially in Brussels and, soon, Washington, is the intersection of small arms proliferation with sprawling human trafficking operations in Libya, which not only violates human rights but also indirectly contributes to the destabilization of both transit and destination countries. Moreover, the black market for arms also provides a significant revenue stream that facilitates the trafficking of contraband and illicit substances, including drugs such as Captagon, dubbed “the poor man’s cocaine.” This drug has fueled what remains an enduring crisis across the Arab world, disproportionately affecting its most prolific users — the region’s youth.
The situation in Libya, serving as a hub for such extensive networks, evidently engenders regional instability and compounds challenges facing local and international stakeholders in their quest to bolster the country’s security, governance, and development. The EU’s Operation Irini, launched in 2020 to enforce the arms embargo and stem the flow of weapons, can hardly be called a success. High-profile seizures, including the interception of almost 150 armored vehicles, for instance, hint at the scale of the challenge. However, the operation’s focus on larger shipments neglects the smaller, yet equally lethal, consignments of arms and ammunition that continue to slip through to cause havoc elsewhere or to fund it.
Europe’s fragmented and often contradictory approach to Libya has only compounded the problem. The lack of a coherent strategy, coupled with individual member states’ pursuit of narrow interests, has sustained a lawless environment that benefits malign actors. Take, for instance, the EU’s reliance on Libyan factions to curb migrant flows, often through dubious deals with local militias. These not only failed to address the root causes, but also legitimized and empowered groups that now benefit both from Brussels’ “generosity” and keeping those very same trafficking routes operational.
Benghazi has become a new source of worries for the US. The city, controlled by Haftar and his Libyan National Army, is witnessing a concerning increase in chartered flights to Nicaragua, intended to facilitate the illicit passage of migrants to the US, by crossing multiple countries, enabled by criminal networks and the tacit approval of involved states. This route has been operational since 2021, with more than 1,000 charter flights landing in Nicaragua, predominantly from regions linked to conflict or economic hardship. The absence in Libya of a unified government and stable institutions creates a fertile ground for the proliferation of illicit economies and further external meddling. Without concerted efforts to forge an “acceptable” settlement, any attempt to curb trafficking in arms or manage migration will be akin to treating the symptoms rather than the disease. Key stakeholders must acknowledge that a durable solution lies in robust support for mediation efforts and credible roadmaps, which should prioritize strengthening what remains of Libya’s still-functioning institutions of governance.
**Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. X: @HafedAlGhwell

Arab and Muslim Americans’ best election strategy is obvious
Ray Hanania/Arab News/June 08, 2024
Arab and Muslim Americans face a critical moment on Nov. 5. If Joe Biden wins the US presidential election, they lose. Donald Trump might not be a great alternative, but he may be their only choice. Pro-Israel political action committees pour millions of dollars into the campaign funds of both Republican and Democratic candidates and officials — a system where money means more than ethics. Israel’s lobbying is unrivaled in its ability to influence and inform Congress, while efforts by the Arab world and the Arab American community do not even come close to having the same impact. There are no comparable pro-Arab PACs, so the pro-Israel lobby has the political football field all to itself.
Another major factor is that most Israelis understand American culture and society far better than most Arabs or Muslims. As a consequence, they better understand the nuances of American politics, fueling Israel’s political successes.
For Arab and Muslim Americans, this creates a quagmire in the country’s two-party system that is difficult to navigate. When it comes to America’s Middle East policies, especially on Palestine, there is no substantive difference between Republicans and Democrats, or even most major third-party candidates.
That is ironic considering that Arabs and Muslims share many of the same conservative values as the Republican Party, although they often lean toward Democratic candidates who embrace issues of freedom, justice, and compromise between Israel and Palestine.
As a consequence of all of this, all three leading candidates for president — Biden, Trump and third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — support Israel’s interests over those of the Arab and Muslim worlds, making voting in November a difficult choice.
But if you set aside the political rhetoric of each candidate and instead look at the consequences of victory for each of them, you can see a clear and effective political path emerge for Arabs and Muslims. They have no choice but to support Trump, despite his past policies (whether exaggerated or not) and the virulently extremist anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric of his Republican Party’s leadership.
We have all heard the extremist rhetoric of some GOP politicians, like former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or Reps. Max Miller and Brian Mast. Haley’s hatred toward Arabs and Muslims was reflected in her decision last month to write the words “finish them” on an American-made artillery shell before it was used by Israel on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Do not forget. The people in Gaza are not just Palestinian. They are Arabs too. Meanwhile, Miller called for turning Gaza “into a parking lot” and Mast compared “Palestinian civilians” to “Nazi civilians” in a speech following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. All have received major funding from the pro-Israel lobby. But the bigger problem is that Arab and Muslim voters cannot afford to reverse course on the “#AbandonBiden” movement, which has proven effective in nearly every Democratic presidential primary.
If Biden wins, it means that the Arab and Muslim American communities will have proven to be politically ineffective.
After eight months of funding and supporting Israel’s carnage in Gaza, which has taken more than 36,000 lives and probably far more, Biden’s sudden call for Tel Aviv to embrace a ceasefire rings hollow. His support for Israel has come at the cost of 36,000 lives.
For Arab and Muslim Americans, Biden must lose. If he wins, it means these communities will have proven to be politically ineffective. He could then continue to ignore their concerns. If Trump wins, we know the Republican Party will be fraught with disarray. More importantly, the competition between the two parties will remain intense. Arab and Muslim voters will have even greater value to both sides in that case.The Arab and Muslim vote will have more political value in a Democratic loss than in a Democratic win. In a Democratic win, they will be taken for granted. In a Republican win, they will have an opportunity to strengthen their voice beyond the handful of “progressives” who champion Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim rights, while also strengthening their position with the Democrats who succeed Biden.
Morally, Biden is worse for Arabs and Muslims than Trump. Four years of Trump’s antagonism does not even come close to eight months of Biden supporting Israel's brutal carnage.
Do Arab lives matter? If they do, then Arabs and Muslims must vote based on strategic reasoning and planning, not on gut-wrenching emotion.
There was some hope that Kennedy, as a political outsider, might pursue an alternative agenda to balance out the interests of Israel and Palestine. However, restricted by limited funding, opposition from the mainstream news media, and the rejection of his own family, Kennedy has apparently decided he cannot risk isolating himself from the pro-Israel community, which can do far more harm to him than the ineffective pro-Arab American community.
Arab and Muslim voters have one goal in the presidential election on Nov. 5. That is to prove that they cannot be taken for granted, as President Biden and his party have done. They must prove their value by showing Democrats the consequences of the party shunning their needs, as Biden has done during Israel’s war on Gaza. It is better to elect Trump, an inconsistent politician and convicted felon who they may be able to reason with, than to allow Biden and the Democrats to realize that they do not need to listen to the concerns of the country’s Arab and Muslim communities.
• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.
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