Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 26-27/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and video: The Hezbollah terrorist organization once again perpetrated an attack on the town of Rmeish
In the 48 hours... Israel announces the assassination of 5 Hezbollah members
The “ceasefire” did not pass...a war day “with distinction” from operations to martyrs!
The deepest raids since October.. Israel bombs Hermel in Lebanon/Hermel is a Hezbollah stronghold in northeastern Lebanon and is about 130 kilometers from the southern border with Israel
Hezbollah and the Israeli army exchange bombing... and two people are killed in Baalbek
Lebanese soldiers surround the site of an Israeli drone attack that targeted a vehicle in the town
Israel targets the south and the Bekaa... and Hezbollah rains missiles on the “headquarters”.
Lebanese Sunni militant group head says coordination with Shiite Hezbollah is vital to fight Israel
Hamas-allied Lebanese Official Survives Israeli Strike
Hezbollah attacks Meron air base in response to Bekaa strikes
Israeli strike targets truck in Faara Valley near Hermel
2 killed in fresh Israeli strike near Baalbek after Hezbollah shells Golan
Bou Habib says Lebanon readiness for war remarks were a 'gaffe'
Lebanon PM Calls for Pressure on Israel to Stop Attacking South after UN Vote
Mikati hails UN ceasefire call, urges halt to Israeli aggression against Lebanon
Escalation risks: Perspectives from Israel and Lebanon amidst Gaza ceasefire discussions
Geagea says Hezbollah implicating Lebanon in 'most dangerous war'

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 26-27/2024
Israeli military confirms death of Hamas Deputy Military Commander Marwan Issa
Hamas and Iran: Haniyeh meets Iranian FM amid Gaza crisis
Hamas-allied Lebanese Official Survives Israeli Strike
Netanyahu says Israel won't accept Hamas' 'delusional' demands
No Let-up in Gaza War Despite UN Ceasefire Resolution
Protecting Palestinians a Moral Imperative, Pentagon Chief Tells Israeli Counterpart
Israel tanks surround Gaza's Nasser Hospital
Hamas urges end to Gaza aid airdrops, more land crossings
Netanyahu Coalition Under Strain After Standoff with US Over Gaza Vote
UN Agency Calls on Israel to Revoke Ban on Food Deliveries to North Gaza
UN Expert Says Israel Has Committed Genocide in Gaza, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israel Says it Stopped Advanced Weapons from Being Smuggled into West Bank from Iran
GCC, Arab League Welcome UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza Ceasefire
Israeli hostage recounts sexual assault in Gaza captivity -NYT
US Imposes More Iran Sanctions, Hits Syrian Regime with Penalties for Drug Trafficking
Baltimore bridge collapse: Insight on the incident

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 26-27/2024
Two Middle Easts: Famine and Artificial Intelligence/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy/Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix/The New York Times/March 26/2024
China's 'Unrestricted Warfare': Is It Here Already?/Pete Hoekstra/Gatestone Institute/March 26, 2024
Cold War’ Climate Does Not Allow for Human Rights/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
Elias Bejjani/Text and video: The Hezbollah terrorist organization once again perpetrated an attack on the town of Rmeish
Elias Bejjani/March 26, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/128193/128193/
Today, social media platforms were flooded with reports of Hezbollah's incursion into the border town of Rmeish, where armed members of this extremist group attempted to launch missiles towards Israel from residential areas (read related reports in Arabic & English below). However, the Rmeish civilian citizens courageously confronted these militants, compelling them to retreat after a tense standoff during which shots were fired into the air, endangering the lives of innocent bystanders. The tolling of church bells echoed throughout the town, underscoring the collective outrage at this brazen and provocative act.
This latest incident adds to a long list of aggressions perpetrated by Hezbollah against the people of Rmeish, including previous attacks by the so-called "Green Without Borders" organization, a Hezbollah affiliate entity.
It is imperative to unequivocally condemn and denounce such flagrant and unlawful violations.
Questions must be raised about the absence of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL forces, whose mandate includes safeguarding areas like Rmeish in accordance with UN Resolution 1701, which expressly prohibits Hezbollah's presence and activities.
UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army are duty-bound to protect Rmeish and other areas covered by the UN resolution, and to prevent Hezbollah from committing further atrocities. Additionally, Patriarch Al-Rahi and the Vatican are urged to appoint a high-ranking church representative to reside in Rmeish, as a symbol of solidarity and support for its inhabitants.
It is abundantly clear that Hezbollah remains a pernicious force, undermining Lebanon's sovereignty and perpetuating sectarian strife. Lebanon cannot reclaim its independence until UN resolutions, including the Armistice Accord,  1559, 1701, and 1680, are enforced through decisive military action.

In the 48 hours... Israel announces the assassination of 5  Hezbollah members
Janoubia/March 26, 2024
Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee wrote in a post on his account on the “X” platform: “During the last forty-eight hours, we carried out several raids in which we were able to assassinate five Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon. “We targeted infrastructure inhabited by personnel.” He added, “Hezbollah will continue to pay a very heavy price for its actions, as we will continue to attack and respond forcefully to every attack against us.”

The “ceasefire” did not pass...a war day “with distinction” from operations to martyrs!
Hussein Saad/Janoubia/March 26, 2024
The Security Council's ceasefire resolution did not pass, neither on Gaza nor on Lebanon. The long day of war, on the Lebanese-Palestinian border front, was marked by the achievement of additional military targets on both sides of the border, so Israeli warplanes repeated their raids on the Baalbek region in the Bekaa Valley, for the fourth time. Consecutively, since the launch of the support and support operation for Gaza, on October 8, 2023. This aggression, according to preliminary information, claimed the fall of four martyrs, in the raid, on the outskirts of the town of Budai. Hezbollah mourned one of them, the martyr Ali Ibrahim Nasser al-Din. From Hermel, Israel claimed that its aggression against the Bekaa, about 130 kilometers from the Lebanese-Palestinian border, came in response to Hezbollah’s targeting of the Meron Air Base, in the Safad area, in the occupied Palestinian north, with guided missiles and causing casualties. In addition to the raids on the Baalbek region, which has become more and more clear, the enemy has included it in its target bank, with every Hezbollah attack on strategic sites, whether in northern Palestine or the occupied Syrian Golan, warplanes have intensified their raids. , which included the town of Tair Harfa, which is relatively far from the border directly, where more than ten houses were completely destroyed and a large number of houses were damaged, since the start of the aggression, as well as renewed raids on Kafr Kila and Hula, all the way to Hanin, in the Bint Jbeil district. In response to the Israeli raids on the Baalbek area, Hezbollah missiles reached a new base deep in the occupied Syrian Golan, which is the headquarters of the occupation command, in the Yarden barracks, launching 50 Katyusha rockets towards it, according to a statement issued by Hezbollah’s military media, targeting it as well. Locations and positions of Israeli soldiers in buildings, Operations Tables, Hanina, Zibdin, Ruwaisat Al-Alam, Shtula, Branit, and Avivim. Also with regard to the southern front, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, mourned one of its members as the martyr Ahmed Muhammad Mahmoud (23 years old), who fell in confrontations on the southern front with occupied Palestine. The Islamic Resistance, Hezbollah, also issued a statement in which it said: “With greater pride and pride, the Islamic Resistance Celebrates the martyr Mujahid Ali Ratib Al-Jawhari “Karbala,” born in 1990 from the city of Hermel in the Bekaa, and the martyr Mujahid Ali Fawzi Al-Akhras “Abu Turab,” born in 1994. From the town of Kafr Tibnit and residents of the town of Toul in southern Lebanon, who rose as martyrs on the road to Jerusalem.”

The deepest raids since October.. Israel bombs Hermel in Lebanon/Hermel is a Hezbollah stronghold in northeastern Lebanon and is about 130 kilometers from the southern border with Israel
Al Arabiya.net/March 26, 2024
Today, Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted the Hermel area, which is a Hezbollah stronghold in northeastern Lebanon, about 130 kilometers from the southern border with Israel, according to official media in Beirut and a security source. These raids are the first strikes targeting the Hermel area in the Bekaa Valley, and the most in-depth strikes in Lebanese territory since the start of the bombing exchange between Hezbollah and Israel about six months ago. There has been an almost daily exchange of bombardments across the Lebanese-Israeli border between the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli army since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7. For weeks, Israel has been launching deeper air strikes inside Lebanese territory targeting Hezbollah positions, increasing fears of the outbreak of open war. The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that "an Israeli raid targeted Wadi Fa'ra, near the city of Hermel." She added, "Explosions were heard in the vicinity of the city of Hermel, and clouds of smoke were observed." A security source confirmed to Agence France-Presse that there had been raids on an open and uninhabited area in which Hezbollah sites were spread, about 30 kilometers from the border with Syria. An Agence France-Presse correspondent indicated that the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah imposed a security cordon on the area. In turn, Reuters quoted four security sources as saying that two air strikes believed to be from Israel targeted areas near the towns of Ras Baalbek and Hermel in northeastern Lebanon on Tuesday. There has been no comment yet from the Israeli army. Since Saturday evening, a series of Israeli air strikes targeted the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon, resulting in one person being killed. Since the beginning of the exchange of bombing between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, at least 328 people have been killed, most of them Hezbollah fighters, in addition to 57 civilians in Lebanon. Ten soldiers and seven civilians were killed on the Israeli side, according to official figures.

Hezbollah and the Israeli army exchange bombing... and two people are killed in Baalbek
Lebanese soldiers surround the site of an Israeli drone attack that targeted a vehicle in the town
Beirut/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26, 2024
The Lebanese National News Agency reported this evening (Tuesday) that two people were killed and a third was injured in an Israeli bombing of the Baalbek area. She added that the Israeli raid targeted a building in the “Wardin” locality between the plains of the towns of Iaat and Budai. For its part, the Israeli army said this evening (Tuesday) that its aircraft raided a military compound used by the Hezbollah group deep inside Lebanon, in response to the firing of shells earlier at the vicinity of the headquarters of the air control unit in the Meron area, according to the World News Agency. Arabi. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that the planes “a short while ago raided deep inside Lebanon, in the Zaboud area (Baalbek district in northeastern Lebanon), on a military complex used by Hezbollah’s air unit,” adding that an airstrip and several other military buildings were attacked. Belonging to the group. He explained that the bombing came "in response to the launching operations that were carried out earlier today (Tuesday) towards the vicinity of the headquarters of the air control unit in the Meron area." Adraee said that also during the day, warplanes raided a military building and the party’s infrastructure in the vicinity of the village of Aita al-Shaab and in the vicinity of Kafr Kahl, and a Hezbollah reconnaissance site in the Maroun al-Ras area was also attacked. The Israeli army had previously stated that it had also monitored the launching of projectiles from Lebanon towards the Avivim area, without causing any casualties, but it said that a fire broke out in the area as a result of the targeting. The army confirmed that it responded by bombing sources of fire in Lebanon. On the other hand, the Hezbollah group said in separate statements this evening that it targeted Israeli infantry forces in the vicinity of Shtoula and in the Hanita Horsh with missile weapons, causing direct casualties. The group had previously announced that it had bombed targets in northern Israel, including two buildings used by soldiers. Hezbollah stated that its fighters bombed two buildings in Avivim used by Israeli forces, hitting them “directly.” They also twice targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Pranit barracks with missile weapons. Almost daily exchange of shelling erupted across the border between the Israeli army on the one hand and the Hezbollah group and Palestinian factions. In Lebanon, on the other hand, following the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip on October 7th.

Israel targets the south and the Bekaa... and Hezbollah rains missiles on the “headquarters”.
Al-Kalima online/March 26, 2024
The Islamic Resistance issued a series of statements regarding the operations it carried out against the enemy, “in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”
- At 05:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Ruwaisat al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kafr Shuba with missile weapons and hit it directly. ‏
- At (05:05) in the afternoon of Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted a military force of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Zabdin barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with appropriate weapons and hit it directly.
- In response to the Zionist enemy’s attack that targeted the Bekaa, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted at 04:20 in the afternoon of Tuesday 03/26/2024 the Yarden Barracks in the occupied Syrian Golan, “the main command headquarters in times of war.” With more than 50 Katyusha rockets
In response to the bombing of the steadfast southern villages, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at (02:50) in the afternoon of Tuesday 03/26/2024, a deployment of Israeli enemy soldiers in the Hanita colony with artillery shells.
- At 03:00 in the afternoon of Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted an Israeli infantry force in the Hanita Horsh with artillery shells and hit it directly. ‏
At 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted an Israeli infantry force in the vicinity of Shtoula with missile weapons, directly hitting it and leaving its members dead or wounded. ‏
- In response to the Zionist enemy’s attack on the town of Al-Suwairi and in completion of the response to the attack on the city of Baalbek, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 11:10 a.m. on Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Meron Air Base with guided missiles. They caused direct casualties
- At 10:56 a.m. on Tuesday, 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, for the second time, a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Pranit Barracks with missile weapons and directly hit it. ‏
- At 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday 03/26/2024, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Pranit Barracks with missile weapons and directly hit it. ‏
- In response to the Zionist enemy’s attacks on southern villages and civilian homes, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday 03/26/2024, two buildings in the Avivim settlement used by enemy soldiers with appropriate weapons, and hit them directly. ‏
Enemy attacks
The National News Agency reported that the hostile Israeli raid that targeted a building in the Wardin locality, between the plains of the towns of Iaat and Budai, resulted in two martyrs and the wounding of a citizen.

Lebanese Sunni militant group head says coordination with Shiite Hezbollah is vital to fight Israel
Associated Press/March 26, 2024
BEIRUT (AP) — The head of a Lebanese Sunni political and militant group that has joined the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in its fight against Israel on Lebanon’s border said Tuesday that the conflict has helped strengthen cooperation between the two groups. The Secretary-General of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush said his faction decided to join the fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border because of Israel's crushing offensive on the Gaza Strip and its strikes against Lebanese towns and villages killing civilians, including journalists, since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct.7. “We decided to join (the battle) as a national, religious and moral duty. We did that to defend our land and villages,” Takkoush told The Associated Press at his group’s headquarters in Beirut. “We also did so in support of our brothers in Gaza," where he said Israel was committing an “open massacre.” Hamas led a surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. The ensuing Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians there, according to local health officials. Since then, violence along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides. Takkoush said he believed Israel has ambitions to seize more territory "not only in Palestine but in Lebanon too.”The Islamic Group is one of Lebanon’s main Sunni factions but has kept a low profile politically over the years. It has one member in Lebanon’s 128-seat legislature. Elections within the group in 2022 brought its leadership closer to Hamas. Like Hamas, it is inspired by the ideology of the Pan-Arab Islamist political movement The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by a school teacher-turned-Islamic ideologue Hassan al-Banna. It carries out attacks against Israel mainly from the southern city of Sidon where the group once enjoyed wide influence. Takkoush said his group makes its own decisions in the field but coordinates closely with Hezbollah, and with the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Part of (the attacks against Israeli forces) were in coordination with Hamas, which coordinates with Hezbollah,” he said adding that direct cooperation with Hezbollah “is on the rise and this is being reflected in the field.” He did not elaborate further.
While the Lebanese border area is seen as a Hezbollah stronghold and its population is primarily Shiite, it also has Sunni villages, where the Islamic Group primarily operates. The tensions between Islam's two main sects — Sunni and Shiite — originated following the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632. It has reverberated across the wider Middle East till the present day thus making cooperation between Hezbollah and al-Jamaa al-Islamiya all the more rare. The Islamic Group's armed wing, known as the Fajr Forces, has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. They have lost five fighters so far, Takkoush said, with three killed in an Israeli airstrike in a border area earlier this month. The other two were killed in a Jan. 2, Israeli strike on an apartment in Beirut that targeted top Hamas official Saleh Arouri. The group's use of weapons against Israel is not new. It founded its Fajr Forces in 1982 at the height of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 ending an 18-year occupation. But the Lebanese government says Israel still occupies the disputed Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war. In the current conflict, “coordinating and cooperating with a movement like Hamas, the most honorable liberation movement, is an honor,” Takkoush said.
Regarding his group's relations with Hezbollah, Takkoush said it had gone through ups and downs. They had differences regarding the conflicts in Syria and Yemen but put them aside “to resist the Israeli occupation of parts of our Lebanese territories," he said. “Our relations with Hezbollah are good and growing and it is being strengthened as we go through war,” Takkoush said. Takkoush added that all the weapons they use, from bullets to rockets, are from their own arsenal. “We did not get even a bullet from any side,” he said. As Hezbollah has solidified its position as the most powerful political and military entity in Lebanon, the country's Sunni community has floundered in the absence of a strong leader. Asked whether the Islamic Group is trying to fill the gap in Lebanon’s Sunni political leadership left behind by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri who quit politics two years ago, Takkoush said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri still has a base of support and popularity, but his group was not in the habit of filling anyone's absence. “We introduce ourselves as partners in building generations and (state) institutions but we do not replace anyone,” he said.

Hamas-allied Lebanese Official Survives Israeli Strike
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
An Israeli drone strike on eastern Lebanon targeted a Lebanese official from a Hamas-allied group who escaped the attempted killing, a Lebanese security source said Monday. Lebanon's official National News Agency said the strike Sunday near the village of Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley killed a Syrian civilian in his vehicle. The security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the target was Mohammad Assaf of Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese militant group closely linked to Palestinian group Hamas. Assaf was travelling on the road that was struck at the time of the attack, said the source, who had initially identified the target as a Hamas official in Lebanon. Since war erupted between Israel and Hamas following the Gaza militants' October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces along the country's northern border with Lebanon have exchanged near-daily fire with Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including in strikes deep into Lebanese territory. The strike in the Suwairi area, near Lebanon's border with Syria, was the first Israeli attack there in nearly six months of fighting. On January 2, a strike widely blamed on Israel killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri in a southern Beirut suburb that is a Hezbollah stronghold. According to another security source, pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Sunday wounded four people, including a Hezbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley. The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians, according to an AFP tally. At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north. According to another security source, pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Sunday wounded four people, including a Hezbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley. The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians, according to an AFP tally. At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north.

Hezbollah attacks Meron air base in response to Bekaa strikes
Naharnet/March 26/2024
Two people were killed overnight in a strike on a house in the southern border town of Mays al Jabal, the National News Agency said, as Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members "on the road to Jerusalem."On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes and artillery bombed Kfarkela, al Khiam, al-Naqoura, Aita al-Shaab, Maroun al-Ras, Aitaroun, al-Jebbayn, Yarin and a civil defense center in Tayr Harfa. Three paramedics were lightly wounded in the strike, the Amal Movement-affiliated Islamic Risala Scout Association said, adding that the attack caused material damage to its building and ambulances. Hezbollah meanwhile targeted the Shumira and the Shlomi posts in northern Israel, and two buildings in the Avivim settlement. The group also targeted groups of soldiers in the Biranit post and two infantry forces in Shtula and Hanita. Later on Tuesday, Hezbollah said it targeted the Meron air base in northern Israel in response to Israeli strikes on the Bekaa and Baalbek over the weekend.

Israeli strike targets truck in Faara Valley near Hermel
Naharnet/March 26/2024
An Israeli airstrike targeted Tuesday a small truck deep into Lebanese territory, in the country's east. The Israeli airstrike on the Faara Valley near the Lebanese eastern city of Hermel came hours after Hezbollah targeted the Meron air base in northern Israel. A strike over the weekend at al-Osseira in Baalbek, about 100 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border, and another one near the village of Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley had ended a period of relative calm that lasted around 10 days, since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. Hezbollah fired Sunday more than 60 rockets at two Israeli military positions in the occupied Golan Heights in response to the Israeli strikes. The group said the attack Tuesday on Meron was also in response to the strike on Baalbek and al-Bekaa. The group carried out several other attacks on northern Israel Tuesday, "in support of Gaza".

2 killed in fresh Israeli strike near Baalbek after Hezbollah shells Golan
Agence France Presse/March 26/2024
Lebanon's National News Agency said fresh Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon on Tuesday killed two people, after Hezbollah said it fired more than 50 rockets at the Golan Heights in response to an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day near the eastern city of Hermel. The Israeli army said in two separate statements that it had struck Hezbollah targets "deep inside Lebanese territory." Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Hezbollah following the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas after the Gaza-based militants' October 7 attack on Israel.Hezbollah says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas, while Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including with strikes deep into Lebanon. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that "an Israeli strike" targeted near Iaat, close to the eastern city of Baalbek, killing two people and wounding another. In recent days, Israeli strikes have targeted the Bekaa valley, a Hezbollah bastion deep inside Lebanese territory, where Baalbek and Iaat are located. An AFP correspondent saw a building belonging to Hezbollah in flames and two people being taken away on stretchers, with a number of ambulances rushing to the scene.
Hours earlier, the NNA said "an Israeli strike targeted the Wadi Faara region" near the northeastern city of Hermel, reporting the sound of explosions. An AFP correspondent said the army and Hezbollah had blocked access to the area, some 130 kilometers from the Israeli frontier -- the deepest raid into Lebanese territory in more than five months of hostilities. A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said those strikes targeted an uninhabited area where Hezbollah has positions.
Fighter jets -
The Israeli military said its "fighter jets struck a landing area and several military structures inside a military compound used by Hezbollah's aerial unit" at two separate sites which it said were both "deep inside Lebanese territory." Hezbollah has announced attacks on Israeli targets using drones in recent months. One of the Israeli raids came in response to an attack on the Israeli army's "aerial control unit" in northern Israel earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said. It also said it struck Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon near the border. Hezbollah in separate statements claimed a string of attacks on Israeli targets Tuesday, including one with guided missiles it said targeted the Meron air control base in northern Israel. It also said it fired "more than 50 Katyusha rockets" towards a barracks in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Since the cross-border hostilities began, at least 330 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including at least 57 civilians, according to an AFP count. At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. The hostilities have raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in 2006.

Bou Habib says Lebanon readiness for war remarks were a 'gaffe'
Naharnet/March 26/2024
Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said that his recent remarks about Lebanon’s readiness to engage in a war with Israel were a “gaffe or a mistake.” Bou Habib blamed the “circumstances” that surrounded his interview in Antalia for the blunder. Noting that “Hezbollah is ready for war,” the minister stressed that “the Lebanese Army will not fight Israel or any side, but if Israel invades Lebanon we will be obliged to defend ourselves.” He added: “I don’t believe that Israel will engage in a war with Lebanon. This is my personal opinion and not my opinion as a politician.”
Hezbollah had activated Lebanon’s southern front with Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinians and the Hamas Movement following the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel and the brutal war that ensued. There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north and Israel has threatened to launch a major attack on Hezbollah in order to secure its northern border.

Lebanon PM Calls for Pressure on Israel to Stop Attacking South after UN Vote
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said on Monday that countries should pressure Israel to stop attacking Lebanon following a UN 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. 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 Defense 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 US officials, however, have said a ceasefire in Gaza would not automatically extend to Lebanon

Mikati hails UN ceasefire call, urges halt to Israeli aggression against Lebanon
Naharnet/March 26/2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has hailed the U.N. Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza five months into the grinding war. Mikati said the resolution is the "first stage in the process of ending Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip," as he urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop its aggression against south Lebanon. Mikati also called for a political solution "to end the conflict and give the Palestinians their rights". Since the war in Gaza erupted in October, there have been near-daily exchanges along the Lebanon-Israel border and international mediators have scrambled to prevent an all-out war in tiny Lebanon. It is still not clear whether a Gaza ceasefire would apply to Lebanon. Although Hezbollah has said it would abide by any Gaza truce, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that "the lack of a decisive victory in Gaza" may bring Israel closer to a war in the north.

Escalation risks: Perspectives from Israel and Lebanon amidst Gaza ceasefire discussions
LBCI/March 26/2024
It had barely been two hours since the UN Security Council issued a decision to cease fire in Gaza when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made a statement seemingly out of context: stopping the war in Gaza could bring a war closer on the northern front with Hezbollah. This statement resonated in both political and media circles in Israel. According to Ma'ariv newspaper, the essence is that if Tel Aviv doesn't exert increasing military pressure on Hezbollah, it won't reach a political understanding that would push Hezbollah's threat away from the borders. Lebanese government circles say they haven't received direct threats of any Israeli attack on Lebanon. However, ambassadors of major countries warn that if there's no agreement through diplomacy, the situation on the ground could escalate further.

Geagea says Hezbollah implicating Lebanon in 'most dangerous war'
Naharnet/March 26/2024
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has described Hezbollah, without naming it, as “a group that does not care about the state and is daily seeking to destroy its pillars.”“We have become living in a land lacking order. Our state is hijacked and our decision is in the hands of others, with a group allowing itself to implicate us in the most dangerous war in defiance of the will of an entire people,” Geagea said in a speech marking Holy Week. The LF leader also lamented that Hezbollah “can impede justice whenever it wants, as happened in the port case, and is blocking the presidential vote unless we respond to its demands.”“It is also capable of allying with corruption everywhere to cover up for its non-Lebanese scheme and in order to seize control of the state,” Geagea charged. Hezbollah had activated Lebanon’s southern front with Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinians and the Hamas Movement following the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel and the war that ensued. There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 26-27/2024
Israeli military confirms death of Hamas Deputy Military Commander Marwan Issa
LBCI/March 26/2024
In a significant development, the Israeli military spokesperson has officially confirmed the death of Marwan Issa, the deputy military commander of Hamas.

Hamas and Iran: Haniyeh meets Iranian FM amid Gaza crisis
LBCI/March 26/2024
Hamas' political bureau head, Ismail Haniyeh, visited Tehran and met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. Following their hour-long meeting, Haniyeh inscribed a note to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, expressing gratitude. The meeting delved into the latest developments in the Israeli war on Gaza and its residents. A notable press conference followed the meeting, featuring brief remarks from Haniyeh, who thanked Iran for its support of Palestine. This marks the second time Hamas' political bureau chief has held talks in Iran since the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. However, communication between the two sides has been ongoing, with the latest contact between Haniyeh and Abdollahian occurring on March 22. Haniyeh's presence in Iran comes at a critical time, following the issuance of the first UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Both Hamas and Tehran welcomed the resolution, though the latter considered it a positive but insufficient step. Iran's relationship with Hamas is based on political, media, and military support, as stated by Iranian officials. Tehran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the October 7 attack, asserting that Hamas' actions stem from its leadership's decisions. In summary, Iran views Hamas as maintaining independence in its decisions, yet this does not diminish Iran's influence within the movement, particularly within its resistance wing. Will this Iranian meeting with Hamas have implications for the ongoing negotiations on prisoner exchange and ceasefire?

Hamas-allied Lebanese Official Survives Israeli Strike
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
An Israeli drone strike on eastern Lebanon targeted a Lebanese official from a Hamas-allied group who escaped the attempted killing, a Lebanese security source said Monday. Lebanon's official National News Agency said the strike Sunday near the village of Suwairi in the Bekaa Valley killed a Syrian civilian in his vehicle. The security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the target was Mohammad Assaf of Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese militant group closely linked to Palestinian group Hamas. Assaf was travelling on the road that was struck at the time of the attack, said the source, who had initially identified the target as a Hamas official in Lebanon. Since war erupted between Israel and Hamas following the Gaza militants' October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces along the country's northern border with Lebanon have exchanged near-daily fire with Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including in strikes deep into Lebanese territory. The strike in the Suwairi area, near Lebanon's border with Syria, was the first Israeli attack there in nearly six months of fighting. On January 2, a strike widely blamed on Israel killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri in a southern Beirut suburb that is a Hezbollah stronghold. According to another security source, pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Sunday wounded four people, including a Hezbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley. The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians, according to an AFP tally. At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north. According to another security source, pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Sunday wounded four people, including a Hezbollah member, in Baalbek, further north in the Bekaa Valley. The cross-border violence since early October has killed at least 326 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 57 civilians, according to an AFP tally. At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north.

Netanyahu says Israel won't accept Hamas' 'delusional' demands
Associated Press/March 26/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel will not accept Hamas’ demands for a cease-fire after the Palestinian group rejected the latest proposal for a truce. In a statement from his office Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of being uninterested in proceeding with negotiations toward a deal. He said Hamas’ rejection “served as unfortunate testimony to the damage of the Security Council decision,” which on Monday approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and the release of all hostages captured by Hamas, without linking the two. In a statement late Monday, Hamas said it had informed mediators that it was sticking to its original position, which includes an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu said Israel would not give in to Hamas’ “delusional” demands and continue to work to destroy the militant group’s military and governing capabilities, as well as seek the release of the remaining hostages.

No Let-up in Gaza War Despite UN Ceasefire Resolution
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, with no sign of a let-up in the war despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire". The resolution was adopted Monday after Israel's closest ally the United States abstained. It demands an "immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a "lasting" truce. It also demands that Hamas and other militants free hostages they took during the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel, though it does not directly link the release to a truce. After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres led calls for the resolution to be implemented. "Failure would be unforgivable," he wrote on social media platform X. Israel reacted furiously to the US abstention, as it allowed the resolution to go through with all the other 14 Security Council members voting yes. The resolution is the first since the Gaza war erupted to demand an immediate halt in the fighting. Washington insisted that its abstention, which followed numerous vetoes, did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken an increasingly tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.
The war began with Hamas's October 7 attacks, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 are still held in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and free the captives, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of the coastal territory. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday put the Palestinian death toll at 32,333, most of them women and children. Seventy people were killed early Tuesday, according to the ministry, including 13 in Israeli air strikes around the south Gazan city of Rafah, a key flashpoint in the war. Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution and reaffirmed its readiness to negotiate the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. In a statement, the militant group accused Israel of thwarting the latest round of talks hosted by mediator Qatar. Hamas said Prime Minister Benjamin and his cabinet were "entirely responsible for the failure of negotiation efforts and for preventing an agreement from being reached up until now". Israel has consistently defended its campaign despite mounting international criticism of its conduct. Enraged by the United States' abstention, it cancelled the visit of a delegation to Washington. It said that the abstention "hurts" both its war effort and attempts to release hostages, while Netanyahu's office described it as "a clear retreat from the consistent position of the US". According to the Israeli army, anti-rocket sirens sounded in Israeli areas around the Gaza Strip. While Rafah, like other areas around the Gaza Strip, has come under frequent Israeli strikes, it is the only part of the territory where Israel has not sent in ground troops. It borders Egypt, and 1.5 million Palestinians fleeing the rest of the devastated territory have sought refuge there. Netanyahu's determination to launch a ground operation in Rafah, the city on Gaza's southern border where most of the territory's population is sheltering, has become a key point of contention between Israel and the United States. In Rafah, Palestinians welcomed the UN vote and called for the United States to use its influence on Israel to secure a ceasefire. Bilal Awad, 63, said Washington must "stand against an attack on Rafah, and support the return of the displaced to their cities".
Ihab al-Assar, 60, expressed hope that "Israel will comply" with the Security Council. srael has labelled its operations "precise operational activities" and said it has taken care to avoid harm to civilians, but aid agencies have voiced alarm about non-combatants caught up in the fighting. Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Monday it was battling militants around two hospitals and reported killing about 20 fighters around Al-Amal over the previous day in close-quarters combat and air strikes. Palestinians living near Al-Shifa, the territory's main hospital, have reported corpses in the streets, constant bombardment and the rounding up of men who are stripped to their underwear and questioned. Israel's military said it had detained about 500 militants "affiliated with" Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, during its operation at Al-Shifa. The fighting came as an independent UN-appointed expert, Francesca Albanese, said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" Israel's actions in Gaza had met the threshold for "acts of genocide". Israel rejected Albanese's report, due to be presented to the UN's Human Rights Council on Tuesday, as an "obscene inversion of reality".

Protecting Palestinians a Moral Imperative, Pentagon Chief Tells Israeli Counterpart
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday it was a moral and strategic imperative to protect Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas and that the humanitarian catastrophe in besieged Gaza was getting worse. Austin was speaking at the start of a meeting with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon as relations between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low. "In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low," Austin said, sitting across from Gallant. "Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse," Austin said, using some of his most forceful language so far. Israel has launched strikes and shelling in Gaza that have killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health authorities - the worst conflict between Israel and Hamas, the group that runs the territory. Extreme shortages of food have prompted fears of famine, with the territory's hungry civilians foraging for a wild green plant called Khobiza for lack of anything else to eat. "We need immediate increases in assistance to avert famine," Austin said. A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said more aid was now flowing through land crossings and that about 200 trucks on average were crossing into Gaza daily. Their meeting takes place after Netanyahu on Monday canceled a separate visit to Washington by two of his most senior aides who were due to hear US ideas about operational alternatives. Netanyahu's fraught relations with Biden broke down over Washington's decision not to veto a UN Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The United States has been working to get Netanyahu to consider alternatives to a ground invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians. Austin said he would discuss alternate approaches to targeting Hamas militants in Rafah. The senior defense official said Austin discussed potential steps like Israel's precision targeting of Hamas fighters in Rafah. The threat of such an offensive has increased differences s between close allies the United States and Israel, and raised questions about whether the US might restrict military aid if Netanyahu defies Biden and presses ahead anyway. Austin said that the security bond between Israel and the United States was "unshakeable". "The United States is Israel's closest friend and that won't change," he added.

Israel tanks surround Gaza's Nasser Hospital
Agence France Presse/March 26/2024Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded the Nasser Hospital in Gaza Tuesday, where thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the fighting, witnesses said. Witnesses told AFP that shots were being fired at the sprawling complex in the southern city of Khan Younis, but no raid was as yet taking place. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli troops were shooting and firing "shells and (conducting) violent raids in its surroundings in preparation for its storming". "Thousands of displaced people are still inside the hospital," the ministry said. "They do not have sufficient quantities of drinking water, food and infant formula, and their lives are in danger." The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. For the past nine days, Israeli troops have been involved in heavy fighting in and around Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's biggest. They claim to have killed 170 Palestinian militants there and arrested hundreds of others.

Hamas urges end to Gaza aid airdrops, more land crossings
Agence France Presse/March 26/2024
Hamas called for an end to aid airdrops into Gaza Tuesday after it said 12 people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages. "We call for an immediate end to airdrop operations... and we demand the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people," said the militant group, which runs the besieged territory.

Netanyahu Coalition Under Strain After Standoff with US Over Gaza Vote
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced growing strains on his divided coalition on Tuesday after an angry standoff with Washington worsened disagreements over proposals to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military. Israeli media reported that a cabinet meeting to discuss the planned changes to the conscription law had been called off, with only days left before the government has to present proposals to the Supreme Court. Asked about the reports, a Netanyahu aide said a cabinet session had yet to be scheduled. The hold-up came a day after Netanyahu's fraught relations with US President Joe Biden broke down over Washington's decision not to veto a UN Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Amid growing international pressure for a halt to the fighting and a stop to Israeli plans to launch a ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Netanyahu cancelled a scheduled visit to Washington by two of his most senior aides who were due to hear US ideas about operational alternatives. The open show of defiance towards Israel's strongest ally was welcomed by his religious-nationalist coalition partners but implicitly criticized by centrist former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who joined the war cabinet last year and who said the delegation should go to Washington. Despite plunging approval ratings for Netanyahu himself, surveys indicate the Israeli public largely supports the government's determination to dismantle Hamas as a military force in Gaza, giving him a motivation for digging in his heels against Washington. However, the divisions underscored the growing pressure on the government internationally. The conservative Israel Hayom newspaper, normally supportive of Netanyahu, backed the decision not to send the delegation but said public support from Biden was what was needed more than anything by Israel at a time when "the legitimacy of its actions is disintegrating at frightening speed". Netanyahu's position remains dependent on holding together his coalition with hard-right religious nationalist parties that are resolutely opposed to any let-up in the war or any concession to international demands for a broad-based political settlement with the Palestinians. But the conscription law, which could potentially remove exemptions keeping ultra-Orthodox Jews from serving in the military, is shaping up as a significant obstacle, highlighting a longstanding divide between secular and religious Israelis. The proposals have sharpened divisions between allies of Gallant, who has been pushing for a widening of conscription laws, and the ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition who want the exemptions to remain.

UN Agency Calls on Israel to Revoke Ban on Food Deliveries to North Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
A UN humanitarian office spokesperson called on Tuesday for Israel to revoke a decision barring food deliveries to northern Gaza from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), saying people there were facing a "cruel death by famine"."The decision must be revoked," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told a UN briefing. "You cannot claim to adhere to these international provisions of law when you block UNRWA food convoys." UNRWA's head said on Sunday that Israel had informed the UN that it will no longer approve its food convoys to north Gaza.

UN Expert Says Israel Has Committed Genocide in Gaza, Calls for Arms Embargo
Asharq Al-Awsat/March 26/2024
A United Nations expert told the global body's Human Rights Council on Tuesday that she believed that Israel's military campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 amounted to genocide and called on countries to immediately impose sanctions and an arms embargo. Israel, which did not attend the session, rejected her findings. "It is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of and to present my findings," Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories, told the UN rights body in Geneva, presenting a report called "The Anatomy of a Genocide". "I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met," she said, citing more than 30,000 Palestinians killed among other acts. "I implore member states to abide by their obligations, which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel and so ensure that the future does not continue to repeat itself," she said, prompting a burst of applause. The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said the use of the word genocide was "outrageous" and said the war was against the Hamas movement and not Palestinian civilians. It was triggered when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages, by Israeli tallies. "Instead of seeking the truth, this Special Rapporteur tries to fit weak arguments to her distorted and obscene inversion of reality," it said. Gulf nations such as Qatar, as well as African countries including Algeria and Mauritania, voiced support for Albanese's findings and alarm at the humanitarian situation. The seats for Israel's ally the United States were left empty. Washington has previously accused the council of a chronic anti-Israel bias. Albanese, an Italian lawyer, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report and advise on specific themes and crises. Her views do not reflect those of the global body as a whole. In the past, her comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict have drawn scrutiny, including from a US ambassador in Geneva who said she has a history of using "antisemitic tropes".

Israel Says it Stopped Advanced Weapons from Being Smuggled into West Bank from Iran
Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
Israeli security forces stopped advanced weapons, including shrapnel charges and anti tank mines, from being smuggled into the West Bank from Iran, the military said on Monday. It said the weapons were uncovered during an operation against a Lebanese-based operative of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who it said was recruiting agents to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks in the West Bank. The Shin Bet said that behind the plot was Iran’s Unit 4000, the Special Operations Division of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Intelligence Organization, headed by Jawad Ghafari, and the special operations unit of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria, known as Unit 18840, which is subordinate to the head of Iran’s Unit 840, Asghar Bakri. It also said the army was working to locate additional Iranian weapons smuggled into the West Bank, as well as kill or capture terror cells recruited by Iran.

GCC, Arab League Welcome UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza Ceasefire
Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi welcomed the issuance of the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan. The resolution aims to achieve a permanent and sustainable ceasefire, secure the release of all hostages, ensure parties' compliance with their obligations under international law, and expand the flow of humanitarian aid to civilians in the entire Gaza Strip while enhancing their protection, the GCC said in a statement. Albudaiwi expressed his hope that this resolution will alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza and contribute to stopping the escalation and targeting of Palestinian civilians and their forced displacement in hopes of achieving a comprehensive halt to the crisis and ending the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. Albudaiwi also called on the Israeli occupation forces to immediately comply with this resolution and adhere to United Nations resolutions and the requirements of international humanitarian law, while immediately stopping targeting civilians in Gaza and humanitarian institutions and infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and shelters. He reiterated the urgent need to find a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause, end the ongoing suffering, and give the Palestinian people hope and the ability to achieve their basic rights to live in security and self-determination, by enabling the Palestinians to establish their Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as the capital, in accordance with the relevant international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. Also, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Aboul Gheit emphasized that the adoption of the resolution signifies a notable shift in the international stance towards the aggressive war in Gaza. "The shift was highlighted by the United States choosing not to use its veto power", he noted. Aboul Gheit underscored the need for collaborative international efforts in the coming period to effectively implement the resolution in a form that brings an end to the ongoing bloodshed. He affirmed the importance that the resolution’s implementation ensures that the Israeli occupation power assumes its responsibilities and holds it accountable for its crimes.

Israeli hostage recounts sexual assault in Gaza captivity -NYT
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/Tue, March 26, 2024
A released Israeli hostage recounted sexual assault at gunpoint by one of the Palestinian militants who held her captive in Gaza, in a first such personal account published on Tuesday in an interview with the New York Times. Amit Soussana, 40, was taken hostage on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Security camera footage showed her fighting back against her abductors. She said that around Oct. 24 she was attacked by the man guarding her after washing in the bathroom. Soussana said the guard, who called himself Muhammad, put a gun to her forehead, beat her and dragged her to a child's bedroom. "Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him," Soussana said in the interview. The Times said Soussana's account was consistent with what she told two doctors and a social worker less than 24 hours after she was freed on Nov. 30. during a week-long truce. "Their reports about her account state the nature of the sexual act; The Times agreed not to disclose the specifics," the newspaper said. At least three released hostages have spoken publicly, including one in an interview with Reuters, about incidents of sexual abuse against fellow captives. On March 5 a team of United Nations experts reported that there were "reasonable grounds to believe" sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred at several locations during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. The team - led by U.N. special envoy for sexual violence in conflict Pramila Patten - visited Israel between Jan. 29 and Feb. 14 on a mission intended to gather, analyse and verify information on sexual violence linked to the Oct. 7 attacks. It also found what it described as clear and convincing information that some of the hostages taken to Gaza were subjected to sexual violence. Hamas has repeatedly rejected accusations of sexual violence during and after the Oct. 7 attack.

US Imposes More Iran Sanctions, Hits Syrian Regime with Penalties for Drug Trafficking
Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran's military and the Houthi militias in Yemen and the Hezbollah party in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger, all either based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon or Kuwait. They are accused of materially benefiting Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah. Hezbollah and the Houthis have been launching regular attacks since the onset of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and they have sparked international concern that the war in the Palestinian enclave could spill over into the rest of the Middle East. Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops exchange fire on a near-daily basis along Lebanon’s southern border, which has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides. Despite losing more than 200 combatants and Israel striking deeper into the tiny country, Hezbollah maintains that it will stop launching rockets into northern Israel only when there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis have been launching drones and missiles on ships in the Red Sea, which they say is an effort to pressure Israel to end its war. Despite US-led airstrikes over the past two months, they have carried on with their campaign. In a separate announcement Tuesday, Treasury slapped sanctions on 11 people and entities accused of facilitating financial transfers to the Syrian government to help it duck sanctions and being involved in the trafficking of a highly addictive amphetamine called Captagon that has become a booming industry in the war-torn country. Treasury sanctioned a Syrian identified as Taher al-Kayali and his company Neptunus LLC, accused of purchasing cargo ships to smuggle Captagon to Europe. One of his ships was intercepted by Greek authorities in 2018. Mahmoud Abulilah Al-Dj and his companies Al-Ta’ir Company and FreeBird Travel and Tourism were also sanctioned. He has had several of his drug shipments seized in Libya, and has cooperated with Abulilah. Al-Dj is also the “exclusive agent” of sanctioned Syrian airliner Cham Wings in Libya, Treasury said. Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into the region, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his associates, as well as Hezbollah. Western governments estimate that the industry has generated billions of dollars in revenue for Syria. Syria’s Arab neighbors, notably Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states, have repeatedly called for the halt of the trade. Meanwhile, the Treasury slapped sanctions on Syria-based Maya Exchange Company, as well as Aleksey Makarov, the vice president of the listed Russian Financial Cooperation Bank, and Muhammad ’Ali Al-Minala of the Syrian central bank, who used the exchange company to make payments to “a Jordanian beneficiary”. Treasury also slapped sanctions on STF Logistic which it claims has generated tens of millions of revenue for the Syrian government and through a 50-year contract with Damascus has been granted the right to almost three-quarters of sales revenue from Syrian mines near Palmyra. Grains Middle East Trading, and its chief executive officer Yafi David were sanctioned for serving as an intermediary for STF Logistic. Assad’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of torture, bombing civilian infrastructure, and using chemical weapons with support of key allies Russia and Iran.

Baltimore bridge collapse: Insight on the incident
LBCI/26 March 2024
In a dramatic incident early on Tuesday in Baltimore, Maryland, a portion of the central Francis Scott Key Bridge partially collapsed, as depicted in a video circulating on social media. A witness recounted, "We were awakened by what sounded like rolling thunder coming through, and it felt like an earthquake. When the bridge came down, it crashed into the water and made quite a noise." The collapse of the bridge, along with a large section of its metal structure, into the river was caused by a collision with a container ship named "Dali," with the flag of Singapore, striking one of its pillars. This resulted in multiple injuries and several cars falling into the water, prompting search efforts by drones, helicopters, and divers. The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, stated, "We are still investigating what happened. But we are quickly gathering details. The preliminary investigation points to an accident. We haven't seen any credible evidence of a terrorist attack." The incident has led to the suspension of maritime navigation at the port, one of the busiest ports in the United States, until further notice. Maryland's Transportation Secretary, Paul Wiedefeld, commented, "Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore is suspended until further notice, but the port is still open for truck transactions." The completion of the investigation to determine how an impact could cause multiple arches of the metal bridge to collapse is pending, and engineering experts are being consulted regarding the incident. The Francis Scott Key Bridge, consisting of four lanes and stretching 2.6 kilometers southwest of Baltimore, is a vital artery for transportation and the economy, connecting the north and south of the eastern coast of the United States. This incident is described as the worst of its kind since 2007, when a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis into the river during rush hour, resulting in the deaths of 13 people.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 26-27/2024
Two Middle Easts: Famine and Artificial Intelligence
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
We have always been faced with, at the very least, two Middle Easts. While political and social disparities in the region are longstanding, they are particularly astonishing today, and the growing chasm between the opposite sides of the binary marks a turning point. It now feels like we are living in two separate worlds that are a mere 3-hour flight apart. In Gaza, over a million Palestinians face grappling with the specter of famine, and some cities elsewhere in the region are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on development. Gaza has fallen prey to the deadly repercussions of a project dominated by the ideology of resistance. Its people and infrastructure are victims of specific policies that have failed to move beyond past conflicts and lay the foundations for a different future. Meanwhile, another Middle East is emerging, one in which peace has been prioritized in pursuit of stability and consolidating an environment conducive to technological progress. This fault line was underlined by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was more than just another moment in this conflict; it was the mirror image of the deep split between these two Middle Easts. It is not a coincidence that Iran leads the tragic iteration of the Middle East facing up against the other Middle East led by moderate states, in what is an intense struggle between a camp driven by historical grievances that has adopted a discourse of ideology resilience and resistance, and the camp seeking a future founded on peace, prosperity, and global partnerships.
This disparity is not a result of factors outside our control but of opposite visions of the world and its relationships. The Iranian Middle East is built on building bridges between militias, sectarian leaders, military commanders, drug traffickers, and criminal masterminds. This Middle East sustains itself through perpetual conflict and contradiction and by mobilization and stirring fear and hatred. It is a Middle East that thrives on the collapse of societies and states, and by deliberately and premeditatedly crushing social structures to facilitate expansion and dominance. On the other hand, the Gulf states adapted their policies to their pursuit of overcoming the technological and geopolitical obstacles to their strategy of becoming leading nations in the fields of technology and artificial intelligence. This is especially true for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are investing in stability, the de-escalation of conflicts, and the expansion of partnerships, in order to create an environment that draws global investment and talent, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. Here, peace and stability are above politics; they are seen as vital requisites for building a post-oil economy. Their strategic objective is to create a friendly environment for developing AI chips locally, with the aim of finding a solution to US restrictions on the export of high-performance chips and meeting their needs for skilled workers in the field of artificial intelligence. Policy, here, is dictated by demands of modernizing and developing the economy, an existential challenge to these states.
The persistence and comprehensiveness of these developments are putting the region to an ongoing test, due to the size of the gap between artificial intelligence research and its practical application. This gap will not be bridged unless the region draws skilled workers in information technology and builds strategic partnerships to reinforce the adoption of artificial intelligence. Accordingly, two contradictory strategies for yielding influence and achieving regional goals stand out in the complex Middle Eastern landscape. They reflect deeply divergent approaches to power.
One Middle East is building its foreign policy on the principles of soft power, allowing it to craft networks of comprehensive influence that combine diplomacy, economic and financial partnerships, and technological investment. That requires cooperation with the rest of the world and a conciliatory discourse that is focused on building influence through long-term relationships and averse to the use of force.
The other Middle East presents a sharp contrast. It seeks hard power and considers obstruction a strategic tool, as shown by the attack on October 7, 2023. The military operations in Gaza and the subsequent entry of militias from Lebanon and Iraq into the conflict, along with the escalation of alertness in the Red Sea, highlight this Iran-led Resistance Axis' penchant for direct and robust military interventions, through which it aims to assert dominance, ensure influence, and achieve the strategic objectives. This contrast highlights a complex balance of power and the ongoing struggle for influence within the region. It is manifesting itself in two opposing approaches whose differences go beyond politics in the strict sense of the word. One emphasizes appeal and persuasion and chooses coercion and force. This split is above political agendas and tactics, or even strategic choices. It divides two sides with opposing value systems and approaches to the operation of society and the exercise of power. They have fundamentally contradictory views on the principles that should govern the relationship between states and citizens, international relations, and the pursuit of peace and prosperity. As such, these complex dynamics sum up much of what is happening in the Middle East today. They are a window into these states’ identities, history, and social structures- the factors shaping the Middle East’s geopolitical divisions, which it seems cannot be solved through mere negotiations or political alliances.

The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy
Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix/The New York Times/March 26/2024
These days, we often hear that democracy is on the ballot. And there’s a truth to that: Winning elections is critical, especially as liberal and progressive forces try to fend off radical right-wing movements. But the democratic crisis that our society faces will not be solved by voting alone.
For years, solidarity’s strongest associations have been with the left and the labor movement — a term invoked at protests and on picket lines. But its roots are much deeper, and its potential implications far more profound, than we typically assume. Though we rarely speak about it as such, solidarity is a concept as fundamental to democracy as its better-known cousins: equality, freedom and justice. Solidarity is simultaneously a bond that holds society together and a force that propels it forward. After all, when people feel connected, they are more willing to work together, to share resources and to have one another’s backs. Solidarity weaves us into a larger and more resilient “we” through the precious and powerful sense that even though we are different, our lives and our fates are connected.
We have both spent years working as organizers and activists. If our experience has taught us anything, it is that a sense of connection and mutualism is rarely spontaneous. It must be nurtured and sustained. Without robust and effective organizations and institutions to cultivate and maintain solidarity, it weakens and democracy falters. We become more atomized and isolated, suspicious and susceptible to misinformation, more disengaged and cynical, and easily pitted against one another.
Democracy’s opponents know this. That’s why they invest huge amounts of energy and resources to sabotage transformative, democratic solidarity and to nurture exclusionary and reactionary forms of group identity. Enraged at a decade of social movements and the long-overdue revival of organized labor, right-wing strategists and their corporate backers have redoubled their efforts to divide and conquer the American public, inflaming group resentments in order to restore traditional social hierarchies and ensure that plutocrats maintain their hold on wealth and power. In white papers, stump speeches and podcasts, conservative ideologues have laid out their vision for capturing the state and using it as a tool to remake our country in their image.
If we do not prioritize solidarity, this dangerous and anti-democratic project will succeed. Far more than just a slogan or hashtag, solidarity can orient us toward a future worth fighting for, providing the basis of a credible and galvanizing plan for democratic renewal. Instead of the 20th-century ideal of a welfare state, we should try to imagine a solidarity state.
We urgently need a countervision of what government can and should be, and how public resources and infrastructure can be deployed to foster social connection and repair the social fabric so that democracy can have a chance not just to limp along, but to flourish. Solidarity, here, is both a goal worth reaching toward and the method of building the power to achieve it. It is both means and ends, the forging of social bonds so that we can become strong enough to shift policy together.
Historically, the question of solidarity has been raised during volatile junctures like the one we are living through. Contemporary conceptions of solidarity first took form after the democratic revolutions of the 18th century and over the course of the Industrial Revolution. As kings were deposed and the church’s role as a moral authority waned, philosophers and citizens wondered how society could cohere without a monarch or god. What could bind people in a secular, pluralistic age?
The 19th-century thinkers who began seriously contemplating and writing about the idea of solidarity often used the image of the human body, where different parts work in tandem. Most famously, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim put solidarity at the center of his inquiry, arguing that as society increased in complexity, social bonds between people would strengthen, each person playing a specialized role while connected to a larger whole. Solidarity and social cohesion, he argued, would be the natural result of increasing social and economic interdependence. But as Durkheim himself would eventually recognize, the industrial economy that he initially imagined would generate solidarity would actually serve to weaken its fragile ties, fostering what he called anomie, the corrosive hopelessness that accompanied growing inequality.
In the United States, solidarity never achieved the same intellectual cachet as in Europe. Since this nation’s founding, the concept has generally been neglected, and the practice actively suppressed and even criminalized. Attempts to forge cross-racial solidarity have met with violent suppression time and again, and labor organizing, effectively outlawed until the New Deal era, still occupies hostile legal ground. Decades of market-friendly policies, promoted by Republicans and Democrats alike, have undermined solidarity in ways both subtle and overt, from encouraging us to see ourselves as individual consumers rather than citizens to fostering individualism and competition over collectivity and cooperation.
As our profit-driven economy has made us more insecure and atomized — and more susceptible to authoritarian appeals — the far right has seized its opportunity. A furious backlash now rises to cut down the shoots of solidarity that sprung up as a result of recent movements pushing for economic, racial, environmental and gender justice. In response, programs that encourage diversity and inclusion are being targeted by billionaire investors, while small acts of solidarity — like helping someone get an abortion or bailing protesters out of jail — have been criminalized.
Awaiting the return of Mr. Trump, the Heritage Foundation has mapped out a plan to remake government and society, using the full power of the state to roll back what it calls “the Great Awokening” and restore a Judeo-Christian, capitalist “culture of life” and “blessedness.” “Woke” has been turned into a pejorative so that the word can be wielded to tarnish and break the solidarity that people have only just begun to experience.
Our vision of a solidarity state offers a pointed rejoinder to this project. Social democrats and socialists have been right to emphasize the need for redistribution and robust public investment in goods and services. We must restructure our economy so that it works for the many and not the few. But unlike conservatives — think, for example, of Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of Britain who in 1981 said, “Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul” — liberals and leftists have tended to downplay the role of policy in shaping public sensibilities. This is a mistake.

China's 'Unrestricted Warfare': Is It Here Already?
Pete Hoekstra/Gatestone Institute/March 26, 2024
China-linked hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.
The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by "unrestricted warfare." Not a bullet was fired. It did not have to be. According to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, it is perfect.
What are some of the steps that should be taken?
The West has correctly identified the CCP as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago.
The West has correctly identified the Chinese Communist Party as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago. (Image source: iStock)
If there is one thing FBI Director Christopher Wray has been consistent on, it is the threat of Communist China across a wide range of fronts. At an unprecedented event on July 6, 2022, Wray and his British counterpart, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, held a joint public appearance – the first ever -- to discuss the growing security challenge posed by China. Evidently, they saw the matter as urgent.
In this joint appearance, the two men highlighted the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the CCP's civil-military fusion state -- specifically, that the CCP is intent on acquiring and stealing technology and business secrets from the West. Targeted areas include advanced materials, data and artificial intelligence (AI). China's President Xi Jinping has made it clear that he intends China to not only catch-up to, but surpass, the West.
More recently, Wray highlighted how the CCP and those affiliated with it apparently plan to use its technological capabilities to target the West.
China-linked hackers appear to be looking to attack U.S. infrastructure, especially key components such as the electrical grid, water reservoirs and treatment plants, pipelines, and transportation and communications systems, among other targets.
The goal is seemingly to disrupt the U.S. everything critical to life – if you have no electricity, your cellphone will not work; no water will come out of the tap; gas pumps will not pump gas; flights and trains will stop, and disease from disabled sewage treatment plants will spread. There will be havoc and panic. The government and military will be unable to protect the nation. That is what is meant by "unrestricted warfare." Not a bullet was fired. It did not have to be. According to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, it is perfect.
Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), testified before the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party that the threats posed by China are not imaginary: they are real. Her agency already has discovered CCP penetrations into the telecommunications industry, aviation, energy and water infrastructure. As the threat from China continues to grow, the global security environment requires the U.S. and our allies to act now to harden our infrastructure and systems to mitigate the threat.
The problem is one of supreme urgency. No one knows who will win the U.S. presidential election on November 5. If I were head of the Chinese Communist Party, I would probably be saying to myself, "I am stuck with a weak economy, more than a billion people who will not be happy with that, and just more seven months with an American president who calls me a 'competitor,' as if the US-Chinese relationship were about EV car dealerships -- although that, too. What are my choices? a) Use this opportunity, which will soon be closing, to choke off Taiwan and take over the world's supply of semiconductor chips. If the U.S. tries to stop us, we could threaten them with mayhem or simply go ahead and make some. b) Instead of Taiwan, why not just go straight for the U.S. while it is bogged down in Ukraine, the Middle East and its election? Or c) We can wait and see who wins (with our help) and if it is the wrong person, we still have two-and-a-half months until the new president is inaugurated."
What are some of the steps that should be taken?
First, stop all investments in China and reroute essentials, such as the manufacture of medicines, to other nations. Any investment, even in paper cocktail umbrellas, goes toward strengthening the People's Liberation Army against us. We can hear the screeching of Wall Street and their Augustinian cry: "But not yet!" The threat, however, should be viewed in terms of national security. No one will ring a bell when the lights go out. The U.S. will also need to impose secondary sanctions, so that any country preferring to do business with China is prohibited from doing business with the U.S.
In addition, China -- for poisoning to death roughly 100,000 Americans each year with fentanyl and other opiates, a mass-murder equivalent to one large plane crash every day -- should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. China should also be barred from using the international banking system, or SWIFT, "a secure network that allows more than 10,000 financial institutions in 212 different countries to send and receive information about financial transactions to each other." Second, companies and universities also need to get serious about their security systems to make the theft of intellectual property more difficult to perpetrate but easier to detect. We cannot allow our enemies to short-circuit the difficult and expensive process of technological innovation by simply walking out the door with the plans. This precaution, sadly, would do well to include a moratorium, at least for the time being, on students from Communist China attending U.S. universities. Again, there will be more screeching from academic institutions that are fond of holding out their tin cups, but are we really interested in educating our "competitors" to take us over or kill us?
Third, the U.S. needs to cooperate with its allies to protect the intellectual property and technological advances of our countries' respective corporations as a national security priority. One excellent example where this cooperation has been successful is between the U.S. and the Netherlands. The governments of the two countries have worked together closely to protect against technology transfer to the CCP. While each country has the decision as to its own trade policies, sharing intelligence and threat assessments enables both countries to make better decisions regarding joint security concerns.
Fourth, companies must be willing to notify the government if their systems have been attacked or compromised by outside entities. Under current law, publicly-traded companies have four days to report a cyber incident to regulators. Businesses sometimes have been understandably reluctant to acknowledge that their systems have been compromised: there is the risk of reputational damage and unpleasant repercussions. Organizations, however, need to be confident that sharing this information with the government will only be used to help address the specific incident. Tragically, our government has not quite been doing all it can to inspire trust. There might be some extremely unpleasant repercussions from that.
Finally, there must be a coordinated strategy between our national, state and local governments on the CCP threat, including prime examples of where this system has failed, as in the production of EV batteries in the U.S. by CCP firms; the CCP buying up American farmland, especially near military bases, and the government's failure to hold the CCP to account for its lies about COVID's human-to-human transmissibility, which caused the unnecessary deaths of more than a million Americans, and the CCP's mass-poisoning of Americans with fentanyl, which in itself is an act of war.
While the federal government has warned "that Chinese EVs could collect your data and send it back to China," states and local governments are welcoming Chinese EV battery manufacturing plants into their communities, frequently with massive government subsidies. This lack of coordination is a serious vulnerability in our national security posture. Wray and McCallum were correct in highlighting the threat from the CCP in 2022. Wray has reemphasized the growing threat. The evidence is clear, and the time has come for our elected leaders and public servants — at all levels of government — to respond in a coordinated fashion to this threat. The West has correctly identified the CCP as the malign threat that it is; now we have a responsibility to put into place the measures and deterrents to prevent it from attacking us through cyberspace or any other way. Let us not wait until we experience a 9/11-scale cyberattack that could be far more damaging to the U.S. than what took place on that dark day more than 20 years ago. *Peter Hoekstra is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute. He was US Ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration. He also served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Second District of Michigan and served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee.
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Cold War’ Climate Does Not Allow for Human Rights
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/26 March 2024
Two notable developments from last week deserve our attention. One is the Russian-Chinese veto against the US United Nations Security Council resolution regarding the displacement war in Gaza, and the other is the shooting attack on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow, that left hundreds of casualties in its wake."Conspiracy theories," which many in the Arab world are fond of, are premature. It would also be naive, however, to take the statements of sympathy issued by most Western capitals following the attack at face value. As for the fact that ISIS claimed responsibility for the operation at lightspeed, it is nothing more than another indication of its nature and its operational intelligence structure. However, let us first look into the background of the Russian-Chinese veto and the political message it sent. It came as no surprise that the two countries vetoed the American resolution, as Washington had previously rejected all the previous calls to put an end to the massacres and displacement in Gaza on the grounds that they did not condemn the Hamas attack of October 7, did not demand the immediate and unconditional release of the Israelis who had been kidnapped by Hamas, and did not punish the movement by rooting it out as a military force and political authority. What we know is that Washington's terms are the same as the "explicit" conditions laid out by Israel. Since the "principal" being represented here, Israel, does not have the right to veto, the "representative," Washington, took it upon itself to veto four ceasefire resolutions at the Security Council, including a proposal that included Russian amendments. In the most recent vote, the US resolution was supported by 11 countries and opposed by three: Russia, China, and Algeria (the only Arab country member of the current session of the Council), while Guyana abstained.
Of course, the US representative criticized the Russian and Chinese stance as "ridiculous". However, her Russian counterpart responded by saying that the United States has done nothing to rein in Israel and that it is now speaking of a ceasefire after "Gaza has been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth... We have seen a typical hypocritical spectacle." The Russian delegate went on to claim the American proposal was "highly politicized" and that its only goal was to appease American voters opposed to the ongoing war, and that it grants Israel immunity by not addressing its crimes.
The fact of the matter is that the international political climate exposed by the Gaza displacement war affirms that the "post-unipolar" era has begun. While it is premature to speak of the "fall of the American empire," we are seeing realignments, assessments are being reconsidered, and alliances are being re-evaluated or forged anew.
For example, Europe no longer accommodates countries that find a safe haven in neutrality. We now see these countries rushing to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Another example is the collapse of the broad matters of consensus that had been the pillars upon which "Western democracies," especially in Europe and its venerable political traditions, have long stood. However, outside of Europe, which had been the strategic "stage" of the Cold War era and home to the countries of the Warsaw Pact and NATO, we now see "centers of power" emerging, and new crises threatening to shake the international frameworks. Likewise, some entities in the Middle East and beyond are revisiting the question of the primary move. Is it the United States or Israel (through its influential American and European "lobbies")?
Asia is home to two of the world’s largest countries, both members of BRICS, India and China. Changes to this grouping could be inevitable if India continues its gradual shift from a "parliamentary democratic system and a pluralistic state" comprising dozens of ethnicities and languages to an "ethno-religious dictatorship" where minorities are marginalized and could potentially be persecuted. The implications of the shift, which is already underway and accelerating, could become evident in the upcoming elections. So far, however, major Western powers have not voiced any reservations about the policies of the Indian leader Narendra Modi, despite the fact that the aggravating situation could make addressing it frankly necessary.
Moreover, both India and China have ambitious foreign projects to forge global alliances founded on interests. Given the rapid rise of China as a technological, economic, military, and political power, the West has remained silent about Modi's policies, and some suggest that Western capitals - led, of course, by Washington - will have no choice, in the future, but to rely on India as a counterbalancing force against China. Going back to Europe, the tzar in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, predictably won a new mandate after the Ukrainian war stirred "Slavic sentiments" and awakened the historic Russian sense of being targeted and besieged. The war in Ukraine has provided Putin with a strong justification to tighten his grip domestically before settling his scores outside the country’s borders. The theater of the ISIS attack - exported to Moscow last week - served as a reminder of this to Russia and compounded its apprehensions of a "siege."Indeed, what the Kremlin has done in Syria since 2011 is not very different from what the Israeli war machine has done and continues to do in Palestine. Back then, it was said that Moscow did not see a Syrian nation in pain, but a Western attempt to expand at its expense, especially after it had been pushed out of Libya. However, it is also true that the lives, fate, and future of the Palestinians mean nothing to Washington. In the calculations of the major powers and their vetoes, the people always come last.