Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 12-13/2024
Hezbollah vows to intensify attacks against Israel after senior military commander is killed
Rockets fired from Lebanon after Israel kills Hezbollah commander
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says a senior commander has been killed
US Military Urges De-escalation as Israel-Lebanon Tensions Rise
Hezbollah Fires Most Rockets Yet in War after Israel Kills a Top Commander
‘Get ready to weep,’ Hezbollah tells Israel over leader’s killing
Hezbollah rains rockets on key bases in north Israel after Jwaya attack
Senior Hezbollah commander and 4 fighters killed in Israeli strike in Jwaya
US military demands de-escalation as Israel-Lebanon tensions rise
Hezbollah mourns leader: Abou Talib's journey from confronting Israel to the Bosnian War
Expert downplays prospect of wider escalation after Hezbollah commander's killing
Safieddine vows 'increase' in attacks on Israel after commander's death
Hezbollah pledges to increase operations against Israel 'with intensity, strength, and in terms of quality and quantity'
Israeli army confirms killing of senior Hezbollah leader in raid on Lebanon
Understanding Lebanon's presidential dynamics: Insights from MP Wael Abou Faour
Report: Geagea asks Bassil to back him for presidency
Geagea calls on Berri to schedule 'serious' presidential vote session
Lebanon’s deliberate non-policy on Syrian refugees/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/June 12/2024
In shadow of war, Lebanese find respite on Tyre beach
It's Decision Time for Israel in the North as Hezbollah Escalates/Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/June 7, 2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 12-13/2024
Gaza Ceasefire Plan Hangs in Balance as US Says Hamas Seeking Changes
Blinken says some of Hamas' proposed changes to a cease-fire plan in Gaza are workable and some not
Immense scale of Gaza killings amount to crime against humanity, UN inquiry says
Ceasefire talks in turmoil as Hamas responds to proposal
Some Syrian refugees risk returning to opposition-held areas as hostility in host Lebanon grows
UN probe accuses Israel of crimes against humanity, Hamas of war crimes
Gaza ceasefire plan hangs in balance as US says Hamas seeking changes
Gaza deal would have 'tremendous' effect lowering Israel-Lebanon tensions: Blinken says
Blinken says US will try to bridge Israel-Hamas gaps on deal
Death toll rises to 49 in Kuwait building fire: interior ministry
G7 leaders approve unblocking $50 bn for Ukraine by end of 2024: France
Zelensky reports discussing peace summit preparations with Saudi crown prince
Hungary agrees not to veto NATO support to Ukraine as long as it's not forced to help out
North Korea's Kim hails Russia ties as Putin reportedly plans a visit
India urges Russia to return its citizens recruited by Russia's army after 2 were killed
Ukraine says it hit three Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea
Canada risks 'diplomatic isolation' if it fails to meet NATO spending target, business leaders warn

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 12-13/2024
Belgium's Extremely Alarming Antisemitism/Alain Destexhe/Gatestone Institute/June 12, 2024
Why Pope Francis’s Claim that the Virgin Mary ‘Unites’ Christians and Muslims Is Wrong/Raymond Ibrahim /LifeSiteNews/June 12/2024
It is Sinwar and Netanyahu’s Battle Now/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
Refugees and Migrants After the EU Elections/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
What Sheinbaum’s election win might mean for US-Mexico ties/Dr. Amal Mudallali/Arab News/June 12, 2024
Defeated, victorious and alleged victories/Bakir Oweida/Arab News/June 12, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 12-13/2024
Hezbollah vows to intensify attacks against Israel after senior military commander is killed
Bassem Mroue And Jack Jeffery, The Associated Press/Wed, June 12, 2024
Hezbollah vowed Wednesday to intensify its attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border to avenge the killing of its most senior military commander by Israel since the latest round of violence began eight months ago.
“Our response after the martyrdom of Abu Taleb will be to intensify our operations in severity, strength, quantity and quality,” senior Hezbollah official Hachem Saffieddine said during a funeral ceremony for Taleb Sami Abdullah. “Let the enemy wait for us in the battlefield.”Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel, further escalating tensions as the fate of an internationally backed plan for a cease-fire in Gaza hung in the balance. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of the Palestinian Hamas group, has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza. That has raised fears of a regional conflagration. Abdullah, 55, was killed in an airstrike late Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, his coffin was brought to Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut. Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters and senior officials with the militant group attended the ceremony. The body was taken for burial in Abdullah’s hometown of Aadschit. "It is natural that Abu Taleb was a permanent target,” Saffieddine said, adding that Abdullah had taken part in Hezbollah’s military operations including the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel on Wednesday morning, and the military said about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon — one of the largest attacks since the latest fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Some projectiles were intercepted, while others ignited brush fires. Hezbollah said it fired missiles and rockets at two military bases in retaliation for Abdullah’s killing. The Israeli strike on Tuesday destroyed a house where Abdullah and three other officials were meeting, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. The Israeli military said the attack was part of a strike on a Hezbollah command and control center used to direct attacks against Israel in recent months. “Abdullah was one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon who planned, advanced and carried out” a large number of attacks against Israeli civilians, the military said. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Abdullah was in charge of a large part of the Lebanon-Israel front, including the area facing the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked in recent days. The official, who was not authorized to speak to media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abdullah had joined Hezbollah decades ago and took part in attacks against Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000. Another Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Abdullah was the commander of the group’s Nasr Unit that is charge of parts of south Lebanon close to the Israeli border. Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since October have killed over 400 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Abdullah’s sister Zeinab, said her brother had been seeking “martyrdom for the past month,” adding that his death will encourage more young men to join the militant group. “May God destroy Israel,” the woman told the AP.

Rockets fired from Lebanon after Israel kills Hezbollah commander
The Associated Press/June 12, 2024
 Scores of rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, hours after Israeli airstrikes killed four officials from the militant Hezbollah group including a senior military commander. The Israeli military said that about 90 projectiles were detected. It said that some were intercepted, and that several fires were caused by the strikes. Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55, who was known within Hezbollah as Hajj Abu Taleb, was the most senior commander killed since fighting began eight months ago. His death came amid rising escalation along the Lebanon-Israel border that has seen Hezbollah intensify its attacks on northern Israel while Israeli airstrikes have struck deep inside Lebanon. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that rockets were being fired from south Lebanon into northern Israel. Sirens were sounded in northern Israel, according to Israeli media. A Hezbollah official said Abdullah was the most senior commander to be killed in Lebanon since the latest round of violence along the Lebanon-Israel border began in October adding that he was the commander of the group’s Nasr Unit that is charge of parts of south Lebanon close to the Israeli border. The Israeli strike destroyed a house in Jwaya where Abdullah and three other officials were holding a meeting, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, late on Tuesday. The Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Abdullah was more senior than a commander who was killed in January, Wissam al-Tawil.Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 400 people, most of them Hezbollah members, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says a senior commander has been killed
BEIRUT/Agencies/June 12/2024
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced early Wednesday the death of one of its commanders, identified as Taleb Sami Abdullah or “Hajj Abu Taleb.” The group did not give details on the location and circumstances of his death, but identified him as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” the term it uses for those killed in the current conflict with Israel. Hezbollah published a photo of Abdullah alongside Wissam al-Tawil, another senior commander killed in an Israeli strike in January. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Abdullah’s death. Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in the past month, as Israel launched its offensive into the key southern Gaza city of Rafah. Hezbollah has also stepped up its attacks, striking deeper inside Israel and introduced new and more advanced weaponry. Israeli drone strikes have killed hundreds of Hezbollah members since exchanges of fire began on Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza. Since then, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members. The dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.

US Military Urges De-escalation as Israel-Lebanon Tensions Rise
Agencies/June 12/2024
The US military on Wednesday urged a de-escalation in rising tensions between Israel and Lebanon, and said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised the matter in a call with his Israeli counterpart on Tuesday. "We don't want to see a wider regional conflict and we do want to see a de-escalation of tensions in the region," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told a news briefing.Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago, as part of its retaliation on Wednesday for an Israeli strike which killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.

Hezbollah Fires Most Rockets Yet in War after Israel Kills a Top Commander
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago, as part of its retaliation on Wednesday for an Israeli strike which killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since the eruption of the Gaza war in October, in steadily intensifying hostilities that have fueled concern of a bigger confrontation between the heavily armed adversaries. The Israeli strike in the south Lebanon village of Jouaiyya late on Tuesday killed three Hezbollah fighters alongside the senior field commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, Israel and three security sources in Lebanon said.He was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed during eight months of hostilities, one of the sources said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had killed him as well as the three other Hezbollah fighters in a strike on a command and control center. The sources in Lebanon said he was Hezbollah's commander for the central region of the southern border strip. Hezbollah said it carried out at least 17 operations against Israel on Wednesday, including eight in response to what it called the "assassination" by Israel in Jouaiyya. In one, Hezbollah fighters fired guided missiles at an Israeli military factory. In another, the group said it had attacked Israeli military headquarters in Ein Zeitim and Ami'ad, and an Israeli military air surveillance station in Meron. A security source said the group fired some 250 rockets at Israel throughout Wednesday, the most in a day in this conflict so far. More than 100 rockets were launched at once, one of the group's biggest barrages since the hostilities began in October. Speaking at a funeral procession for Abdallah in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said the group would increase the intensity, force and quantity of its operations against Israel in retaliation for his killing. "If the enemy is screaming and moaning about what happened to it in northern Palestine, let him prepare himself to cry and wail," Safieddine said.
SOUNDING SIRENS
Sirens sounded in northern Israel. Israeli jets hit a number of launch sites in southern Lebanon on Wednesday after projectiles were fired towards northern Israel, the military said. The Israeli military earlier said Hezbollah had fired a barrage of around 50 launches from southern Lebanon into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.In a second announcement, Israel said approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon, a number of which were intercepted while others fell in several locations in northern Israel, causing fires in a number of areas. It was not clear if the Israeli statements were referring to two separate launches. The Israeli military said it fighter jets hit Hezbollah launch sites in two areas in southern Lebanon, while artillery shelled a third location. It said there had been no casualties on the Israeli side but firefighters were battling fires started by the Hezbollah strikes in various areas. Abdallah, the Hezbollah commander killed on Tuesday, was senior to Wissam Tawil, a high-level Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike in January, said the sources in Lebanon, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Palestinian armed group Hamas called Abdallah a great leader, in a statement offering condolences for his death. The security sources said the four Hezbollah members were likely targeted during a meeting. Israeli strikes have killed some 300 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon - more than it lost in 2006, when the sides last fought a major war, according to a Reuters tally which puts the number of civilians killed at around 80. Attacks from Lebanon have killed 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians, Israel says. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 320 Hezbollah members, including at least 100 targeted after field operatives gathered "precise high-quality intelligence" on them.

‘Get ready to weep,’ Hezbollah tells Israel over leader’s killing
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/June 12, 2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israel on Wednesday and vowed to step up its attacks in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed a senior Hezbollah field commander. As the conflict on the southern border escalated alarmingly, a senior Hezbollah leader warned the Israeli army that it “should get ready to weep and wail.” The dramatic escalation follows an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanon village of Jouaiyya late on Tuesday that killed a senior field commander, Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55, the highest-ranking Hezbollah official to be killed in eight months of fighting. Three other Hezbollah fighters were also killed in the strike that Israel said hit a command and control center. Hezbollah retaliated by targeting military sites deep inside Israel, with salvos of rockets reaching Tiberias for the first time. Israeli army radio estimated that “by noon, 170 shells and rockets had been fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel.”Hezbollah mourned Abdullah as a “mujahid and leader.”The funeral procession took place in the southern suburb of Beirut, with Abdullah’s coffin wrapped in a Hezbollah flag. During the proceedings, Sayyed Hashem Safi Al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, said: “Our response to the martyrdom of Taleb Sami Abdullah is that we will intensify our operations in severity, quantity, and quality, and the enemy should await us on the battlefield. If the Israeli army is already crying out and groaning from what has hit it in northern Palestine, it should get ready to weep and wail.”
Hamas and Islamic Jihad also mourned Abdullah, as did the Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, an Iraqi faction affiliated with what is known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, saying that the slain Hezbollah leader was “a comrade of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.” Early on Wednesday, Hezbollah targeted the Ruwaysat Al-Qarn site in the Shebaa Farms with rockets and also launched rockets at the Ramtha site in the Kfar Shouba Hills. Later in the day, it targeted Israeli soldiers at the Malkiyah site with artillery fire. Israeli army radio said: “This is the first time that the alarm sirens have sounded in Tiberias since October,” while Israeli media published a video showing rockets falling on a military base in Tiberias for the first time. Sirens sounded after another salvo of rockets landed near the Israeli Meron Air Base in Upper Galilee.The rapid escalation led acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati to call for expanded diplomatic negotiations involving the EU, headed by EU Ambassador to Lebanon Sandra De Waele.

Hezbollah rains rockets on key bases in north Israel after Jwaya attack
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/June 12, 2024
Hezbollah on Wednesday said it fired dozens of rockets and shells at a military factory in Israel's Sa'sa', the Israeli army's northern headquarters in Ein Zeitim near Safad, a command center in Ami'ad near Tiberias, the Meron air control base near Lebanon's border, and the Zar'it barracks. It said the major attack was in response to an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Tyre district town of Jwaya that killed senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdallah and three other fighters. The Israeli army said more than 150 "projectiles" had been fired from Lebanon in three successive barrages. "A short while ago, approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon," it said, adding that several were intercepted but others struck inside Israel sparking fires in parts of the north. The initial barrage was followed by a second of around 70 projectiles and a third of around 10, the military added.
'Knight of the resistance'
The Israeli army said that in response it struck a rocket launcher in south Lebanon and "four terrorist infrastructure sites... from which projectiles were fired at northern Israel." Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said there were no immediate reports of any casualties. "Israel Fire and Rescue Services are currently operating to extinguish the fires that broke out as a result of the launches," the military said. Hezbollah also targeted Wednesday several posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfarshouba Heights, and other posts in north Israel. Israeli artillery meanwhile shelled, including with white phosphorus, the southern town of al-Odaisseh while warplanes struck the outskirts of Yater, Zibqine and Wadi Omar. Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza. As temperatures have soared in recent days, the exchanges of fire have sparked multiple brush fires on both sides of the border. A Lebanese military source said the slain Hezbollah commander was "the most important in Hezbollah to be killed up to now since the start of the war." The group called on its supporters to attend Abdallah's funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut, describing him as "one of the knights of the resistance."Hezbollah media channels published a photograph of Abdallah next to Wissam Tawil, another senior commander killed in an Israeli air strike in January.
''Harsh blow'
Pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar described the strike that killed Abdallah as "a harsh blow" to the group. His killing "represents a... dangerous escalation on behalf of the enemy" raising "expectations that the confrontation will be managed differently," the paper said. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Abdallah was in charge of a large part of the Lebanon-Israel front, including the area facing the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked in recent days, causing fires in the area. The official, who was not authorized to speak to media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abdallah had joined Hezbollah decades ago and took part in attacks against Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000. The Israeli army confirmed later on Wednesday that it had "eliminated" Abdallah in a strike on a "Hezbollah command center" in southern Lebanon. In a statement it called Abdallah "one of Hezbollah's most senior commanders in southern Lebanon" and said he had "planned, advanced, and carried out a large number of terror attacks against Israeli civilians."

Senior Hezbollah commander and 4 fighters killed in Israeli strike in Jwaya
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/June 12, 2024
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah commander overnight Tuesday, the group said. It named the commander as Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, born in 1969, in a statement reporting his death. A Lebanese military source said the commander was "the most important in Hezbollah to be killed up to now since the start of the war" between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, which has fueled violence on the Lebanon-Israel border. The source said the strike hit the town of Jwaya, 15 kilometers from the Israeli border, and also killed three other people. The group called on its supporters to attend Abdallah's funeral in the southern suburbs of Beirut, describing him as "one of the knights of the resistance." Hezbollah media channels published a photograph of Abdallah next to Wissam Tawil, another senior commander killed in an Israeli air strike in January.
''Harsh blow'
Pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar described the strike that killed Abdallah as "a harsh blow" to the group. His killing "represents a... dangerous escalation on behalf of the enemy" raising "expectations that the confrontation will be managed differently," the paper said. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Abdallah was in charge of a large part of the Lebanon-Israel front, including the area facing the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked in recent days, causing fires in the area. The official, who was not authorized to speak to media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abdallah had joined Hezbollah decades ago and took part in attacks against Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000. Hezbollah announced seven of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire since Tuesday, with a source close to the group telling AFP four of them were killed alongside Abdallah. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war began, triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack. Exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have intensified over recent days, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the border. Without commenting directly on Tuesday's strike, the Israeli military said it hit a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after a barrage of "50 launches" by Hezbollah into the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning. More than eight months of cross-border violence have killed at least 467 people in Lebanon, including almost 90 civilians and at least 304 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count. Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the fighting. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" along the border with Lebanon and that "one way or another, we will restore security to the north."

US military demands de-escalation as Israel-Lebanon tensions rise
Reuters/June 12, 2024
The US military on Wednesday urged a de-escalation in rising tensions between Israel and Lebanon, and said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised the matter in a call with his Israeli counterpart on Tuesday. "We don't want to see a wider regional conflict and we do want to see a de-escalation of tensions in the region," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told a news briefing. Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago, as part of its retaliation on Wednesday for an Israeli strike which killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.

Hezbollah mourns leader: Abou Talib's journey from confronting Israel to the Bosnian War
LBCI/June 12, 2024
Hezbollah used two words in commemorating the martyr Talib Sami Abdallah, also known as Abou Talib, encapsulating his journey within the ranks of the resistance. He was described as a "knight among the knights of resistance."As a leader, the party mourned him as one of the highest-ranking leaders in the resistance they lost since the war. Perhaps even of higher rank than Wissam al-Tawil.It is not surprising for the party to hold a central celebration in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where leaders are mourned, to grieve Abou Talib, even though he was a resident of the area. It is also not surprising for Hamas to mourn him. Abou Talib's journey in the resistance dates back to its beginnings, participating in several operations against Israel before and after the liberation in 2000, including the 1993 war, also known as the Seven-Day War. His military work was not only limited to confronting Israel but also involved participating in the Bosnian War, where he was among the military trainers sent by the party to support the Bosnians. His journey continued until the start of the war, as his military experience made him the leader of Hezbollah's Nasr Unit. This unit oversees a wide range of the front extending from Bint Jbeil to the Shebaa Farms, responsible for the intense fighting on the front with Israel and targeting its border positions. But in the end, Talib Abdallah's military journey ended with martyrdom along with three of his comrades in an Israeli strike targeting a house they were inside in the Jouaiyya area. Similar operations have occurred in multiple instances, targeting field leaders within the party over recent months. The Israeli army has released a video holding Talib Abdallah responsible for targeting the northern front from southeastern Lebanon. Hezbollah insiders characterize this operation as a typical aspect of wartime circumstances. Firstly, because party leaders have been present since day one in the field alongside their groups, so monitoring and targeting them is expected. Secondly, the current response from Israel is anticipated given the developments on the front, the increased intensity of the party's operations, and the precision of its targets. This is a course that Hezbollah has been ready for since the outset, opting to fight on the ground from open positions and establish bases in unoccupied houses designated by the Israeli side as operation centers.

Expert downplays prospect of wider escalation after Hezbollah commander's killing
Agence France Presse/June 12, 2024
Britain-based Middle East specialist Amal Saad on Wednesday played down the prospect of wider escalation between Hezbollah and Israel following the latter’s assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon a day earlier. "I don't think that the death of this highest-ranking commander is going to change any of Hezbollah's calculations," Saad said, explaining that civilian casualties were "red lines" for the group rather than the targeting of commanders or fighters. "We witnessed an escalation in quality and quantity of (Hezbollah) attacks in order to put pressure on Israel and the U.S. in the ceasefire talks and improve Hamas' bargaining position," Saad added. Hezbollah fired successive barrages of rockets at northern Israel on Wednesday in retaliation to Abdallah’s killing, targeting several key bases. The targets included a military base deep in north Israel and a military factory. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war began, triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack. Exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have intensified over recent days, causing multiple brush fires on both sides of the border. More than eight months of cross-border violence have killed at least 467 people in Lebanon, including almost 90 civilians and at least 304 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count. Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the fighting. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" along the border with Lebanon and that "one way or another, we will restore security to the north."

Safieddine vows 'increase' in attacks on Israel after commander's death
Agence France Presse/June 12, 2024
A top Hezbollah official vowed Wednesday that the group would step up its attacks on Israel, after an Israeli drone strike killed a senior commander in south Lebanon the day before. "We will increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality of our attacks," the head of Hezbollah's executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, said, speaking at Abdallah's funeral in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Hezbollah pledges to increase operations against Israel 'with intensity, strength, and in terms of quality and quantity'
Reuters/June 12, 2024
Hezbollah pledges to increase operations against Israel 'with intensity, strength, and in terms of quality and quantity' Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's Executive Committee, said on Wednesday that the group pledges to increase the "intensity, strength, quantity, and quality" of its operations against Israel, which killed a prominent leader in Hezbollah.He said, "Our response after the martyrdom of Abu Talib... we will increase the intensity, strength, quantity, and type of our operations, and the enemy should wait for us in the field."

Israeli army confirms killing of senior Hezbollah leader in raid on Lebanon
Reuters/June 12, 2024
The Israeli army confirmed Wednesday that it killed Taleb Abdallah, a senior leader of the Hezbollah group, along with three other fighters from the group in a raid on a command and control center in southeast Lebanon. In response to Abdallah's killing, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets toward northern Israel in a significant escalation of the conflict, which has seen almost daily exchanges of fire between them since the war in Gaza began last October.

Understanding Lebanon's presidential dynamics: Insights from MP Wael Abou Faour
LBCI/June 12, 2024
Member of the Democratic Gathering bloc, MP Wael Abou Faour, stated that the bloc's initiative was launched to break the deadlock in the presidential file. "Our actions are driven by the crisis we are currently facing, not by any external influences," he added. In an interview with LBCI's "Hiwar Al Marhala" talk show, he said: "Walid Jumblatt advised Jean-Yves Le Drian not to come to Lebanon unless the situation regarding the presidential file is sufficiently developed." MP Wael Abou Faour noted that there are two proposals on the table—the first is for dialogue under Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri's leadership, while the second is against dialogue and against Berri taking the lead. Abou Faour indicated that no candidates' names were proposed during the visit to Qatar, adding that Doha emphasized that it is working within the Quintet Committee. He emphasized during the interview that any president elected without consensus "will not be able to govern."He questioned, "During former Lebanese President Michel Aoun's term, when there was dialogue, wasn't Aoun involved? So why oppose Berri leading the dialogue?"MP Wael Abou Faour emphasized the need for dialogue with Iran, stating, "Hezbollah can choose what aligns with its interests and what does not." During the interview, MP Abou Faour mentioned that Saudi Arabia desires a stable governance structure in Lebanon. He stressed that this "stable environment" must exist before it resumes political investment in the country.  Abou Faour also noted Saudi Arabia's active involvement in the Quintet Committee and mentioned that the Saudi ambassador has recently proposed flexible solutions to overcome the current challenges. The member of the Democratic Gathering bloc stated, "We have no intention of isolating the Lebanese Forces, and Gebran Bassil has not raised this issue either." "Our interaction with Samir Geagea is marked by 'personal openness,' and we perceive no advantage in conflicting with Berri, as he 'holds the key' to resolving our current situation," he added. He stated that the Lebanese state should provide compensation to the residents of Beirut affected by the port explosion, as well as to those impacted by the Akkar explosion, and also to the victims of the conflict in the South. He also advocated for the reorganization of a ministerial committee tasked with addressing the Syrian refugee issue, emphasizing, "While there are safe areas in Syria, a complete 'full return' is currently not achievable."

Report: Geagea asks Bassil to back him for presidency
Naharnet/June 12, 2024
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has communicated with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over the past two days, through the official channel between them, asking the FPM leader to support his nomination for the presidency, a media report said. Geagea’s messages included an “acknowledgement” that it would be “difficult” to see him elected president, but he asked Bassil to back him “under the excuse of blocking (the election of Suleiman) Franjieh,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday. Franjieh had on Sunday called for “accepting the principle of dialogue and agreeing on a full package” or “going to elections between the two main political camps in the country,” noting that he and Geagea would represent the two camps in such an election. “We would congratulate the winner,” he added, noting that such an approach would “restore the prestige of the presidential vote, the presidential race and the presidency itself.”

Geagea calls on Berri to schedule 'serious' presidential vote session
Naharnet/June 12, 2024
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea hit out anew Wednesday at Speaker Nabih Berri over the presidential crisis. “Mr. Speaker Berri, we are pleased that you are not afraid of threats, and accordingly, since you are not afraid of threats nor of anything, you can call for a serious presidential election session with successive rounds so that we elect a president and relieve the Lebanese, at least in this file,” Geagea said in a post on the X platform. Berri and Geagea have been engaged in tit-for-tat exchanges regarding the presidential file in recent days. The file has returned to the spotlight amid mediation efforts by the Progressive Socialist Party and the Free Patriotic Movement.

Lebanon’s deliberate non-policy on Syrian refugees
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/June 12/2024
A Syrian man last week attacked the US Embassy in Lebanon. It is said he had Daesh written on his clothing. The man was registered as a refugee in Lebanon. Of course, this led to a rise in hate speech. Escalating hate speech in a country that is witnessing tensions can lead to an explosion. This should be a wake-up call to the Lebanese government that it is time to devise a policy. So far, the Lebanese government’s policy has been a policy of non-policy. Successive governments have deliberately chosen not to craft a policy regarding refugees. Instead, the issue has been used on a tactical level depending on the need. The refugee issue has been a card used domestically, as well as with the international community. Internally, whenever there is public anger toward the political class’s corruption and incompetence, this issue is the best distraction. Politicians have also used the refugees to extort funds from the international community and pressure the world to turn a blind eye to the political class’s corruption.
The problem is that the issue of refugees is not handled in a systematic and professional manner. The attack on the US Embassy was not the first act of violence perpetrated by a Syrian living in Lebanon. In April, Pascal Suleiman, a member of the Lebanese Forces, was kidnapped and killed. Though the official story was that a gang of car thieves committed the crime, all the evidence points to the involvement of Bashar Assad-affiliated gangs, particularly the 4th Armored Division led by Maher Assad.
Directing anger at Syrians generally, as is the case today, will only lead to more tensions and possibly unrest. The Syrian refugees in Lebanon are looked at as one bulk. There is no differentiation. However, to start solving the issue of refugees, there should be proper compartmentalization.
Directing anger at Syrians generally, as is the case today, will only lead to more tensions and possibly unrest. Firstly, there are the refugees who fled the Assad regime’s brutality. There are also refugees from areas bordering Lebanon that are now occupied by Hezbollah. On the other hand, there are Syrians who move freely between Lebanon and Syria. Hence, they are not refugees. A refugee is someone fleeing danger in their home country. It is known that, as a result of the economic crisis in Syria, Bashar Assad started dumping Syrians across the Lebanese border. These are by no means refugees. However, the regime uses them. Financially, it benefits from the disbursement provided to the refugees. The regime also uses them to create security disturbances in the country — hence the murder of Suleiman.
There are also the workers that the Lebanese economy relies on to a large extent. No solution can be devised unless there is a classification of the different categories. A different solution should be devised for each of the different categories. However, the issue of refugees is politicized to the maximum.
The current Lebanese government, which is dominated by the pro-Assad, pro Hezbollah camp, is using the refugees to pressure the international community into accepting Assad and alleviating sanctions. The refugees, along with narcotics, are Assad’s main point of blackmail of the international community. He will not allow them back unless the international community accepts him and pours money into Syria, which under the current circumstances will be used to fund his corrupt and brutal regime. This would only perpetuate the current conflict in Syria.
The refugees, along with narcotics, are Assad’s main point of blackmail of the international community
The Lebanese government has expressed its disappointment with last month’s EU conference on Syria in Brussels that declared that the conditions were not yet right for the safe and voluntary return of refugees. On the other hand, it was offered €1 billion ($1.08 billion) of aid for the country’s economy and security forces. Many Lebanese have described this aid as a “bribe.” Now, the government has announced that it has a plan for the refugees’ voluntary return. However, this so-called plan remains vague. It has not been published anywhere, meaning that the people, especially Syrian refugees, do not know what kind of policy they are facing.
Following last month’s visit by Syria’s head of intelligence, Hossam Louka, to Beirut to meet Hassan Nasrallah, there was talk circulating in the Lebanese capital that Hezbollah might pressure the Damascus regime into accepting refugees and not making them subject to arbitrary arrest. However, a speech made by Nasrallah after the visit did not change the tone. He emphasized that the way to handle the refugees is to accept Assad and for the US to lift its Caesar Act sanctions. Nasrallah called on Syrians to take to the sea and head to Europe. Hence, the speculation was probably wrong. This proves that Hezbollah and the current government are still using refugees as a scapegoat internally and as a negotiating card with the international community, while having no intention whatsoever to devise a policy to handle the issue.
If they had a genuine intention to solve the problem, they would start by at least counting the refugees. They would start distinguishing between those who move freely back and forth to Syria and hence face no danger and those who have remained in Lebanon. The General Security Directorate has all the data on movement across the border. Again, this ambiguity should not be accepted by the international community. The international community should pressure the Lebanese government into making a clear tally of the Syrians in Lebanon in order to be able to judge who are real refugees and who are not. The so-called policy of returning refugees should be directed toward those who will not be subject to arbitrary arrest by the regime. Also, the Lebanese government should realize that adopting a clear and transparent policy is the only way to secure Lebanon. It should also be aware that the prevailing hate speech will not work. Though it can create a momentary distraction, it will have grave security implications. It could lead to a conflict that the country does not need, especially with the fighting going on with Israel in the south. *Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

In shadow of war, Lebanese find respite on Tyre beach
Agence France Presse/June 12, 2024
After the roar of Israeli warplanes terrified her baby grandson, Umm Hassan's family sought solace on a south Lebanon beach, hoping to escape the escalating cross-border violence. Life goes on but "the children are frightened," the 60-year-old told AFP from the beach in Tyre, about 20 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Women in two-piece swimsuits tanned in the sun, while others fully clothed and wearing head coverings enjoyed the waves, even as the bombardment sometimes echoed in the distance. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, and Israel have been trading near-daily fire since the Gaza war was trigged by the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel. Against the backdrop of the ongoing cross-border fire, Umm Hassan's one-year-old grandson played in the sand with his mother Fatima, in a moment of tranquility. Only a few days earlier, an Israeli fighter jet broke the sound barrier over their inland village of Srifa, which has come under Israeli bombardment in recent months, said Umm Hassan. The thunderous sonic boom upset the baby so much that he began sobbing, then laughing, then sobbing again, for an hour and a half, clearly in distress. "I called the doctor, who said it was a fit of hysteria," the grandmother said. "We take him to the riverside, and to the sea, so he can forget," she said, wearing a loose, flowery shirt. Umm Hassan was among hundreds of beachgoers -- many from the country's south, where Hezbollah largely holds sway -- who were trying to disconnect from news of war at the beach in Tyre at the weekend. Israel has previously targeted Hezbollah and other fighters in and near the city, whose district now hosts thousands of people displaced by the violence.
'You'll go mad'
Drinking a beer and smoking a water pipe, Abbas Oueidat sunbathed with his wife Aya.
"We would never think of going anywhere else. I feel relaxed here," said Oueidat, 34, noting the need for distraction from the doom and gloom. "If you don't, you'll go mad," he added. People in the south "are scared or they're waiting for the big battle to happen. Even at work everyone says war is coming," said Oueidat. But he also struck a defiant tone: "We have Hezbollah here, if they (Israel) strike, our people will strike."Each summer, Tyre's sandy public beaches are packed with bathers -- a haven for people from different backgrounds and regions, where alcohol is tolerated. But the Gaza war has cast a shadow over this year's summer season, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" on its northern border. Hezbollah has said it will only stop its attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip. Oueidat said he regularly heard Israeli jets breaking the sound barrier in his village of Aazze, near the southern city of Nabatiyeh, their pressure waves causing buildings to shake and glass to shatter.
Fear, beer
But he said that rather than the threat of open war, Lebanon's crushing four-year economic meltdown had pushed him and his wife to consider leaving. "There is no future here," he said. "But at least you can sit by the sea and have a beer."In Lebanon, the cross-border violence since October has killed more than 460 people, mostly fighters but including about 90 civilians, according to an AFP tally.On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army. Lazing in the sand under a beach umbrella, Wael El Hajj, 42, said he drove to Tyre from his hometown of Koura, about 125 kilometers further north, just to be with friends from the south. "There is no reason to be scared," said the 42-year-old, who now lives in Saudi Arabia. "Let them (Israel) sit with their fear and we will sit with a beer," he added. Hajj, one of millions of Lebanese living abroad, is among those who have come back home for the holidays. Summer tourism, in large part driven by Lebanese expatriates, is a crucial source of income for Tyre residents and small businesses. Beach restaurant owner Nasser Mohsen expressed surprise that turnout this season had so far exceeded expectations. "Despite the security situation... people (in the south) have no other outlet but this beach," he said."The season is only just starting but we haven't been greatly affected," he added. "It's been eight months. We got used to it."

It's Decision Time for Israel in the North as Hezbollah Escalates
Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/June 7, 2024
Escalation on Israel's northern front reached a hitherto unseen intensity this week. Israel carried out a series of pinpoint strikes against Hezbollah and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) targets, both close to the Israel-Lebanon border and far beyond it.
These included, according to several reports, an airstrike in the Aleppo area on Monday in which several Iran-linked operatives were killed. Among the dead was an Iranian IRGC official, Sayeed Aviar.
The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 17 people associated with Iran and its militias were killed in this strike. According to SOHR, the targets were a copper smelting plant and a weapons depot maintained by the militias in the northern Aleppo countryside, between the towns of Hayyan and Tamoura.
The dead that were listed
SOHR listed the dead as consisting of two Iranians, of whom only Aviar is identified as a "military adviser;" three members of Lebanese Hezbollah; three Iraqi citizens (probably members of IRGC-associated Shi'ite militias); and nine Syrian citizens.
SOHR is pro-opposition, and the reliability of its reporting has in the past been questioned, especially by voices sympathetic to the Assad regime and its allies. While no source's claims should be accepted on trust, I can attest from personal experience to the truth of its claim to maintain extensive sources on the ground in Syria, and to the ability this has often given it to receive first reports of events in the country that were later proven to be accurate.
The Iranians wanted to set the price for Israel's direct targeting of Iranian IRGC personnel at a sufficiently high rate that Israel would think twice about carrying out such activity again.
The Aleppo strike was only one of a series of targeted killings apparently carried out by Israel in recent days. It is of particular significance, however, because it is the first time since April 1 that Israel is known to have killed an IRGC operative on Syrian soil. The killing of IRGC general Mohammed Reza Zahedi in Damascus on April 1 triggered the large-scale direct Iranian attack on Israel on the night of April 13.
The Iranian rationale for the April response appears to have been not to launch all-out war with Israel (had they wanted that, they would have brought their main source of firepower against Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah's missile array, into operation).
Rather, the Iranians wanted to set the price for Israel's direct targeting of Iranian IRGC personnel at a sufficiently high rate that Israel would think twice about carrying out such activity again. This week, Israel appears to have dismissed this Iranian effort. It remains to be seen if, and how, Tehran will respond.
More broadly, Israel's strikes this week successfully targeted several notable Hezbollah operatives. The movement has named three members killed in south Lebanon in recent days – Ali Hussein Sabra, Muhammed Shakr, and Hussein Nasr al-Din. Of these, Sabra appears to have been the most significant. An engineer involved in Hezbollah's air defense structure, Sabra was killed when his car was targeted while driving close to the city of Tyre on Monday morning.
The intensified Hezbollah response in the subsequent days is clearly related to this continued successful targeting by Israel of Hezbollah fighters. The organization launched rocket barrages at Katzrin, Kiryat Shmona, and Margaliot. The firing resulted in the large brushfires in the Katzrin and Ramim Ridge areas. Hezbollah also scored a significant achievement late last week with the downing of an Israeli Hermes 900 drone.
The current situation in the North appears to be in a sort of unsustainable equilibrium. On the one hand, Israel is scoring tactical successes daily. The casualty figures – around 330 Hezbollah dead to 14 IDF soldiers and 10 Israeli civilians – reflect this.
The intensified Hezbollah response in the subsequent days is clearly related to this continued successful targeting by Israel of Hezbollah fighters.
On the other hand, Israel has proven unable until now to turn these tactical achievements into a desirable outcome. That is, the current rate of attrition is clearly not forcing Hezbollah to rethink its decision to continue rocket and missile fire. As a result, Israel's North remains shut down, with over 60,000 Israelis currently internally displaced, and no solution in sight.
WHAT MAY happen next? The Arabic-language Al-Akhbar newspaper, which supports Hezbollah, this week published a gleeful article titled "Hezbollah's rocket fire is devouring the Galilee." The article listed areas struck by Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.
As has become usual in pro-Hezbollah media, it also included false claims of the deaths of several IDF soldiers as a result of the attacks. Claims of this kind have become common in pro-Hezbollah media, where the great discrepancy in deaths and casualties is explained away to supporters by the assertion that Israel is falsely concealing its true casualty figures.
In another article, titled "Message from London: The return of the threat of war," on US envoy Amos Hochstein's current diplomatic efforts in Lebanon, al-Akhbar describes what it refers to as "a message from the British side, which defined a date for an Israeli strike in mid-June."
The article posits an imminent large-scale Israeli military operation, which would be intended to break the current logjam and force Hezbollah to choose between taking a step back and further escalation.
Unless Israeli policymakers want to tacitly concede that the current situation is an acceptable one for Jerusalem, the logic leads toward intensified military operations in the North.
Might such an operation be imminent? It would certainly make sense. The current situation is one in which an Iranian proxy organization has been granted the power to bring life in Israel's North to a standstill, in return for accepting an unpleasant but bearable rate of attrition of its own operatives and capacities.
The current lies regarding Israeli casualty figures by Hezbollah-associated media are a sign of distress. But there is no reason to believe that this discomfort is anywhere close to the level that would force the movement and its patrons in Tehran to rethink their strategy since October 8 of a limited multi-front war against Israel and its allies.
So unless Israeli policymakers want to tacitly concede that the current situation is an acceptable one for Jerusalem, the logic leads toward intensified military operations in the North, probably involving increased airstrikes and possibly some ground component, too.
IT IS difficult to speculate the precise form that such action might take. But Israel will need to take into account that it has no local allies in south Lebanon, and any desire to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River through a ground maneuver would need to consider that Hezbollah would likely return south following such a move.
It is likely also that any escalation against Hezbollah would be counter to the wishes of the US administration. In an interview this week, Hochstein expressed continued hope for the possibility of reaching "understandings" between the sides, leading to an eventual land border agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Such sentiments are starkly at odds with a reality in which the IRGC's local franchise is now by far the strongest political and military player in Lebanon.
The choice, a much grimmer one now because of the long period of drift, is whether to destroy those forces or to allow them to continue their strategy of Israel's slow strangulation.
Still, where strategic myopia is the issue, there is plenty of blame to go around. The present situation in which Hezbollah is shutting down northern Israel is possible because for nearly 20 years, Israel allowed the development, growth, and strengthening of two Iran-supported Islamist armies on its borders.
While this was happening, the Israeli security system took great pride in its tactical achievements against these forces, while failing in any serious way to arrest their growth. These armies are now engaged against Israel, with all that it implies.
The choice, a much grimmer one now because of the long period of drift, is whether to destroy those forces or to allow them to continue their strategy of Israel's slow strangulation. This is not a choice that can be postponed indefinitely.
**Jonathan Spyer is director of research at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis. He is author of Days of the Fall: A Reporter's Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars (2018).

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 12-13/2024
Gaza Ceasefire Plan Hangs in Balance as US Says Hamas Seeking Changes
Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas' stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the US administration of going along with its close ally to "evade any commitment" to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday many of Hamas' proposed changes were minor "and not unanticipated" while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a UN Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden. "Our aim is to bring this process to a conclusion. Our view is that the time for haggling is over," Sullivan told reporters. Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, from Hamas' political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the US proposal was "responsible, serious and positive" and "opens up a wide pathway" for an accord. Biden's proposal envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war. At a press conference with Qatar's prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.
MONTHS OF TALKS
Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict - which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave - and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza. "Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes," Blinken said. "Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted." The US has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. Blinken said Washington would in coming weeks float ideas for a post-war Gaza administration and rebuilding of the enclave. "We have to have plans for the day after the conflict ends in Gaza, and we need to have them as soon as possible."Major powers are intensifying efforts to defuse the conflict in part to prevent it spiraling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border. Lebanon's Hezbollah party, backed by Iran, fired barrages of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander. Israel said it had in turn attacked the launch sites from the air. Taleb Abdallah, or Abu Taleb, was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the conflict, a security source said, and Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed that the group would expand its operations against Israel.
UN FINDINGS ON WAR CRIMES
The fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million and devastated housing and infrastructure. The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday many people in Gaza were facing "catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions", with over 8,000 children under five years old diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition. A UN inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks and another on Israel's response.Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately comment. The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment. Evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions. It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
ISRAEL CONTINUES ASSAULTS IN GAZA
As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war.Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated. Residents said Israeli forces had pounded areas across Gaza on Wednesday as tanks advanced towards the northern part of the city of Rafah, which skirts the Egyptian border. Palestinian health officials said six people had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City in the north, and one man had been killed by a tank shell in Rafah. In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, mother-of-two Huda said the displaced had lost hope that the war would end anytime soon. "We lost faith both in our leaders, and in the world," she told Reuters via a chat app. "Ceasefire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night, they disappear with the first light of day."

Blinken says some of Hamas' proposed changes to a cease-fire plan in Gaza are workable and some not
BEIRUT (AP)/June 12-13/2024
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the war in Gaza would go on after Hamas proposed “numerous” changes to a U.S.-backed cease-fire plan, some that he said were “workable” and some not. He did not spell out what the changes were. Speaking to reporters in Qatar, Blinken said the U.S. and other mediators will keep trying to “close this deal.”Blinken is in the region to push a cease-fire proposal with global support that has not been fully embraced by Israel or Hamas. The militant group submitted its first official response late Tuesday, requesting “amendments” to the deal. The American's comments came as Lebanon's Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the 8-month-long Israel-Hamas war began and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza. That has raised fears of an even more devastating regional conflagration. Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, and the military said that about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon, making it one of the largest attacks since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties as some were intercepted while others ignited brush fires.
HAMAS ASKS FOR ‘AMENDMENTS’
Hamas has expressed support for the broad outline of the deal but wariness over whether Israel would implement its terms. Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told the Lebanese news outlet ElNashra that the “amendments” requested by the group include guarantees of a permanent cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Hamas's official reply to the proposal, which it conveyed to mediators on Tuesday, appeared to be short of outright acceptance but kept negotiations alive. Qatar and Egypt, which have been key mediators alongside the United States, said they were studying it.
Blinken is on his eighth visit to the region since the start of the war. The proposal has raised hopes of ending a conflict in which Israel's bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed over 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting have hindered efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the isolated coastal enclave, fueling widespread hunger. Israel launched its campaign after Hamas and other militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire last year in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Hamas is still holding around 120 hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead. The proposal announced by Biden calls for a three-phase plan that would begin with a six-week cease-fire and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas and Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their homes. Phase one also requires the safe distribution of humanitarian assistance “at scale throughout the Gaza Strip,” which Biden said would lead to 600 trucks of aid entering Gaza every day. At the same time, negotiations would be launched over the second phase, which is to bring “a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”Phase three would launch “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of any deceased hostages still in Gaza to their families.”The militant group accepted a similar proposal last month that was rejected by Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have rejected the latest proposal and have threatened to bring down his government if he ends the war leaving Hamas intact. But Netanyahu is also under mounting pressure to accept a deal to bring the hostages back. Thousands of Israelis, including families of the hostages, have demonstrated in favor of the U.S.-backed plan.
REVENGE FOR SLAIN COMMANDER
Hezbollah said it fired missiles and rockets at two military bases in retaliation for the killing of Taleb Sami Abdullah, 55. Known within Hezbollah as Hajj Abu Taleb, he is the most senior commander killed since the fighting began eight months ago. The Israeli strike destroyed a house where Abdullah and three other officials were meeting, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, late Tuesday. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Abdullah was in charge of a large part of the Lebanon-Israel front, including the area facing the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, which Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked in recent days, causing fires in the area. The official, who was not authorized to speak to media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abdullah had joined Hezbollah decades ago and took part in attacks against Israeli forces during their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in May 2000. Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 400 people, most of them Hezbollah members, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began. Other groups allied with Iran, including powerful militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have also attacked Israeli, U.S. and other targets since the start of the war, often drawing Western retaliation. In April, Israel and Iran traded fire directly for the first time. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has said the best way to calm regional tensions is for Hamas to accept a proposal for a phased cease-fire that it says would end of the war in Gaza and bring about the release of the remaining hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. The U.N. Security Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the pl

Immense scale of Gaza killings amount to crime against humanity, UN inquiry says
Emma Farge/GENEVA (Reuters)/June 12, 2024
Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a U.N. inquiry found on Wednesday, saying that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The findings were from two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and another on Israel's military response, published by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel's diplomatic mission to the U.N. in Geneva rejected the findings. "The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel," said Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. By Israel's count more than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks that sparked a military retaliation in Gaza that has since killed over 37,000 people, by Palestinian tallies. The reports, which cover the conflict through to end-December, found that both sides committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Israel also committed additional war crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, it said, saying Israel not only failed to provide essential supplies like food, water, shelter and medicine to Gazans but "acted to prevent the supply of those necessities by anyone else".
Some of the war crimes such as murder also constituted crimes against humanity by Israel, the COI statement said, using a term reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.
"The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions," the COI statement said.
Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such U.N.-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.
MASS KILLINGS, SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND HUMILIATION
The COI's findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information. Among the findings in the 59-page report on the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission verified four incidents of mass killings in public shelters which it said suggests militants had "standing operational instructions". It also identified "a pattern of sexual violence" by Palestinian armed groups but could not independently verify reports of rape. The longer 126-page Gaza report said Israel's use of weapons such as MK84 guided bombs with a large destructive capacity in urban areas were incompatible with international humanitarian law "as they cannot adequately or accurately discriminate between the intended military targets and civilian objects". It also said Palestinian men and boys were subject to the crime against humanity of gender persecution, citing cases where victims were forced to strip naked in public in moves "intended to inflict severe humiliation". The findings will be discussed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. The COI composed of three independent experts including its chair South African former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay was set up in 2021 by the Geneva council. Unusually, it has an open-ended mandate -- a fact criticised by both Israel and some of its allies.

Ceasefire talks in turmoil as Hamas responds to proposal
Andrew Carey, Hamdi Alkhshali and Mostafa Salem, CNN/June 12, 2024
Talks to bring about a ceasefire and hostage deal that could stop the war in Gaza were thrown into doubt Tuesday evening when Israel characterized a Hamas response to the latest proposal as a rejection, precipitating a blame game between the two sides. Hamas had submitted its response to Qatari mediators, proposing amendments to the Israeli proposal, including a timeline for a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a source with knowledge of the talks told CNN earlier on Tuesday. A diplomatic source familiar with ongoing negotiations, however, told CNN Wednesday that Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected the deal, and that framing the Hamas response as a rejection is misleading. Talks are expected continue via the Qatari and Egyptian mediators in coordination with the United States to see if an agreement can be reached, the first source added.
After submitting its response Tuesday, Hamas spokesman and political bureau member Osama Hamdan told Lebanon-based TV Al Mayadeen, the group was committed to achieving a ceasefire. “Our response is a clear reaffirmation of our commitment to the ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza, a commitment we have consistently upheld,” Hamdan added. But in a potential sign of how Israel views the proposed amendments, one Israeli official described Hamas’ response to the original deal as a rejection. “Israel received the Hamas answer from the mediators. In its response, Hamas rejected the outline of the deal for the release of the hostages presented by US President (Joe) Biden,” the official told CNN. Other news organizations report the same initial Israeli response. Hamas leadership quickly pushed back on the claim as an attempt to back out of the proposal. “The response of Hamas and the Palestinian factions to the truce proposal was responsible, serious and positive. The response is consistent with the demands of our people and the resistance and opens the way to reaching an agreement,” said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, late on Tuesday.“The Israeli media’s incitement to Hamas’s response is an indication of attempts to evade the agreement’s obligations.”The tensions are surfacing at a sensitive moment. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently on a diplomatic swing through the region trying to secure agreement on the plan first unveiled by President Biden eleven days ago. Blinken was up late into the night on Tuesday in Jordan reviewing Hamas’s response to the latest Israeli proposal on the table that his team received in-person from the Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, a senior state department official said Wednesday. Blinken, who was in Amman as part of his multi-country trip to the Middle East, sent two senior State Department officials on Tuesday night to meet with Kamel and receive the Hamas response, the official said. Assistant Secretary Barbara Leaf and Counselor Derek Chollet, the officials who met Kamel, then came back to brief Blinken at his hotel, the official said. The official would not characterize the contents of the Hamas response. The plan being negotiated, drafted by Israel, has not been made public in full. Endorsed by the United Nations Security Council on Monday, the plan envisages a six-week ceasefire - during which Hamas would release hostages and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners – that would evolve into a permanent cessation of hostilities through negotiations.The White House has been at pains to stress it is an Israeli plan and have repeatedly said that Israel has accepted it, despite objections from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mixed signals in Israel
Earlier Tuesday, Israel had made its clearest signal yet that it was poised to formally sign up to the plan - though in the same short statement it suggested it intended to maintain the freedom to keep fighting. The short Israeli communication, attributed only to an Israeli government official, though widely understood to mean the Prime Minister’s Office, started with an assertion of Israel’s war aims before expressing support for the US-backed proposal currently on the table. “Israel will not end the war before achieving all its war objectives: destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, freeing all the hostages and ensuring Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future,” it said. “The proposal presented enables Israel to achieve these goals and Israel will indeed do so,” the statement concluded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s oft-repeated promise of total victory and the elimination of Hamas did not get a mention.
The Israeli leader is caught between the voices of many in his country, who believe a ceasefire deal is the best way to secure the release of the 120 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, and those of his extreme right coalition partners who are adamant they want the war to continue.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have both threatened to collapse the government if Netanyahu agrees to the deal in its current form. By contrast, senior opposition figures like one-time war cabinet member Benny Gantz, and opposition leader Yair Lapid have also been among those urging Netanyahu to embrace the US-backed plan. Hamas has also been under pressure to get on board with the US-backed proposal but said last week it is concerned Israel might not go through with the second phase of the plan – a permanent end to the fighting.
“Unless there is a clear position [from Israel] to prepare for a permanent ceasefire and a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which is what could open the door wide to completing the agreement … we cannot come to an agreement,” Hamas spokesman and political bureau member Osama Hamdan warned last week.

Some Syrian refugees risk returning to opposition-held areas as hostility in host Lebanon grows
IDLIB, Syria (AP)/Omar Albam And Abby Sewell/June 12, 2024
For more than a decade, a steady flow of Syrians have crossed the border from their war-torn country into Lebanon. But anti-refugee sentiment is rising there, and in the past two months, hundreds of Syrian refugees have gone the other way.
They're taking a smugglers' route home across remote mountainous terrain, on motorcycle or on foot, then traveling by car on a risky drive through government-held territory into opposition-held northwestern Syria, avoiding checkpoints or bribing their way through.
Until this year, the numbers returning from Lebanon were so low that the local government in Idlib run by the insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al Sham had not formally tracked them. Now it has recorded 1,041 people arriving from Lebanon in May, up from 446 the month before. A Turkish-backed local administration overseeing other parts of northwest Syria said arrivals from Lebanon have increased there, too.Tiny, crisis-wracked Lebanon is the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world and has long felt the strain. About 780,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the U.N. refugee agency there and hundreds of thousands more are unregistered. For years, and particularly since the country sank into an unprecedented economic crisis in 2019, Lebanese officials have called for the refugees to be returned to Syria or resettled elsewhere. Tensions flared in April when an official with the Christian nationalist Lebanese Forces party, Pascal Suleiman, was killed in what military officials said was a botched carjacking by a Syrian gang.
That prompted outbreaks of anti-Syrian violence by vigilante groups. Lebanese security agencies cracked down on refugees, raiding and closing down businesses employing undocumented Syrian workers. In hundreds of cases, authorities have deported refugees. The Lebanese government has also organized “voluntary return” trips for those willing to return to government-held areas, but few have signed up, fearing retaliation from Syria's government and security forces. As precarious as the situation is in Lebanon, most refugees still prefer it to northwest Syria, which is controlled by a patchwork of armed groups under regular bombing by Syrian government forces. It also suffers from aid cuts by international organizations that say resources are going to newer crises elsewhere in the world. For Walid Mohammed Abdel Bakki, who went back to Idlib in April, the problems of staying in Lebanon finally outweighed the dangers of return.“Life in Lebanon was hell, and in the end we lost my son,” he said. Abdel Bakki’s adult son, Ali, 30, who he said has struggled with schizophrenia, disappeared for several days in early April after heading from the Bekaa valley to Beirut to visit his sister and look for work.
His family eventually found him at a police station in the town of Baabda. He was alive but “his body was all black and blue,” Abdel Bakki said. Some reports by activist groups said he was beaten by a racist gang, but Abdel Bakki asserted that his son had been arrested by Lebanese army intelligence for reasons that are unclear. Ali described being beaten and tortured with electric shocks, he said. He died several days later. A spokesman for army intelligence did not respond to a request for comment. Faysal Dalloul, the forensic doctor who examined Ali, said he had multiple “superficial” wounds but scans of his head and chest had not found anything abnormal, and concluded that his death was natural. Abdel Bakki was distraught enough that he borrowed $1,200 to pay smugglers to take him and his 11-year-old son to northwestern Syria, a journey that included an arduous trek through the mountains on foot.
“We spent a week on the road and we were afraid all the time,” he said. They now stay with relatives in Idlib. Their own house had been damaged in an airstrike and then gutted by thieves. Mohammad Hassan, director of the Access Center for Human Rights, an nongovernmental organization tracking the conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, said an “orchestrated wave of hate speech and violence against refugees, justified by political leaders” is pushing some to leave out of fear that otherwise they will be forcibly deported.
While Lebanese officials have warned against vigilante attacks on refugees, they also regularly blame Syrians for rising crime rates and called for more restrictions on them. Hassan said the route from Lebanon to Idlib is “controlled by Lebanese and Syrian smuggling gangs linked with local and cross-border militias” and is not safe. The route is particularly risky for those who are wanted for arrest in Syria's government-controlled areas for dodging army service or for real or suspected affiliation with the opposition. Ramzi Youssef, from southern Idlib province, moved to Lebanon before Syria's civil war for work. He remained as a refugee after the conflict began. He returned to Idlib last year with his wife and children, paying $2,000 to smugglers, driven by “racism, pressure from the state, the economic collapse in Lebanon and the lack of security."In Aleppo, the family was stopped at a checkpoint and detained after the soldiers realized they had come from Lebanon. Youssef said he was transferred among several military branches and interrogated. “I was tortured a lot, even though I was outside the country since 2009 and had nothing to do with anything (in the war),” he said. “They held me responsible for other people, for my relatives.”
Syria's government has denied reports of torture and extrajudicial killings in detention centers and accuses Western governments of launching smear campaigns against it and supporting “terrorists.” In the end, Youssef was released and sent to compulsory military service. He escaped weeks later and made his way to Idlib with his family. He said he has not looked back. “Despite the poverty and living in a tent and everything else, believe me, I’m happy and until now I haven’t regretted that I came back from Lebanon,” he said.

UN probe accuses Israel of crimes against humanity, Hamas of war crimes
Agence France Presse/June 12, 2024
A U.N. investigation concluded on Wednesday that Israel has committed crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza, including that of "extermination", while saying Israeli and Palestinian armed groups have both committed war crimes. The independent Commission of Inquiry's report is the United Nations' first in-depth investigation into the events of the war that erupted on October 7.It found that Israel had committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL). The report noted "a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza.""The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed," it added. Israel rejected the conclusions by accusing the U.N. commission of "systematic anti-Israeli discrimination."The Gaza war broke out after Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people. The commission found that in that attack, members of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and Palestinian civilians committed war crimes, as well as violations and abuses of IHL and IHRL. Militants seized 251 hostages, of which 116 remain in Gaza, though the Israeli army says 41 of them are dead. The Israeli army launched a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip that has left more than 37,000 people dead, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry. The unprecedented Commission of Inquiry was established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of IHL and IHRL in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Since October 7, the three-member commission has focused on the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. "It is imperative that all those who have committed crimes be held accountable," said the commission's chair Navi Pillay, a former U.N. rights chief and an ex-International Criminal Court judge. "Israel must immediately stop its military operations and attacks in Gaza. "Hamas and Palestinian armed groups must immediately cease rocket attacks and release all hostages. The taking of hostages constitutes a war crime."
'War crimes' in October attack -
The commission concluded that members of Hamas, other Palestinian armed groups and civilians participating in the October 7 attack "deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based violence". These acts were committed against civilians and members of the Israeli security forces. "These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of IHL and IHRL," it said. The commission further said it found "significant evidence on the desecration of corpses, including sexualized desecration, decapitations, lacerations, burning, severing of body parts and undressing". "Women were subjected to gender-based violence during the course of their execution or abduction. Women and women's bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators."Many children who witnessed their relatives being killed were "also filmed for propaganda purposes", with the commission finding it "particularly egregious that children were targeted for abduction". The report said Israeli authorities "failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front."
Israel's 'starvation' of Gaza -
In their actions in Gaza, the commission found the Israeli authorities "responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilfull killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity."Starvation will affect the Gaza population, particularly children, "for decades to come", the report said, while "the siege it imposed... constitutes collective punishment and reprisal against the civilian population, both of which are clear violations of IHL."
In the West Bank, the commission found that Israeli forces committed acts of sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, "all of which are war crimes."Israel's government and forces "permitted, fostered and instigated a campaign of settler violence against Palestinian communities" in the territory, the commission added. The report is based on interviews with victims and witnesses conducted remotely, and in Turkey and Egypt, and through studying thousands of verified open-source items, satellite imagery and forensic medical reports, the commission said.
"Israel obstructed the commission's investigations and prevented its access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory," it added. The report is due to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.

Gaza ceasefire plan hangs in balance as US says Hamas seeking changes
REUTERS/June 12, 2024
DOHA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Araby TV, he reiterated Hamas’ stance that it was Israel that was rejecting proposals and accused the US administration of going along with its close ally to “evade any commitment” to a blueprint for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday many of Hamas’ proposed changes were minor “and not unanticipated” while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a UN Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden. Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat Al-Rishq, from Hamas’ political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the US proposal was “responsible, serious and positive” and “opens up a wide pathway” for an accord. Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources said. Biden’s proposal envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war. At a press conference with Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.
Months of talks
Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict — which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave — and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza. “Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes,” Blinken said. “Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”
The US has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. Blinken said Washington would in coming weeks float ideas for a post-war Gaza administration and rebuilding of the enclave. “We have to have plans for the day after the conflict ends in Gaza, and we need to have them as soon as possible.” Major powers are intensifying efforts to defuse the conflict in part to prevent it spiralling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border. Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, backed by Iran, fired barrages of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander. Israel said it had in turn attacked the launch sites from the air. Taleb Abdallah, or Abu Taleb, was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the conflict, a security source said, and Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed that the group would expand its operations against Israel.
UN findings on war crimes
The fighting in Gaza began on Oct. 7 when militants led by Hamas burst across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s air and ground war since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, caused widespread hunger and devastated housing and infrastructure. A UN inquiry found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the Oct. 7 attacks and another on Israel’s response. Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias. Hamas did not immediately comment.
The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or wilful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions. It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
Israel continues assaults in Gazaز As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated. Residents said Israeli forces had pounded areas across Gaza on Wednesday as tanks advanced toward the northern part of the city of Rafah, which skirts the Egyptian border. Palestinian health officials said six people had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza City in the north, and one man had been killed by a tank shell in Rafah.
Footage circulated on social media from Rafah’s “Saudi” neighborhood, which Reuters had not verified, showed swathes of destruction after tanks retreated.
In the central city of Deir Al-Balah, mother-of-two Huda said the displaced had lost hope that the war would end anytime soon. “We lost faith both in our leaders, and in the world,” she told Reuters via a chat app. “Ceasefire promises by our leaders and the world are like words written in butter at night, they disappear with the first light of day.”

Gaza deal would have 'tremendous' effect lowering Israel-Lebanon tensions: Blinken says
AFP/June 12, 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls Wednesday for a diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon and said a Gaza ceasefire deal would have a major effect lowering tensions. "There's no doubt in my mind that the best way also to empower a diplomatic solution to the north -- in Lebanon -- is a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and getting a ceasefire. That will take a tremendous amount of pressure out of the system," Blinken told reporters in Doha.

Blinken says US will try to bridge Israel-Hamas gaps on deal
Agence France Presse/June 12, 2024
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Wednesday to keep pressing to seal a Gaza ceasefire deal, saying that not all Hamas demands were acceptable but voicing hope that gaps could be closed. Consulting with key mediator Qatar on the Hamas response to President Joe Biden's plan, Blinken said Hamas could have given a "clear and simple yes" but voiced guarded hope for moving forward. Of the demands of Hamas, Blinken said "some of the changes are workable, some are not." "We're determined to try to bridge the gaps. And I believe those gaps are bridgeable," Blinken said. "That doesn't mean they will be bridged because, ultimately, Hamas has to decide," he said. "The longer this goes on, the more people will suffer, and it's time for the haggling to stop."

Death toll rises to 49 in Kuwait building fire: interior ministry
ARAB NEWS/June 12, 2024
KUWAIT: At least 49 people were killed in a fire that engulfed a building housing workers in the city of Mangaf in Kuwait’s southern Ahmadi Governorate, Kuwait’s interior ministry said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ordered a probe into the cause of the fire and vowed to bring to justice those responsible. The owner of the impacted building was arrested until investigations are complete, according to Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Youssef Saud Al-Sabah. “We will address the issue of labor overcrowding and neglect,” said Al-Sabah in a statement posted on Kuwait News Agency. Following the massive fire, the municipality has also been ordered to demolish violating properties from tomorrow (Thursday) without warning the violators.
According to KUNA, at least 43 people were hospitalized due to the fire. The authorities said they had contained the fire and were investigating the cause.

G7 leaders approve unblocking $50 bn for Ukraine by end of 2024: France
AFP/June 12, 2024
Group of Seven leaders have agreed to provide Ukraine with $50 billion (46 billion euros) via the use of frozen Russian assets by the end of the year, the French presidency said Wednesday. "We have an agreement," the presidency said, ahead of a G7 summit in Italy on Thursday that will focus on backing Kyiv's fight against Russia's invasion.

Zelensky reports discussing peace summit preparations with Saudi crown prince
AFP/June 12, 2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that he discussed preparations for a peace summit in Switzerland with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on an unannounced visit to the country. Zelensky posted on social media that he held an "energetic meeting" with the Saudi leader, adding: "We also discussed the inaugural Global Peace Summit preparations, its expected outcomes, and their possible implementation, as well as ways to bring true peace for Ukraine closer."

Hungary agrees not to veto NATO support to Ukraine as long as it's not forced to help out
Lorne Cook/BRUSSELS (AP)/June 12, 2024
 Hungary agreed on Wednesday not to veto NATO support for Ukraine but Prime Minister Viktor Orbán insisted that his government would provide neither funds nor military personnel for any joint assistance effort. At a summit in Washington next month, U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are expected to agree on a new system to provide more predictable, long-term security help and military training to Ukraine’s beleaguered armed forces. Ukraine’s Western allies are trying to bolster military support for Kyiv as Russian troops launch attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, taking advantage of a lengthy delay in U.S. military aid. “Hungary made it clear at today’s meeting that it does not want to block decisions in NATO that … are decisions shared and advocated by the other member states,” Orbán told reporters after talks in Budapest with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “I asked the Secretary-General to make it clear that all military action outside NATO territory can only be voluntary in nature, according to NATO rules and our traditions,” said Orbán, who has tried to style himself as a peacemaker. “Hungary has received the guarantees we need.”
As an organization, the world’s biggest security alliance does not send weapons or ammunition to Ukraine and has no plans to put troops on the ground. But many of its members give help on a bilateral basis, and jointly provide more than 90% of the country’s military support. The other 31 allies see Russia’s war on Ukraine as an existential security threat to Europe, but most of them, including Biden, have been extremely cautious to ensure that NATO is not drawn into a wider conflict with Russia. NATO operates on the basis that an attack on any single ally will be met with a response from them all. Stoltenberg confirmed that Hungary would not take part in NATO's plans and said: “I accept this position.” NATO's top civilian official said he and Orbán had “agreed modalities for Hungary’s non-participation in NATO’s support for Ukraine,” but did not elaborate on how that would work. “At the same time, the prime minister has assured me that Hungary will not oppose these efforts, enabling other allies to move forward, and he has confirmed that Hungary will continue to meet its NATO commitments in full,” Stoltenberg added. NATO takes all its decisions by consensus, effectively giving any one of the 32 allies a veto. Hungary’s stridently nationalist government has increasingly become a thorn in the side of NATO — and the European Union — by undermining their efforts to help Ukraine. Orbán is also holding up moves to nominate outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the alliance's next secretary-general. Orbán, one of the friendliest European leaders toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, has labelled his EU and NATO partners assisting Ukraine as being “pro-war.” He has also advocated for former U.S. President Donald Trump's victory in the November election. Since Russia’s full-fledged invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s Western backers have routinely met as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, run by the Pentagon, to drum up weapons and ammunition for Kyiv. Stoltenberg has spearheaded an effort to have NATO coordinate that process. Plans are afoot for NATO’s leaders to commit on July 9-11 to maintain the level of military support they have provided Ukraine since the invasion began. Officials estimate that this amounts to around $40 billion worth of equipment each year. At their summit in Lithuania last year, Biden and his counterparts promised that they would “be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met.” The consensus among members now is that it should not happen while war rages on.

North Korea's Kim hails Russia ties as Putin reportedly plans a visit
The Associated Press/Wed, June 12, 2024
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hailed the country’s expanding relationship with Russia on Wednesday, as reports suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon visit the country for his third meeting with Kim. Military, economic and other cooperation between North Korea and Russia have sharply increased since Kim visited Russia last September for a meeting with Putin. The U.S., South Korea and their partners believe North Korea has supplied artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia to support its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid. Kim has been pushing to boost partnerships with Russia and China in a bid to strength his regional footing and launch a united front against the United States. During their September meeting at Russia’s main space launch site, Kim invited the Russian president to visit North Korea at “a convenient time,” and Putin accepted.
On Wednesday, Kim sent Putin a message congratulating Russia on its National Day, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “Thanks to the significant meeting between us at the Vostochney Spaceport in September last year, (North Korea)-Russia friendly and cooperative relations developed into an unbreakable relationship of comrades-in-arms,” Kim said in the message. Kim’s comments came as media reports said Putin is expected to visit North Korea as early as next week. If realized, it would their third summit meeting. Their first summit happened in Vladivostok in April 2019.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK, citing unidentified diplomatic sources including high-ranking Russian officials, reported Wednesday that Putin is preparing to visit North Korea and Vietnam next week. NHK said Putin is expected to seek stronger military ties with North Korea as Russia faces a shortage of weapons in its war with Ukraine, while North Korea is believed to want help with space technology in the wake of its recent failure to put a second spy satellite in orbit in late May. Russian business daily Vedomosti, citing an unidentified diplomatic source, said Monday that Putin will visit North Korea and Vietnam “in the coming weeks.” The report quoted Russia’s ambassador in North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, as saying that preparations for Putin’s visit to North Korea were underway.Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed reports of a planned trip. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing in late May that “the visit is in the pipeline, and we will make an announcement in due time,” according to Russian news agency Tass. Russia and North Korea are locked in separate confrontations with the United States — Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and North Korea over its advancing nuclear program. Both North Korea and Russia have denied allegations of arms transfers, which would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. In March, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said North Korea had already shipped about 7,000 containers filled with munitions and other military equipment to Russia. In return, Shin said that North Korea had received more than 9,000 Russian containers likely filled with aid. Recently, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen again as North Korea launched trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea, prompting the South to resume propaganda broadcasts at border areas.

India urges Russia to return its citizens recruited by Russia's army after 2 were killed
NEW DELHI (AP)/Wed, June 12, 2024
 India on Wednesday said it had urged Russia to return Indian citizens recruited by Russia's army after two were killed recently in the war in Ukraine. “I want to assure you that the Indian government has taken the matter very seriously,” foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra told reporters.
On Tuesday night, India's foreign ministry said it was in touch with Russian authorities to arrange the repatriation of the two Indians' remains. Two other Indians died earlier this year while fighting in Ukraine. India has avoided voting against Russia at the United Nations or criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. India considers Russia a time-tested ally from the Cold War era with cooperation in defense, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration. India previously said its authorities were in talks with Russia about the return of its citizens who it said had been duped into working for the Russian army. Its federal investigation agency said it had broken up a human trafficking network that lured people to Russia under the pretext of giving them jobs, with at least 35 Indians being sent via agents.Sri Lanka and Russia held talks last month to resolve the issue of Sri Lankans fighting alongside Russians in the war against Ukraine, after at least 16 were reported missing in action. The South Asian island nation said its citizens had been duped into traveling to Russia with promises of good salaries and perks including Russian citizenship. Nepal in January asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight against Ukraine. At least 14 Nepali nationals have died in Ukraine.

Ukraine says it hit three Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea
Reuters/Wed, June 12, 2024
Ukraine's military said on Wednesday it had hit three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight, its second reported strike on air defences on the peninsula this week. The strikes targeted an S-300 system and two more advanced S-400 systems near Belbek and Sevastopol, Ukraine's general staff said. "As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. Information about the third radar is being clarified," it said on Telegram. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol said that air defences repelled the missile attack overnight and that no damage had been done. Local social media chats reported explosions on the Black Sea peninsula. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukraine's general staff also said the attack had caused munitions to detonate at all three sites struck. On Monday, Ukraine's military said it hit three air defence systems near Yevpatoriya and Chornomorske on the peninsula, also damaging radars. Over the last two years of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has carried out multiple air and naval strikes on Russian targets in Crimea and caused significant damage to Moscow's fleet in the Black Sea. Russia forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and regards it now as an integral part of its territory. Kyiv has vowed to drive Russian forces from Crimea as well as from other Ukrainian territory currently held by Moscow.

Canada risks 'diplomatic isolation' if it fails to meet NATO spending target, business leaders warn
CBC/Wed, June 12, 2024
One of the country's leading business voices is warning that Canada faces "diplomatic isolation" if it's not prepared to deliver a concrete plan next month to raise defence spending to meet NATO's benchmark. The Business Council of Canada — which has been wading more and more into the debate on national security lately — made the assessment in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The letter comes as both NATO defence ministers and G7 leaders prepare to gather at separate meetings in Europe, and as leaders of the NATO alliance nations get ready for a summit in Washington, D.C. next month.
The council said the upcoming meeting in Washington could see Canada singled out. It is the only one of the 32 member nations that has not articulated a plan publicly to invest at least two per cent of gross domestic product in the military by the end of this decade. "The consequences that would result from this diplomatic isolation, in terms of both our security and economic partnerships, will have broad ramifications for all Canadians," says the two-page letter to the prime minister, dated June 7, 2024. "Fortunately, it is not too late. Your government could still make a public statement prior to the summit that it will review and revise its defence spending plans to achieve the full two per cent by 2029-30."The council, composed of chief executives and entrepreneurs in the country's major companies, said Canada needs NATO in perilous and uncertain times.
"It is vital that Canadians work cooperatively with our NATO allies to defend our borders, our interests and our values," says the letter. "If we, as a country, fail to make this benchmark level of investment in defence, as successive Canadian governments including yours have promised, we will put lives and livelihoods at risk."Earlier in the spring, the Liberal government's latest update to its defence policy pledged billions of dollars more in defence spending. But Canada's military spending is still only set to reach 1.76 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade.
Documents leaked to the Washington Post a few years ago said Trudeau told allies that Canada would never meet the two per cent benchmark.Both the Liberal government and the Conservative opposition have pledged only to "work towards" the goal. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith recently noted that Canada was the only alliance member without a timeline to reach the goal.
'We have been called out'
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers also recently penned an open letter calling on Canada to meet the commitment all NATO members made at last year's summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. All 32 nations pledged to make two per cent of GDP an "enduring" target — the minimum expected investment, in other words, not the maximum. "This is an area where we have been called out," Goldy Hyder, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada, told CBC News. "It used to be called out quietly in Washington. Now, it's being done very publicly."Business leaders, he said, believe the country must have the sovereign capacity to protect its citizens. And Canadians believe the government must keep its commitments to NATO, Hyder added. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly was put on the spot about Canada's recalcitrance on Tuesday when she appeared on a panel at the U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto, sponsored by Eurasia Group and BMO Financial Group. Seated next to U.S. Sen. (D) Chris Coons, of Delaware — one of the U.S. officials who signed the open letter — Joly defended the government's record on military investment. She said Canada's potential purchase of new submarines, and other equipment not yet costed in the defence policy, will go a long way toward meeting the NATO commitment. "I'm convinced that we can be on the path to two per cent," Joly said. "And I know the minister of defence is working on this, and more is coming into that regard." In response, Coons echoed other U.S. officials in saying that the trajectory of defence spending in Canada is good to see. But he didn't let Joly off the hook entirely. "If we can see a path towards two per cent, that's credible," he said. "That will go a long way towards strengthening our defence relationship."In a recent report, the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that to hit the two per cent target, Ottawa would need to spend an extra $57 billion on defence from 2023–24 to 2026–27 ($15.5 billion more in 2023–24; $14.5 billion more in 2024–25; $14.1 billion more in 2025–26; and $13 billion more in 2026–27). Hyder said that in business meetings he's had in Europe, he's gotten questions about why Canada hasn't delivered a concrete defence spending plan. "What we're saying to the government is, the Canadian business community sees this as the priority because it's so important to our own national security, but also our relationship with the United States of America," he said. "So making a commitment to say we will get to that two per cent target should not be that hard to do."

Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 12-13/2024
Belgium's Extremely Alarming Antisemitism
Alain Destexhe/Gatestone Institute/June 12, 2024
What is striking about the survey is that, for every question, anti-Semitic prejudice is much higher in Brussels than at national level. It happens that the population of the capital of Belgium and the EU is between 30% and 40% Muslim.
In the country as a whole, 43% of Muslims think that Belgian Jews are not really Belgians like the other inhabitants of Belgium.
These figures are staggering. Many other signals testify to the sad reality that Jews are no longer safe in Brussels. The compulsory Holocaust curriculum has not been taught in most Brussels schools for a long time now; teachers are afraid to broach the subject in classes where the majority of the pupils are Muslim.
The rise in anti-Semitism, appears, in fact, to coincide with the growth in Muslim immigration, which accelerated from 2000 onwards. The political world behaved as if they were the three monkeys: did not see, did not hear, did not speak. At Holocaust commemorations, the authorities repeat with their hands over their hearts that anti-Semitism has no place in Belgium, while passively witnessing its rise without ever acknowledging it.
The Muslim vote has become essential to the success of the left-wing parties, whose electoral weight in Brussels, as a result of immigration, has risen in 20 years, from 34% to 54%. Compared to the now hundreds of thousands of Muslim votes, those of the 30,000 Jews in Belgium, a genuine minority, do not carry much weight. Over the past 20 years, some of us have tried in vain to draw attention to this serious trend, which neither the media nor the political world has been willing to see.
The fate of Belgian Jews seems to be sealed. These testimonies are worth every analysis. Belgium is gradually becoming free of Jews -- Judenrein -- while joyfully and conscientiously celebrating the high mass of a highly racist multiculturalism.
A recent survey has attempted to quantify what Belgians feel towards Jews, a small minority representing 0.3% of the country's population.
According to an IPSOS poll, 14% of Belgians express an aversion to Jews, twice as many as the French. This figure rises to 22% in Brussels, the capital, which is also the capital of European Union, where 11% of the population have sympathy for Hamas.
We suspected that anti-Semitism was widespread in Belgium, but this survey provides further confirmation, showing that the public attitude towards Jews has deteriorated even further since October 7, 2023. An increase in anti-Semitic acts has been denounced by Belgium's League against Anti-Semitism.
What is striking about the survey is that, for every question, anti-Semitic prejudice is much higher in Brussels than at national level. It happens that the population of the capital of Belgium and the EU is between 30% and 40% Muslim.
Thus, 16% of Brussels residents think there are too many Jews in Belgium (versus 11% nationally); 29% say that Jews are responsible for economic crises (14% nationally); 48% say that Jews feel superior to others (34% nationally), and 47% say that Jews do to Palestinians what Nazi Germany did to Jews (35% nationally). In the country as a whole, 43% of Muslims think that Belgian Jews are not really Belgians like the other inhabitants of Belgium.
These figures are staggering. Many other signals testify to the sad reality that Jews are no longer safe in Brussels. Jewish community sites are protected by concrete bollards, cameras and security airlock entrances. While the Muslim hijab headscarf is ubiquitous in public areas of Brussels (worn by more than half the women in some neighborhoods), no Jewish yarmulke is seen on the streets there anymore. After an increase in incidents endangering Jewish teenagers taking the metro, a Jewish school near the Gare du Midi, a predominantly Muslim district, had to be moved. The compulsory Holocaust curriculum has not been taught in most Brussels schools for a long time now; teachers are afraid to broach the subject in classes where the majority of the pupils are Muslim. After October 7, on the campus of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Jewish students were molested and harassed.
Back in 2011, a study by Vrij Universiteit Brussels sociologist Mark Elchardus already showed that half of Brussels' Muslim students were anti-Semitic.
The rise in anti-Semitism, appears, in fact, to coincide with the growth in Muslim immigration, which accelerated from 2000 onwards. The political world behaved as if they were the three monkeys: did not see, did not hear, did not speak. At Holocaust commemorations, the authorities repeat with their hands over their hearts that anti-Semitism has no place in Belgium, while passively witnessing its rise without ever acknowledging it.
Since October, 7, the reactions from Belgium's political class have been overwhelmingly hostile to Israel and often tinged with anti-Semitism. From the Socialist Party, a member of parliament, formerly Minister of Defense, compared Israel's military response to Nazi crimes in an X post: "Gaza today is Warsaw yesterday."The president of the Parliament, who liked the MP's post, refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization. The Minister for Development Cooperation likens the State of Israel to the Third Reich. The Minister of Culture called for Israel's exclusion from the Eurovision song contest.
Even the Belgian Prime Minister, after his trip to Israel in November 2023, was congratulated by Hamas: "We appreciate the clear and bold positions of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo". De Croo announced his resignation this week, following his party's disappointing results in the elections for both Belgium's Federal Parliament and the European Parliament.
These positions have often been taken to appeal to Muslim voters, all the more so in the run-up to Belgium's general election that took place on June 9, but in a veritable vicious circle, they further fuel the anti-Semitism of this electorate and beyond to a large section of the population.
The Muslim vote has become essential to the success of the left-wing parties, whose electoral weight in Brussels, as a result of immigration, has risen in 20 years, from 34% to 54%. Compared to the now hundreds of thousands of Muslim votes, those of the 30,000 Jews in Belgium, a genuine minority, do not carry much weight. Over the past 20 years, some of us have tried in vain to draw attention to this serious trend, which neither the media nor the political world has been willing to see.
Perhaps the heartbreaking testimonies of Brussels Jews that speak for themselves. A fellow countryman of mine confided:
"Having arrived from Hungary in 1945, my grandfather always told me that Belgium was a safe country for Jews and that our family would never risk anything here. Today, I explain to my children that their future is not here, and that they must prepare to make their lives elsewhere."Another fellow countryman, whose family left Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century and moved to Portugal after October 7, observes:
"Brussels is a territory lost to political calculations.... Unlike France, there are no real red lines. The atmosphere leaves no room for hope". The fate of Belgian Jews seems to be sealed. These testimonies are worth every analysis. Belgium is gradually becoming free of Jews -- Judenrein -- while joyfully and conscientiously celebrating the high mass of a highly racist multiculturalism. Alain Destexhe, Medical Doctor (MD), a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, is an Honorary Senator in Belgium, former secretary general of Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and former president of the International Crisis Group. Author of Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Why Pope Francis’s Claim that the Virgin Mary ‘Unites’ Christians and Muslims Is Wrong
Raymond Ibrahim /LifeSiteNews/June 12/2024
Catholics may be surprised to learn that the Vatican is exaggerating the similarities between the Virgin Mary and the figure of Mary, Mother of Jesus, as she appears in the Koran and Muslim hadiths (traditions about Muhammad, the founder of Islam).
On May 18 this year, Pope Francis paid a visit to detainees at Verona’s Montorio Prison, and upon bestowing an icon of the Madonna and Child upon the apparently multi-faith jail, he stated to applause that “the figure of Mary is a figure common to both Christianity and Islam. She is a common figure; she unites us all.”If this seems innocuous, it also falls in line with the Vatican’s many attempts to convince Catholics that Islam is somehow a “sister faith,” when, in fact, Islam appropriates the names and sacred auras of biblical figures, but then recasts them with completely different, anti-biblical attributes.
In early 2021, for example, the Marian academy in Rome launched a 10-week webinar series titled “Mary, a model for faith and life for Christianity and Islam” in collaboration with the Grand Mosque of Rome and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy.
Based on his belief that Mary is “a Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman,” Catholic priest, Fr. Gian Matteo Roggio, organizer of the Muslim-Catholic initiative, said he hoped to use “Our Lady” as a model of “open borders” between religious and multicultural worlds. Easier said than done — at least for those still interested in facts. For starters, the claim that Mary was a “Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman” is only two-thirds true: yes, she was a Jew by race and background; and yes, she was a Christian in that she literally birthed Christ (ianity); but she was most certainly not a Muslim — a term and religion that came into being 600 years after Mary’s life on earth.
Worse, far from being the Eternal Virgin, as she is revered by the 1.5 billion Christians of the Catholic and Orthodox variety, Islam presents Mary, the Mother of Christ, as “married” to Muhammad in paradise — a claim that would seem to sever rather than build “bridges.”
In a hadith that was deemed reliable enough to be included in the corpus of the renowned Ibn Kathir (1300 – 1373), Muhammad declared that “Allah will wed me in paradise to Mary, Daughter of Imran,” whom Muslims identify with Jesus’s mother.
Nor is this just some random, obscure hadith. Dr. Salem Abdul Galil — previously deputy minister of Egypt’s religious endowments for preaching — affirmed its canonicity in 2017 during a live televised Arabic-language program. Among other biblical women (Moses’s sister and Pharaoh’s wife), “our prophet Muhammad — prayers and be upon him — will be married to Mary in paradise,” Galil said.
If few Christians today know about this Islamic claim, medieval Christians living in Muslim-occupied nations were certainly aware of it. There, spiteful Muslims regularly threw it in the face of Catholic and Orthodox Christians who venerated Mary as the “Eternal Virgin.” Thus, Eulogius of Cordoba, an indigenous Christian of Muslim-occupied Spain, once wrote, “I will not repeat the sacrilege which that impure dog [Muhammad] dared proffer about the Blessed Virgin, Queen of the World, holy mother of our venerable Lord and Savior. He claimed that in the next world he would deflower her.”
As usual, it was Eulogius’s offensive words about Muhammad — and not the latter’s obscene words about Mary — that had dire consequences: Eulogius, along with many other Spanish Christians vociferously critical of Muhammad, were found guilty of speaking against Islam and publicly tortured and executed in “Golden Age” Cordoba in 859 AD. One expects that all of these inconvenient facts will be quietly passed over during the Vatican and Pontifical International Marian Academy’s “outreach” to Muslims. And if raised, no doubt Christians will somehow take the blame, as almost always happens in academic settings.
As one example, after quoting Eulogius’s aforementioned lament against Muhammad’s claim of being married to Mary, John V. Tolan, a professor and member of Academia Europaea, denounced it as an “outrageous claim” of Eulogius’s own “invention.” He then railed against the martyr — not against his murderers or their prophet:
Eulogius fabricates lies designed to shock his Christian reader. This way, even those elements of Islam that resemble Christianity (such as reverence of Jesus and his virgin mother) are deformed and blackened, so as to prevent the Christian from admiring anything about the Muslim other. The goal is to inspire hatred for the “oppressors”…. Eulogius sets out to show that the Muslim is not a friend but a potential rapist of Christ’s virgins. (Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination, p.93)
As already seen, however, it is Muhammad himself (or, to be strictly accurate, the hadith) — not any “Christian polemicist” — who “fabricates lies designed to shock,” namely that Mary will be his eternal concubine.
This, incidentally, is the main problem the purveyors of “Abrahamism” fail to acknowledge: Islam does not treat biblical characters the way Christianity does.
Christians accept the text of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, as it is. They do not add, take away, or distort the accounts of the patriarchs that Jews also rely on.
Conversely, while also relying on the figures of the Old and New Testaments — for the weight of antiquity and authority attached to their names — Islam completely recasts them with different attributes that reaffirm Muhammad’s religion as the one true and final “revelation,” as opposed to Judaism and Christianity, whose original biblical accounts on these figures are then seen as “distorted” because they are different from Islam’s later revisions.
Far from creating “commonalities,” it should be clear that such appropriation creates conflict. By way of analogy, imagine that you have a grandfather whom you are particularly fond of, and out of the blue, a stranger who never even met your grandfather says: “Hey, that’s my grandfather!” Then — lest you think this stranger is somehow trying to ingratiate himself to you — he adds, “And everything you think grandpa said and did is wrong! Only I have his true life story.”
Would that create—or rather burn—“bridges” between you and this insolent stranger?

It is Sinwar and Netanyahu’s Battle Now
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
In our region, one cannot look at politics in isolation of individual actors. This is especially true for conflict zones, including Gaza. We cannot properly understand the current negotiation process and its outcomes without an adequate reading of the decision-makers of both the Palestine and Israeli sides.
In this case, we are talking about two individuals in specific: Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu. Politicians and the media Netanyahu are of course more familiar with the latter, making him easier to analyze. Indeed, few in the Arab media paid much attention as Sinwar quickly climbed the ranks of Hamas and eventually became its leader in Gaza. Arab media outlets are not interested in individual biographies or the art of the “profile,” and when they do make profiles of figures, their reports are often stained by “sentimentality” or misguided ideologies.
We have learned much about Sinwar recently, especially after Western media outlets began publishing profiles of him and interviewing people who know him, be they Palestinians or Israelis who monitored him during his time in Israeli prisons.
The Wall Street Journal recently published striking details about the exchange between Sinwar and the mediators, suggesting that some Hamas leaders abroad might be looking to distance themselves from his positions. Their attempts to do so have been obvious since the crisis began, especially after the Financial Times published the first profile on Sinwar. The British newspaper provides insights into Sinwar’s approach to managing the war and negotiations, and it shows that there is little trust between the Hamas leaders inside and outside Gaza. According to the Wall Street Journal: “As the Israeli army quickly dismantled Hamas' military structures, the group’s political leadership began meeting with other Palestinian factions in early December to discuss reconciliation and a post-war plan. Sinwar wasn’t consulted.”
The American newspaper reports that Sinwar sharply criticized this step in a message he sent to Hamas' political leaders abroad, calling it “shameful and outrageous.” It is known that the group’s leaders fear Sinwar, especially Ismail Haniyeh, who left Gaza after Sinwar defeated him. The messages revealed by the mediators hold further significance. They underline the fact from his trench, Sinwar has taken a seemingly suicidal approach to the war in Gaza, as he believes that greater bloodshed and destruction ultimately benefits Hamas. The newspaper also reports that, in a recent message "to allies," Sinwar compared what is happening in Gaza to the "Battle of Karbala.” "We have to move forward on the same path we started or let it be a new Karbala."
This story alone affirms that Hamas is not concerned by the bloodshed and destruction in Gaza, Palestinian reconciliation, or "the day after." All Sinwar cares about is finding validating his claim to "victory," come what may. The messages show that Hamas' leadership in the field does account for the facts on the ground, which means that more suffering and blood awaits Gaza in the future, even after the war ends.
Accordingly, the battle in Gaza has now become a personal battle between Sinwar and Netanyahu.

Refugees and Migrants After the EU Elections
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2024
The results of the European elections are yet another indication of the difficulties of tying the global solidarity movement with Gaza to mainstream European societies. If Donald Trump becomes president in a few months, his victory would only reinforce those difficulties. Even the term “youths,” which has often been to indicate a new, promising stance on Israel recently, is now associated with another phenomenon: this same category’s growing support for the hard right in the polls.
The fact is that those who have likened what happened in US universities, and to some extent in Europe, to the American and European student movements of the 1960s, failed to recognize key differences that several observers had pointed out. The sixties movement in the US was linked to opposition to the Vietnam War, which cost American lives and saw many young men drafted into the army.
On top of that, however, the student movement quickly developed positions on culture, morality, education, sex, the environment, music, and fashion..., creating the conception of the term “the sixties” that prevails today and granting its connotations that go beyond the temporal.
As for Europe, its student movement targeted flaccid structures that included political parties, trade unions, the bureaucracy, and the entire political process. It also targeted a system of ideas and beliefs, from Gaullist nationalism to communist notions of economics, that the youths believed had become obsolete.
In other words, the American and European movements of the sixties were very much internal, which is not true at all for the student movement in solidarity with Gaza. Thus, we have recently begun to see a growing number of prominent Western intellectuals, most recently perhaps the French researcher Olivier Roy, who are not satisfied with merely denying that the contemporary movement is political, going further and labeling it an example of a moral stance replacing politics.
Moreover, while the hyperbolic pro-Israeli link between solidarity movement to religion and antisemitism have rightly been repudiated, the movement’s externality is nonetheless notable given the prominent position of immigrant communities, whose religious and ethnic identity differs from that of most Westerners, with it. As for the illusion that its ties to far-left groups internalize it, this will only add to, if not multiply, its externality. In addition to helping strengthen the far right, relying on the far left implies turning to a “third worldist” bent that the intellectual and political mainstream in Western countries can no longer accommodate. As for the racists and right-wing extremists relentlessly fear-mongering about the “siege” Europe is under and the “replacement” of its population, they will find in this reliance another weapon they can accuse their opponents of using in this so-called siege.
When some enthusiastically argue that the solidarity movements with Gaza are a prelude to a global transformation and change, they seem to be attesting to this externality that is watching Europe and the US from outside their walls. What are we to say, then, when the ally is marginal and the cause that forms the basis of all political action is foreign to the actual concerns of societies and their groups?
There is no doubt that neoliberal economic policies have played a role in making things as bad as they currently are, by undermining the role of the state and destroying the intermediaries for social integration like parties and unions. However, we must also contend with other factors that have been equally impacted and consequential. Indeed, Western countries are currently undergoing an experiment to build culturally and religiously pluralistic societies, as well as facing the repercussions and failures of this project. Here, we must look for matters around which the parties concerned can build common ground. A society in which religious and nationalist ideas have declined will find it increasingly difficult to accommodate arrivals with extreme religious and nationalist views. Thus, meeting halfway would create an opportunity to correct the course of pluralism and boost its chances of success, as well as facilitate integration by ensuring that it is not perceived as a challenge to others and their ways of life. Universalism is not yet a given; rather, it is a task to be undertaken for the future. It could succeed or it could fail, which demands that we avoid acting on the grounds that only Westerners must prove their universality.
This, with regard to elites, emphasizes the need to invest in the consciousness of the immigrant and refugee communities, starting with an effort to push for stronger participation in electoral processes, and encouraging them to adopt enlightened and modern ideas and practices. This effort must be accompanied by an end to the inflation of the colonial past and “decolonization,” as well as greater concern for the interests of refugees and immigrants and their integration. Currently, many of the “strategies” that have been developed do not take these interests into account, as though the plan is to “take the world by storm” from within Western societies.True, the fact that the center, both the center-right and center left, managed to maintain the first and second largest blocs in the continent’s parliament is reassuring, as is the far-right parties’ commitment, if only rhetorical, to the democratic process and the principle of the peaceful transfer of power. However, an overview of the broader trajectory, especially if economic and non-economic conditions continue to deteriorate, calls for concern, vigilance, and doing everything possible to stop this dangerous trajectory.

What Sheinbaum’s election win might mean for US-Mexico ties
Dr. Amal Mudallali/Arab News/June 12, 2024
Mexico made history last week. It elected its first woman president, beating both the US and Canada to this milestone. The president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, will also be the first president whose parents were Jewish refugees who fled to Mexico from Europe. She is a climate scientist who was a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She is also a graduate from an American university and has family in the US. This should be good news for the US. Mexico matters a lot to America. It is its biggest trading partner, but it is also Washington’s biggest headache because of what crosses their shared border, from people to drugs.
President Joe Biden congratulated Sheinbaum on her win. She received more than 59 percent of the vote, which is considered to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico’s democratic history. Biden also congratulated outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the “Mexican people on their free and fair electoral process.” The White House said that the two leaders pledged to “maintain their strong cooperation” to “ensure a stable, productive bilateral relationship during the transition to the administration of President-elect Sheinbaum.”
Why is it, then, that not everybody in Washington is happy about Sheinbaum’s election? Why are some cautious and curbing their enthusiasm regarding the win of “La Doctora,” as she is nicknamed?
Sheinbaum is considered the protege and even the hand-picked “chosen successor” of the popular and strong Lopez Obrador. Most people believe the election result was more a vote for the outgoing president than for her. Some worry the election “concentrates more power in Lopez Obrador’s Morena party than any other Mexican government has wielded since the days of one-party rule,” as David Frum wrote in a scathing The Atlantic article titled “The Failing State Next Door.”
Frum believes that what is coming next in Mexico will present a new foreign policy crisis for Biden. He concluded that Sheinbaum is not very different from Obrador, after interviewing her last year. He said she defended all the president’s “dogmas.” But others call on people to be “skeptical of pundits’ conclusions that she will simply follow in the shadow of her predecessor,” as former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza wrote. The fear among Mexico watchers is that the president will keep control, even after he leaves office, thus allowing the perceived backsliding on democracy and weakening of democratic institutions, including the judiciary, to continue. For example, another former US ambassador to Mexico, Arturo Sarukhan, told Foreign Policy last month that the six years of Lopez Obrador’s rule saw a “slippery slope of democratic weakening of checks and balances, of autonomous bodies and regulators.”
A warning sign for Sarukhan was that the president gave the military a role beyond public security, meaning that, “for the first time since the Mexican Revolution, the armed forces are playing a role in public policies that have nothing to do with national defense.” He believes that this makes it “harder for whoever comes after him to change course.”
The fear among Mexico watchers is that the outgoing president will keep control, even after he leaves office.
Jose Carreno Figueras, foreign editor and columnist of El Heraldo de Mexico, also worries that Lopez Obrador is making it harder for Sheinbaum to blaze her own trail. He said the outgoing president has “set a number of small locks that will allow him to cast a shadow on Sheinbaum.”
The biggest fear is the one-month gap in the transition, with the newly elected Congress taking office on Sept. 1, while the new president will not be sworn in until Oct. 1. During this month, many worry that Lopez Obrador will use his powers, and the supermajority his party will then have, to push for constitutional amendments, currently blocked by Congress, that would undermine democracy and tie the hands of the new president.
The financial markets have reflected this fear with a decline in Mexico’s stock market and in the value of the peso against the US dollar since the result of the election became clear. One of the feared changes is for a constitutional reform that would call for a referendum to be held after three years, in which people will be asked to vote on whether the president remains in power or not, Figueras told Arab News.
Washington is watching what is happening next door and waiting to see how things play out with its $800 billion trading partner. The US has a vital relationship with Mexico because of the 37 million Americans of Mexican descent, who represent 60 percent of America’s Hispanic population and 11 percent of the total population. They are served by 50 Mexican consulates in the US. The Mexican-American relationship goes beyond trade and geography, it is historic and wide, socially and economically, and even surpasses Mexico’s relations with Latin America.
This tortured relationship inspired the saying by the 19th-century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz: “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” That is why, Figueras said, Mexico “cannot run from the US’ embrace even if it wanted to, and if it does, the cost will be very high. This might push Sheinbaum to try to be a bridge between the US and Latin America.” It also makes it more urgent for the president-elect to forge a close relationship with the US, not only because it is important to Mexico, but because the lives of millions of Mexicans depend on it.
She vowed a warm relationship and promised to cooperate with the US on migration, the border and especially on security. Lila Abed of the Wilson Center said Sheinbaum “signaled stark differences” in her platform compared to her mentor, Lopez Obrador, on the issue of security, in which “she wants to create a national intelligence agency that can better gather intelligence and information that coordinates” on all levels between the two countries. This is important because Mexico is experiencing a big wave of violence, with 37 candidates killed during this election campaign.
The other concern for Washington is the growing Chinese investments in Mexico. Sheinbaum knows how sensitive the issue of China is for the US. The challenge for the new president is, according to Abed, “to balance Mexico’s relationship with China,” while at the same time keeping Mexicans who want cheaper Chinese electric vehicles and other products happy. Mexico also hopes to attract American companies that have left China. But any concerns about the future of democracy in Mexico will lead US companies to put the brakes on any investments or nearshoring next door.
There is a consensus among experts in the US that there will not be any change in Mexican foreign policy under the new president, although Sheinbaum is expected to be more visible at the UN and in international forums than her predecessor was.
Two questions are on people’s minds. Domestically, will she step out of Lopez Obrador’s shadow and perhaps face a power struggle with the outgoing president? And in terms of foreign relations, how will the results of November’s American elections impact the bilateral relationship? With Biden, we would see continuity. With former President Donald Trump, it is not yet clear. If Trump fulfills his promise to deport undocumented migrants and use force to confront organized criminals operating in Mexico, both sides will have to buckle up for a bumpy ride.
• Dr. Amal Mudallali is a consultant on global issues. She is a former Lebanese ambassador to the UN.

Defeated, victorious and alleged victories
Bakir Oweida/Arab News/June 12, 2024
The scene will remain vivid in the memory, as if the event had occurred just minutes ago. Not because it defied the laws of nature or seemed more like fiction than reality, but because the words sounded like an alarm bell ringing at the door, with the hope that someone would wake up and correct a misguided approach that had long prevailed, settling in minds and dominating thoughts.
That day, I was listening to a very important witness to the era between the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 and the tragedy that befell the Arabs in the 1967 war. Prof. Mohammed Hassanein Heikal was not merely a very important witness, he was one of the key participants in the transformative events of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s era. Heikal’s influence spanned from the Suez War in 1956, through the July socialist decisions in 1961 to the impulsive and uncalculated actions that led to the withdrawal of international emergency forces and the closure of the Suez Canal to international navigation. These events culminated in the outbreak of war at dawn on Monday, June 5, 1967.
This scene took place in the mid-1980s, when I was interviewing Heikal for Al-Thadamun magazine, commissioned by its publisher and editor-in-chief, Fouad Matar. At the beginning of the interview, I asked him about the impact of the June defeat on the situation in Egypt. To my surprise, the renowned writer angrily interrupted me, with a hint of panic, asking: “Are you one of those who call it a defeat?” I responded, “Yes, of course it was.” He stood up and exclaimed, “What does that even mean? This is completely unacceptable.”
The error of insisting on the sin of alleged victory and denying the reality of a significant defeat did not end with the 1967 war
He explained that, yes, we lost Sinai and this was an undisputed setback, but the Israeli war failed to achieve its primary goal: the overthrow of Nasser’s regime. That was the real objective of the conspiracy. I understood that this “structural” interpretation of the Six-Day War’s outcome was well-known and widely propagated through Nasser’s media institutions, beginning with Heikal’s own articles in Al-Ahram newspaper under their famous and distinctive heading, “Bi Saraha” (meaning “Frankly Speaking”), every Friday. In fact, the internationally circulated The Times newspaper in London mimicked this style with a prominent headline on its front page: “A victorious leader and a defeated nation,” commenting on the June 8 and 9 demonstrations that rejected Nasser’s resignation from power.
However, the error of insisting on the sin of alleged victory and denying the reality of a significant defeat did not end with the 1967 war. This pattern has been repeated in several subsequent conflicts in the Arab world, fueled by historical buildups. A prominent example is then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s claim that Iraq was not defeated when its invading army was expelled from Kuwait in the spring of 1991. Such assertions not only belittle people’s intelligence but also defy logic. Is another supposed victory waiting in the wings? Yes, this is a very real possibility, and it may happen sooner than we expect.
Bakir Oweida is a Palestinian journalist who pursued a professional career in journalism in Libya in 1968, where he worked at Al-Haqiqa newspaper in Benghazi, then Al-Balagh and Al-Jihad in Tripoli. He has written for several Arab publications in Britain since 1978. He worked at Al-Arab newspaper, Al-Thadamun magazine and the international Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. He has also worked as a consultant at the online newspaper Elaph.