Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 25-26/2024
The Amer Foundation: The Former Head of the Military Court Judge in Lebanon Admits to the Unlawful Detention of Amer Fakhoury
The Israeli attack on Al-Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley.. Who survived the assassination?
The Israeli aggression against the south continues... and the sound of an explosion shakes a northern settlement at night!
Israel intensifies its raids on southern Lebanon: two dead and five wounded
Gallant reveals the fate of the Northern Front!
Israel claims to target members of the party in Mays al-Jabal!
The battles in southern Lebanon fade and intensify due to the impact of the Gaza negotiations and the status of the field to establish new rules of engagement/Paula Astih/Asharq Al-Awsat/
Lebanon PM calls for pressure on Israel to stop attacking south after UN vote
Lebanon: Hezbollah Says it Targeted a Gathering of Israeli Soldiers
Strike claims two lives in Mays al-Jabal, NNA reports
PM Mikati welcomes UN Gaza ceasefire resolution, calls for action against Israeli 'aggression' in south Lebanon
Safety concerns: Interference with Lebanon's navigation system causes 'panic' on flight to Beirut
Lebanon's debt crisis: A race against time for Eurobond resolution
Saydet el Jabal demands liberation from Iranian occupation
Assaad Nakad to LBCI: Solutions for Zahle's electricity issue discussed
Lebanese media surprised by massive IDF re-entry into Gaza's largest hospital
Geagea: Our State Is Violated and Kidnapped
LF Organizes Workshop on Illegal Syrian Presence in Lebanon
Ending the Hezbollah-Israel War/David Hale/This is Berirut/March 25-26/2024
Makram Rabah: Upholding Freedom of Expression/Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/March 25-26/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 25-26/2024
UN Security Council Demands Immediate Gaza Ceasefire amid Israeli Airstrikes
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu cancels delegation after U.S. abstains from U.N. ceasefire vote.
Tension between the US and Israel boil as UN ceasefire vote passes and Netanyahu vows to push ahead with Rafah offensive
Hamas tells mediators it will stick to original position on ceasefire
Jordanian king, UN chief discuss Gaza war
Israel Kills Dozens in Gaza Attacks, Besieges Two Hospitals, Palestinian Medics Say
Jake Sullivan discusses Gaza crisis with Israeli Defense Minister
White House: We do not see plans for Israeli invasion on Rafah in coming days
Trump urges Israel to 'finish up' its Gaza offensive and warns about global support fading
Russia's Black Sea Fleet is 'functionally inactive' after being pummeled hard by Ukraine, UK says
Putin: Concert hall attack near Moscow conducted by Islamists
4 men charged in Moscow attack, showing signs of beatings at hearing as court says 2 accept guilt

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 25-26/2024
Impregnating Infidels: Another Form of Jihad/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/March 25-26/2024
UN Called to Respond to Sharia Violence against Women/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/March 25-26/2024
ISIS Is Not a Tool of Intelligence Agencies/Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsat/March 25-26/2024
When Wounded Empires Are Affected/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/March 25-26/2024
The Riddles of an Open-Ended Conflict/Charles Elias Chartouni/This Is Beirut/March 25-26/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 25-26/2024
The Amer Foundation: The Former Head of the Military Court Judge in Lebanon Admits to the Unlawful Detention of Amer Fakhoury
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
March 25, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/128168/128168/
Beirut, Lebanon - The Amer Foundation extends its heartfelt appreciation to Judge Peter Germanos for his recent interview on MTV News, where he courageously brought to light the unjust detention of Amer Fakhoury, “Senior leaders in the Free Patriotic Movement gave guarantees to Amer Al-Fakhouri to return to Lebanon and he was illegally arrested in violation of the law under pressure from Hezbollah” Germanos stated.
The Amer Foundation acknowledges Judge Germanos' dedication to upholding the principles of justice and his commitment to truth and fairness. In the interview, Judge Peter Germanos disclosed the troubling circumstances surrounding Mr. Fakhoury's wrongful imprisonment, attributing it to alleged political interference by Hezbollah and its influence over the government. This horrific ordeal faced by Mr. Fakhoury and the torture he faced in the Lebanese General Security, led to his death. The honorable judges and external pressures from the US government secured Amer’s release against Hezbollah’s will. Once Amer was released from Lebanon, Hezbollah retaliated by burning one of the judge's house.
The Foundation emphasizes the significance of Judge Germanos' actions in exposing the grave injustices that occurred in this case and the broader implications of political interference in legal matters. “This is the first time that someone involved directly in Amer Fakhoury’s illegal detention has spoken out with the truth regarding Amer’s case,” said Guila, daughter of Amer Fakhoury.
As an organization dedicated to advocating for justice and human rights, the Amer Foundation stands in solidarity with all those who have been affected by similar injustices. Judge Peter Germanos' interview serves as a beacon of hope for a more just and equitable future in Lebanon.
For more information about the Amer Foundation and its ongoing work to promote human rights and accountability, visit www.amerfoundation.org or contact team@amerfoundation.org
**About the Amer Foundation**
The Amer Foundation is a non-profit organization established in memory of Amer Fakhoury, a U.S. citizen who faced illegal detention and torture in Lebanon. The foundation is committed to promoting human rights, accountability, and justice for those who suffer similar injustices. Through advocacy efforts and public awareness campaigns, the Amer Foundation seeks to create a world where every individual's rights are protected and respected.

The Israeli attack on Al-Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley.. Who survived the assassination?
Janoubia/March 25, 2024
A leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas survived an Israeli drone attack that targeted him on Sunday in eastern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source told Agence France-Presse on Monday. A Syrian civilian was killed on Sunday in the strike on the road to the town of Al-Suwairi in the Western Bekaa. The strike on the town of Al-Suwairi, about five kilometers from the border with Syria, was the first targeting of this area in Lebanon since the start of the exchange of bombing against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. The security source told Agence France-Presse that “the strike was primarily targeting a Hamas leader who was passing on the same road and survived the raid.”

The Israeli aggression against the south continues... and the sound of an explosion shakes a northern settlement at night!
Janoubia/March 25, 2024
Israeli media reported hearing “a strong explosion in the Meron area in the north, on the Lebanese-Palestinian border,” but it later turned out to be the sound of Israeli forces’ planes preparing to bomb the town of Tair Harfa in southern Lebanon. Indeed, Al-Manar channel correspondent Ali Shuaib wrote at the same time, on his own account on the “X” platform: “Israeli warplanes launched an air strike with missiles targeting the town of Tayr Harfa.” He added: “For the third day in a row, Israeli warplanes are launching missiles at the town of Mays al-Jabal.” The National News Agency reported that the Israeli raid on the Tair Harfa area targeted an uninhabited house west of the town, but ambulance teams went to the place to make sure it was empty.

Israel intensifies its raids on southern Lebanon: two dead and five wounded
Al-Modon/March 26, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant commented on the UN Security Council’s issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution in Gaza, saying, “Ceasing the war in Gaza may bring a war on the northern front with Hezbollah closer. Following the issuance of the resolution and Gallant’s statement, Israel intensified its raids on Villages and towns in the south, specifically in the town of Mays al-Jabal, which has been subjected to bombing operations for three days. Israeli warplanes targeted the town with two raids, resulting in two martyrs and 5 wounded. The Israeli army also raided the town of Rab Thileen, and another between Markaba and Al-Adisa, targeting a generating station. Electricity. An Israeli artillery bombardment targeted Tallet Al-Awidah, towards Kafr Kila. The Israeli army reported, today, Monday, on its own account via “X”: “An Israeli Air Force plane bombed two Hezbollah members who were working in the Mays al-Jabal area in southern Lebanon.” It was reported. Israeli media reported that electricity had been cut off in some border towns with Lebanon for six days due to operations carried out by Hezbollah, and that electricity company employees were unable to repair the fault in the border towns, due to Hezbollah attacks, and for fear of missiles being fired at them.Description of a report published by Maariv newspaper The attack carried out by Israel against the city of Baalbek at dawn on Sunday was considered “important,” noting that it indicates a trend towards increasing the level of attacks launched by Tel Aviv against Lebanon. He said: “With this, it appears that Israel is taking a stronger and harsher response than before, and it has extended Its attacks deep into Lebanon. The report continued: “The Israeli government has finally realized that if it does not exert increasing pressure on Hezbollah, we will not reach an understanding regarding any political agreement with the latter. If that understanding is reached, it will be thanks to military pressure, and the one who is escalating the attacks this time is the army.” "Israeli." The newspaper says: “With the latest strike deep into Lebanon, Israel risks a large-scale war, but it is right to act in this way and we have no other choice. Israel is slowly taking small steps towards escalation, which will push Hezbollah to go to a place where it negotiates with us.” .

Gallant reveals the fate of the Northern Front!
Al-Kalima online/March 25, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant commented on the UN Security Council’s approval, on Monday, of an immediate ceasefire resolution in Gaza, saying: “Ceasing the war in Gaza may bring a war closer to the northern front” with Hezbollah. He pointed out that "there is no moral right for anyone to stop the war without liberating the kidnapped people." It is reported that "Gallant is visiting the United States in order to discuss with the American administration the horizon of the war in Gaza and the ground operation in Rafah." Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he "cancelled the visit of an Israeli delegation to Washington after it abstained from voting on the resolution." The White House responded by saying: “We abstained from voting on the wording of the draft resolution because it does not include condemnation of Hamas.” He added, "We have not been informed of any change regarding Israel's plan for the ground operation in Rafah."

Israel claims to target members of the party in Mays al-Jabal!
Al-Kalima online/March 25, 2024
The Israeli army reported, on Monday, on its own account via “X”: “An Israeli Air Force plane bombed Hezbollah members who were operating in the Mays al-Jabal area in southern Lebanon.” He added, "Hezbollah has been launching missiles and drones at Israel from Lebanon since October 8, including several times today."

The battles in southern Lebanon fade and intensify due to the impact of the Gaza negotiations and the status of the field to establish new rules of engagement
Paula Astih/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 25, 2024
After more than a week of an unprecedented decline in the intensity of military confrontations on the southern Lebanese front, which Hezbollah decided to use as a launching pad for military operations in support of Gaza, this front has returned in recent hours to heat up without any warning, and Israel’s operations have expanded to include Baalbek and the western Bekaa, east of Lebanon. The country. The intensity of the confrontations returned after Hezbollah announced the use of two drones to target two Iron Dome platforms in the Kfar Blum colony located in the Upper Galilee. The Israeli response was to target Baalbek, as well as a car in the Western Bekaa region, which was targeted for the first time since the “Al-Aqsa Flood.” . It seemed clear that the two sides of the conflict; That is, Hezbollah and Israel, which have adhered since the July 2006 war to certain rules of engagement, after the outbreak of the recent confrontations between them, have begun to undeclaredly adhere to new rules that say that when the party uses drones or resorts to specific operations, the Baalbek area is targeted and expansion is being made. The targeted Lebanese areas. After Hezbollah mourned its last members on the twelfth of this month, it returned on Sunday to mourn two of its members with the return of military momentum to the southern front.
The field situation controls the front
While many believe that the decline and intensification of operations are linked to the negotiation process to reach a truce in Gaza, as well as to undeclared understandings between Israel and Hezbollah made through mediators, others believe that Tel Aviv’s giving priority to the Rafah issue and ruling out the possibility of Washington intervening to help it in any expanded war on Lebanon, in light of the major differences between the Israeli and American administrations, are factors that lead to a decline in the pace of Israeli military operations in the south, and that these operations have become part of a reaction to what the party is doing. Hezbollah sources indicate that “operations subside at times and intensify at other times depending on field conditions,” denying to Asharq Al-Awsat that there are any other developments that will make the front calmer. Sources familiar with the party’s atmosphere explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the operations carried out by (Hezbollah) against Israeli military centers are continuing at the same pace,” pointing out that “what must be stopped at is Israel’s abstention for more than 12 days from tracking cars in southern Lebanon to seize Certain targets, as well as its abstention from bombing inside villages,” adding: “She may have been convinced that she was unable to drag the party into the expanded war as it dragged Washington to fight for it in Lebanon. In addition, (Hezbollah) succeeded in filling many loopholes that were being implemented.” Israel to cause martyrs in its ranks.”
Go beyond open war project
Ali Al-Amin, the political activist opposed to Hezbollah, believes that “the decline in the intensity of clashes and bombings on areas in southern Lebanon sometimes does not reflect the path of calm or truce, as long as there is no agreement yet on a settlement between the two parties,” he suggested, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat. “The current skirmish formula paves the way for long-term Israeli operations, at a pace that keeps the front open and subject to escalation and calm, until a settlement is reached that seems to require more time.” Al-Amin adds: “Therefore, the apparent truce or the ongoing skirmishes may express going beyond the project of open war and dispensing with it, in favor of the option of exhausting (Hezbollah) and practicing the act of assassination and hunting down its cadres, even if at distant intervals, but they are permanent and continuing indefinitely.” Al-Amin points out that “Israel imposed a rhythm of confrontation in this war that undermined what were called the rules of engagement that (Hezbollah) was adhering to and through which it threatened Israel that targeting cities, civilians and fighters would be reciprocated,” pointing out that “there is a rhythm that Israel seems to have more control over than (Hezbollah), and reflects the length of the Israeli hand in targeting (Hezbollah) and Lebanon.
An unspoken understanding
For his part, Dr. Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University, links the decline in the intensity of confrontations in the south over a period of time to the visit made by the official of the Liaison and Coordination Unit in Hezbollah, Wafiq Safa, to the Emirates, recalling that “the UAE’s relationship with Israel is excellent, and the President Syrian Bashar al-Assad mediated for Hezbollah to move the file of the party’s detainees in the Emirates,” ruling out that the deliberations extended exclusively to this file, as Hezbollah confirms, “but I noticed some undeclared understanding regarding reducing operations and limiting strikes to targets that would not lead to "To great damage and human losses." Khashan believes that “the party wants to find a way to get out of the impasse it has placed itself in, and it knows that the final cessation of operations is linked to its withdrawal again to the north of the Litani, and they can find a suitable way out for it when the time comes,” adding: “The Gaza issue is complex, and this will keep the front intact.” Lebanon is currently open, but at a slower pace than previously. Israel is under great American pressure, so it is currently focusing on the Rafah issue and will address the issue of southern Lebanon at a later time.” Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed that his government “is continuing its diplomatic contacts internationally and in the Arab world to stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” noting that “the results of these contacts so far appear to be positive, without neglecting a fundamental issue, which is that it is not possible to bet on any position.” Positive or guarantee provided by the Israeli enemy. As for the American envoy Amos Hochstein, who visited Lebanon at the beginning of the month, he carried a “threatening message” to Lebanese officials that “the truce in Gaza will not necessarily extend automatically to Lebanon,” stressing that “escalation is a dangerous matter and there is no such thing as a limited war.”

Lebanon PM calls for pressure on Israel to stop attacking south after UN vote
CAIRO (Reuters)/March 25, 2024
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said on Monday that countries should pressure Israel to stop attacking Lebanon following a U.N. Security Council decision calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been trading fire across the southern Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the U.N. vote. In a statement shared by his office, Mikati welcomed the move, saying it was "a first step on the path to stopping the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip". "When it comes to Lebanon, we renew our call to concerned countries to pressure the Israeli enemy to stop its continued aggression on southern Lebanon," the statement said. Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel could not stop its war on Hamas while there were still hostages in Gaza. Mikati told Reuters in February that a ceasefire in Gaza would trigger indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel to reach a halt to hostilities on the southern border and to delineate the disputed border between the two countries. Hezbollah has also said it would halt its fire into Israel if a Gaza ceasefire was reached. Israeli and U.S. officials, however, have said a ceasefire in Gaza would not automatically extend to Lebanon

Lebanon: Hezbollah Says it Targeted a Gathering of Israeli Soldiers
Asharq Al Awsat/25 March 2024
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the Tiyahat Hill at dawn on Monday with rockets and artillery. In a statement on Telegram, the party said the shelling caused "direct casualties”. Hezbollah has also claimed responsibility for eight different shelling operations on Sunday across the border between Lebanon and Israel. Cross-border shelling between the Iran-backed group and Israel are reported on a daily basis following the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7th last year.

Strike claims two lives in Mays al-Jabal, NNA reports
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Two individuals died as a result of a strike that hit a house in Mays al-Jabal, the National News Agency reported on Monday. Additionally, the National News Agency stated that an airstrike targeted the Rab El Thalathine village, and another hit the area between Markaba and Odaisseh.

PM Mikati welcomes UN Gaza ceasefire resolution, calls for action against Israeli 'aggression' in south Lebanon
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the decision issued by the United Nations Security Council, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the month of Ramadan. He said: "This decision represents a first step in the path of ending the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which has no parallel in recent history," adding: "The key lies in Israel's commitment to the provisions of this resolution, which would provide an acceptable ground for relieving and supporting Palestinians." He stated: "What is required is the initiation of a political process to end the ongoing conflict and grant Palestinians their rights based on the commitment to international resolutions and the two-state solution." He continued: "As for Lebanon, we renew our call to the concerned countries to pressure the Israeli enemy to stop its continuous aggression on southern Lebanon."

Safety concerns: Interference with Lebanon's navigation system causes 'panic' on flight to Beirut
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Passengers experienced "moments of terror" aboard a plane destined for Beirut via Istanbul. Upon entering Lebanese airspace, the pilot was supposed to commence the usual gradual descent for landing on Monday morning, but that proved impossible. The pilot circled over Lebanese airspace for forty minutes, but to no avail, forcing a return to Antalya for landing. Passengers waited there for some time before finally landing again in Beirut at seven in the morning on Monday. These were moments of panic experienced by the passengers due to the interference occurring in Lebanon's navigation system. Director-General of Civil Aviation Fadi El Hassan clarified to LBCI that this occurred exclusively with two pilots from Turkish Airlines who chose to continue relying on GPS despite the Civil Aviation authority's directive for all airlines to use ground navigation equipment to receive signals, thus avoiding any interference with flight paths due to disturbances occurring in the Middle East, which have increased over Lebanon due to the war in Gaza. These are the repercussions of cyber-attacks that threaten the safety of civil aviation. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning, prompting Lebanon to implement the required precautions.

Lebanon's debt crisis: A race against time for Eurobond resolution
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Lebanon has long relied on issuing dollar-denominated bonds, known as Eurobonds, whenever the state needed financing. These bonds reached a peak in March 2020 when the government of Hassan Diab announced a default on payment, totaling $31 billion, including $11 billion owed to foreign bondholders. This figure increased as domestic holders, particularly banks, bought bonds, bringing the total owed to foreign creditors to $16 billion, hoping to profit from the Eurobond price increase if reforms are implemented and an agreement is reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Four years have passed without negotiations with foreign creditors on how to repay their dues. With only one year left before they can file complaints against the state for defaulting, there is a five-year window for creditors to file these complaints, or they risk losing the interest on the bonds, which amounts to 8%.
Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Al Shami and Finance Minister Youssef Khalil acknowledge this reality and also recognize the difficulty of reaching a consensus on reform laws and an agreement with the IMF within a year. Consequently, stakeholders find the situation at an impasse and await the following steps from the creditors.

Saydet el Jabal demands liberation from Iranian occupation
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Saydet el Jabal held its weekly meeting at its headquarters in Ashrafieh, physically and virtually. Participants considered that Lebanese and the world at large must realize that Lebanon is suffering under Iranian occupation, and Hezbollah is an Iranian militia with Lebanese individuals. Hezbollah names itself the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and Iran—the Guardianship of the Jurist (Wilayat al-Faqih), which is the ideological and political reference for this party and the source of its money and weapons, as admitted by its secretary-general. They saw Lebanon's return to life as impossible without eliminating the occupation. Free Lebanese people have a historical duty: to confront the occupation to regain their freedom and homeland. They said: ''When the decision of peace and war returns to the hands of the Lebanese government in the south and throughout Lebanon, it will be our duty to compensate our people in the south.''Adding, ''Today, the team making decisions of peace and war in Lebanon is Hezbollah on behalf of the state of Iran, and therefore the responsibility for compensating our people and our brothers in all of Lebanon lies with the state of Iran.''

Assaad Nakad to LBCI: Solutions for Zahle's electricity issue discussed
LBCI/March 25, 2024
Assaad Nakad, CEO of Electricité De Zahlé, confirmed that approximately four thousand individuals do not pay for electricity in Zahle, citing reliance on solar energy. Speaking on LBCI's "Nharkom Said" TV show, Nakad suggested that if the Minister of Energy could ensure 12 hours of electricity supply, citizens might be able to discard electric generators. Nakad emphasized the challenges faced by the management of Electricité De Zahlé, underscoring the company's distinguishing factor as the trust people place in it to resolve issues. He clarified that Electricité De Zahlé employs only Lebanese citizens, all hailing from the Bekaa region. Expressing support for electrical decentralization, Nakad stated, "Lebanon needs a platform for dialogue to discuss electricity matters, whether it be privatization, decentralization, or other solutions." He further noted the installation of meters by Electricité De Zahlé for lands hosting Syrian refugee camps, facilitating direct payment by landowners and total remittance to the company. Regarding US involvement, Nakad remarked, "Americans have never followed through with their promises, as evidenced by their inability to secure electricity for Lebanon from Syria due to the Caesar Act."
In addition, he reiterated Electricité De Zahlé's non-involvement in politics, religion, or ethnicity. Nakad speculated that Électricité du Liban, which currently provides only two to three hours of power, could be abandoned entirely if kilowatts could be sold at the state tariff.

Lebanese media surprised by massive IDF re-entry into Gaza's largest hospital
yenetnews/March 25, 2024
As multiple terrorists from the upper echelon of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or arrested during the IDF's latest raid on Al Shifa, Lebanese media has shone a spotlight on the massive operation; 'We distinguish between Hamas terrorists and the civilians they are hiding behind,' says IDF spokesperson. The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is known to align with Hezbollah, cited a source from the "Palestinian resistance in Gaza" on Monday, which emphasized the significance of the IDF's ongoing raid on Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital and the number of terrorists arrested or killed.

Geagea: Our State Is Violated and Kidnapped
This Is Beirut/25 Mar 2024
Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea highlighted, “This year, we are living through the path of suffering and pain in Gaza, where children, men and women are dying. We are living through the path of suffering and pain with Ukraine and Sudan.” Geagea spoke after the annual recital in Maarab held during the Holy Week, stating that “Lebanon is suffering through crises: war in the South, corruption in its institutions and a presidential vacuum.”He observed, “Every day we are at conflict with a group that does not recognize the state, as our people’s decisions are in someone else’s hands,” contending that “our people live the pains and experience them.”He noted that “our state is violated and kidnapped, and one team is dragging us into the most dangerous war despite the wishes of all Lebanese, blocking the truth and the presidency and allying themselves with the corrupt.” Geagea stressed, “Despite Lebanon’s political, social and economic crises, the Lebanese people will not die or surrender because these people have overcome disasters and stood firm.”

LF Organizes Workshop on Illegal Syrian Presence in Lebanon
This Is Beirut/25 Mar 2024
Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam sounded the alarm over the growing dangers of illegal Syrian presence in Lebanon, which is increasingly “threatening the country’s mere structure.”Speaking at an LF-organized workshop on “Illegal Syrian Presence” held in Amioun, in North Lebanon’s district of Koura, Karam said that the Union of Municipalities of Koura started working on the issue with the heads of security and judicial authorities, the Ministry of Interior and the district governors. “All the Lebanese political parties have their own proposals and initiatives regarding the issue of displacement and the illegal Syrian presence in Lebanon, which has begun to threaten the Lebanese structure. While they blame each other for inaction, the debate continues, and the illegal Syrian presence, too, continues,” Karam said. Hoping that the workshop will come up with a set of unified measures to deal with the problematic of illegal Syrian presence, Karam said, “We will continue hand in hand to begin implementation.”The workshop’s objectives align with caretaker Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi’s roadmap to regulate the presence of displaced Syrians which he had submitted to governors, municipalities and mukhtars.
The measures involve conducting a survey to register Syrian refugees, especially in areas that lack municipalities, refrain from renting Syrian refugees until their registration is confirmed, report any suspicious activities by Syrian refugees, particularly smuggling, and crack down on illegal businesses and encroachments on public infrastructure. Associations, especially foreign ones, who are involved in assisting Syrians, are requested to fully implement the measures and coordinate with ministries, administrations, military and security agencies, under the risk of revoking their permits and accreditation.

Ending the Hezbollah-Israel War
David Hale/This is Berirut/March 25/2024
International attention is focused on how to bring a ceasefire and at some stage an end to the fighting between Hamas and Israel. This focus is only natural given the state of affairs in Gaza and Israel’s war aims there, despite the obvious orchestration of regional attacks on Israeli, American, and global interests by Iranian proxies. However, the risk of further escalation between Hezbollah and Israel is ever-present. American and French leaders and diplomats in particular have not neglected this front, even as their efforts appear to have had little impact. The deployment of two American aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the October 7 massacre was a demonstration from the start that the Biden Administration identified a role for itself in reducing the chances of a full-blown war developing along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
However, the two sides’ relative degree of self-control probably has more to do with their own calculations than with any actions or messages from Washington. Despite tough rhetoric, Israeli leaders do not seem to be in any hurry to open a second front while still dealing with Hamas. As for Iran, one theory is that Iranian leaders do not identify a self-interest in letting loose the full power of Hezbollah. To do so would ensure colossal counterstrikes on Hezbollah by Israel, substantially degrading Hezbollah’s longer-term ability to threaten Israel. This Hezbollah threat is of strategic value to Iran; so long as it exists, it provides a theoretical deterrent against any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program. It is not something to use — and waste — lightly. Still, the annals of war are a history of miscalculations, false assumptions, faulty intelligence, and hubris. No one should discount the risk of escalation.
This is why, as Israel struggles to define a new, post-October 7 strategic order, there is a sense on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border of unfinished business, even impending doom. The problem is traceable to the unfulfilled commitments made at the end of the 2006 war, enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It had all the ingredients needed to establish enduring stability in south Lebanon and northern Israel, except enforcement mechanisms and anything approaching sincerity on the part of Hezbollah and its Iranian masters. Eighteen years later, as that border region is once again a cockpit for war, we should all learn the lessons from 2006 and the failure to implement fully 1701.
Lesson number one is to avoid focusing only on short-term fixes. When the fighting in Gaza ends, the temptation will be to paper over the problems between Hezbollah and Israel. But buying Hezbollah’s acquiescence by not applying too much pressure on them and offering them political concessions such as on the Lebanese presidency will do nothing to bring stability. Nor will Israelis be persuaded to accept a return to the precarious, pre-October 7 status quo.
Lesson number two is the need for persistence and a focus on root causes. American diplomacy was instrumental in bringing an end to the 2006 war. However, after the ceasefire was in place, things got complicated, and American officials seemed to lose interest, moving on to other crises. That neglect enabled Hezbollah to evade the demands of 1701, particularly to disarm. If those threatened by Hezbollah do not want a repetition of this experience, then America and its partners should stay engaged even after the fighting stops. Moreover, there should be a recognition that the basic strategic foe is in Tehran, not Beirut. If America’s response to the Iranian threat simply is reactive and focused on Iranian proxies, those targeted by Iran will never be at peace. Only when Iranian leaders feel the pain — not just their proxies — will we begin to create a context in which Iranian and Hezbollah’s behavior of impunity actually has costs, requiring reassessment. Sanctions enforcement on Iran and military pressure on its assets and personnel stationed outside Iran would be a good place to start turning the tables on Iran. Success will require time and persistence.
American and Western diplomats will resume their obligatory treks to Lebanon when the prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza brighten again. But discussions there will be mostly irrelevant if the strategy ignores the central dimension: Iran. So long as the Iranian leadership sees no risk or hazard in keeping their hands on the escalatory dial, the innocent Lebanese civilians who have fled northward, and blameless Israeli counterparts who have moved southward, will find little comfort in a return to their homes. While the armed Hezbollah militia may not feel the political pressure from the displaced, that is not true when it comes to Israel’s elected leaders. If the US is unable to develop a convincing strategic game plan that addresses the Middle East-wide Iranian threat, including from Lebanon, Israeli officials will feel compelled to address the threat from its north on its own terms once the situation with Hamas is stabilized. The firepower on both sides of the border has developed immeasurably over these eighteen years; the losses in a full-fledged war now will far exceed the tragedy of 2006. A patched-up, compromised mediation that ignores root causes will make only one set of actors breathe easily, Iran and Hezbollah. It is neither a solution nor a substitute for true statecraft needed to deal with the enduring Iranian problem.

Makram Rabah: Upholding Freedom of Expression
Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/March 25/2024
During the disastrous days of Syrian occupation, a French journalist in Beirut rightly noted that the Assad regime couldn’t bring the Lebanese press to kneel or shake its unwavering commitment to freedom of expression. After the deployment of Syrian forces in June 1976 and following the election of late Elias Sarkis as president, the Damascus regime attempted, as an introduction to its Anschluss, or “annexation plans,” to impose prior censorship on local newspapers. However, this attempt proved short-lived, akin to the fleeting bloom of roses… And rightfully so: Lebanese people of all tendencies, irrespective of their political affiliations, swiftly rejected this encroachment on freedom of opinion.
Since the beginning of the Lebanese war—and even before in some cases—various leaders who have held power, with a few exceptions, have unleashed, through security services, repeated “assaults” against journalists, intellectuals and academics whose ideas were not in conformity with the orientations of the existing regimes. The most recent episode in this regard occurred just a few days ago with the legal actions taken against Makram Rabah, a professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB), for his acerbic criticisms of Hezbollah.
Recognized for his particularly audacious stances, Rabah, backed by flawless arguments, doesn’t beat around the bush in stigmatizing the pro-Iranian faction’s course of action. His outspokenness in this regard undoubtedly displeased the security officials who operate within the realm of the Shiite party. The university professor was deemed “troublesome,” especially since the position he defends clearly aligns with the viewpoint of an overwhelming majority of Lebanese people, regardless of their communal affiliations.
In this regard, Rabah cannot be labeled as a “right-wing Christian, isolationist, supporter of the Lebanese Forces (LF) or the Kataeb.” That’s exactly what displeases Hezbollah’s upper echelons, since the case of Makram Rabah holds national significance for two reasons. It first affirms that no matter the tyrant, local or foreign, attempting to suppress freedom of expression in Lebanon, they will inevitably meet a dead end, confronted by unwavering determination—and notably, one that transcends communal boundaries.
The significant phases of Lebanon’s history, both ancient and contemporary, particularly the recent period marred by successive occupations—first Palestinian, then Syrian and currently Iranian through Hezbollah—have demonstrated on multiple occasions the deep-seated attachment of the Lebanese people to freedom, ingrained in their very “DNA.” And every time, repeated attempts at repression have missed the mark. However, in some exceptional cases, the hardline proponents of repression resort to political assassination…
Through his audacious sovereigntist stances, uncompromising and without reservation, Makram Rabah further exemplifies, via his enlightened testimony, a cross-communal Libanism—a Lebanese sensibility that draws its source from the Cedar Revolution of spring 2005. A Libanism that is not necessarily fusional, one that does not exclude—and should not exclude—pluralism, a cornerstone of Lebanon’s socio-communal reality for centuries.
A reality that proves it is possible—excluding extreme cases like Hezbollah—to share a national “common ground” based on human rights, fundamental freedoms, humanistic values and a commitment to the sovereigntist option, all without negating or rejecting the cultural specificities and societal traditions inherent to each religious community in the country.
Such diversity could be a source of richness within the framework of a Libanist union… It is undoubtedly high time, in this regard, to regulate this pluralism by forging a new social pact and political system capable of managing, on rational and sustainable grounds, the occasionally conflicting positions of all parties involved…

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 25-26/2024
UN Security Council Demands Immediate Gaza Ceasefire amid Israeli Airstrikes
Asharq Al Awsat/25 March 2024
The United Nations Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas on Monday as Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes in Gaza and laid siege to two hospitals. After vetoing three earlier draft council resolutions on the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's main ally, the United States, abstained in the vote following global pressure for a ceasefire to ease fears of famine after nearly six months of war. Hamas welcomed the resolution, which also demanded the unconditional release of all hostages seized by the group in its deadly Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel could not stop its war on Hamas while there were still hostages in Gaza. "We will operate against Hamas everywhere - including in places where we have not yet been," his ministry quoted him as saying ahead of talks in the US. "We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages held in Gaza." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose relationship with Washington has been strained by the ferocity of the offensive, said the US failure to veto the proposal was a "clear retreat" from its previous position. He said he would not now follow through on plans to send a delegation to Washington to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The White House said Netanyahu's decision was "disappointing". The other 14 council members voted for the resolution demanding a ceasefire for the rest of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks. "The Palestinian people have suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath, before it is too late," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the Security Council after the vote. There has been one truce to date, lasting a week at the end of November. At least 32,333 Palestinians have been killed and 74,694 injured in Israel's offensive, including 107 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday. Israel said 1,200 people were killed and 253 abducted in the Hamas-led raid on Oct. 7.
Airstrikes and sieges
The Security Council resolution was approved as Israel continued to besiege two Gaza hospitals where it says Hamas cells are hiding and following a new wave of Israeli airstrikes. Rafah, the last refuge for about half of Gaza's 2.3 million population following the arrival of many people displaced by fighting elsewhere, came under heavy fire in the latest Israeli attacks, witnesses said. Palestinian medics said 30 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours in Rafah, where Israel is planning a ground assault to eliminate what it says are militant cells there. "The past 24 hours were one of the worst days since we moved into Rafah," said Abu Khaled, a father of seven, who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals. Gaza medics said an Israeli airstrike had killed 18 Palestinians in one house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, and the victims were buried on Monday. Israeli forces were also besieging Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, Palestinian witnesses said, a week after entering Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the main hospital in the Strip. Israel says hospitals in Gaza are used by Hamas as bases. Hamas and medical staff deny this. The Israeli military said it had detained 500 people affiliated with Hamas and the allied "Islamic Jihad" and located weapons in the Al Shifa area. Israeli forces also said 20 militants had been "eliminated" in fighting and airstrikes around Al Amal Hospital over the previous 24 hours.Reuters has been unable to access Gaza's contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.
Ceasefire efforts
US-backed mediation by Qatar and Egypt has so far failed to secure agreement on a ceasefire and prisoner-hostage swap between Israel and Hamas. As these efforts have stalled, international concern has mounted about the lack of aid reaching civilians in Gaza. Concerns grew again on Monday after the Israeli government said it would stop working in Gaza with the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which it said was perpetuating conflict. "UNRWA are part of the problem, and we will now stop working with them. We are actively phasing out the use of UNRWA because they perpetuate the conflict rather than try and alleviate the conflict," spokesperson David Mencer told reporters. He made his comments after UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had informed the UN that it will no longer approve UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza. Expressing his alarm about the humanitarian situation, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters while visiting Jordan: "It is absolutely essential to have a massive supply of humanitarian aid now." Israel denies blocking aid to Gaza, and says delivery of aid once inside the territory is the responsibility of the UN and humanitarian agencies. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing aid, a charge the group denies. Aid organizations say security checks and the difficulty of moving through a war zone have hindered their operations in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu cancels delegation after U.S. abstains from U.N. ceasefire vote.
Dylan Stableford/Yahoo News/March 25, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday canceled sending an Israeli delegation to Washington, D.C., that was scheduled to arrive this week after the U.S. abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
"In light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided the delegation would not leave," a statement from Netanyahu's office said, adding that the failure to block the proposal was a "clear retreat" from its previous position. The U.N. Security Council had earlier approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the first time it has made such a demand since the war began. Fourteen of 15 countries voted in favor of the ceasefire resolution, which called for a halt to fighting in Gaza for the month of Ramadan. The United States abstained from voting.
The Security Council had failed on Friday to adopt a similar resolution drafted by the United States, with Algeria, China and Russia voting against the measure. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield raises her hand indicating that the United States will abstain from a Security Council vote on Monday on a ceasefire in Gaza.  Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday that she welcomed the “support of the ongoing diplomatic efforts led by the United States, Qatar, Egypt, to bring about an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, secure the immediate release of all hostages and help alleviate the tremendous suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza who are in dire need of protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance.”“The United States fully supports these critical objectives,” she added. “In fact, they were the foundation of the resolution we put forward last week.” At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that because the final text of the resolution approved Monday did not include language condemning Hamas, the United States did not vote in favor.
Last week, the U.S. ended decades of stalwart support for Israel by submitting a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war without linking it to the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. The U.S. had voted against three previous ceasefire resolutions, saying that calling for an immediate end to military hostilities would imperil hostage negotiations. “We are getting closer to a deal for a ceasefire with the release of all hostages but we aren’t there yet,” Thomas-Greenfield said Monday. “Now let’s be clear: A ceasefire could’ve come about months ago if Hamas had been willing to release hostages. Months ago.”Since 1945, the U.S. has vetoed dozens of Security Council resolutions designed to force the Jewish state to make concessions to the Palestinians. But Kirby bristled at the notion that the recent moves by the U.S. on the Security Council represent a change in policy. "Our vote does not I repeat does not repressent a shift in our policy. We've been very clear, we've been very consistent in our support for a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal," he said, adding: "Of course we still have Israel's back."
Mounting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. A man yells during a search for survivors following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in October. The U.S. has been facing mounting calls to put pressure on Israel to change course. More than 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of the Israeli government’s military campaign responding to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that left nearly 1,200 dead in Israel. Israel has largely ignored those calls, recently announcing plans to attack Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where it initially directed Palestinians to flee to as it conducted operations in the northern part of the territory. The U.S. strongly opposed the idea, and global aid organizations have declared that the residents of Gaza are on the brink of famine. “A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we don’t support," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a blistering speech on the Senate floor describing Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace and calling for new Israeli elections. Biden praised the speech, further angering Netanyahu, who addressed congressional Republicans on Wednesday to denounce it.
That’s unclear. The resolution drafted by the U.S. last week was meant to send a very public message to Netanyahu’s government that it opposes the way Israel is conducting the war in Gaza. With the U.S. abstaining from Monday’s vote, the message is less clear. In U.S. politics, Biden’s embrace of Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks was too one-sided for many Democrats in that it ignored decades of Palestinian suffering in Gaza. In Michigan’s presidential primary, many Democrats protested Biden’s handling of the war, with 13% casting a vote for “uncommitted.” Michigan has the largest Arab American population of any state, but younger voters have expressed their displeasure with Biden over U.S. support for Israel across the country. The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board last week suggested that Democrats in Washington had turned on Israel to win over those disgruntled voters. The number of voters disgruntled with Israel’s military operation in Gaza is clearly growing. A February poll of U.S. adults conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 50% believe that Israel’s offensive has gone too far. In November, that number was 40%.

Tension between the US and Israel boil as UN ceasefire vote passes and Netanyahu vows to push ahead with Rafah offensive
Chris Panella/Business Insider/ March 25, 2024
The UN passed a vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with the US abstaining for the first time.
Netanyahu cancelled meetings with Biden officials in response, further damaging US-Israel relations.
Negotiations around Rafah are crumbling, with Netanyahu saying troops will invade without US help.
The divide between the US and Israel is deepening after the United Nations passed a ceasefire vote, a first for the international body after multiple failed attempts. The result of the UN vote was met with a fiery response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cancelled high-priority meetings with the White House about plans for an upcoming Rafah offensive. Although there have been riffs, recent developments represent likely the greatest fracture in US-Israel relations since the war began last October.
Tensions began to boil over Sunday night, when Netanyahu publicly threatened to cancel the White House meetings before the UN vote, demanding the US veto the ceasefire resolution. Part of Netanyahu's complaint against the resolution, his office said, was the call for a ceasefire wasn't tied to an agreed release of Israeli hostages from terror group Hamas.
Later the next morning, the UN Security Council passed the resolution, calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza. 15 members voted in favor, while the US abstained from the vote — a seemingly notable shift from its previous position.
The move led Netanyahu to see his threat through and cancel an Israeli delegation's trip to Washington DC later this week to talk with White House officials about alternative plans for a Rafah offensive.
"The United States has abandoned its policy in the UN today," Netanyahu's office said in a statement posted on X. "Just a few days ago, it supported a Security Council resolution that linked a call for a ceasefire to the release of hostages," which China and Russia vetoed "partly" because they oppose such a deal, his office added. Prior to the Monday vote, the UN Security Council had failed multiple times to pass a call for a ceasefire in the deadly conflict that has devastated much of Gaza. The US had vetoed several attempts, saying such a move could be wrong while Israel and Hamas carefully negotiate hostage releases. It also proposed its own resolution last week, which China and Russia both vetoed. "Regrettably," Netanyahu's office said, "the United States did not veto the new resolution, which calls for a ceasefire that is not contingent on the release of hostages. This constitutes a clear departure from the consistent US position in the Security Council since the beginning of the war."
"In light of the change in the US position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that the delegation will remain in Israel," his office added.
The White House responded shortly after, saying on Monday afternoon it was "very disappointed" that Netanyahu had cancelled the trip but would continue working on the release of Israeli hostages.
At a press briefing on Monday afternoon, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the White House was "perplexed" by Netanyahu's sudden cancellation of the meeting, noting that the resolution passing didn't reflect a change in US policy towards Israel or the war.
"Number one, it's a non-binding resolution, so there's no impact at all on Israel and Israel's ability to continue to go after Hamas," Kirby said. "It does not represent a change at all in our policy," he added, and it is "very consistent with everything that we've been saying we want to get done here."
"And we get to decide what our policy is. The Prime Minister's office seems to be indicating through public statements that we somehow changed here. We haven't," Kirby told reporters, adding that "it seems like the prime minister's office is choosing to create perception of daylight here when they don't need to do that. So, again, no change in our policy."The trip to Washington, requested by President Joe Biden, was set to be a high-stakes meeting, as Israeli and American officials were planning to discuss alternatives to an Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where around 1.4 million Palestinians have crowded since being displaced from the rest of the strip. US officials fear that such a ground offensive could result in mass civilian casualties, adding to the already dire humanitarian crises facing Palestinians in the city. Aftermath of the overnight Israeli bombardment west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Aftermath of the overnight Israeli bombardment west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
Although the meeting has now been cancelled, it remains unclear how effective it would've been in the first place. Just Sunday evening, Netanyahu stressed that Israel would invade Rafah even if it had to do so without US assistance, a defiant message coming after Vice President Kamala Harris warned that there would be "consequences" on the table if Israel carried out its ground invasion. Although the US has staunchly supported its ally's efforts, even in spite of repeated international calls for a ceasefire and growing criticism against Biden and Netanyahu's handling of the war, there have been recent signs of disagreements between the two. There have been some conflicting statements in the past, and the US has at times raised certain concerns, but tensions between the US and Israel are now notably more public and vitriolic than they've been since the war began last October, when Hamas invaded and launched attacks against Israel, killing some 1,200 people, injuring thousands more, and taking over 250 hostage. Israel's response to those attacks last October has been a full-scale war against Hamas in Gaza, which has resulted in widespread destruction and killed more than 32,000 people, mainly women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Hamas tells mediators it will stick to original position on ceasefire
CAIRO (Reuters)/March 25, 2024
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Monday it has informed mediators that it will stick to its original proposal on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a return of displaced Palestinians. It also demanded what it called "a real exchange of prisoners", referring to the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. There was no immediate comment from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the United States in mid-March that included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters. The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after the United States abstained from the vote, sparking a spat with its ally Israel. The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution - proposed by the 10 elected members of the body - that also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. There was applause in the council chamber after the vote. Egypt and Qatar have been trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian crisis has the population in Gaza at risk of famine. Hamas said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, elderly and ill hostages in return for the release of 700-1000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, according to the proposal. The release of Israeli "female recruits" is included. Netanyahu's office later responded to Hamas' proposal saying it was based on "unrealistic demands," vowing to press ahead with its ground offensive until it eliminates Hamas.

Jordanian king, UN chief discuss Gaza war
ARAB NEWS/March 25, 2024
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday in Amman to discuss the situation in Gaza and the UN’s role in carrying out humanitarian efforts in the region, Jordan News Agency reported. The meeting, which was also attended by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, underscored the urgency of international intervention to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the region. King Abdullah spoke of Jordan’s proactive measures in delivering aid to Gaza through all available channels, highlighting the country’s coordination with global partners to help boost humanitarian initiatives. Discussions also focused on the need to continue supporting the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to aid its humanitarian operations. UNRWA said on Sunday that Israel had barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest. The UN Security Council voted on Monday on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with the US — Israel’s ally which has vetoed previous bids — abstaining. The king reaffirmed the importance of an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza which would enable its residents to return to their homes. He also took a strong stance against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, cautioning against the rise in extremist settler violence and infringements on religious sites in Jerusalem. The meeting followed Guterres’ talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo.

Israel Kills Dozens in Gaza Attacks, Besieges Two Hospitals, Palestinian Medics Say
Asharq Al Awsat/25 March 2024
20Israel's military killed dozens of people in new attacks in Gaza, Palestinian medics said on Monday, and its forces maintained a blockade of two hospitals where they say Hamas fighters are hiding. As Israel pressed on with its offensive, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there was a growing international consensus around telling Israel a ceasefire was needed and that an assault on Rafah would cause a humanitarian disaster. Rafah, the last refuge for over a million Palestinians on the Gaza Strip's southern border with Egypt, was among cities that came under fire in the latest attacks.
Palestinian medics said 30 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours in Rafah, whose population has been swollen by displaced Palestinians escaping fighting elsewhere in Gaza after more than five months of war. "Every bombing that takes place in Rafah, we fear the tanks will come in. The past 24 hours were one of the worst days since we moved into Rafah," said Abu Khaled, a father of seven, who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals. "In Rafah, we live in fear, we are hungry, we are homeless and our future is unknown. With no ceasefire in sight, we might end up dead or displaced somewhere else, maybe north and maybe south (to Egypt)," he told Reuters via a chat app. Dozens of Palestinians took part in rallies and attended funerals early on Monday after an Israeli airstrike killed 18 Palestinians in one house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, the Palestinians medics and witnesses said.
Israeli forces were also besieging Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, Palestinian witnesses said, a week after entering Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the main hospital in the Strip. Israel says hospitals in Gaza are used by Hamas as bases, and has released videos and pictures supporting the assertion. Hamas and medical staff deny this, and did not say whether any fighters were among those killed in the latest attacks. The Israeli military said in a statement on Monday its forces were "continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa Hospital area while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment". It said its forces had detained 500 people affiliated with Hamas and the allied "Islamic Jihad" and had located weapons in the area. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said hundreds of patients and medical staff had been detained at Al Shifa. Israel's military also said its forces continued "precisely targeted raids on terror infrastructure in Al-Amal" and that "20 terrorists were eliminated in the Al Amal area over the past day in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes". Reuters has been unable to access Gaza's contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.
Growing international consensus
Over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and 74,500 injured in Israel's offensive in Gaza, Palestinians health officials say. Israel began its military campaign after Hamas-led Islamist militants attacked its south on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253, according to Israeli tallies. US-backed mediation by Qatar and Egypt has so far failed to secure agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner swap and the unfettered provision of aid to Gaza civilians, with each side sticking to core demands. Hamas wants any deal to bring an end to the war and entail the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has ruled this out, saying it will keep fighting until Hamas, which is sworn to its destruction, is eradicated as a political and military force. A Palestinian official, with knowledge of the mediation effort, told Reuters that the gap between the two sides had not been bridged yet, blaming the lack of progress on Israel and the United States for refusing to commit to ending the war. Israel blames Hamas for the failure to secure a deal. Signs of strain have emerged in relations between Israel and its main ally, the United States, as the humanitarian plight of civilians in Gaza worsened and fears of famine grew in the coastal enclave that is home to about 2.3 million people. "We see a growing consensus emerging in the international community to tell the Israelis that the ceasefire is needed," UN chief Guterres said on a visit to Jordan. He told a press conference that he also saw "a growing consensus, I heard in the US, I heard from the European Union, not to mention of course the Muslim world, to tell clearly to Israelis that any ground invasion of Rafah could mean a humanitarian disaster".

Jake Sullivan discusses Gaza crisis with Israeli Defense Minister
Reuters/March 25, 2024
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said today, Monday, that he had a "constructive discussion" with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is currently visiting Washington. He added on the "X" platform: "I welcomed Yoav’s commitment to take additional steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

White House: We do not see plans for Israeli invasion on Rafah in coming days
Reuters/March 25, 2024
The White House said today, Monday, that it does not see indications or plans for an Israeli invasion of the city of Rafah, located in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, in the coming days. White House spokesperson John Kirby added to journalists, "We haven't seen any indication that the Israelis are imminently getting ready to conduct a ground operation in Rafah."

Trump urges Israel to 'finish up' its Gaza offensive and warns about global support fading
The Associated Press/March 25, 2024
Former President Donald Trump said he would have responded the same way as Israel did after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas but urged the country to “finish up” its offensive in Gaza and “get this over with," warning about international support fading. “You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You’ve got to get it done,” he said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. “We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.” Trump, who earlier this month became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, brought up global criticism of Israel's offensive even as he has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict. According to the newspaper’s transcript of the interview, Trump said “Israel made a very big mistake” in releasing photos and videos of its offensive in Gaza, commenting the country’s public image is “in ruin.” A video shared of the interview does not show those comments. “That’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world," Trump said. "I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.” The Israel Hayom is widely seen as a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Soon after the attack in which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, Trump denounced Netanyahu for allegedly letting him down while he was in the White House. He also said Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly incursion from Gaza. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Trump also again suggested that American Jews were wrong to support Democrats, days after being criticized by some Jewish advocates for saying Jewish Democrats were being disloyal to their religion. He alleged that Biden “supports the enemy.”

Russia's Black Sea Fleet is 'functionally inactive' after being pummeled hard by Ukraine, UK says
Business Insider/March 25, 2024
The UK said Russia's Black Sea Fleet is 'functionally inactive' after Ukraine hit two of its ships. UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps appeared to confirm Ukraine's most recent strikes on two vessels. Ukraine claims to have taken out a third of Russia's navy in the waters through a series of attacks.
The UK's defense ministry declared Russia's Black Sea Fleet "functionally inactive" after Ukraine claimed to have struck another two of its ships. UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps wrote on Sunday that Ukrainian attacks are taking a "massive" toll on the Russian fleet, in a post that appeared to confirm a pair of strikes Ukraine announced on Sunday. "Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain its fleet to port," Shapps wrote. "And even there Putin's ships are sinking!" Earlier on Sunday, Ukraine announced that it had struck two large landing vessels in the port of Sevastopol, in Crimea. Some sources said the missiles used to hit the Yamal and Azov were likely UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles.The Yamal sustained critical damage to part of its upper deck and is taking on water, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence claimed on Monday. A communications center and several infrastructure buildings in Sevastopol were also hit, the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said.
The extent of the damage to the Azov is not immediately clear. According to The Telegraph, each ship would cost about $215 million to replace with modern equivalents. The strikes are the latest in a long string of Ukrainian attacks that have significantly curtailed Russia's naval activity in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has used both cruise missiles and naval drones to harass ships at Sevastopol, the most well-equipped port in those waters. One of the most eye-catching attacks was the sinking of the Ivanovets using home-developed MAGURA V5 naval drones in January. Ukrainian officials said that as of February Russia had lost a third of its fleet to the attacks. Not all of the attacks have been confirmed, but their sheer number is impressive considering Ukraine has no functioning navy of its own. Last fall, after a major attack on Sevastopol, Russia moved much of its Black Sea Fleet to safer ports, such as Novorossiysk and Fedosia — a move that James Heappey, a UK defense minister, said signaled the "functional defeat" of the Black Sea Fleet. Onlookers have been skeptical of such pronouncements. Even from those ports, Russia's fleet is still able to fire long-range missiles and lay mines. Even so, it made the waters safe enough for Ukraine to open an active trade route, while continuing to pound Russia's navy.

Putin: Concert hall attack near Moscow conducted by Islamists
Reuters/March 25, 2024
The deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow was conducted by Islamist militants, but the shooting fits in a wider campaign of intimidation by Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Putin said the investigation underway into the mass shooting had to be conducted "professionally, objectively and without political bias" to determine who was behind the attack. "The question that arises is who benefits from this?" Putin told a Kremlin meeting to discuss a response to the shooting. "This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime. "We know by whose hand the crime against Russia and its people was committed. But what is of interest to us is who ordered it." Ukraine denies any involvement in the attack. Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the Investigative Committee, Russia's main criminal investigation organ, told the meeting the death toll in Friday's shooting had climbed to 139.

4 men charged in Moscow attack, showing signs of beatings at hearing as court says 2 accept guilt
MOSCOW (AP)/March 25, 2024
Four men accused of staging the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people appeared before a Moscow court Sunday showing signs of severe beatings as they faced formal terrorism charges. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing. A court statement said two of the suspects accepted their guilt in the assault after being charged in the preliminary hearing, though the men’s condition raised questions about whether they were speaking freely. There had been earlier conflicting reports in Russian media outlets that said three or all four men admitted culpability.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court formally charged Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19, with committing a group terrorist attack resulting in the death of others. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The court ordered that the men, all of whom are citizens of Tajikistan, be held in pre-trial custody until May 22. Russian media had reported that the men were tortured during interrogation by the security services, and Mirzoyev, Rachabalizoda and Fariduni showed signs of heavy bruising, including swollen faces, Rachabalizoda also had a heavily bandaged ear. Russian media said Saturday that one of the suspects had his ear cut off during interrogation. The Associated Press couldn’t verify the report or the videos purporting to show this.
The fourth suspect, Faizov, was brought to court from a hospital in a wheelchair and sat with his eyes closed throughout the proceedings. He was attended by medics while in court, where he wore a hospital gown and trousers and was seen with multiple cuts. Court officials said Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda admitted guilt for the attack after being charged. The hearing came as Russia observed a national day of mourning for the attack Friday on the suburban Crocus City Hall concert venue that killed at least 137 people. The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, is the deadliest on Russian soil in years.
Russian authorities arrested the four suspected attackers Saturday, with seven more people detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the nation Saturday night. He claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine, something that Kyiv firmly denied. Events at cultural institutions were canceled Sunday, flags were lowered to half staff and television entertainment and advertising were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A steady stream of people added to a makeshift memorial near the burned-out concert hall, creating a huge mound of flowers. “People came to a concert, some people came to relax with their families, and any one of us could have been in that situation. And I want to express my condolences to all the families that were affected here and I want to pay tribute to these people," Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who came to lay flowers at the memorial, told AP. “It is a tragedy that has affected our entire country," kindergarten employee Marina Korshunova said. “It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.
Rescuers continued to search the damaged building and the death toll rose as more bodies were found as family and friends of some of those still missing waiting for news. Moscow's Department of Health said Sunday it had begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, saying the process would take at least two weeks.
Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details about his wife, Yana Pogadaeva, who went to the attack concert. The last he heard from her was when she sent him two photos from the Crocus City Hall music venue.
After Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site, but couldn’t find her in the numerous ambulances or among the hundreds of people who had made their way out of the venue.
“I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No one saw anything, no one could say anything,” Pogadaev told AP in a video message.
He watched flames bursting out of the building as he made frantic calls to a hotline for relatives of the victims, but received no information.
As the death toll mounted Saturday, Pogodaev scoured hospitals in the Russian capital and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly admitted patients. His wife wasn’t among the 182 reported injured, nor on the list of 60 victims authorities had already identified, he said.
The Moscow Region’s Emergency Situations Ministry posted a video Sunday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access. Putin has called the attack “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said Russian authorities captured the four suspects as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border. Russian media broadcast videos that apparently showed the detention and interrogation of the suspects, including one who told the cameras he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app and paid to take part in the raid. Putin didn't mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s fight in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year. U.S. intelligence officials said they had confirmed the IS affiliate's claim. “ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
The U.S. shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow, and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia, Watson said. The raid was a major embarrassment for Putin and happened just days after he cemented his grip on the country for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet times.
Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who have relentlessly suppressed any opposition activities and muzzled independent media, failed to prevent the attack despite the U.S. warnings.
IS, which fought against Russia during its intervention in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted Russia. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate said that it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. The group issued a new statement Saturday on Aamaq, saying the attack was carried out by four men who used automatic rifles, a pistol, knives and firebombs. It said the assailants fired at the crowd and used knives to kill some concertgoers, casting the raid as part of the Islamic State group's ongoing war with countries that it says are fighting against Islam.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacationers returning from Egypt. The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 25-26/2024
Impregnating Infidels: Another Form of Jihad
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/March 25/2024
Because larger numbers often equal more power and influence, Muslims have long made clear that the act of procreating is a form of jihad against their enemies.
Thus, in the U.K., “Muslim … fanatics plan to take over Britain by having more babies and forcing a population explosion,” a 2008 report revealed. “The swollen Muslim population would be enough to conquer Britain from inside.” Today, nearly 70 percent of London — the capital of “Merry Old England” — is nonwhite, most of which is Muslim.
There is, however, an even more depraved and largely overlooked way that Muslims go about waging this “procreation” jihad — a way of killing two birds with one stone: seize and seed non-Muslim women with Muslim babies, thereby depleting the infidels’ ranks of women and the non-Muslim babies they might have birthed, while simultaneously increasing both for Islam.
In Egypt, countless Christian girls have been abducted under this logic. Interestingly, this is largely the same way human traffickers operate in the West — but in the Muslim world, law enforcement is not on the victims’ side.
Consider the recent and ongoing case of Irene Ibrahim Shehata, a 21-year-old second-year medical student at Assyut National University who disappeared on January 22. Her family says Egyptian authorities know exactly where she is — and who took her — but have been giving them the runaround. Moreover, “the data of the religion field on her ID was unwillingly changed to Muslim,” the family’s lawyer said, adding, “It is another way to force families to give up.”
Like many other Christian families with missing daughters in Egypt, the Shehatas insists that an elaborate Muslim network — aided by a complicit State Security — is behind Irene’s abduction.
This is not mere paranoia. In 2017, an ex-kidnapper who “admits he was in a network actively targeting Coptic girls for years before he left Islam” explained how this systematic and sophisticated process works in Egypt:
A group of kidnappers meets in a mosque to discuss potential victims. They keep a close eye on Christians’ houses and monitor everything that’s going on. On that basis, they weave a spider’s web around [the girls]…. I remember a Coptic Christian girl from a rich, well-known family in Minya. She was kidnapped by five Muslim men. They held her in a house, stripped her and filmed her naked. In the video, one of them also undressed. They threatened to make the video public if the girl wouldn’t marry him…. The kidnappers [further] receive large amounts of money. Police can help them in different ways, and when they do, they might also receive a part of the financial reward the kidnappers are paid by the Islamisation organisations. In some cases, police provide the kidnappers with drugs they seize. The drugs are then given to the girls to weaken their resistance as they put them under pressure. I even know of cases in which police offered help to beat up the girls to make them recite the Islamic creed. And the value of the reward increases whenever the girl has a position.
Although such networks have been around since the 1970s, they reached their “highest levels now, in the era of President Sisi,” the former kidnapper added.
This phenomenon prevails wherever Christian minorities live alongside Muslims.
In Nigeria, for instance, which is split roughly evenly between Muslim and Christian populations, thousands of Christian girls have been abducted, forced into Islam, married off, and forced to bear children destined to become future jihadists. As the Hausa Christian Foundation of Nigeria, a human rights group, explained:
The moment these girls are abducted, they are subjected to all manners of evil just to take control of their minds. [After that], these girls will only do everything they are asked to do. While the parents fight for the release of their daughters, these abductors continue to sexually abuse these girls, [control] their food, drinks, clothes, where they sleep, perpetually evoke evil spirit upon them to the point that these girls completely lost their minds and never think of going back to their home. Usually, the moment a Christian girl is abducted, they ensure that they get married to her within one or two weeks. She will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant.
The incessant kidnapping of the Christian girls and the forceful conversion to Islam is another form of Jihad in the 21st Century. They have two major aims for doing that: To inflict pain on the parents of the girl and the Christian community; and to impregnate the girl to add to their claims that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. They are doing it on purpose.
Then there’s Pakistan — yet another Muslim-majority nation where the kidnapping, rape, and forced conversion of Christian girls is endemic. Just last month, a 10-year-old was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. As the Asian Human Rights Commission said in a 2011 report:
The situation is worse with the police who always side with the Islamic groups and treat minority groups as lowly life forms. The dark side of the forced conversion to Islam … also involves the criminal elements who are engaged in rape and abduction and then justify their heinous crimes by forcing the victims to convert to Islam. The Muslim fundamentalists are happy to offer these criminals shelter and use the excuse that they are providing a great service to their sacred cause of increasing the population of Muslims.
Even in Indonesia, often hailed as a “moderate Muslim” nation, “Influential leaders are literally training young men to target Christian girls to impregnate them.” According to one report:
They target them to try and sort of diffuse the spread of Christianity because the family of the Christian girl is so ashamed [of the impregnation] … they’re forced into marrying that daughter into a Muslim family…. and the Muslims who are being trained to do this, they understand that. That’s why they’re doing that…. Once girls are married into the Muslim families, they’re often cut off from or abandoned by their families and they face even more difficult circumstances. In some cases, girls are the second or third wife of their persecutor and they have few freedoms.
Not only is the abduction and impregnation of Christian girls an atrocity in itself, but it is one of the overlooked reasons that one-third of Earth’s population is set to be Muslim by 2070.

UN Called to Respond to Sharia Violence against Women
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/March 25, 2024
"Sharia-linked violence is inflicted upon women in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia. This includes the recent extreme sexual violence committed against Israeli women in October 2023 by Hamas proven by the UN; the infliction of sexual slavery on Yezidi women by the Islamic State (IS); killing of Iranian women for not wearing the hijab; the trafficking, kidnapping, and conversion of Coptic Christian girls in Egypt; kidnapping of girls and women in Nigeria by Boko Haram; mass attacks on women in Germany in 2015; the rape of girls in the UK by the so-called 'grooming gangs'; the forced conversion, kidnapping and murder of Hindu girls in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to name a few." — Press release, March 8, 2024.
Of especial importance is that the complaint shows how many aspects of Sharia directly contradict what the UN claims it stands up for. By relying heavily on UN documents, and quoting from the UN conventions that back them, the complaint essentially asks the UN to do what it should be but is not doing.
The complaint further shows that, according to the UN's own definitions, the issues it raises cannot be deemed "Islamophobic"...
To redress these abuses, the complaint asks the UN Human Rights Council to do several things. One consists of requesting that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which claims to represent the Muslim world at the UN, provide a "single consolidated response" as well as "one standardized, worldwide codification of the Sharia and an explanation as to why Sharia should not be considered a fundamental cause of violation of women's human rights."
The complaint also requests the appointment of "two non-Muslim rapporteurs, one who is a Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the second, a Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women..."
Should, as is likely, the UN not respond, it will have, once again, proven itself a defunct and corrupt organization.
On International Women's Day, March 8, 2024 — which, among other things, brings awareness to violence against women — a formal complaint on how Sharia (Islamic law) is inherently abusive of women was submitted to the United Nations under the title, "Thematic Complaint to the Human Rights Council, United Nations On the Worldwide and Consistent Patterns of Gross, Reliably Attested, and Continuing Violations of Women's Human Rights Caused by Sharia."
Oxford defines Sharia as follows:
"Islamic canonical law based on the teachings of the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet (Hadith and Sunna), prescribing both religious and secular duties and sometimes retributive penalties for lawbreaking. It has generally been supplemented by legislation adapted to the conditions of the day, though the manner in which it should be applied in modern states is a subject of dispute between Islamic fundamentalists and modernists."
The complaint contains the signatures of Muslim and non-Muslim men and women worldwide, including victims of Sharia and terrorism, human rights defenders, professors, journalists, activists, and other concerned professionals from all walks of life. (Because it was submitted on a UN portal, no more signatures can be added to the complaint at this time.)
According to one of its press releases:
"Sharia-linked violence is inflicted upon women in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia. This includes the recent extreme sexual violence committed against Israeli women in October 2023 by Hamas proven by the UN; the infliction of sexual slavery on Yezidi women by the Islamic State (IS); killing of Iranian women for not wearing the hijab; the trafficking, kidnapping, and conversion of Coptic Christian girls in Egypt; kidnapping of girls and women in Nigeria by Boko Haram; mass attacks on women in Germany in 2015; the rape of girls in the UK by the so-called 'grooming gangs'; the forced conversion, kidnapping and murder of Hindu girls in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to name a few."
By way of demonstrating that Sharia is the root source of all this misogyny, the complaint quotes extensively from the building blocks of Sharia, primarily the Koran. For instance, 4:34 says:
"Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart, and beat them." [Dawood translation]
The complaint also addressed the sexual enslavement of women, which Sharia — again, based on the Koran — permits. Verses 4:3, 4:24, and 33:50, for example, permit Muslim men to have sexual relations with as many women as "their right hand possesses," meaning as many "infidel" women as they are able to take captive in a jihad. During the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel, the terrorists can be heard referring to some of their female Israeli captives by this and other Sharia terms, such as sabiya.
The complaint also did some useful number-crunching:
"One basic feature of Sharia is the lower status it accords to women. Statistical analysis has demonstrated that 71% of the Qur'an's text about women states that a woman has a lower status than a man. In the Hadith, 91% of the text about women states that a woman has a lower status than a man. Sura 2: 282 makes a woman's testimony worth half that of a man; under Sura 4:11 women inherit less than men; under Sura 4:34 a Muslim may have four wives, but a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim is impermissible under Sura 2: 221."
The complaint is also notable for showing how Islamic culture, itself an offshoot of Sharia, abuses women:
"Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is widespread in parts of the Islamic world. Immigration from Muslim countries has increased FGM in the West. Islamic culture compels Muslim women to undergo unnecessary surgery to restore their hymen. UN reports show how Islamic culture demeans women. Islamic culture impedes women's education in some parts of the world and blocks advancement for educated Muslim women. Muslim women do not have equal opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education and have poorer access to mosques as compared to Muslim men.
"Head coverings for Muslim women are linked to complex security, health, educational, cultural, and civilizational issues. Muslim leaders have also violated Muslim women's reproductive right to choose the number of children by advocating the use of Muslim birth rates as a non-military strategy to conquer non-Muslim lands."
To redress these abuses, the complaint asks the UN Human Rights Council to do several things. One consists of requesting that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which claims to represent the Muslim world at the UN, provide a "single consolidated response" as well as "one standardized, worldwide codification of the Sharia and an explanation as to why Sharia should not be considered a fundamental cause of violation of women's human rights."
The complaint also requests the appointment of "two non-Muslim rapporteurs, one who is a Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the second, a Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, to mandate them to work in a coordinated manner and report to the Human Rights Council."
It additionally requests:
"[O]ngoing discussions towards a universal treaty on crimes against humanity and the need to include specific elements of the Sharia as risk factors that heighten the likelihood of such crimes against women.... The Human Rights Council should request the International Law Commission to determine the extent to which elements of Sharia should be classified as harmful practices and therefore null and void as being contrary to international human rights law."
There is much to recommend this document. As the first ever thematic complaint to be submitted to the UN, it makes the case that women are abused wherever Sharia or elements of it predominate. It also documents "the consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women of all religions and those without any faith in many parts of the world." Examples come from numerous countries around the globe. What this document makes clear is that Sharia — not this or that nation, regime, or political circumstance — is behind the abuse of women.
Of especial importance is that the complaint shows how many aspects of Sharia directly contradict what the United Nations claims it stands up for. By relying heavily on UN documents, and quoting from the UN conventions that back them, the complaint essentially asks the UN to do what it should be but is not doing.
After, for example, quoting Koran 4:34, which permits the beating of women, the complaint says "This violates extensive UN norms prohibiting violence against women," and then cites or quotes from several of them, including "The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women."
Similarly, after citing Koran 4:3, 4:24, and 33:50 — which "allow non-Muslim women captured in battle to be forced into sexual slavery"— the complaint adds, "This violates Article 1 of the Slavery Convention," then elaborates on that.
After pointing out that female head coverings are widely seen as an unwelcome addition to Western nations — one that seems to further facilitate crimes and terrorism — the complaint reminds the UN of the UN's own General Assembly resolution of 1985, which states:
"Aliens shall observe the laws of the State in which they reside or are present and regard with respect the customs and traditions of the people of that State."
The complaint further shows that, according to the UN's own definitions, the issues it raises cannot be deemed "Islamophobic":
"This complaint is not 'Islamophobic, hate speech, or racism' as (a) according to the UN, 'criticism of the ideas, leaders, symbols or practices of Islam,' is not in of itself Islamophobia, and that 'international human rights law protects individuals, not religions' (b) UN leaders have admitted that a thematic issue exists concerning the rights of Muslim women (c) the UN has appointed a Special Rapporteur who dealt only with one religion (Islam and Muslims) thus setting a precedent (d) the Islamic countries of the world, by organizing themselves through the OIC into one entity that is the 'collective voice of the Muslim world' establishes that it is valid to raise a cross-cutting [and thematic] issue whose roots exclusively lie in Islam..."
In short, the complaint meticulously documents how Sharia directly contradicts so much of what the United Nations claims to stand for — and asks the UN to respond on behalf of the millions of women abused all around the world in the name of Sharia. Should, as is likely, the UN not respond, it will have, once again, proven itself a defunct and corrupt organization.
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
**Follow Raymond Ibrahim on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook
© 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.

ISIS Is Not a Tool of Intelligence Agencies
Mamdouh al-Muhainy/Asharq Al Awsat/25 March 2024
Despite the fact that ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in the suburbs of Moscow, many refuse to accept that they were behind it! The terrorists responsible have told us that they planned and executed the operation, and denialists say no they did not!
This reminds me of the justifications some Western analysts gave for Al-Qaeda terrorism in the past and even the present. Al-Qaeda's leaders and ideologues believe in a “takfiri” ideology that compels them to sacrifice in its name and accuse even those close to them of being infidels. However, theorists in the West have argued that 9/11 and other attacks are the result of American expansion, modern imperialism, and modernity’s assault on societies that reject it.
I once attended a lecture at a Western university in which the professor made all of these arguments to the students, but he forgot to present the simple explanation: extremism breeds terrorism! He also forgot to mention that extremists do not leave their mothers’ wombs as extremists. They are born normal, healthy individuals, and they then immerse themselves in a culture that turns them into extremists before climbing the professional ladder to become terrorists!
The latest excuse is that ISIS is a tool of intelligence, and some deluded individuals on social media even claim that President Obama is its founder. They are echoing Trump's simplistic and malicious statements accusing Obama of being behind ISIS, implying that his withdrawal from Iraq created a vacuum filled by the terrorist organization! In both cases, the claim is baseless. ISIS told us so in its latest announcement, explaining that extremist ideology is its ultimate motivator.
While countries or organizations could resort to using the group, it was formed and exists because of extremist ideology, and destroying it demands rooting out the extremist thought that had brought it to life in the first place.
But why fabricate such excuses? Some of those who make these arguments are well-intentioned individuals who are deceived by this propaganda and want to avoid blaming Islam. They thus seek comforting justifications. However, Islam, a great religion, is not at all to blame. Extremist thought and the Islamic faith are two very different things that have unfortunately come to be seen as one and the same. The problem is that hate speech has prevailed for decades, perhaps centuries, creating fertile ground for extremists seeking to hijack the religion, speak in its name, exclude whomever they want to from it, and maliciously exploit it as a tool for incitement and recruitment.
Indeed, in recent decades, we have seen many Sunni and Shiite terrorist organizations, like Al-Qaeda and its branches, ISIS with its offshoots, Hezbollah, and "Asaib Ahl al-Haq,” effectively hijack this religion, brandishing others at infidels in their discourse, or physically liquidating them with suicide attacks or car bombs. This is a crisis of extremist thought, and let's remember that while Russia was the target of this bloody massacre, Muslim countries are the primary targets of these terrorist organizations, and Muslims are their primary targets, be they the killers or the victims.
Society bears responsibility for a peaceful boy’s transformation into a heartless monster in just a few years; we cannot blame him alone. If he had grown up in an environment that taught him to be tolerant and rational, and explained the humanitarian essence of all religions to him from an early age, at home, school, in the mosque, and through television, would he have grown up to be a terrorist?
Of course not, he would be a well-adjusted, tolerant, and good person who seeks to do good for humanity and serves it (as well as himself, as we all do). He would not blow himself up to kill children or run them over with a truck like insects under the pretext that they are infidels!
Most of those who reiterate these accusations that ISIS is a tool of intelligence services, however, are malicious actors. Their intentions are clear and simple: they do not want to scrutinize extremist thought, and so they mix things together. They are the same people who consistently insist that the perpetrators are mentally ill and deranged, which is also another excuse meant to distort the issue by shifting it from an ideological and cultural matter to a public health issue!
Psychiatric patients go to clinics, and we don't see them organizing themselves into disciplined armed groups, burning businesses to the ground, and bombing mosques! These claims are optical illusions, and now they speak of a culture clash with the West and are turning it into fodder for extremist thought, in order to find excuses for this thought and ways to avoid confronting it. Ironically, these extremists migrate to these Western countries, whose freedom of speech they exploit to incite against countries that embrace a tolerant and humanist thought that preserves Islam's sublimity and spirituality, and are gradually reclaiming it from its hijackers!
It's not American expansion, the incursion of modernity, intelligence agencies, colonialism, imperialism, or the cultural clash with the West that has given rise to this terrorism. These were excuses concocted by extremists trying to keep their extremist ideology alive. The terrorists themselves are more candid. They openly embrace takfiri thought and their thirst for blood - we should believe them for once!

When Wounded Empires Are Affected
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/25 March 2024 4
An experienced man once advised me: “Don’t forget the wounds of history when you write about the crises of the present.” I paused at his statement. The speaker believes that the world is headed towards a new dangerous phase where the world’s sole superpower loses its hegemony and empires of the past seek revenge through major coups that will change maps and the distribution of powers. He believes that the coups will take various forms, such as military or ideological invasions, drone, rocket and cyber attacks, and the sponsorship of militias. Have the wounds of empires, which believe they have been wronged by history, reopened? Do these empires harbor dormant volcanoes that are waiting for the right moment to vent their rage?
The man reminded me of what several Arab communist leaders told me after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mohammed Ibrahim, Aziz Mohammed and George, the respective secretary generals of the Sudanese, Iraqi and Lebanese Communist Parties, said Russia will not languish under the snow of defeat and it will not become a subjugate state. It will regroup, rise and seek revenge.
Some observers have said Russia’s military and security institutions, which were so overwhelmed by the Soviet collapse and terrible western victory, had plotted secret revenge and tasked a junior KGB officer to implement it. I don’t advocate this theory because I worry about exaggerating scenarios. But a person has the right to think that the wounded Russia is now living under a wounded tzar who harbors the greatest coup project since World War II.
Setting aside the terrorist attack that struck Moscow on Friday, this terrible massacre will not shake Putin’s control. He had just been reelected president in a landslide victory that the likes of Biden, Trump, Macron and Scholtz can’t even dream of. I am aware that the West has said the tzar tailored the election so that he ran without a serious competitor. But I believe that Putin succeeded in connecting with the depth of the Russian spirit. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, I witnessed the elderly in Moscow yearn for the days of Joseph Stalin. The Russians love the strong ruler, even if that means ruthless killings and tempting fate. The man who knows Putin believes that he cannot tolerate defeat in Ukraine even if it meant teetering on the edge of a nuclear inferno. He may be right. Putin knows that a defeat in Ukraine may lead Russia to a collapse similar to the one suffered by the Soviet Union.
One must also remember his image in history. I recalled what one of Saddam Hussein’s friends once told me. They said that his failure to withdraw from Kuwait was also tied to his image before history and before his friends in Baghdad. There is no doubt that the invasion of Ukraine is different than the invasion of Kuwait. The man calling the shots here is different than the one there, but experience has shown that the “historic leader” sometimes becomes prisoner of his own image.
The man asked why the West refuses to coexist with Putin’s coup the same way it is coexisting with the coup carried out by Iran. He said the Iranian coup changed the features of four maps and the balances of power within them. It gave Tehran the right to appoint ministers, form governments and fire rockets. He noted that America was dealing the Houthi militias calculated strikes that have led it to grant China and Russia permission for their vessels to safely sail in the Red Sea. Decades ago, the shah of Iran viewed the borders of his country as a robe that was too tight to contain the legacy of its empire. Khomeini’s revolution, which overthrew the shah, made the “export of the revolution” a main article of the constitution. Istanbul is not too far from the wounds of history. Recep Tayyip Erdogan also views Türkiye's current borders as a tight robe that has stifled the Ottoman spirit. So, he has tried to lure the orphans of the Soviet Union, especially the Turkish speakers. He also tried to alter the features of major countries in the region when the “Arab Spring” swept through.
Türkiye boasts a long history of wars with the Persian and Russian empires. Now, Türkiye is paving the way for a “security belt” inside Iraq and another inside Syria, while the West denies Russia the right to establish its own belt in Ukrainian territory. One must make the distinction here between a belt that restores land, and another that doesn’t. China is also suffering from the wounds of history. It has been firm in declaring that Taiwan cannot be estranged from it forever and its patience is running out. Lucky for the world that Xi Jinping is banking on an ally called time and unlike Putin, has not yet launched a coup to fix the border situation. The chaos of empires is frightening in the current international jungle. The West is no longer capable of managing the world. The policeman is gone and wounded empires have risen. The Security Council is out of service and Guterres’ tears cannot tend to the wounds in Gaza or Ukraine.
The world is in store for worse. The terrorist attack in Moscow is dangerous given its timing and targets. The perpetrators operated differently than ISIS. The whole truth may not come out if the confessions are manipulated by the intelligence service. The attack will mark a turning point should the theory about the Ukrainian thread be true. It could pave the way to a massive escalation in the war in Ukraine. Can the West tolerate the victory of the Russian coup? Can Europe take in such a huge bitter pill? What about Russia and the master of the Kremlin if the West decides to prolong the war in Ukraine and trim the claws of the new empire and its tzar?

The Riddles of an Open-Ended Conflict
Charles Elias Chartouni/This Is Beirut/March 25/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/128164/128164/
The ongoing developments of the war in Gaza and their sequels are proliferating in every direction, and there is a need to recapitulate the different sequences and their various plots. Hamas is coming to terms with the catastrophe it generated while expressing surprise at Israel’s reaction. Its leadership surmised that Israel’s reaction would be restricted and limited to conventional retaliatory measures.
However mendacious the latest statements, they unveil the miscalculations inspired by the Iranian power projection, the instrumentation of Israeli political dissensions, the moral arrogance that aligns with the inflated sense of power, and the awaited political alignments induced all along the various ideological and geopolitical divides.
The brutal declaration of war of October 7, 2023, has deliberately elicited the counter-declaration of war with its cortège of humanitarian tragedies, and it took six months for Hamas and associates to realize the magnitude of their criminal undertaking and intentional overlooking of civilians’ safety. While emphasizing their ability to resist for 8 additional months, they realized that civilians in Gaza were starving, sixty percent of the city was in ruin and beyond rehabilitation, and they were still boasting about their operation and its disastrous consequences.
The Israelis on their side have come to experience the tragic fallouts of their strident political and ideological polarizations when Hamas and its Iranian handler seized the impact of the lingering political conflicts on their national security to commit the largest massacres ever in their national history. Inescapably, there was no other choice but to destroy the military platforms of Hamas, annihilate its political leverage, and engage head-on in Iranian power politics. The devastations of the unrehearsed war scenario were mainly due to the nature of the operational theater, whereby the undifferentiated combat and civilian zones, the human shields strategy, the labyrinthine galleries of death spread throughout Gaza (500 km), the deliberate dismissal of the civilians basic security and views on this matter led to the destruction of Gaza, the dramatic spiraling numbers of victims and casualties, and the state of political deadlock. Otherwise, the Lebanese war zone and its Syrian ancillary are part of the strategic security hazards that the Israelis are unlikely to condone and put up with.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah’s brinkmanship and criminal warmongering, military misjudgment, and nihilistic propensities are furthering the complexities of the political equation and dooming the chances of a negotiated political solution. Their moral callousness, outsized military projections, and political misperceptions are blindfolding them and making them believe that their strategic defense lines are set for good and immutable. The war course and its prohibitive costs have proven them wrong and made the reshuffling of the geopolitical plots inevitable.
The childish and dissembling statements of the Hamas leadership and their Iranian and Qatari managers (the relayed ruminations of Yahya al Sinwar, the ludicrous statements of Ismail Haniyeh, the double games of Qatar engineered by Azmi Bishara shenanigans, and the manipulative schemes of Hussein Amir-Abdollahian) are reminiscent of Hassan Nasrallah’s rueful statements in 2006, his political and moral impunity, and his readiness to re-edit the same scenarios 18 years later. This mental impermeability and its preposterous postulations are undermining diplomatic intermediations and boosting military dynamics.
The Chinese and Russian political counterweights have proven flimsy, and the Iranian promises are fallacious and misleading, most likely ushering in a confrontational dynamic between Israel, Iran, and the transatlantic coalition. However critical the American policy towards Netanyahu (the speech of Senator Schumer and the strict humanitarian conditionalities set by the Biden administration), the heightening disagreements between the different aisles of the war coalition (Netanyahu’s extreme right coalition, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot), and the labor opposition (Yair Lapid), and the dire need for a new government, there is a trans-partisan unanimity in Israel around the existential nature of the actual war and its impact on Israel’s national security.
However strong and influential the political pressures and the tragic whereabouts of Gaza, the outcome of this clumsy and murderous war of choice has led to the systematic overhaul of the Israeli security narrative, the end of the extant strategic fault lines, and the refashioning of the political agenda and its scaling priorities. Hamas, Hezbollah, their Iranian handler, and Israel are on a collision course, and the integrity of Palestinian civilians is initially bracketed out of the equation. So are the Lebanese, who are dragged into war by Hezbollah, which managed to dismantle Lebanese statehood and cow the massive internal opposition through terrorism, interlocking systemic crises, and dysfunctional governance.
The nomination of a new Prime Minister by the Palestinian Authority doesn’t seem to address the disagreements between the PLO and its deadly domestic nemeses, neither in terms of coordinated governance nor the acknowledgment of Israel’s national legitimacy. How can the urgency of a humanitarian truce alleviate the travails of war, liberate the Israeli hostages and release the Palestinian prisoners, transform into a political lever, reopen the channels of communication, and restart the professional negotiations towards a working political solution based on a legacy of international resolutions and mediations?