English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 03/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Make My joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves
Letter to the Philippians 02/01-11:”If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 02-03/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: Hostility and Peace in the Lebanese Constitution and The UNSC Resolutions Related To Lebanon...Is Israel labeled an "enemy" of Lebanon according to the Lebanese Constitution
Shayetet 13 commandos capture senior Hezbollah official in northern Lebanon - report
Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, Israeli military official says
Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut
Israel's path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone
Hezbollah rocket fire increasingly targets Arab and Druze communities - analysis

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 02-03/2024
US to Iran: Avoid strikes or face unrestrained Israeli retaliation - report
'Fully coordinated with Iran': Iraqi militias seek to ally with Islamic Republic on Israel response
Iran warns US, Israel of 'crushing response' as Pentagon ups forces in ME
Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea
Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders
Attack in central Israel injures 11 as Iran's leader promises a punishing response
Egypt hosts Fatah-Hamas post-war Gaza talks as part of ceasefire efforts
Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on November 02-03/2024
Global Threat: The Biden-Harris Administration Is Enabling Iran to Become the Next Nuclear State/
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 2, 2024
Adding Lebanon to financial action grey list could be a step forward/Nathalie Goulet/Arab News/November 02, 2024
Why Israel’s UNRWA ban may backfire/Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/November 02, 2024
Why both Harris and Trump have Michigan’s Arab and Muslim endorsements/Ray Hanania/ARAB NEWS/November 02, 2024
How to Judge Iranian Response Options Against Israel/Patrick Clawson, Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/November 02/2024
Is this our last chance to stop Iran from going nuclear?/Dan Nidess, opinion contributor/ The Hill./November 02/2024
If Harris loses, it won’t be due to gender or race. This will be the main reason/Ryan J. Rusak/Modesto Bee/November 02/2024
What are the secrets behind Israel's resilience and survival?/Stewart Weiss/Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 02-03/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: Hostility and Peace in the Lebanese Constitution and The UNSC Resolutions Related To Lebanon...Is Israel labeled an "enemy" of Lebanon according to the Lebanese Constitution
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/11/136419/
Elias Bejjani/November 02/2024
Is Israel really labeled an "enemy" of Lebanon according to the Lebanese Constitution? Simply put, no. There is no text in the Lebanese Constitution that defines or mandates enmity toward Israel, or any specific nation. On the contrary, the legal and historical framework governing Lebanon's relations with Israel is shaped by the 1949 General Armistice Agreement, which established a ceasefire between the two countries and remains a foundational point in the 1989 Taif Accord that transformed into the current Lebanese Constitution. Additionally, the international resolutions pertinent to Lebanon, especially UNSC Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701, emphasize Lebanon's sovereignty without any explicit labeling of Israel as an enemy.
Yet, despite these facts, Hezbollah, along with certain Lebanese leftists, Arabists, and Sunni and Shia Islamist groups, forcefully impose an agenda of hostility toward Israel. This stance is not based on legal grounds but rather stems from their own ideological and political motives. Through accusations of treason, threats, and propaganda, these factions terrorize and coerce the Lebanese public into accepting their version of "Israel as an enemy," even though this designation lacks constitutional support and is incongruent with international norms, especially now as many Arab nations have formalized diplomatic relations with Israel.
In their perspective, hostility serves as a necessary tool for perpetuating fear, validating their armed presence, and justifying their militaristic agendas. They rely on this manufactured enmity to sustain their authority and to promote an endless cycle of conflict under the guise of "resistance." However, their actions and ideology run counter to Lebanon's path toward peace and the state's right to sovereignty, free from the dominance of these militias.
Reviewing Lebanese and international legal texts clarifies the misconception about Lebanon's "enmity" toward Israel and exposes the groundlessness of these hostile stances. The Taif Accord calls for an end to foreign occupations, the disbanding of militias, and a return to the 1949 Armistice Agreement. Likewise, UNSC Resolution 1559 mandates the withdrawal of all foreign forces and the disarmament of militias. Similarly, Resolution 1680 calls for establishing diplomatic relations with neighboring states to enhance Lebanon’s independence and stability. Resolution 1701 further supports these points, aiming for a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon, governed solely by the Lebanese state and UNIFIL, to pave the way toward peace in the Middle East.
Hezbollah and its allies have consistently violated these terms, turning southern Lebanon into a stronghold for their arsenal. This behavior not only defies the essence of Lebanon’s sovereignty but also hinders peace efforts across the region. According to the constitution and these resolutions, Lebanon should disband all militias and secure its sovereignty without outside interference.
In Lebanon’s legal framework, the term "enemy" in criminal laws is a reference to hostile acts against the state. The term is not exclusively directed toward Israel but applies to any foreign power that jeopardizes Lebanon’s security. For instance, Article 273 of the Penal Code criminalizes Lebanese nationals who join foreign armies against Lebanon, including, historically, those who allied with Syrian forces during the Syrian occupation.
The obsession with painting Israel as Lebanon's perpetual enemy, despite the absence of constitutional or legal basis, reflects a destructive ideology that sustains Lebanon’s internal division. These forces have politicized enmity to manipulate public perception, suppress dissent, and maintain power. Their fabricated rhetoric has polarized the Lebanese and entrenched hostility, deviating from the spirit of peace that Lebanon's constitution and international obligations strive for.

Shayetet 13 commandos capture senior Hezbollah official in northern Lebanon - report
Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024
Emad Fadel Amhz, a senior member of Hezbollah, was also reportedly a member of the Lebanese Navy. Shayetet 13 commandos landed in the coastal city of Batroun in northern Lebanon and captured a Hezbollah operative, Arab media reported, and a military official confirmed on Saturday evening. The operative was transferred to Israeli territory and is being investigated by Unit 504, the military official noted. Axios reporter Barak Ravid later reported on X/Twitter that an Israeli official confirmed the operation. The terrorist captured, Emad Fadel Amhaz, is a senior member of Hezbollah, according to Al-Hadath. Reports also stated that he is part of the Lebanese Navy. Amhaz was arrested to be questioned about Hezbollah’s naval operations, the official told Ravid. More than two dozen in the operation. More than 25 people were involved in the operation, with a report by KAN saying that the IDF soldiers entered a cabin near the beach and kidnapped Amhaz, who was staying there alone. Lebanon’s security forces are investigating the incident, N12 reported, citing Lebanese media. Pro-Hezbollah journalist Hassan Illaik said in a post on X that a large group of Israeli troops made a landing in the resort town and captured the man before departing on speed boats. He shared CCTV footage appearing to show soldiers walking in the street, two of them holding a person. Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamiye, who represents Hezbollah in Lebanon’s government, said the video was accurate but did not provide further details.
The Lebanese city is about 140 kilometers from the Israeli coast and 55 kilometers north of Beirut.

Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, Israeli military official says
Lujain Jo And Bassem Mroue/BATROUN, Lebanon (AP)/November 02/2024
Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, an Israeli military official said Saturday, as the conflict between the Iran-backed group and Israel showed few signs of easing. Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said it was investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday. “The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the military official said, without providing the name of the person in detention. The operation marks the first time Israel has announced it deployed troops deep into northern Lebanon to take a senior Hezbollah operative captive since the conflict between the two sides escalated in late September. Since then, Israeli forces began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and intensified its airstrikes across the country, including southern Beirut and the eastern Bekaa valley, killing most of Hezbollah's senior commanders. Hezbollah issued a statement describing what happened as a “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area.” The statement did not give details or confirm whether a Hezbollah member was captured by Israel. Two Lebanese military officials confirmed to The Associated Press that a naval force landed in Batroun, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Beirut, and abducted a Lebanese citizen. Neither gave the man’s identity or said whether he was thought to have links to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. They did not confirm whether the armed men were an Israeli force.
Three Lebanese judicial officials told AP the operation took place at dawn Friday, adding that the captain might have links with Hezbollah. The officials said an investigation is looking into whether the man is linked to Hezbollah or working for an Israeli spy agency and an Israeli force came to rescue him. Both the military and judicial officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were unauthorized to share details about the incident or the ongoing investigation. Soon after Israel went public about the operation, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on Lebanon’s foreign minister to file a complaint against Israel at the U.N. Security Council. Israel has carried out in the past commando operations deep inside Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials. Recounting the event, Lebanese residents from the apartment building where the man was seized said the armed group introduced themselves as state security. “We were terrified. They were breaking into the apartment next to ours,” Hussein Delbani told The Associated Press near where the man was captured. “I thought a state agency was doing a security operation,” said Delbani, who was displaced from south Lebanon a month ago when the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted. He said he saw from his balcony people down on the coast and they screamed again for him to go inside. Hamie told Al-Jadeed the man was a captain of civilian ships. He graduated in 2022 and in late September joined the Batroun's Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute for additional courses. Hamie said that the man lived some 300 meters (980 feet) from the institute. Hamie's remarks came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 armed men taking away a man from in front a house, his face covered with his shirt. Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon, denied allegations by some local journalists who said that the peacekeepers helped the landing force in the operation. The U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force that monitors the coast. "Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ardiel said. Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. The yearlong cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on Oct. 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut
AFP/November 02, 2024
BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, which has been hard hit by the Israel-Hezbollah war. The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the "Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut".The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning. According to an AFP photographer, the strike targeted an abandoned building, which includes a car dealership on the ground floor. The area was cordoned of by the army and security forces. Beirut's southern suburbs have been heavily bombed by Israel since its war with Hezbollah erupted in September. The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on figures from Lebanon's health ministry.

Israel's path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone
Kareem Chehayeb, Julia Frankel And Bassem Mroue/BEIRUT (AP)/November 2, 2024
Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble. Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place. More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza. Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border. The Israeli military has said the bombardment is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and sometimes entire villages, where families have lived for generations. Israel says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but Israeli officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the United States to broker a cease-fire. Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel's immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change. “Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.
A path of destruction
Troops pushed into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since. Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon's border with Israel — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives laid by Israeli soldiers. Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments. In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that Israeli soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble. In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact. Another controlled detonation leveled much of the village of Odeissah, with an explosion so strong it set off earthquake alerts in Israel. In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed. “This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.
When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, Israel’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence" against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.
Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped blow up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive explosion. Videos posted online by Israel’s military and individual soldiers show Israeli troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy fire from Hezbollah.
October has been the deadliest month of 2024 for the Israeli military, with around 60 soldiers killed.
Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army
The bombardment has been punctuated by Israeli attacks on U.N. troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. Israel has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.
Israel denies targeting either force. The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were killed in eight Israeli strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations. The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its forces and infrastructure have been harmed at least 30 times since late September, blaming Israeli military fire or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.” A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for them to go. Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater fire.
“If you went from the U.N. taking casualties to the U.N. actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
The future of the territory is uncertain
International cease-fire efforts appear to be centered on implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It specified that Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border. But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.
During a recent visit to Beirut, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701. Israel could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon. Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for Israel.”Some Lebanese fear that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after Israel ended its occupation there. Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed Israel was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist Israeli incursions.”Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south. “That evaporates if they become (Israel’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.

Hezbollah rocket fire increasingly targets Arab and Druze communities - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024
A lack of shelters in the North leaves citizens vulnerable to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks.
Hezbollah rocket fire wounded 19 people in the town of Tira in Israel early Saturday morning, leaving four in moderate condition and the others with mild injuries. This is the latest example of Hezbollah killing and wounding people in Arab and Druze communities in recent weeks.
It is unclear why Hezbollah rocket fire is increasingly killing and wounding civilians. It appears that Hezbollah may be firing its rockets indiscriminately. In the first year of its war on Israel, when it launched thousands of rockets and drones, Hezbollah claimed that it was often targeting Israeli military sites.
In many cases, this resulted in sirens sounding in civilian areas and people rushing to shelters, fearing falling shrapnel from interceptions. As Hezbollah expanded its attacks, the sirens have sounded more often because of long-range rockets and drones that threaten wide areas. One rocket fired from toward central Israel can result in sirens that send a million people to shelters in dozens of communities. Targeting minority communities
The first major Hezbollah attack that led to the murder of members of minority communities in Israel was the attack on Majdal Shams in July 2024, killing 12 children and teens next to a soccer field. On October 31, Mina and Carmi Hasson from Shfaram, a large town that includes Druze and Arabs, were killed by rockets that fell near Gilam junction, just west of their hometown. The mother and son were killed while out harvesting olives with their family. Days prior, Hezbollah rocket fire also murdered 24-year-old Mohammed Naim in Tarshiha. Tarshiha is part of the larger combined municipality of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, which merges Arab and Jewish communities east of Nahariya in the hills of the Galilee. On October 27, three people were wounded in the Arab town of Tamra, including a 57-year-old man who was in serious condition, along with a 21-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl. Tamra is around 12 miles east of the coastal town of Acre. On October 25, two people were killed and seven wounded in rocket fire that struck Majd el-Kurum, a large Arab town on Route 85 near Karmiel in the Galilee. The killing of so many people in various Arab and Druze areas in Israel appears to be a new trend. In general, Hezbollah rocket fire over the last year has not killed large numbers of civilians. This changed in October. For instance, October 31 was one of the deadliest days from Hezbollah rocket fire. In addition to the two killed near Shfaram, five were killed near Metulla, including four foreign workers. Hezbollah has often averaged around 100-200 rockets per day over the last month. The rocket fire is becoming more deadly, not because it is more accurate than in the past, but because it is less accurate. In addition, many Arab and Druze towns and villages do not have enough shelters.
This is a broader problem across northern Israel. There has been a major shortage of adequate shelters to deal with the Hezbollah rocket threat since the beginning of the war. Many local councils have scrambled to acquire shelters and place them in various places. Even when the councils do acquire the shelters, sometimes via donations, more are needed. For instance, in the Christian village of Jish in the North there is a church on a hill from which Lebanon can be seen. Now there is a new donated shelter near the church. In Majdal Shams, when rockets killed 12 in July, there was a shelter near the field, but people couldn’t reach it in time. In the Druze town of Hurfeish, there were several new shelters placed in the last year; however, more are likely needed. This is an issue throughout northern Israel that affects thousands of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Druze citizens alike.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 02-03/2024
US to Iran: Avoid strikes or face unrestrained Israeli retaliation - report
Walla/November 02/2024
A senior US official disclosed to Walla that Washington informed Tehran it would not be able to prevent Israel from reacting to an attack. The Biden administration recently cautioned Iran against launching another attack on Israel, emphasizing that it could not restrain an Israeli response if provoked again, Walla reported on Saturday evening. The warning follows Iran’s October 1 attack on Israel, which retaliated against Israeli targeted operations. Israel's response included strikes on military targets but excluded strategic sites like nuclear and oil facilities. These facilities could be potential targets should Iran initiate further attacks. A senior US official disclosed to Walla that Washington informed Tehran it would not be able to prevent Israel from reacting or ensure that any response would remain as limited and precise as before. This communication marked a rare direct message between the US and Iran. According to a former Israeli official, the message was transmitted via the Swiss diplomatic channel, a longstanding conduit for US-Iran communications. The White House declined to comment, and the Iranian mission to the UN did not respond to requests for comment. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated on Friday that Iran should avoid any response, underlining continued US support for Israel in case of Iranian aggression. Pentagon spokesperson Gen. Pat Ryder announced additional military measures, including deploying destroyers for missile defense, a fighter squadron, refueling aircraft, and long-range B-52 bombers to the region. Ryder emphasized that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made clear the US would act decisively to protect its forces and interests should Iran or its proxies strike. On October 25, Israel executed a significant military response following a massive ballistic missile attack from Iran three weeks prior. The Israeli counterstrike, coordinated with the US, targeted pre-approved sites, excluding nuclear and oil facilities. Recent Israeli intelligence assessments indicate that Iran is preparing to launch an attack on Israel from Iraqi territory, potentially within days and possibly before the US presidential election. Officials in Israel stated that this potential assault could involve Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps collaborating with Shiite militias using drones and ballistic missiles. American sources confirmed the likelihood of such an attack in the short term. Israel and the US believe that if Iran utilizes militias in Iraq, it aims to avoid a direct confrontation that could provoke another Israeli strike on its territory. Israeli and US officials emphasized that Israel’s response would be contingent on the scale and impact of any such attack.

'Fully coordinated with Iran': Iraqi militias seek to ally with Islamic Republic on Israel response
Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024
These speculations come after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei promised a "crushing response" to Israel's October 26 attack. Haidar al-Lami, a member of the political bureau of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi terrorist militia, said that his organization was coordinating with Iran to strike Israel in a Saturday interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.  Al-Nujaba, a US-designated terrorist group, is "fully coordinated with Iran to organize the timing and location of this response," al-Lami told the Lebanese news organization. He also told Al-Ahkbar that "the Islamic Republic has the right to target the Zionist entity from anywhere within Iraq." He added that "the Islamic Resistance has not ceased its operations targeting critical sites within the entity [Israel].” He predicted that in the next round of blows, “the resistance will use more advanced missiles, in line with the anticipated escalation."Another unnamed political official told Al-Ahkbar that "Iran possesses the capability to retaliate against Israel from anywhere, and it is by no means incapable." Khamenei promises 'crushing response'. Al-Lami's interview comes after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini promised a "crushing response" to Israel's October 26 attack on Iranian military infrastructure. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Iran's attack is expected to occur "in coming days," according to an anonymous senior Israeli official briefed on the matter. According to al-Lami, his organization views the Israeli attack as a transgression. "The Zionist entity, by attacking Iran, violated Iraqi airspace and international norms, with cooperation from the United States, despite its strategic framework agreement with Iraq and other security arrangements," al-Lami told Al-Akhbar. "The current priority is to target Israel first, followed by US bases, as diplomacy and dialogue have proven ineffective, leaving only the language of strength and arms."Axios reported that the Iranian attack could be launched from Iraq and might use a significant amount of drones and ballistic missiles. The attack could reportedly happen before the November 5 US presidential Elections. The unnamed political official quoted in the Al-Akhbar article said, "Israel's assumption that a response might come from Iraqi soil is rooted in the close ties between Iran and armed factions in Iraq, which now have the capacity to strike deep into Israel.”
Iraqi officials nervously await
The official Iraqi government is wary of escalation as it does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Reuters reported that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's government is wary of regional conflicts that would affect its relations with the US and Iran, two of its allies. However, Reuters noted that the Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba groups, which are leading the attacks on Israel, have warned the Iraqi prime minister against pressuring them to halt their actions. In the Al-Ahkbar article, the unidentified official stated that "if Iran retaliates from Iraqi territory, the Iraqi government will face a serious dilemma, as such action could significantly widen the scope of the conflict and provide justification for Israel to strike sites in Iraq." The official went on to note that “any response from Iraq would require coordination and notifying the Iraqi government, which seeks to maintain peace, not ignite war."
Reuters contributed to this report.

Iran warns US, Israel of 'crushing response' as Pentagon ups forces in ME
Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024
"Enemies, including America and the Zionist regime, should know that they will undoubtedly receive
Iran has a “crushing response” against Israel and the United States as the Pentagon pledged over the weekend to increase its military forces in the Middle East. “Today, the Zionist regime is committing the most atrocious crimes in West Asia,” Iran’s Supreme leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei wrote on X/Twitter on Saturday. “Instead of supporting the people of #Palestine [and] #Lebanon, some countries are providing economic [and] military aid to the malicious, cruel, bloodthirsty enemy,” he wrote. “The United States of America and the Zionist regime will definitely receive a crushing response for what they do against #Iran and the #Resistance Front,” he stressed. He spoke as Israel remains braced for an Iranian response to its strike a week ago on missile production facilities in the Islamic Republic. Pentagon Press Secretary Maj.-Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that “should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people.
Deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers
“In keeping with our commitments to the protection of US citizens and forces in the Middle East, the defense of Israel, and de-escalation through deterrence and diplomacy, the Secretary of Defense ordered the deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers” to the Middle East in the coming months,” Ryder said. This includes “fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several US Air Force B-52 long-range strategic bombers to the region.”Israel for the last year has been in active battle against Iranian proxies, Hamas in the South, Hezbollah in the North and the Houthis in Yemen. Iran has twice directly attacked Israel, once in April and again in October. Haidar al-Lami, a member of the Shi’ite al-Nujaba Movement told the Al-Akhbar news outlet that Iran has the right to target Israel from any place inside Iraq. Tehran is likely to “use advanced missiles in the coming phase, in line with the escalation that will occur,” to target Israel before hitting American bases. The US has not participated in any offensive Israeli action against Iran, but it has taken to the skies both in April and October to help defend the Jewish state from attacks by the Islamic Republic. The increased tension between Israel and Iran comes just days before the US elections on Tuesday, November 5. The US has been increasing its diplomatic activity in the last weeks as the clock is beginning to run out on the Biden administration, with US President Joe Biden set to step down on January 20. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday that “in Iran today, Israel has greater freedom of action than ever before. We can go anywhere that we need to in Iran.”

Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea
AFP/November 02, 2024
Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack on Israel’s Eilat
Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Saturday it had intercepted three drones launched from the east over the Red Sea, without specifying where they came from. “A short while ago, three UAVs that were launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea.... the UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement. Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack. A coalition of pro-Iran groups in Iraq said it carried out four drone attacks on the Israeli resort of Eilat on Saturday, after Israel said it intercepted three drones approaching from the east.
In a statement, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq it was behind the attacks on what it called “four vital targets” in the resort on Israel’s Red Sea coast, all conducted within one hour.

Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders
ARAB NEWS/November 02, 2024
CAIRO: Jordan on Saturday warned against intercepting its airspace and the infringement of its borders as unrest increases in the region. Jordan reaffirms its “rejection of attempts by some regional parties to violate its airspace, especially by launching drones that some of which have entered the Kingdom’s airspace and parts had fallen inside Jordanian territory,” said government spokesperson Mohammad Momani according to Petra news agency. The spokesperson pointed out that two incidents of this sort had occurred recently in the governorates of Irbid and Jerash, describing it as “a threat that Jordan was dealing with within the military rules of engagement, and that it was taking all necessary measures to confront these violations.”The minister warned of “increasing regional unrest, reiterating that Jordan will not be a conflict zone for any party, and will not allow warplanes, missiles or drones to pass through its airspace.”

Attack in central Israel injures 11 as Iran's leader promises a punishing response
Adam Schreck/JERUSALEM (AP)/November 2, 2024
An attack on a central Israeli town early Saturday injured 11 people as Iran's Supreme Leader vowed a punishing response to Israel's attack last week. The predawn strike on Tira, which followed air raid sirens across central Israel, was one of several barrages fired from Lebanon early in the day. Many of the projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, while others landed in unpopulated areas. The Magen David Adom emergency service said 11 people were hurt by shrapnel and glass shards in a direct strike on a building in Tira, a predominantly Israeli Arab town. Three were in moderate condition, while the others suffered milder injuries. Footage showed significant damage to the roof and top floor of the three-story building and cars below. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for firing missiles toward the Israeli military’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot on the edge of Tel Aviv and for attacking central Israel's Palmachim Air Base with explosive drones, saying they “scored precise hits on targets."
Israel's military has not confirmed either base was targeted or hit.
Hezbollah said the Saturday dawn missile attack directed at Glilot was in retaliation for the “massacres” that are being committed by Israel. It was likely that the claim was linked to the strike on Tira, which is about 20 kilometers (11 miles) away from Glilot. Tamar Abdel Hai, a resident of Tira, said that the attack was frightening. “I call upon all the leaders in the Arab world and the leaders in Israel and to everyone who can help to end this war. It’s enough,” he said. Hezbollah also said that its fighters have fired salvos of rockets into northern Israeli towns including Dalton, Yesud HaMa’ala and Bar Yohai.
Iran threatens more attacks
The early Saturday attacks may be only a precursor to a more severe strike against Israel. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with a punishing response over attacks on Iran and its allies following Israel's Oct. 26 airstrikes that targeted Iran's military bases and other locations. “The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media. A further attack by Iran, which has already launched two direct attacks against Israel this year, could push the wider Middle East closer to a broader conflict. Israel is already battling the Iran-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The fight against Hezbollah has weakened the group but has also taken a heavy toll on southern Lebanon and other parts of the country. On Friday, Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, according to a Health Ministry update early Friday. United Nations agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people. Residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon, roughly 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year. Israel has also stepped up its offensive against Hamas’ remaining fighters in Gaza, raising concerns about humanitarian conditions for civilians still there. The World Health Organization has said it plans to finally resume its polio vaccination campaign on Saturday, but only in Gaza City as towns further north remain inaccessible as Israel tightens its siege. Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Health officials inside Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of the dead in the enclave are women and children.

Egypt hosts Fatah-Hamas post-war Gaza talks as part of ceasefire efforts
Nidal al-Mughrabi, Adam Makary and Ahmed Tolba/Reuters/November 02/2024
Senior officials of the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas are meeting in Cairo to discuss forming a committee to manage Gaza's post-war governance, an Egyptian security source was quoted as saying by Egypt's Al Qahera News TV on Saturday. The talks are part of Egypt's broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to the enclave. Leaders from Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo last month to discuss forming the committee based on a proposal put forward by Egypt, but talks were adjourned for later discussion, sources close to the talks told Reuters. The sources said the committee would be made up of independent Palestinian figures not aligned to a particular movement, addressing the question of who would run Gaza after the year-long war is over. Israel rejects any role by Hamas in Gaza after the war is ended and has said it doesn't trust the rival Palestinian Authority of Abbas to run the enclave either. Mediators, including Egypt and Qatar with backing from the United States, have so far failed to secure a truce that would end the Gaza war and facilitate a release of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas, along with thousands of Palestinians detained by Israel. Hamas is pressing for an end to hostilities while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the war will continue until Hamas is dismantled. Hamas political official Izzat al-Risheq dismissed proposals of limited or temporary truces as "smokescreens"."We are positively open to any proposals or ideas that ensure the cessation of aggression and the withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza," al-Risheq said in a statement. The conflict continues to exact a heavy humanitarian toll, with medics reporting that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza's Bureij refugee camp on Saturday. Palestinian health officials said at least 60 people had been killed by Israeli military strikes across Gaza Strip since Friday. The war erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of Gaza to rubble.

Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor
AP/November 02, 2024
CAIRO: Archaeologists from Egypt and the United States unearthed an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near the famed city of Luxor, Egyptian authorities said. Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement Friday the tomb, which dates back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 B.C.-1630 B.C.), was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor. The joint Egyptian-American mission excavating the necropolis found coffins for men, women and children, suggesting that it was a family tomb used for generations during the 12th Dynasty and the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. He said ancient floods destroyed most of the burials’ wooden coffins and linen wrappings. However, some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads and two cylindrical agate beads framing a hippo-head amulet, according to the statement. Catherine Blakeney, chief American archaeologist with the mission, said they found two copper mirrors, one with a lotus-shaped handle, and the second with a unique design of Hathor, goddess of the sky, women, fertility and love in ancient Egypt. The discovery came as Egypt has doubled efforts to attract more tourists, a significant source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped North African country. Tourism, which depends heavily on Egypt’s rich Pharaonic artifacts, suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising. Last month, the Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega project near the famed Giza Pyramids, opened 12 halls exhibiting Pharaonic artifacts for visitors as a trial ahead of the yet-unannounced official opening.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on November 02-03/2024
Global Threat: The Biden-Harris Administration Is Enabling Iran to Become the Next Nuclear State
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 2, 2024
Iran is now just a technical step away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, and these advances have been taking place while the Biden-Harris administration has done not a single thing to stop or even slow them.
Why are the US and its allies not alarmed?
The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran are clear, particularly given the regime's long-standing support for terror groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, as well as its history of muscular aggression into Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, Africa, Argentina, Panama, Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
[T]he Biden-Harris administration is paving the way for a future where Iran becomes a nuclear-armed state. This outcome would have catastrophic consequences for global security, not only the Middle East.
Iran is now just a technical step away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, and these advances have been taking place while the Biden-Harris administration has done not a single thing to stop or even slow them. It is time to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
One of the most alarming features of the Biden-Harris administration is its permissive stance towards Iran's nuclear program. When this administration came into power, they promised that they would effectively address and curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Yet, nearly four years into Biden's term, US Secretary of Stare Antony Blinken announced that Iran is "probably 1-2 weeks" away from having nuclear weapons -- and that was in July.
Iran is now just a technical step away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, and these advances have been taking place while the Biden-Harris administration has done not a single thing to stop or even slow them.
According to the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, Iran has significantly enlarged its stockpile of enriched uranium, and brought it to enrichment levels dangerously close to weapons-grade. Tehran has also ramped up the number of operational centrifuges and invested heavily in the research and development of advanced centrifuge technologies. Iran is evidently on a fast track toward achieving full nuclear weapons capability. Earlier findings paint an even more troubling picture: Iran's uranium enrichment levels reportedly reached 84%, just shy of the 90% level required for creating nuclear weapons.
Why are the US and its allies not alarmed?
Not only has the Biden-Harris administration failed to take any action to thwart the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions, it has actually facilitated Iran's progress. Through its policies, the Biden-Harris administration has provided Iran with "closer to $60 billion," funds that are almost certainly being used to bolster the regime's military and nuclear programs.
The Biden-Harris administration has not only also failed to enforce sanctions on Iran, they have given it massive financial resources and political cover, allowing it to develop its nuclear program to the point of near-completion.
The Biden-Harris administration has, in fact, protected Iran's progress. After Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, the Biden-Harris administration immediately urged Israel not to target Iran's nuclear facilities in retaliation. Israel has a clear opportunity to strike at the heart of Iran's nuclear program and potentially it from acquiring nuclear weapons. The U.S. administration, however, has been trying to shield Iran from such consequences, allowing its nuclear infrastructure to remain intact and continue advancing.
By pressuring Israel to refrain from defending itself, the Biden-Harris administration seems to be protecting Iran's nuclear ambitions, raising serious questions about U.S. priorities in the Middle East. At least one Iranian-American, Ariane Tabatabai, for instance, who has security clearance and close ties to the Iranian regime, not only still works at the Pentagon, but was recently promoted.
The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran are clear, particularly given the regime's long-standing support for terror groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, as well as its history of muscular aggression into Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, Africa, Argentina, Panama, Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
A nuclear-armed Iran could also transfer nuclear bombs to its terror proxies. Imagine if, on October 7, 2023, Hamas had launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel with an atomic bomb.
Not just Israel, but every U.S. military base in the region and all other Western targets would undoubtedly be in the crosshairs of these terror groups, possibly armed with Iran's nuclear weapons.
Once Iran possesses nuclear weapons, it will also have the power of deterrence, making it virtually impossible to stop the regime from pursuing its objectives. The world, knowing that military action against it would carry the risk of nuclear retaliation, would be forced to deal with an even more aggressive and emboldened Iran.
The Biden-Harris administration's handling of Iran's nuclear program is not only a failure but an immensely dangerous one. Instead of taking steps to enable US allies to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Biden-Harris administration is facilitating and protecting Iran's nuclear advancement. The US has allowed Tehran to inch closer to nuclear weapons capability without facing any repercussions. By warning Israel not to retaliate against Iran's nuclear sites, rather than supporting Israel, the Biden-Harris administration is paving the way for a future where Iran becomes a nuclear-armed state. This outcome would have catastrophic consequences for global security, not only the Middle East. It is time to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a scholar, strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated analyst, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy and Islam. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Adding Lebanon to financial action grey list could be a step forward
Nathalie Goulet/Arab News/November 02, 2024
France hosted a donors’ conference for Lebanon last month that raised $1 billion dollars. Having failed to exert the slightest influence on the situation in the region, this was the least the international community could do to ease its conscience.
Poor Lebanon, trapped in a conflict not of its own making, where much of the population has become hostages, mere spectators to a worsening crisis.
The Cedre Conference in 2018 to support Lebanon’s reconstruction efforts gathered 48 countries and organizations, along with key representatives from the private sector and civil society. Despite many promises, few tangible results were achieved.
Among the many failings of Lebanon, now a state in name only, are its absence of functioning institutions, poor governance, and endemic corruption. The explosion at the port of Beirut revealed a country without leadership, where no one was truly in charge. What remains are ruins and grieving families. This catastrophe laid bare the deep dysfunctions of the Lebanese state — rife with corruption, negligence, and incompetence, which allowed the reckless accumulation of ammonium nitrate.
Last month the Financial Action Task Force, the global authority on combating money laundering and terrorist financing, decided to put Lebanon back on its “grey list.” This designation applies to countries with insufficient anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures. After being removed from the list eight years ago, Lebanon now returns, amid an escalating national crisis.
The task force has deemed Lebanon’s risk assessment system for money laundering and terrorist financing outdated and incomplete. It is calling for stricter oversight of the financial sector and regulated professions. Lebanon is now under “enhanced supervision” and has two years to implement task force’s action plan. It is surprising that Lebanon wasn’t added sooner, considering the complete absence of financial governance, widespread corruption at every level, and, most critically, Hezbollah’s close ties to Iran — a nation already on the blacklist.
Financial Action Task Force has deemed Lebanon's risk assessment system for money laundering and terrorist financing outdated and incomplete
We recall the protests that erupted after the Beirut port explosion, as citizens vented their fury over the country’s institutional decay. Now, this decision has hammered yet another nail into the coffin of the country of the cedars.
What will become of the promised funds? How will international donations be handled if they arrive? How can we prevent the seemingly inevitable embezzlement and ensure full transparency, so the funds reach their intended destination?
We need a structured approach and effective tools — a dedicated task force for oversight and monitoring. One possible solution could be deploying international civil servants to recipient countries. Although exact figures are difficult to obtain, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that more than 190,000 civil servants and related personnel are employed across approximately 180 global organizations. Wouldn’t it be possible to coordinate local NGOs and international organizations, such as development aid agencies and major foundations, on a regional scale to establish this monitoring task force?
The UN secretariat employs about 38,000 individuals from its 193 member states. This number is supplemented by personnel from major programs, funds, and specialized agencies, along with 112,000 field staff.
The decision to place Lebanon on the grey list could be a step forward, but it will compel the country’s leaders to implement decisive measures and regain control over banking institutions, which have been mired in scandal and looting.
Lebanon is a land of rich culture and ancient writing, the cradle of monotheistic religions. The world cannot afford to turn its back on the country. Without support, it risks becoming a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, susceptible to unprecedented and destabilizing violence.
Regaining control of financial flows is undeniably a crucial step toward restoring the country. We owe the Financial Action Task Force our gratitude for issuing this much needed wake-up call.
• Nathalie Goulet is a French senator for the Orne department in Normandy and the author of ‘An ABC of Terrorist Financing,’ published by Cherche-Midi. X: @senateur61

Why Israel’s UNRWA ban may backfire
Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/November 02, 2024
It is hard for any observer to understand or explain the latest Israeli action against the UN Relief and Works Agency. After the state of Israel was established in 1948, it took two years for it to become a full member of the then-nascent UN. Among the key issues that delayed Israel’s induction was the status of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians it had made refugees. For its part, the UN had passed a clear and unambiguous resolution (General Assembly Resolution 194) guaranteeing the right of return of Palestinian refugees and compensation for the losses they incurred. Decades later, in negotiations, Palestinians insisted on Israel recognizing its historic and moral responsibility for having caused the Palestinian refugee crisis.
The US, wanting to ease the terrible humanitarian conditions that Palestinian refugees were facing in tents in countries bordering Israel, helped create UNRWA, which began its operations in 1950. America was the biggest donor to this UN agency until President Donald Trump took power and cut off aid. This action, which has partially continued under the Biden administration due to pro-Israeli pressure in Congress, has whetted the appetite of members of the right-wing Israeli government who have always hoped that the Palestinian refugee issue would simply disappear.
UNRWA has been providing humanitarian aid services to 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It is their primary source of humanitarian support. Its services include the provision of basic needs like education, food, medical care and the distribution of fuel. Its closure may inevitably lead to the collapse of the primary lifeline for Palestinians. It is not a political body and has refrained from any political actions. UNRWA has strictly followed the regularly approved mandate of the UN.
The agency’s mandate, as defined by the UN General Assembly, is to serve “Palestine refugees.” This term was defined in 1952 as any person whose “normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Palestine refugees are both those who fulfill this definition and the descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition.
Members of the right-wing Israeli government have always hoped that the Palestinian refugee issue would simply disappear.
For years, Israel and its supporters have zoomed in on this humanitarian agency, trying to bring about its disappearance by pressuring countries not to fund it or by making claims, at times using fabricating stories, about UNRWA or its staff. The latest fabrication — that a few members of its huge local staff were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel — was debunked by a high-level investigation committee set up by the UN secretary-general. A UN inquiry published in April found no evidence of wrongdoing by UNRWA staff, noting that Israel had neither responded to requests for names and information nor “informed UNRWA of any concrete concerns relating to UNRWA staff since 2011.”
But despite failing to convince the world of its accusations and despite pressure from Israel’s allies not to approve the ban, 92 of the 120-seat Knesset’s members on Monday voted in favor of banning UNRWA from working in Israel and 87 backed a ban on state authorities from having any contact with the agency, effectively crippling its ability to operate in the Occupied Territories.
The foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK this week criticized the proposed ban, saying it could have “devastating consequences” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This move came shortly after Israeli authorities had confiscated the land in East Jerusalem where UNRWA’s headquarters is located. Israel plans to build 1,440 settlement units, which are illegal under international law, on the site.
While the international community, under immense Israeli pressure, debated whether and how much money to commit to this important UN agency, no one expected Israel to act in such a callous manner and vote in its highest legislative chamber to prohibit UNRWA from providing humanitarian aid to needy Palestinians. What Israel is doing in a conflict it calls an existential war is weakening its own status in the world community.
For decades, Israel has demanded that the world, including its enemies, recognize its right to exist. But by banning a UN agency, Israel is weakening its own legitimacy.
Folklore is full of proverbs that apply to what Israel, a UN member state that is obliged to abide by the UN Charter, plans to do to UNRWA. “Do not spit in the well that you drink from” and “do not saw the branch you are sitting on” are two examples that seem to perfectly illustrate the madness of a country that is worried about its own legitimacy acting against the one international agency that gave it license to exist.
What Israel is doing in a conflict it calls an existential war is weakening its own status in the world community. When you steal other people’s land and create a country over their properties, the last thing you want to do is strengthen those who are questioning your own existence.
So, as racist elements in Israel attempt to make the Palestinian refugee problem disappear, this move risks having the opposite effect. As a UN member state that is banning a UN agency, Israel has helped strengthen the demand of its enemies and is forcing the international community to seriously consider its membership of the global body that once gave it recognition.
**Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. X: @daoudkuttab

Why both Harris and Trump have Michigan’s Arab and Muslim endorsements
Ray Hanania/ARAB NEWS/November 02, 2024
CHICAGO: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the two major political party candidates, have secured endorsements from prominent Arab and Muslim community leaders in Michigan, a key battleground state that could determine the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election.
A recent Arab News/YouGov poll has shown Trump and Harris in a tight race among Arab American voters, while third-party Green candidate Dr. Jill Stein has also drawn significant support, largely due to her stance on the Gaza conflict, in a bid to capture 5 percent of the vote, enough to qualify the Green Party as a major political party in future elections. Arab and Muslim Americans endorsed Trump at a rally in Novi, Michigan, on Oct. 25, while Harris received the community’s support in Dearborn on Oct. 26.
Appearing on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” on Thursday, representatives of both camps argued that their candidate was better equipped to end conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, which the Arab News/YouGov poll identified as critical issues for Arab Americans in the Nov. 5 election.
“People have said, well, (former) President Trump talked about a Muslim ban. President Trump is no longer talking about a Muslim ban. President Trump moved the (US) Embassy to Jerusalem. It’s a plaque that was moved; it was not the 43,000 Palestinians who have been killed at the hands of Israel with arms provided by the US,” said Dr. Bishara Bahbah, a former Democrat who helped organize pro-Trump rallies in swing states like Michigan. Criticizing the Biden administration’s policies, Bahbah argued that the current support for Israel would continue under Harris, suggesting that her presidency would lead to more civilian deaths and destruction in Gaza and Lebanon. “That is unacceptable. The Biden administration’s policies will continue, and we will see Israel doing whatever the hell it wants to do against our people,” Bahbah added.
The Biden administration has faced mounting criticism from Arab Americans and the international community over its military and financial support for Israel, which critics argue has fueled escalating violence that has left close to 50,000 dead across Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, along with widespread displacement and injury. Washington has also been accused of failing to effectively leverage its diplomatic influence to secure a much-needed ceasefire. Reflecting this perceived policy gap, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that “good progress” had been made toward a ceasefire deal in Israel’s offensive against Lebanon. However, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati cautioned on Friday that Israel’s “renewed expansion” of attacks could derail any potential truce efforts, indicating resistance to a diplomatic resolution despite over a month of war.
Bahbah believes the Gaza and Lebanon conflicts reflect weak leadership on the part of President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris, who assumed the Democratic nomination in August.
“You (Arabs and Muslims) have a choice between a Harris administration that’s going to continue killing our people, or you have a choice to vote for Trump, who has told us, me personally as well, that he wants to stop the wars immediately,” Bahbah said adding that the former president is committed “to lay the groundwork for lasting peace agreements in the Middle East that are satisfactory to all parties in the region.”
Arab and Muslim mayors, including Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck and Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights, joined Trump’s endorsement in Novi, Michigan, on Saturday, highlighting Trump’s outreach to these communities and his potential impact in the swing state.
Trump greeted his Arab and Muslim supporters at the rally, expressing confidence that they could “turn the election one way or the other.” At the same event, Imam Belal Alzuhairi endorsed Trump as a “peacemaker,” echoing Bahbah’s view that Trump is better positioned than Harris to “bring peace to the Middle East.”This sentiment aligns with Arab News/YouGov poll findings that indicate many Arab Americans see the former president as more capable of addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict. Meanwhile, in Dearborn, Michigan, on Sunday, a dozen Arab and Muslim community leaders held a press conference to endorse Harris, including Ismael Ahmed, a co-founder and former director of the influential Michigan-based social services organization ACCESS. Ahmed cited the ongoing violence in Gaza and Lebanon as key to their support for Harris, noting her recent hints at diverging from the current administration’s approach and supporting a shift in US policy toward. “The horror is true for all of us, all Americans. And we want it to end. We want to cease fire. We want equity for the Palestinians, a Palestinian state. And we want to live side by side with Jews and Israelis in particular,” said Ahmed who was joined by Arab American Institute President Jim Zogby and Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad I. Turfe on the show.
“They’ve suffered loss, too. And our heart goes out to them as well. We need peace,” he said, adding that “all of us, no matter who we are supporting for the elections, have been working hard to make that happen” and that the uncommitted movement has been a reaction to bring more attention and to force more movement on the issue. Many prominent Arab American Democrats have refused to endorse the Democratic ticket this year, pressing Harris and Biden to adopt a more assertive stance toward Israel, including a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas conflict and an arms embargo.
The Uncommitted National Movement, a group of disenchanted Arab American Democrats, said it will not endorse Harris, citing disappointment with her response to community requests for a meeting with Palestinian families in Michigan. Reflecting the ambivalence many Arab Americans feel about their options, the Uncommitted National Movement also warned against a Trump presidency, which it claims would intensify military action in Gaza and increase suppression of anti-war efforts. “Frankly speaking, Kamala Harris has been more sympathetic. We believe that’s real, but there’s been very little put on the table,” Ahmed said. “But when you match that to what Donald Trump is saying, he’s called for a Muslim ban, which he says he will reinstate the very first day he is in office. He’s called for internment camps. And none of us can have doubts that we’re one of the groups that will end up in those internment camps.”
Ahmed, an associate provost at the University of Michigan at Dearborn and former director for the Michigan Department of Human Services, warned that Trump’s stance on immigration and close alliance with Israel would pose significant risks to the community.
“(Trump) has called for the arrest and deportation by the military of 11 million immigrants. Some of them are our families. They’re mostly hardworking and contributing to the economy. In fact, our economy wouldn’t function without them. And on Palestine, Donald Trump opposes a Palestinian state, (he) has called for Netanyahu to continue his bloody approach to the war until victory, whatever that is. And I can go on.”Until then, the Harris campaign had been unsuccessful in winning public endorsements from the Arab and Muslim leaders because of community criticism of her failure to stop Israel’s concurrent military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. Michigan, a swing state that Trump won in 2016 and Biden narrowly captured in 2020, could once again play a decisive role in the election. Of more than 5.5 million votes cast in Michigan in 2020, Biden led by fewer than 155,000 votes. With more than 200,000 Arab Americans living in the state, their vote could be pivotal this November.
*“The Ray Hanania Radio Show” airs every Thursday at 5 PM on Michigan’s WNZK AM 690 radio and rebroadcasts Mondays at 5 PM on the US Arab Radio network, sponsored by Arab News. For more information on the show or to listen to the podcast, visit ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.

How to Judge Iranian Response Options Against Israel
Patrick Clawson, Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/November 02/2024
Poor internal communications and miscalculation could lead Tehran to continue the cycle by striking again soon, whether directly or through its Iraqi proxies.
In Washington’s view, Iran’s April and October missile strikes against Israel had only limited impact on the ground, while Israel’s latest counterstrike was quite effective at diluting Iran’s offensive and defensive military capabilities—an imbalance that suggests Tehran would be ill advised to strike a third time. Yet Tehran does not appear to share this assessment and could decide to attack anyway, perhaps imminently. If Washington wants to lower the temperature between the two adversaries, it needs to be more active in shaping how Iran views the results of these exchanges.
Detached from Reality?
While the West saw Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel as a dismal failure, Tehran evidently saw it as successful enough to merit a repeat on October 1. This is partly a matter of perspective—the regime and other regional actors may have different views about how many missile impacts and how much damage constitute a successful strike, or how much Iran gains by showing it “resists” Israeli actions. Yet this contrast also raises questions about how accurately Iranian leaders are being informed about what is happening.
Iranian officials at all levels have a well-established track record of ignoring reality and expressing fantastical assessments of various events. This includes officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), even intelligence personnel, who at times display astonishing ignorance about how the world works. And there is good reason to believe such officials dissemble to the regime’s top leadership about important matters, whether or not they believe these rosy assessments themselves. Consider how long the IRGC denied the obvious truth when its forces shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet in January 2020, making more and more implausible claims to deny responsibility. More recently, consider the blatant falsehoods it spread about the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, calling the incident a drone strike despite substantial evidence of a bomb planted by an insider. In these and other cases, the IRGC lied to the Iranian leadership, not just the outside world.
Although there is little evidence that anyone has paid a price for such deception, IRGC-Qods Force commander Esmail Qaani did disappear from public view for quite some time after recent Israeli strikes on senior proxy figures. This raises the possibility that the regime has commenced a serious mole hunt—a task it has carried out with great vigor in the past.
Western media and policymakers tend to interact with Iranian officials who know the outside world and have faced the reality of what their country can and cannot do (e.g., former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, one of several vice presidents in the current government). Yet few such figures seem capable of influencing the regime’s decisionmaking these days. For instance, in the debate about whether to strike Israel on October 1, both Zarif and President Masoud Pezeshkian pushed for restraint but were overruled and had to fall into line.
Will Iran Retaliate Again?
In the days since Israel’s October 26 strike, many of Iran’s usual fire-breathing voices—commentators in hardline outlets, known IRGC hotheads, the most radical politicians—have been warning that the regime will in fact retaliate. According to BBC Monitoring, Gholam Hossein Mohammadi Golpayegani—the hardline cleric who directs Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office—called the Israeli attack “desperate and cowardly” and declared that “Iran’s response to the Zionists will be harsh and jaw-breaking.” Similarly, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency, IRGC commander Hossein Salami warned Israel, “You committed yet another mishap and you will taste the consequences...You have no place to escape to.” And his second-in-command, Ali Fadavi, told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV that Iran’s response will be “inevitable,” falsely claiming that the regime has consistently responded to every hostile Israeli act over forty years. “Iran enjoys the capability to target everything the Zionists hold dear, all in one single operation,” he declared.
For his part, the often-cautious Khamenei offered more ambiguous remarks on October 27, saying that the effects of Israel’s attack should be “neither exaggerated nor downplayed” while calling on authorities to “determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people” to Israel. Despite their more measured tone, however, his remarks have been widely interpreted in Iran as a call to strike. The newspaper Hamshahri picked up Khamenei’s description of the attack as a “miscalculation” that Iran must “correct,” while the government-run daily Iran and the ultraconservative Kayhan quoted him as stating that Iran “must make Israel understand its power.” On social media, his speech was seen as a “clear order” to hit Israel so hard that it will “not be able to stand on its feet again,” in the words of one blogger.
Despite this apparent confidence that Tehran will strike again (and soon), loud Iranian threats have often proven to be mostly or entirely empty (e.g., witness the many warnings that U.S. aircraft carriers will be attacked the next time they enter the Persian Gulf). Indeed, when the regime issued such threats in the past, the usual advice was “rest easy because that means it won’t do much.” But this may no longer be the case in the current cycle of escalation.
The Iraq Option?
On October 31, Axios reported that Iraq could be a launchpad for Iranian retaliation in early November. Tehran’s partners in Iraq have been surging drone attacks against Israel of late, with 6 strikes in August, then 37 in September and 111 in October. These militias have also been using a new Iranian-provided cruise missile called al-Arqab, firing 26 of them at Israel between January 5 and October 5.
What Iran has not done so far is support a ballistic missile attack from Iraq. Yet if it decided to go that route, it could easily pre-position such missiles in areas of Iraq controlled by its proxies—in fact, reports from as long ago as 2019 indicate that it may already have done so. This scenario could complicate Israeli and U.S. missile defense efforts by creating new, expansive launch areas to monitor and, most important, reducing warning and interception times. (Iraqi launch sites would be as close as 420 kilometers to Israel’s borders, compared to around 1,000 kilometers for the nearest Iran route.) As mentioned above, Tehran has pushed the envelope already this year by allowing Iraqi groups to use its cruise missiles; it could do so again with ballistic missiles.
By ordering militias to either use a weapon they have not launched at Israel before or conduct a mass attack using recognized capabilities (drones and cruise missiles), Iran could demonstrate a broadening of the conflict and a further “unifying of fronts,” to use the regime phrase. If such an attack drew heavy Israeli retaliation on Iraq, the militias would likely argue that the United States facilitated or failed to prevent the strike. This in turn could exacerbate already strident objections to the U.S. military presence on Iraqi soil, hastening Baghdad’s efforts to secure a full American withdrawal.
Yet Iran has generally been cautious about overplaying its hand in Iraq. Apart from direct regime funding, Iraq has become the top cash cow for Tehran’s “axis of resistance,” providing a valuable environment in which pro-Iran political blocs can puppeteer major national resources (e.g., mass oil theft) in ways that the U.S. government presently tolerates in order to sustain relations with Baghdad.
U.S. Options
Although Washington has limited ability to influence how Iranian leaders understand the results of their actions, it still has an interest in doing what it can. Perhaps the most effective means of communication is to publicize as much evidence as possible after incidents like the Iranian and Israeli strikes, including satellite photos and intelligence estimates. U.S. officials can also provide extensive briefings to governments that are known to have Tehran’s ear, such as Baghdad and the Gulf states. In particular, Washington can describe to Iraqi leaders the dire consequences their country will face if they stand aside while Iranian proxies escalate their attacks on U.S. allies and facilities. In the past, the threat of losing access to large-scale shipments of physical U.S. dollar notes has been an effective lever for securing Iraqi action, evidently based on the widespread understanding—including among pro-Iran militias—that this would be a disaster for Iraq. Washington can also convey that in the event of new Iranian strikes, it will no longer oppose Israel hitting whatever Iranian targets it wants. This could potentially include oil infrastructure or even nuclear sites, which it reportedly urged Israel not to hit last time around.
Admittedly, Iran’s track record suggests that U.S. and partner messaging efforts might not have the desired impact. Consider how many governments tried to get Iranian officials to acknowledge full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner, with meager results at best. At the very least, however, widely publicizing attack evidence and involving as many governments as possible in the messaging effort would serve as an important international reminder of the regime’s stubborn commitment to a posture of perpetual regional destabilization.
**Patrick Clawson is the Morningstar Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of its Viterbi Program on Iran and U.S. Policy. Michael Knights is the Institute’s Bernstein Senior Fellow and co-creator of its Militia Spotlight platform.

Opinion - Is this our last chance to stop Iran from going nuclear?
Dan Nidess, opinion contributor/ The Hill./November 02/2024
When North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in October of 2006, the world reacted with shock. In retrospect, it’s hard to understand why. They had been pursuing nuclear weapons for at least two decades. Over that time, multiple U.S. administrations and allies tried convincing Pyongyang to abandon its goals with a variety of economic incentives. Ultimately, they only succeeded in deluding themselves into thinking they were making progress.
If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because history is repeating itself with Iran. The similarities go beyond gullible American leaders desperate to believe in the good intentions of hostile despots.
Both countries’ weapons programs grew out of ostensibly peaceful nuclear projects that they were allowed to maintain. Both agreed to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and inspections — which they both repeatedly failed to comply with. In September of 2005, North Korea agreed to reimplement the agency’s protocols and halt its weapons programs. This bought them the American, South Korean and Japanese complacency they needed for their final sprint to becoming a nuclear power. Iran’s president is currently attempting to do the same.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Iran’s breakout time is now only one or two weeks. Completely missing in the months since this announcement is any sort of action, or even assertion of what the United States is willing to do to prevent that from happening. It is as if, having failed to revive the 2015 nuclear deal early in Joe Biden’s presidency, Blinken and the rest of the administration are content to play the role of sideline commentators.
With just under three months until the end of the Biden administration, his national security team is likely hoping to pass the issue along, like a hot potato, leaving the consequences to their successors. Decisive action is not something for which this administration has built a reputation. It is, however, what the moment requires. And there has never been a better opportunity. Thousands of artillery pieces aimed at Seoul served as a significant deterrent to military action against North Korea’s nuclear program. Similarly, Hezbollah’s arsenal of over a hundred thousand missiles and rockets presented an enormous risk that destroying Iran’s nuclear program would result in Hezbollah destroying large parts of Israel.
That is no longer the case. Israel is systematically dismantling Hezbollah and appears unlikely to stop. Jerusalem has also opened the door to a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities by destroying part of the Iranian air defense network and demonstrating the ability to operate at will over their airspace.
Perhaps even more importantly, Tehran has repeatedly signaled that they prioritize regime survival over all else. Despite the decades and wealth that they’ve invested in Hezbollah, they do not appear particularly eager to sacrifice themselves to save it.
The Islamic Republic has not been this exposed in years. The regime is on its back foot and realizes that it has started a conflict in which it is hopelessly outmatched. Now is the time to press the advantage. The U.S. must destroy Iran’s nuclear potential, before that potential is realized.
It is impossible to be certain how Tehran will respond to an attack. But their reactions to Israel’s onslaught against Hezbollah, assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and targeting of multiple Iranian generals suggests it will be muted. If it is made clear that the U.S. does not seek to destroy the regime, the Iranians may settle for another face-saving but minimally destructive retaliatory attack. If Tehran escalates beyond that, however, it should be made clear that the U.S. will begin targeting the assets most critical to the regime’s survival — the internal security forces and morality police they rely on to oppress the Iranian people. Perhaps the strangest aspect of American presidents’ belief that dictators determined to obtain nuclear weapons are negotiating in good faith is that it persists. Even after developing nuclear weapons, Pyongyang continued to play successive administrations for years, promising to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and aid packages. Its stockpile only expanded. There is a lesson here — our enemies cannot be trusted when it comes to nuclear weapons. Thankfully, history also offers another relevant lesson: Israel’s destruction of the Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programs in 1981 and 2007, respectively. To date, neither country has obtained nuclear weapons. Every U.S. president from George W. Bush to Biden has repeatedly reiterated a commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is clear what works and what does not. And we may be watching our last opportunity slip through our hands. This makes Biden’s opposition to Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities particularly disappointing. If he is unwilling to act to fulfill America’s commitment, he should at least encourage Israel to do the job for us.
**Dan Nidess is a former Marine captain and veteran of the war in Iraq who currently works in Silicon Valley.
*Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

If Harris loses, it won’t be due to gender or race. This will be the main reason | Opinion
Ryan J. Rusak/Modesto Bee/November 02/2024
Kamala Harris is a history-making candidate as the first Black woman to be a major-party nominee and the first candidate of Indian descent at the top of a ticket. She stands an excellent chance of becoming the first female president. There’s already a pre-emptive blame game suggesting, however, that if she loses, it can only be because some men — particularly some ethnic groups — will not vote for a woman. There are certainly such voters. But they are few, and they are outnumbered by those eager to elect a woman or minority (or both). If Harris loses, it won’t be because of her gender or race. It will be more because she represents an unpopular administration. It will be because too many voters saw a candidate whose views were at best undefined and at worst deliberately obscured to hide her leftist ideology. And, as is the case with every losing campaign to some extent, it will be because she was a bad candidate who ran a bad campaign. A recent CBS News poll dove deeply into the “gender gap,” a regular feature of American politics that is enhanced in this campaign. Overall, women are breaking big for Harris, while more men support Donald Trump, polls show. But the CBS survey was interesting for what it revealed about voters’ feelings toward the candidates.
Asked if Harris would be a strong leader, voters broke pretty much along the lines of who they said they support: 44% of men said Harris would be, while 56% said she would not. Among women, 55% said she would be strong, and 45% said no. On Trump, women split 50%-50%, while men rated him a strong leader, 64% to 36%. But he’s not winning that big a share of men, so clearly, strength only takes a candidate so far. What’s more interesting (and rare) is that the pollster asked directly whether those assessments were motivated by gender. Among voters who called Harris strong, slightly more men (26%) said it was because she is a woman than did female respondents (23%). And fewer voters of both genders who rated Trump strong said it was because he’s a man (19% of men and 16% of women). Biases can be buried deeply enough that those who hold them don’t see them. But there’s plenty of evidence that Harris’ gender may help at least as much as it hurts. Renewed excitement among Democratic women, particularly Black women, was palpable as soon as Harris replaced Joe Biden as the party’s nominee. Black and Hispanic men seem less open to Harris and more willing to vote for Trump. No doubt, some of that is misogyny. But there’s been a significant realignment, especially among young working-class men, that predates this campaign. Education level and class are increasingly better predictors of how such groups will vote than ethnicity.
After all, the trend among minority men was apparent when Biden was still the nominee.
Sussing out the impact of Harris’ biracial heritage is trickier. But despite our conflicts over race, the country is unmistakably less racist than ever. Barack Obama won twice. There are also clear signs of a boost among Indian Americans and even the broader category of Asian Americans.
It helps, too, that Harris’ campaign has deftly handled her groundbreaking status. She hasn’t repeated the mistake of Hillary Clinton, whose 2016 slogan “I’m with her” centered her pitch on herself rather than the needs and hopes of voters. Messages and signatures are seen written on a tour bus from Young Women for America during the final day of 2024 Republican National Convention on Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wis. Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination and selected U.S. Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) as his running mate. Messages and signatures are seen written on a tour bus from Young Women for America during the final day of 2024 Republican National Convention on Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wis. Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination and selected U.S. Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) as his running mate.
As Harris’ battle with Trump remains a toss-up, though, there have been moments of scolding that could turn off more voters than they attract. Obama’s harsh words for younger Black men were particularly condescending. “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said in a recent campaign appearance, addressing the “brothers.” It was a remarkable departure from Obama’s own campaigns, when he soaked up the benefits of his history-making status by letting others make the point, while he focused on voters’ views.
The Harris campaign is also reminding women that they can vote differently from their husbands, even secretly if they want. It’s at best a deeply condescending view of how a voter decides; at worst, it’s a sexist trope that insults independent-minded women.
Harris’ bigger problem is a campaign that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be, other than a winner, for a candidate who can’t — or won’t — say exactly what she aims to accomplish. When she sought the Democratic nomination in the 2020 campaign cycle, Harris ran further to the left than almost anyone else in the race. So far, in fact, that she washed out earlier than the other big-name candidates. You know you’ve overdone it when Elizabeth Warren seems more moderate to Democratic voters.
Harris has tried to disavow those radical positions without explaining how she came to deviate from them or what exact policies would replace them. So, plenty of reasonable voters have decided there’s too much risk that her real aims are the ones she so passionately argued for in 2019 — curtailing the American energy industry or eliminating employer-based health insurance, for instance. Voters know at a glance that Harris is a biracial woman. They can’t be as certain what’s in her head, and that’s a bigger problem than whatever sexism and racism lingers in America today.

What are the secrets behind Israel's resilience and survival? - opinion
Stewart Weiss/Jerusalem Post/November 02/2024
That is “Hatikvah,” the Hope. Along with faith and courage, it is the secret of our survival.
Though Hollywood would have us believe that the physical characteristics of a person – size, strength, beauty, etc. – are the most important, we know that it is our invisible qualities that truly define who and what we are. Integrity, honesty, empathy, kindness, trustworthiness, compassion, etc. – these are the essential measure of a man or woman. Among the most important of these attributes are faith and courage. Over the past year, we have been witness to stunning displays of both. Israel’s armed forces have taken the war against our enemies with a resolve that is courageous in the extreme; we witness examples of their acts of bravery on a daily basis. Our soldiers report to their reserve service not reluctantly but with a remarkable eagerness to join their comrades in the field. They know full well what the stakes are and the dangers that may await them; sadly, many of them have already lost comrades. But they do not shrink from their duty, and by facing their fears they evoke in all of us an unshakable pride and belief in our future. Not only their courage but also their faith in the virtue of our struggle – despite the hysterical claims of maniacal mobs around the world – reinforce our own belief that we are squarely on the side of right and justice, and that we will prevail.
Who exhibits faith and courage every day?
It is not only the soldiers who embody these qualities; so many others of our “average” citizens (can any Israeli ever really be considered average?!) also exhibit faith and courage on a daily basis:
* The courage of spouses and parents who, after encouraging their loved ones to join the fight, manage to go on with life, even when the news from the battlefield is stark and somber.
* The faith of Jews from all over the world who continue to come to Israel during this war – sometimes having to take multiple, ridiculously expensive flights to get here – in order to show solidarity with us in a time of crisis.
* The courage of people who have been evacuated from their homes during this struggle and placed in temporary housing, yet refuse to desert the country, even if they have the financial wherewithal to do so. * The faith of all the families of the hostages who steadfastly hang on to their belief that their loved ones are still alive and will someday return, despite their being held in the most inhumane conditions. And I can very confidently declare that the majority of Israeli citizens exhibit these virtues – albeit on a much smaller scale – on a regular basis as they grapple mightily with day-to-day life in Israeli society:
* Having the faith that the letter they mail will arrive within one year of posting. * Having the courage to challenge fellow drivers racing to arrive at the traffic circle before them; and pedestrians daring to walk down our streets as mopeds and electric bikes whiz dangerously – and illegally – by them.
* Having the faith that when their number is called at the local post office, after waiting interminably, they will be taken care of before someone else – who only seconds before came through the door – takes their place.
BUT IF and when our courage does waver and our faith starts to falter, we still have one other secret weapon in our emotional arsenal: hope. One of my all-time favorite authors is O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910).
A story of hope
Among his wonderful tales is the story about a group of bedridden invalids in a large hospital room. One of them has his bed right at the window, and each day he poetically shares what he sees outside with his roommates. “The Spring has come!” he proclaims. “The birds are flying about, twisting and turning, dipping and climbing as they take turns at the lovely water fountain in the park across the street. How darling to see the children throwing their bread crumbs as the birds scramble about trying to get a piece. And the rosy-red roses have come back to life! “Summer has come, and now children of all ages are playing in the park. They’re on the see-saw, the slides, the swings. Some of them are throwing a ball around, while little girls expertly compete in jump-roping.
“Now the rain has started to come down and Fall is with us. The colors on the trees are marvelous; bright orange and green with splashes of yellow. There’s a nip in the air; the gentlemen pull their coats tight about them while the ladies hold on to their hats against the wind.”
The patients, consumed by boredom, hung on every word as “window-man” described the scenes outside. They looked forward to his report each morning when they awoke, anxious to hear about the outside world with all its multifaceted activity. But then one day, window-man died, and the bed of another of the occupants was moved near that precious, life-giving window.
The others waited anxiously for him to report on what was happening outside, but he said nothing. Days passed, but still he remained silent.
Confused at first, now turned furious, the patients lashed out. “What are you waiting for?!” they screamed at him. “We want to know what’s out there! Why do you refuse to tell us?”
The man at the window sat up in his bed and stared at the others. “Fools!” he said. “Don’t you know?! There is nothing outside this window except a tall, black wall!”Well, my friends, we, too, have a wall; a quite tall and compelling one, at that. But it is neither solitary nor silent.
Our Kotel is alive with emotion, with passion, with life. It tells the story of our people, for it has witnessed both the tragedy and the triumph of our nation for more than two millennia.
It cried when we were treated as second-class citizens in our own land; but now it sings to us as it welcomes unending throngs of visitors coming to pray, to praise God or simply to be part of the greatest moment in our glorious history. The birds have returned to fly around it, and the children kiss its stones, while the masses share their deepest secrets with it, placing “love notes” in the crevices.Last week, on Sukkot, I stood in front of the Western Wall and sensed its greatest power: hope. Hope that God sees and hears us; hope that we will do whatever we need to do to win this vicious war, which has claimed the best and brightest of our children.
Hope that we will never again be banished from our land; that we have returned to Israel to stay forever. That is “Hatikvah,” the Hope. Along with faith and courage, it is the secret of our survival.
The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana. rabbistewart@gmail.com