English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 08/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2024/english.october08.24.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Click On
The Below Link To Join Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط
على الرابط في
أعلى للإنضمام
لكروب
Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
Elias Bejjani/Click
on the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس
بجاني/اضغط
على الرابط في
أسفل للإشتراك في
موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw
Bible Quotations For today
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit
John 12/20-25: “Among those who went up to worship at the
festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in
Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told
Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The
hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and
those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on October 07-08/2024
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on October 07-08/2024
Elias Bejjani/A thousand salutes to journalist Mariam Majdouline and every free,
sovereign Lebanese who embodies her courage. We stand firmly by her side against
a corrupt and compromised judiciary.
Hezbollah missiles hit Israel on Gaza war anniversary
Israel can't confirm death of Hezbollah's Safieddine, spokesperson says
Jordan’s foreign minister fears ‘abyss of full-scale regional war’
Lebanon says over 400,000 people fled to Syria in around 2 weeks
Opposition Bloc MPs Value National Solidarity and Present Their Vision for
Saving Lebanon from the Brink of War
Berri Calls for Consensus President
The Israel-Hezbollah War: Facing the Reality
Sami Gemayel: It's Time for Hezbollah to Hand Over Authority to the State
Saving Lebanon or Saving Hezbollah?/Writer & Director, Youssef Y. El-Khoury
Two Seasons of Migration: From and to Lebanon/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October
07/2024
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 07-08/2024
Iran says it will hit back against any Israeli strike
Hezbollah missiles hit Haifa, Israel steps up bombings in south Lebanon
US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7
Israeli military says it intercepts missile fired from Yemen
A day of reflection, Lammy says one year after Hamas attack
Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian boy in West Bank confrontations, health
ministry says
Gaza is in ruins after Israel's yearlong offensive. Rebuilding may take decades
Gaza Journalist Hassan Hamad Killed in Drone Strike
Israel-Hamas war 1 year later: Key moments that have defined the conflict after
Oct. 7 massacre
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is alive, unharmed in Iran attack | Fact
check
Saied re-elected Tunisia president with 90.7 percent of the vote
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on October 07-08/2024
When October 7 Was a Day of Victory Against Islamic Terror/Raymond
Ibrahim/The Stream/October 07/2024
Israel is fighting to beat Iran's doomsday clock/Yossi Klein Halevi/Los Angeles
Time/October 07/2024
The United Arab Emirates can help bring Israeli hostages home/Moshe Emilio Lavi,
opinion contributor/The Hill/October 07/2024
The four observations that mark a year since Oct. 7/Faisal J. Abbas/Arab
News/October 07, 2024
Israel’s search for a definitive military solution/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab
News/October 07, 2024
Al-Qaeda, Daesh keeping their distance from Gaza war/Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab
News/October 07, 2024
Why did Iran take the Israeli bait?/Chris Doyle/Arab News/October 07, 2024
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on October 07-08/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The End of Iran’s Reign of Terror and
Hezbollah's Demise
Elias Bejjani/October 06/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135321/
I strongly recommend watching the five enclosed interviews posted
on my website,
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/.
These interviews are crucial as they reveal the trajectory of the region,
culminating in the conclusion that the mission of the criminal, repressive
Iranian Mullah regime is nearing its end. This regime, having served its role as
the Western alliance’s boogeyman, has frightened the Sunni Arab world into
accepting Israel. Every Arab nation has now recognized Israel, viewing Iran as
the true existential threat. Even Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince has publicly
acknowledged that Israel could be a potential ally.
The anticipated event, either today or tomorrow, will be a massive Israeli
military strike against Iran, backed by international Western (NATO) forces and
with Arab blessings under the table. This attack will mark the first anniversary
of Hamas's barbaric jihadist invasion on October 7 last year, restoring Israel’s
deterrence and balance of power, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promised.
Netanyahu declared just yesterday that Israel will strike Iran, shift the
regional balance, and obliterate Hezbollah by force, stripping it of its weapons
once and for all.
Lebanon’s Political Puppetry
Anyone counting on Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, to lead
the efforts aiming to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence is as
deluded as someone hoping a wolf will guard sheep. Berri is nothing more than a
polished puppet of Hezbollah—a terrorist entity at its core and a servant of
Iran, disguised with a necktie to further deceive the people. Berri, along with
his Amal Movement and all other Shiite authorities, was militarily defeated and
eliminated during the "Iqlim al-Tuffah" battle
(March 1988) under Iranian
orders, with Syrian backing and Israeli assistance.
As for Najib Mikati, Lebanon's current PM, he’s nothing but a hypocritical
merchant whose shameful history and betrayal exposes his consistent service to
the Assad and Mullah regimes at Lebanon’s expense.
Regarding our Christian Maronite leaders in particular, and Christians in
general, it’s tragic that they have become nothing more than spineless,
politically and nationally emasculated traders, much like the traitorous
disciple who sold Christ to be crucified for 30 pieces of silver. These are the
worst leaders we’ve seen in 1,400 years of our history, with no exceptions,
whether civilians or clergy. Among the worst is Samir Geagea, whose
shameful silence throughout the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war has been deafening,
even as he prevents his supporters from expressing their views and concerns.
Sadly, his supporters are stupidly accepting the role of sheep.
In regards to former President Michel Aoun and his corrupt son-in-law, Gebran
Bassil, they are both a disgrace, and their pitiful status reflects that of the
rest of the politicians and the heads of the commercial, narcissistic political
parties. Sadly, our beloved Lebanon today is devoid of any national leadership,
both religious and political, which is unsurprising given that the Palestinian,
Syrian, and Iranian occupations since the 1970s have neutered the political and
religious class and molded them to serve their interests.
The Path to Lebanon's Liberation
The salvation of Lebanon will not come from the hands of the current leaders,
parties, or politicians who handed it over to foreign occupations, betrayed its
people, conspired against it, robbed its bank deposits, displaced and humiliated
its citizens, and reduced themselves to tools and empty puppets.
Lebanon’s solution lies in placing it under the guardianship of the United
Nations Security Council, enforcing international resolutions—namely the
Armistice Agreement, Resolution 1559, 1701, and 1680—by force under Chapter VII,
with the aim of rehabilitating the Lebanese people to govern themselves.
In the same context, Former Minister Youssef Salameh’s predictions in an
interview conducted with him yesterday are highly plausible in light of the
ongoing war between Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, and their other terrorist proxies:
He loudly with confidence and proves said:
The world western powers dealt with Hassan Nasrallah the same way they did with
Bashir Gemayel, Rafic Hariri, and Kamal Jumblatt—the four were assassinated
after their roles were finished. This historical reality supports the reasoning
behind Nasrallah’s eventual elimination.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was created by NATO to divide Sunnis and
Shiites, forcing the Sunnis to recognize Israel, which is precisely what
happened. Hezbollah’s role has ended, and Nasrallah has been eliminated as a
result.
Iran is not a strong state and does not wield significant influence on the
international stage, not even in determining Nasrallah’s fate. Its regime’s
collapse is inevitable now that its purpose has been exhausted.
Militarily unbalanced wars, such as the one Hezbollah and Hamas are waging
against Israel, are suicidal endeavors, which is the current reality.
What protects Lebanon from Israel is the international system, not Hezbollah’s
so-called resistance lie and heresy.
Lebanon must move toward peace with Israel, just like every other Arab nation.
There will be no compromise on Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence. The
concept of "resistance" is obsolete, and no state can exist within the shadow of
a militia.
Walid Jumblatt’s daily bizarre stances are circumstantial, and his support for
Hezbollah does not reflect the Druze community’s stance, which opposes
Hezbollah.
Hassan Nasrallah has always been alienated from Lebanon’s national entity,
calling for an Islamic state and proudly declaring himself a soldier of Iran’s
Supreme Leader, loyal to the Iranian regime.
The assassination of Nasrallah signifies the end of a regional era—the Mullah
regime and its tentacles, including Hezbollah.
The era of Shiites political dominance in Lebanon is over, and Lebanon is on the
path to sovereignty, freedom, and independence.
Elias Bejjani/A thousand salutes to journalist Mariam
Majdouline and every free, sovereign Lebanese who embodies her courage. We stand
firmly by her side against a corrupt and compromised judiciary.
Elias Bejjani/October 06, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135331/
A thousand salutes to the patriotic journalist Mariam Majdouline for her brave,
unwavering stance against Hezbollah—Iran’s notorious armed proxy in Lebanon.
Eternal damnation upon those who have filed or might file complaints against
her, and to every submissive, corrupt judicial authority that has issued or may
issue an arrest warrant in her name.
Cursed be the judiciary that persecutes the free and sovereign voices of
Lebanon.
With the distinguished activist Elie Khoury, we declare: Mariam Majdouline’s
shoes hold more truth and honor than the highest-ranking mustache in the
disgraceful, suicidal regime of occupied Lebanon.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: [email protected]
Hezbollah missiles hit Israel on Gaza war anniversary
Reuters Videos/Reuters/October 7, 2024
STORY: Hezbollah rockets struck Israel on Monday (October 7) on the first
anniversary of the Gaza war. That’s as Israel looked poised to expand ground
incursions into Lebanon. Iran-backed Hezbollah said it targeted a military base
in Israel’s city Haifa with a salvo of missiles. The group, allies of
Palestinian militant group Hamas, said it also launched another attack on
Israeli city Tiberias. This strike, one year on from Hamas' October 7
cross-border raid into Israel, underlines how much the Gaza conflict has since
spread across the Middle East. There are fears that the U.S., Israel’s
superpower ally, and Iran will be sucked in. In this latest attack, Israel’s
military said five rockets were launched from Lebanon at Haifa and that 15 were
fired at Tiberias - with some shot down. Hamas meanwhile targeted Israel's
commercial capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo, the group said. This barrage
comes following a series of deadly blows against Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent
weeks. Mohammed Kanso is one of 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon while
fleeing Israeli attack. He says this war has been imposed on his country and
that he did not expect to be living on the streets. Israel accuses Hezbollah of
deliberately embedding it command centers and weaponry beneath residential
buildings in the heart of Beirut. Hezbollah denies storing weapons among
civilians. On Sunday (October 6) night, Israeli missiles rained down across the
Lebanese capital. Many fear Israel will unleash on Lebanon the same scale of
destruction it waged on Gaza.
Israel can't confirm death of Hezbollah's Safieddine, spokesperson says
Reuters/October 7, 2024
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel cannot confirm whether the potential successor to
the slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, a government
spokesperson said on Monday, following reports that he was targeted in an
Israeli air strike last week.
Asked if Israel could confirm the death of Hashem Safieddine, spokesperson David
Mencer told an online briefing: "We don't have that confirmation yet. When it is
confirmed, as and when, it will be on the IDF (Israeli military) website." A
Hezbollah official told Reuters on Sunday that Israel was obstructing search and
rescue efforts in an area where Safieddine is thought to have been when Israel
bombed Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday. Israel has killed much of
Hezbollah's military command and senior leadership in nearly a year of fighting
that began when Hezbollah opened a front in solidarity with Palestinians the day
after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Jordan’s foreign minister fears ‘abyss of full-scale
regional war’
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Aran News/October 07, 2024
BEIRUT: Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi, who also serves as foreign
minister, has said that Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon
is pushing the Middle East into the “abyss of full-scale regional war.”Safadi
was speaking at a news conference following a meeting with Najib Mikati,
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, in Beirut. Safadi’s remarks came as Lebanon
commemorated the first anniversary of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. As
of Oct. 7, the death toll had reached 2,083, including children, women, and
high-ranking Hezbollah field commanders, along with casualties from the Lebanese
army and Hezbollah-affiliated groups, medical staff, paramedics, firefighters,
and journalists.
Additionally, there have been 9,869 people injured.
Safadi said that Jordan backed the Lebanese government’s initiative to elect a
new president and its commitment to implement the UN Security Council resolution
that ended Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006 and aimed to keep southern
Lebanon under the control of the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers. Safadi
reaffirmed Jordan’s unwavering commitment to supporting Lebanon’s security,
sovereignty, and the well-being of its citizens. He spoke of Jordan’s readiness
to assist Lebanon in facing the aftermath of recent attacks, which he
characterized as a flagrant violation of international law and Lebanese
sovereignty. Safadi reiterated Jordan’s support for Lebanese efforts to
strengthen its national institutions and make sovereign decisions. He asserted
that Jordan “will not allow itself to become a battleground for any party, nor
tolerate any breaches of its airspace or sovereignty that threaten the security
of its citizens.”He added: “We have delivered this unequivocal message to both
Iran and Israel.”Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said that directives
had been issued to enhance security measures. Transport Minister Ali Hamieh
said: “The ministry does not grant permission for any aircraft to land at Beirut
International Airport — which remains operational — without prior approval from
the military.”He added that “all warships or vessels involved in military
operations must secure a permit from the Joint Maritime Chamber — comprising the
army, general security, internal security forces, state security, and other
relevant agencies — before they are permitted to dock at any seaport.”Hamieh
emphasized the importance of “conducting security checks on all individuals and
trucks at land crossings.”
He said Mikati “is dedicated to keeping Lebanon’s land, sea, and air crossings
open to facilitate humanitarian aid and bolster the economy, reaffirming that
Lebanon remains accessible to all nations, with reinforced security protocols in
place.” The Israeli army announced on Monday “the start of a focused and
specific ground operation in southern Lebanon, with the Galilee Brigade 91
joining the operations.” Israeli forces conducted an airstrike on a building
belonging to the Federation of Municipalities of Bint Jbeil District in the town
of Barashi, resulting in the deaths of 10 firefighters from the Islamic Health
Organization, which is associated with Hezbollah.
Destructive airstrikes also continued in the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well
as in the south region and the Bekaa Valley. A spokesperson for the Israeli army
told residents of 25 southern villages on Monday to evacuate the area, reminding
those who had left their homes and villages not to “return until further notice,
to ensure their safety.”Israeli warnings also extended to anyone attempting “to
repair the border road between Lebanon and Syria at the Masnaa point that was
bombed by Israeli raids last week.”Israel also warned “any party trying to
approach the building that targeted the Head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council
Hashem Safieddine, in the deepest tunnels under it last Friday in the southern
suburbs of Beirut, not to approach it to rescue him and those buried with him
under it.”Safieddine was regarded as one of the most prominent candidates to
succeed killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Thick black smoke
filled the sky over the southern suburbs following a night of intense violence
marked by Israeli airstrikes that destroyed several residential buildings.
Israeli warplanes conducted over 30 airstrikes within half an hour on villages
and towns in the Tyre district, along with numerous strikes in the central and
eastern sectors, extending to the Nabatieh Governorate and the Jezzine District.
A raid on a residence in Srifa resulted in the deaths of four people, including
a chief warrant officer in the Lebanese army, while a raid on a house in Kherbet
Selem led to one fatality, and a strike on a house in Qaliya in Western Bekaa to
the deaths of two people. Hezbollah expanded the scope of its military
operations on Monday against northern Israel by launching attacks on the city of
Haifa and its residential neighborhoods.
The group reported that it struck the Carmel base in southern Haifa using Fadi
missiles. Hezbollah also targeted the settlement of Kiryat Shmona while
extending its reach to the settlement of Dan near the occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli media reported that missiles had exploded in locations within Haifa —
including a residence and a restaurant — resulting in significant material
damage. Channel 14 in Israel reported that several injured people from Haifa
were transported to Rambam Hospital. Israeli media reported in the afternoon
that 60 missiles had been launched from Lebanon in the space of 90 minutes
toward northern Israel. Hezbollah indicated that the settlements of Karmiel and
Kfar Vradim had been targeted.
Lebanon says over 400,000 people fled to Syria in around
2 weeks
AFP/October 07, 2024
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s government said Monday that more than 400,000 people had fled
an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah across the border into Syria in less
than two weeks. More than 300,000 of those who escaped from September 23 to
Saturday were Syrians returning to their war-torn country, while more than
102,000 were Lebanese, a governmental crisis unit said. Lebanese state media
said on Monday evening that two new strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, after
Israel’s military issued a warning to inhabitants of the area. An AFP
correspondent saw smoke rise from the suburbs, and the country’s National News
Agency reported that the area was “the target of two raids.”
Opposition Bloc MPs Value National Solidarity and
Present Their Vision for Saving Lebanon from the Brink of War: Call for
Separating Lebanon from Regional Conflicts, Rejecting External Pressures, and
Setting an Immediate Date for Presidential Elections
NNA/October 7, 2024 (Translated from Arabic)
The "Opposition Bloc" MPs held a press conference at the Parliament, where they
presented their shared vision for saving Lebanon from the brink of war and
rebuilding state institutions.
The MPs addressed the Lebanese people in a statement read by MP Michel Douaihy,
which stated:
"Dear Lebanese citizens,
In the face of the tragedy our people are enduring under the brutal Israeli
aggression, especially our fellow citizens in the South, Bekaa, and Beirut’s
southern suburbs—facing death, displacement, and destruction—we greatly value
the national solidarity unfolding across all Lebanese regions. This solidarity
is manifested in the united stance of the Lebanese people with their displaced
brethren, reflecting the true will of Lebanese citizens to live together under
the banner of Lebanon. In every hardship that strikes Lebanon or a part of it,
we rediscover that there is no refuge other than the unified state—a state for
all its citizens, which transcends any form of discrimination and remains above
sectarian or regional considerations. Every time, we confirm that our national
identity is our shield, refuge, and the best and only choice.
From our modern history, we have learned repeatedly that any form of isolation,
exclusion, or deviation from the public system, the constitution, and the shared
national interest has led us to calamities, both as groups and individuals.
Today, we are reaffirming that our shared destiny and salvation lie in Lebanese
citizens returning to one another. A return to Lebanon as the 'final homeland,'
democratic, and a land of freedoms, dialogue, and openness.
Today, we have the duty to save ourselves, our people, and our country—together,
with a united and sincere will.
Faced with the dangers threatening the Lebanese entity, the Opposition Bloc MPs
call on the constitutional authorities to assume their responsibilities toward
the Lebanese people, who are paying the price for a devastating war they did not
choose. We urge the following immediate steps to save Lebanon and protect its
citizens:
The Lebanese government must make the decision to separate Lebanon from any
regional conflicts and reject all forms of external pressures and tutelage
imposed on Lebanon. The government should commit to an immediate ceasefire,
fully implement UN Resolution 1701, the Taif Agreement, and other international
resolutions, particularly Resolutions 1680 and 1559. This would secure the
armistice agreement and restore the state's control over decisions of war and
peace, ensuring that weapons are exclusively in the hands of the state. It would
also enable the return of all displaced persons to their villages, allowing all
Lebanese, across all regions, to finally live under the protection of a unified,
strong, sovereign, and just state, as equal citizens with equal rights and
duties.
An immediate, final, and fixed date must be set by the Speaker of Parliament for
a session to elect a President of the Republic, with consecutive voting sessions
held as stipulated by Articles 49, 73, and 74 of the Constitution. This should
be done without setting conditions or creating new constitutional or political
precedents, to elect a reformist, sovereign, and rescue-oriented President who
will safeguard the constitution and Lebanon's sovereignty.
A cohesive government must be formed, with its primary goals being the
implementation of the Constitution, international resolutions, and launching a
recovery and reform process, along with reconstruction efforts.
The Lebanese army must be deployed across all Lebanese territories, and all
border crossings should be controlled, with the assistance of reinforced UNIFIL
forces, along all of Lebanon's borders—South, East, and North, by land, sea, and
air.
Support for the Lebanese army must be strengthened, enabling it to fully carry
out its duties and protecting it from being drawn into any war the Lebanese
state has not decided to engage in.
Emphasis must be placed on Lebanon's external relations, particularly with the
Arab world, and in general with the international community, restoring balance
to these relations. Lebanon must commit to Arab and international legitimacy, in
accordance with the Taif Accord.
Dear Lebanese citizens, The time has come for us to turn our national tragedy
into a 'historic opportunity,' to finally break free from the vicious cycle of
repeating the past and its mistakes. We must all come together in unity to
rebuild a homeland of freedom, partnership, human dignity, sovereignty, justice,
and the rule of law, so that our people can reclaim their right to life,
security, prosperity, and hope."
Berri Calls for Consensus President
This Is Beirut/October 07/2024
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized the critical necessity of a consensus
president who does not present a challenge to any party, indicating his
readiness to convene an electoral session once a majority of 86 votes is secured
for a candidate. He acknowledged the severity of the situation by stating that
he no longer insists on holding dialogues before the election. When asked about
a shift in the balance of power after the Israeli war on Lebanon and the death
of Sayyed Nasrallah, Berri promptly dismissed any notions of weakened influence,
asserting, "Anyone entertaining such thoughts is delusional." He maintained that
the parliamentary balance remains unaltered. "As far as I know, the balance of
the parliament has not changed, nor have the sizes of the parliamentary blocs
shifted. Therefore, no party holds a majority that would allow it alone to
decide the identity of the president, which is why we are calling for
consensus,” he said in an interview on Monday with local newspaper Al-Joumhouria.
Berri debunked the notion that the "Shiaa duo" had diminished and hinted at the
possibility of consensus regarding the election of Sleiman Frangieh. Commitment
to the Joint American-French-European-Arab Appeal
The Speaker of Parliament affirmed his commitment to the joint
American-French-European-Arab appeal issued on September 25, which calls for a
21-day ceasefire while negotiations continue to implement Resolution 1701. “This
international statement forms the proper basis for ending the ongoing Israeli
aggression against Lebanon,” he said. He noted that while Paris and London stand
firmly behind this statement, Washington offers only formal support and fails to
exert pressure on Israel for compliance. Berri expressed concerns about
Netanyahu's unchecked actions, suggesting that he might be influencing the
United States rather than the other way around. Berri emphasized the need to
work on two fronts: continuing resistance to prevent occupation and pursuing
diplomatic efforts to implement the international plan.
Ain al-Tineh Meeting
The Speaker of Parliament explained that the decision not to invite any
Christian figures to the Ain al-Tineh meeting, which caused concern in Christian
circles, was not intended “to exclude them.” He highlighted the apprehension
that favoring one figure over another could trigger sensitivities. To address
this, a nationalistic statement was issued to convey positive messages, with
hopes for a reciprocal positive reception from others.
Displaced
Berri pointed out that the issue of displaced people is his biggest concern at
this stage, stressing that "the Amal Movement is doing everything possible to
alleviate the burden of displacement on our people,” while expressing “complete
confidence that the displaced will return to their villages and towns within 24
hours after the war ends.”
The Israel-Hezbollah War: Facing the Reality
Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/October 07/2024
For exactly one year, parts of the Middle East, specifically Gaza and Lebanon,
have been enduring the devastating fallout of two military ventures that have
become symbols of madness and destructive chaos. On October 7, 2023, Hamas
launched a deadly assault on Israeli soil. The very next day, Hezbollah
unilaterally reignited the southern Lebanon front, which had been entirely
peaceful for over 17 years.
The true objective, far beyond publicly stated false narratives, was to bolster
Iran’s influence in the region. Tehran's involvement in igniting these two
conflicts is undeniable, and the grim toll leaves little room for further
comment.
In the specific case of Lebanon, calls have been growing in recent days for an
immediate ceasefire. This is undoubtedly an urgent goal, given the worsening
ordeal the Lebanese population is facing. However, Lebanon's long and painful
history with Hezbollah over the past decades highlights a harsh truth that
cannot be overlooked: a mere cessation of hostilities would only grant Hezbollah
the chance to regroup, catch its breath, and prepare to strike again in the
future, driven by the same irrational and reckless motivations.
The Lebanese can no longer be drawn into pointless wars every few years, serving
no purpose except to fulfill the hegemonic ambitions of a regional power or to
support a "cause" that holds no relevance for them. It has become crucial today
to confront the truth directly.
A brief and succinct "review of history" illustrates the strategic
destabilization and deconstruction methodically implemented — much like a chess
game — by the leadership of the pro-Iranian party since the 1990s. In each
episode, Western decision-makers established a ceasefire without coupling it
with a robust and sustainable political solution. Consequently, hostilities
would inexplicably flare up again after a while.
In 1996, Israel launched Operation Grapes of Wrath in retaliation for Katyusha
rocket fire from Hezbollah directed at northern Israel. After approximately two
weeks of intensive Israeli bombardments, a ceasefire agreement, known as the
"April Arrangement," was reached. Hezbollah took advantage of this respite to
recover and, more importantly, to begin constructing its mini-state. It
gradually extended its influence across all levels of power and began
implementing its strategy of deconstructing the state and encroaching upon the
vital sectors of the country.
In July 2006, the pro-Iranian party unexpectedly launched a war against Israel,
orchestrated directly by Qassem Soleimani, the military leader of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps. The unspoken objective was to decisively halt the
state-building process initiated by the March 14 movement. After over a month of
Israeli airstrikes targeting the southern suburbs and southern regions, the UN
Security Council established a ceasefire based on Resolution 1701. This
resolution called for not only an end to hostilities but also the withdrawal of
Hezbollah to the Litani River and the prohibition of any militia presence in
southern Lebanon. It also urged all countries to refrain from supplying arms and
ammunition to Lebanon outside the framework of the Lebanese Army. However, the
reality was far from straightforward.
In practice, Hezbollah was content with merely achieving a ceasefire and
gradually resumed its military presence in southern Lebanon, albeit discreetly.
The clause prohibiting the entry of illegal weapons and ammunition into the
country was blatantly disregarded. This was to be expected, as Hezbollah
controlled the porous borders with Syria, allowing it to carry out various
smuggling operations freely, thus rendering Resolution 1701 effectively
meaningless.
In May 2008, the pro-Iranian militia faction invaded the West Beirut
neighborhoods controlled by the Future Movement, as well as certain areas within
the Progressive Socialist Party's stronghold in the Chouf Mountains. Their goal
was to forcibly overturn a government decision to dismantle Hezbollah's illegal
telecommunications network and to remove the officer who oversaw Hezbollah's
control of airport security services. The leader of the Shiite party, Hassan
Nasrallah, justified this act of aggression with a highly symbolic phrase:
"Weapons were used (internally) to protect the weapons!"
To top it all off, on October 8, 2023, Hezbollah initiated a new war against
Israel under the misleading pretext of alleviating military pressure on Gaza. In
doing so, it disregarded the current socio-economic crisis, Israel's absolute
air supremacy, and the huge technological gap that separates it from the Israeli
state. A year later, the tragedy engulfing both Gaza and Lebanon speaks for
itself...
This brief "review of history" indicates that if calls for a ceasefire overlook
the urgent need for a radical, robust, and sustainable solution to the dual
problem of Hezbollah's armament and its militia's grip on the country, the
Lebanese are doomed to endure recurring wars in the foreseeable future. A
fundamental truth arises in this context: the path to national salvation
undeniably leads, in one way or another, to Tehran. This is crucial for the
stability of Lebanon and the broader Middle East.
Sami Gemayel: It's Time for Hezbollah to Hand Over Authority to the State
Kataeb Leader Samy Gemayel ©Kataeb Official Website/October 07/2024
Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel emphasized the need for Hezbollah to “recognize that
the time has come to hand over authority to the State.”According to Gemayel, it
is up to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convince the pro-Iranian group to
allow the Lebanese state to assume its rightful role in governing the country.
Speaking on LBCI on Monday evening, the Kataeb leader stressed that the state
must regain exclusive decision-making power in order to participate in post-war
negotiations. He highlighted that “the immediate priority is to secure a
ceasefire and reestablish the authority of the state and the army." He added,
"Afterward, we can rebuild Lebanon on new foundations—there will be no going
back.”“When we call on Hezbollah to integrate into the Lebanese army by handing
over its weapons, it is not a surrender we are demanding, but equality among all
Lebanese citizens through a return to state authority,” Gemayel stated. When
asked about the possibility of a national dialogue with Hezbollah, he responded
that “it is not our role to engage with Hezbollah; this is Berri and Mikati’s
responsibility .”He argued that, following the death of Hezbollah's leader,
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came to Lebanon to directly intervene in
the country’s affairs. In this context, Gemayel suggested that Hezbollah had
retreated after the visit. Prior to this Iranian intervention, Hezbollah
representatives had started to align themselves with Berri's efforts to secure a
ceasefire in Lebanon. Gemayel also referred to Sleiman Frangieh’s Monday
announcement that he would continue his presidential bid as part of this
"backtracking."
Saving Lebanon or Saving Hezbollah?
Writer & Director, Youssef Y. El-Khoury
Free summary and translation from Arabic by Elias Bejjani,
eliasbejjaninews.com Website, editor and publisher
October 07/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135352/
In a genuine, patriotic, awakening and educational editorial titled "Saving
Lebanon" or "Saving Hezbollah?", the courageous and talented writer and director
Youssef Y. El-Khoury raised several critical points regarding the situation in
occupied Lebanon amidst the ongoing devastating war between the terrorist
Hezbollah and Israel, particularly focusing on the occupier, Hezbollah. He
opened by questioning whether the Lebanese people want to “embrace Hezbollah and
cover up Iran’s violation of Lebanese sovereignty, or work according to Israeli
PM, Benjamin Netanyahu’s will to save Lebanon,” reminding readers of Netanyahu’s
stated demand that “Hezbollah must hand over its weapons to the Lebanese army.”
He stressed that the Jihadist, Iranian-armed proxy, Hezbollah, along with the
current Lebanese puppet state and Iran behind them, continues to disregard
Netanyahu’s demand, failing to recognize that the luxury of manipulation and
clever tricks is no longer an option. He observed that the so-called road to
Jerusalem has been turned into a high-speed highway directed towards Tehran,
passing through Beirut.
The writer emphasized the gravity of the current situation, insisting that clear
vision is an urgent necessity to avoid losing Lebanon due to a lack of awareness
and willful blindness. He remarked that Lebanon is currently under two direct
occupations: one by Hezbollah and the other by the ruling puppet elite since the
Taif Agreement. He also highlighted the indirect Iranian occupation, alongside
Israel’s control of Lebanese airspace and its preparations to annex parts of
southern Lebanon.
Al-Khoury continued, asserting that now is the opportune moment, with multiple
options available, to rid Lebanon of all these occupiers and rebuild the country
with a little wisdom and insight. He suggested that the first step should be to
curb the monster coming from the south, which possesses an arsenal beyond
Lebanon’s capacity to confront, urging honesty and wisdom instead of deceit,
stupidity, treason, delusions, and childish tricks.
He then outlined a roadmap, presenting the first option as Hezbollah
surrendering to Israel in a bid to spare Lebanon further destruction and defeat.
He suggested that Hezbollah hand over its remaining weapons to the international
forces operating in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), allowing the Lebanese judiciary
to try the organization and manage its members. He emphasized that Hezbollah, as
an organization, should be permanently banned from any political or military
activity. He further recommended that the Lebanese state sever all ties with
Iran, as Iran threatens Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence and uses Lebanese
territory to wage its religious wars against Israel. The writer called for the
withdrawal of Lebanese diplomats from Tehran and the expulsion of Iranian
diplomats from Beirut. Additionally, he stressed that the Lebanese state must
commit to preventing any military activity against Israel from southern Lebanon,
applying the same rule to all illegal armed factions across the country.
In this scenario, El-Khoury pointed out, Lebanon would free itself from both
Iran and Hezbollah. At that point, the people would have to act, either by
rising up against the corrupt political system as they did in the October 17
revolution, or by holding quick parliamentary elections to remove the ruling
puppets. He expressed hope that the Lebanese people would not allow the
occupation of their country to continue after everything it has endured.
The second option he presented, in the event Hezbollah refuses to surrender, is
that Israel will defeat Hezbollah since the decision to uproot the group has
already been made. He warned that this could extend to more Lebanese regions,
necessitating that the Lebanese state appeal to the international community and
seek to place Lebanon under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. He
explained that this would put Israel face-to-face with the international
community, limiting Israel's retaliatory actions against Lebanon’s expansion and
destruction. Under such conditions, international forces would take on the role
of deterring Israel and preventing violations from Lebanese territories, making
negotiations for Israel’s withdrawal easier and effectively separating Lebanon
from the region's crises, particularly the Israeli-Iranian conflict, which may
drag on.
However, the writer cautioned, should the ruling puppets dare to call for
placing Lebanon under Chapter VII, this step should be completed according to
the first option outlined earlier, aiming to rid the country of all
occupations—this time, though, under Chapter VII and outside the will of the
Lebanese people.
He concluded by offering a third option, although it does not require a
roadmap—“the Israeli tank.” He warned that, in this scenario, Lebanon would be
wiped out with Israeli-Western firepower due to the stupidity of fools, the
cowardice of cowards, and the opportunism of traitors, not to mention
Hezbollah’s subservience to the Iranian regime and its sale of Lebanon to the
Iranians.
He concluded by asking, "What will benefit you, my beloved Lebanese people if
Lebanon is lost, O you people?" He stressed that wisdom dictates recognizing
that there are common denominators in all three options mentioned earlier, which
should not be ignored. He clarified these commonalities as follows: the
initiative, the separation of Lebanon from Iran, the neutrality of Lebanon, and
the pursuit of peace.
Two Seasons of Migration: From and to Lebanon
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 07/2024
The year 1982 might be when the national basis of Lebanese politics broke.
Indeed, this basis had never been solid, and they had always been vulnerable to
breaches. However, it was in 1982 that another fully-fledged political system
emerged both theoretically and practically, swiftly overwhelming and subjugating
the country’s traditional politics. What happened at the time, as the season of
political migration from Lebanon began, is that, shortly after the Israeli
invasion, President Elias Sarkis formed a "National Salvation Committee" that
included prominent sectarian leaders, among them Nabih Berri, the head of the
Amal Movement. However, in response to Berri’s decision to take part, Hussein
Al-Moussawi broke with Amal and then established "Islamic Amal." Moussawi
accused Berri and Amal of treason and derogatorily called them secular as the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives were flocking to Baalbek through
Damascus.
"Islamic Amal" soon turned into one of the constituent elements of a new party
established inside the Iranian embassy in Syria, Hezbollah. Within just a few
months, Hezbollah youths and IRGC forces launched a joint effort to occupy the
"Sheikh Abdullah Barracks," the army’s most prominent barracks in the Bekaa
region, successfully taking it over and turning it into their palace of
residence. Hezbollah’s foundation, which coincided with Israel’s invasion of
Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq war, provided Tehran with a base whose custodians had
no intention of working alongside other Lebanese actors to find solutions for
the Israeli occupation or the regional issues and conflicts aggravating the
situation in Lebanon. Since then, the foundations of Lebanese national politics
have been systematically destroyed along an increasing number of axes. Until
2005, with rare exceptions, the proliferation of these axes was tied to the
Syrian security and military apparatus in Lebanon.
For the first time, a state ideology emerged in Lebanon, teaching us how we
should think, what we must accept, and what we must reject. Thus, Syria’s
"Lebanon of Arabism" gave rise to the trinity of "the army, the people, and the
resistance," which was included in governments policy statements. Paralysis
became a hallmark of Lebanese institutions; parliament’s gates would be closed,
governments would be brought down by a "blocking third," and presidential
elections would be disrupted or a particular candidate would be imposed, all for
reasons that are difficult to link to political and constitutional life.
Violence, in all of its forms, became a feature of public life. Before and after
the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the number of murdered and kidnapped
politicians, writers, journalists, officers, Lebanese, Arabs, and Westerners in
Lebanon rivaled the number of professionals registered in Lebanese syndicates.
Although the final quarter of that era witnessed a severe economic collapse and
the Beirut port blast, Hezbollah clamped down on the reform movement of 2019 and
obstructed the investigation into the port explosion, reminding many of how it
had hindered the investigation into Rafik Hariri’s assassination.
After broadening friendships with both Arab and Western countries had been a
pillar of Lebanese politics, the new wisdom became to alienate both and broaden
hostility to them, leaving the country isolated and undermining its capacity to
address its economic disaster.
After Lebanon was liberated in 2000, Hezbollah maintained its illegitimate
arsenal, and six years later, it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, dragging the
country into a devastating war. Although this conflict was brought to an end
through UN Resolution 1701, in practice, the army was prevented from heading
south, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was hindered
from carrying out its duties and accused of collusion with Israel. As for UN
Resolution 1559, which Resolution 1701 had built on, it was turned into a joke.
A war of occupation was launched against the Syrian people, fueling violence,
human rights violations, and displacement, in parallel to interventions in Iraq,
Yemen, and elsewhere. In addition to the rise of unprecedentedly sharp
sectarianism, ultra-reactionary ideas and social values regarding women,
freedoms, and progress were propagated...
Today, we are told that Lebanon is on the verge of entering a season of
migration in the opposite direction - a season of migration toward Lebanon, its
political traditions, and the pillars of what the country means and how it
functions. The speaker of parliament and prime minister issued an atypical
statement calling for a ceasefire, the implementation of Resolution 1701, and
the election of a president. Lebanon's United Nations Representative spoke in
terms we have not heard in four decades. Nonetheless, these initial steps are
extremely modest when measured against the magnitude of the catastrophe that has
befallen us and the disaster that could unfold if Israel’s madness drives it to
occupy the South or a segment of it. We are in dire need of a consensus on
ending the war, which must include Hezbollah if the world is to take us
seriously and exert real pressure on Israel to end its mass murder, thereby
allowing us to deal with our isolation, rebuild, and address our aggravating
displacement crisis. Lebanon should be re-founded on the basis of its bitter
experience and the lessons we have learned from it, not on the basis of the
"support for our steadfastness" we received from the Iranian foreign minister on
his visit nor his Supreme Leader’s call for more resistance, which promises
nothing, in practice, but dignified funerals.
Lebanon’s re-establishment must break with the past and the era of militias, as
well as announce the adoption of neutrality toward armed conflicts, that its
legitimate government makes its decisions, and that its army is solely
responsible for implementing those decisions.
There is no other path that leads us out of these suicidal wars and allows us to
avoid constantly living on the brink of or under the shadow of civil war. Until
then, talk of the season of migration back to Lebanon will not be convincing.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 07-08/2024
Iran says it will hit back against any Israeli strike
AFP/October 07, 2024
TEHRAN: Iran said on Monday it would respond firmly to any Israeli attack on its
soil, stressing that it did not want a wider war in the region. On Tuesday Iran
launched around 200 missiles in its second direct attack on Israel, in what it
said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the
region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Israel has vowed to respond
to the attack. Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said the Islamic republic
was “not afraid of war and will give a firm and appropriate response to any new
action by the Zionist regime.”The foreign minister made the remarks in a
telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty. Israel’s
army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Iran had fired about 200 missiles at
Israel last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had made a
“big mistake” with its missile barrage, which follows Israel killing Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27. After the United States said it was
discussing a joint response with Israel, Iran’s chief of staff warned that
Tehran would hit Israeli infrastructure if its territory is attacked.
Hezbollah missiles hit Haifa, Israel steps up bombings in south Lebanon
REUTERS/October 07, 2024
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third largest city Haifa
on Monday as Israeli forces looked poised to expand ground raids into south
Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread conflict
across the Middle East.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said it targeted a military base south
of Haifa with “Fadi 1” missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 65 km
(40 miles) away.
Hezbollah said it targeted areas north of Haifa with missiles later in the day.
Israel’s military said around 135 projectiles had entered Israeli territory on
Monday as of 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). Ten people were reported injured in the Haifa
area and two others further south in central Israel.
Israel’s military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of
Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon, and that two Israeli soldiers were killed in
border-area combat, taking the military death toll inside Lebanon so far to 11.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 10 firefighters were killed in an Israeli
airstrike on a municipal building in the border-area town of Bint Jbeil, and
that other aerial attacks on Sunday killed 22 people in southern and eastern
Lebanese towns.
The Israeli military has described its ground operation as “localized, limited
and targeted” but it has steadily increased in scale since it began last week.
On Monday, the military said soldiers from its 91st Division had moved into
southern Lebanon after a year of operations in northern Israel, where Israeli
forces have been engaged in cross-border fire with Hezbollah for the past year.
Last week, the military said regular armored and infantry units had moved into
Lebanon after commando units crossed the border a day earlier.
It has not said precisely where the troops are operating but it has said there
were no plans to send them deep into Lebanon and that their aim was to clear
border areas where Hezbollah fighters have been embedded.
Also on Monday, around 100 Israeli fighters carried out a wave of strikes,
hitting 120 targets in southern Lebanon within the space of an hour, including
Radwan special forces units, Hezbollah’s missile force and its intelligence
directorate.
“This operation follows a series of strikes aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s
command, control, and firing capabilities, as well as assisting ground forces in
achieving their operational goals,” the military said in a statement.
The spiralling conflict has raised concerns that the United States, Israel’s
superpower ally, and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing
Middle East.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. Israel has said it will
retaliate and is weighing its options. One possible target is Iran’s oil
facilities.
Rockets hit Haifa
An Israeli military statement said five rockets were launched toward Haifa, also
a major Mediterranean port, from Lebanon and interceptors were fired at them.
“Fallen projectiles were identified in the area. The incident is under review.”
It said 15 other rockets were fired inland at Tiberias in Israel’s northern
Galilee region, some of which were shot down. Israeli media said five more
rockets hit the Tiberias area later.
A surface-to-air missile fired at central Israel from Yemen was also
intercepted, the military said. The Iran-backed Houthi movement which controls
northern Yemen has attacked Israel during the past year in what it says is
solidarity with the Palestinians. Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war with a
surprise attack on Israel a year ago, meanwhile targeted Israel’s commercial
capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo, the group said, setting off sirens in
central areas of the country.
Many Israelis have regained confidence in their long vaunted military and
intelligence apparatus after a series of deadly blows to the command structure
of Hezbollah, Iran’s most formidable Middle East proxy force, in Lebanon in
recent weeks. “Our counterattack on our enemies in Iran’s axis of evil is
necessary for securing our future and ensuring our security,” Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a special cabinet meeting in Jerusalem
marking the Gaza war anniversary. “We are changing the security reality in our
region, for our children’s sake, for our future, to ensure that what happened on
Oct. 7 does not happen again,” Netanyahu said.
Israel-Hezbollah conflict spreads
Israeli airstrikes have displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon and as the
bombing campaign intensifies, many are afraid their country will face the vast
scale of destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel’s air and ground onslaught there.
Israeli forces also issued a warning in Arabic to beachgoers and boat users to
stay away from a swathe of the southern Lebanese coast, saying its navy would
soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.
Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023 in solidarity with
Hamas. After a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel mostly
limited to the frontier region, the conflict has significantly escalated in
Lebanon.
Israelis marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack with ceremonies and
protests on Monday including a memorial event for victims of the Nova Music
Festival where militants killed 364 people and kidnapped 44 partygoers and
staff.
In their shock rampage through Israeli towns and kibbutz villages near the Gaza
border a year ago, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about
250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
The huge security lapse led to the single deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi
Holocaust, shattered many citizens’ sense of security and sent their faith in
its leaders to new lows.
The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has largely
flattened the densely populated enclave and killed almost 42,000 people,
Palestinian health authorities say.
US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to
Israel since last Oct. 7
AP/October 07, 2024
WASHINGTON: The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on
military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating
conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s
Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on
Israel. An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up US military
operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said in
findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a
Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis,
who are carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed group
Hamas. The report — completed before Israel opened a second front, this one
against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, in late September — is
one of the first tallies of estimated US costs as the Biden administration backs
Israel in its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and seeks to contain hostilities by
Iran-allied armed groups in the region. The financial toll is on top of the cost
in human lives: Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel a year
ago and took others hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly
42,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does
not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. At least 1,400
people in Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed
since Israel greatly expanded its strikes in that country in late September.
The financial costs were calculated by Linda J. Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s
John F. Kennedy School of Government, who has assessed the full costs of US wars
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and fellow researchers William D. Hartung and
Stephen Semler.
Here’s a look at where some of the US taxpayer money went:
Record military aid to Israel
Israel — a protege of the United States since its 1948 founding — is the biggest
recipient of US military aid in history, getting $251.2 billion in
inflation-adjusted dollars since 1959, the report says. Even so, the $17.9
billion spent since Oct. 7, 2023, in inflation-adjusted dollars, is by far the
most military aid sent to Israel in one year. The US committed to providing
billions in military assistance to Israel and Egypt each year when they signed
their 1979 US-brokered peace treaty, and an agreement since the Obama
administration set the annual amount for Israel at $3.8 billion through 2028.
The US aid since the Gaza war started includes military financing, arms sales,
at least $4.4 billion in drawdowns from US stockpiles and hand-me-downs of used
equipment. Much of the US weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from
artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker-busters and precision-guided bombs.
Expenditures range from $4 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s
Sling missile defense systems to cash for rifles and jet fuel, the study says.
Unlike the United States’ publicly documented military aid to Ukraine, it was
impossible to get the full details of what the US has shipped Israel since last
Oct. 7, so the $17.9 billion for the year is a partial figure, the researchers
said. They cited Biden administration “efforts to hide the full amounts of aid
and types of systems through bureaucratic maneuvering.”Funding for the key US
ally during a war that has exacted a heavy toll on civilians has divided
Americans during the presidential campaign. But support for Israel has long
carried weight in US politics, and Biden said Friday that “no administration has
helped Israel more than I have.”
US military operations in the Middle East
The Biden administration has bolstered its military strength in the region since
the war in Gaza started, aiming to deter and respond to any attacks on Israeli
and American forces. Those additional operations cost at least $4.86 billion,
the report said, not including beefed-up US military aid to Egypt and other
partners in the region.The US had 34,000 forces in the Middle East the day that
Hamas broke through Israeli barricades around Gaza to attack. That number rose
to about 50,000 in August when two aircraft carriers were in the region, aiming
to discourage retaliation after a strike attributed to Israel killed Hamas
political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. The total is now around 43,000. The
number of US vessels and aircraft deployed — aircraft carrier strike groups, an
amphibious ready group, fighter squadrons, and air defense batteries — in the
Mediterranean, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has varied during the year.
The Pentagon has said another aircraft carrier strike group is headed to Europe
very soon and that could increase the troop total again if two carriers are
again in the region at the same time.
The fight against the Houthis
The US military has deployed since the start of the war to try to counter
escalated strikes by the Houthis, an armed faction that controls Yemen’s capital
and northern areas, and has been firing on merchant ships in the Red Sea in
solidarity with Gaza. The researchers called the $4.86 billion cost to the US an
“unexpectedly complicated and asymmetrically expensive challenge.”Houthis have
kept launching attacks on ships traversing the critical trade route, drawing US
strikes on launch sites and other targets. The campaign has become the most
intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
“The US has deployed multiple aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers and
expensive multimillion-dollar missiles against cheap Iranian-made Houthi drones
that cost $2,000,” the authors said.
Just Friday, the US military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen,
going after weapons systems, bases and other equipment, officials said.The
researchers’ calculations included at least $55 million in additional combat pay
from the intensified operations in the region.
Israeli military says it intercepts missile fired from Yemen
REUTERS/October 07, 2024
JERUSALEM: A surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen at central Israel on
Monday was intercepted, the Israeli military said. The missile set off air raid
sirens across large swaths of central Israel, sending residents running for
shelter.“Following the sirens that sounded in a number of areas in central
Israel, the surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen was successfully
intercepted” by the Israeli Air Force, the military said in a statement.The
statement did not say who fired the missile. The Iran-backed Houthi movement
which controls northern Yemen has frequently attacked Israel over the past year
in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.
A day of reflection, Lammy says one year after Hamas attack
BBC/October 7, 2024
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said it was "a day of deep reflection and
pain", as he commemorated the victims of Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel.
Lammy described the attack last year, which killed about 1,200 people, as "the
worst attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust". Speaking at South
Tottenham Synagogue, he said he was thinking of the "many hostages that are
still held in Gaza" - particularly Emily Damari, the only British-Israeli
hostage still in captivity. Ms Damari, 28, was kidnapped from a kibbutz and
taken into Gaza by Hamas along with 250 others. Her family have "no word of her
fate or how she is doing", Lammy added. A total of 97 hostages remain
unaccounted for. Israel responded to Hamas's attack with a military campaign in
Gaza, which has killed thousands in the Palestinian territory. "This is a
painful day for the Jewish community across this country and across the diaspora,"
Lammy told reporters. "It is a day of deep reflection and pain thinking about 7
October, the worst attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust," he
added. Addressing a memorial event in London on Sunday, Ms Damari's mother,
Mandy Damari, said that hostages that were released last November told her they
had contact with her in captivity. “Every day is living hell not knowing what
Emily is going through," she said. She said Britain and other countries need to
do more to secure the release of her daughter and the other hostages. “How is it
that she is still imprisoned there after one year? Why isn't the whole world,
especially Britain, fighting every moment to secure her release? She's one of
their own," she said. She told the crowd how her daughter, who was born in
Israel and lived there, loved to visit the UK - her "second home across the
sea". Ms Damari loved watching Spurs play, going to the pub and shopping at
Primark, her mother added. On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the
country must "unequivocally" stand with the Jewish community and described 7
October as the "darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust”. “As a
father, a husband, a son, a brother – meeting the families of those who lost
their loved ones last week was unimaginable. Their grief and pain are ours, and
it is shared in homes across the land," Sir Keir said.
Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian boy in West Bank confrontations, health
ministry says
Reuters/October 7, 2024
QALANDIA, West Bank (Reuters) - A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in
confrontations between youths and Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on
Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli military said it was
checking the report.
Video from the area of Qalandia showed youths blocking a road with burning tyres,
with Israeli army vehicles and ambulances at the scene. Monday marked the first
anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack against Israel, which triggered the war in
the Gaza Strip and set off the worst bloodletting in the decades-old
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Violence has surged across the West Bank since
last October. Hundreds of Palestinians - including armed fighters,
stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders - have been killed in clashes with
Israeli security forces. Dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian
street attacks over the past year. Israel said it was on high alert for attacks
on Monday. Movement in the West Bank was further restricted as many checkpoints
shut down, residents said and some Palestinians with entry permits received
notices on their mobile phones saying they will not be allowed into Israel.
Gaza is in ruins after Israel's yearlong offensive. Rebuilding may take decades
Joseph Krauss And Sarah El Deeb/The Associated Press/October
07/2024
The Gaza Strip is in ruins.
There are hills of rubble where apartment blocks stood, and pools of
sewage-tainted water spreading disease. City streets have been churned into dirt
canyons and, in many places, the air is filled with the stench of unrecovered
corpses.
Israel’s yearlong offensive against Hamas, one of the deadliest and most
destructive in recent history, has killed more than 41,000 people, a little over
half of them women and children, according to local health officials. With no
end in sight to the war and no plan for the day after, it is impossible to say
when – or even if – anything will be rebuilt. Even after the fighting stops,
hundreds of thousands of people could be stuck living in squalid tent camps for
years. Experts say reconstruction could take decades.
“This war is destruction and misery. It would make the stones cry out,” said
Shifaa Hejjo, a 60-year-old housewife living in a tent pitched on land where her
home once stood. “Whoever sees Gaza ... It will make them cry.”Israel blames the
destruction on Hamas. Its Oct. 7 attack on Israel — in which some 1,200 people
were killed and around 250 taken hostage — ignited the war. Israel says Hamas
embedded much of its military infrastructure, including hundreds of kilometers
(miles) of tunnels, in densely populated areas where some of the heaviest
battles were fought. The fighting left roughly a quarter of all structures in
Gaza destroyed or severely damaged, according to a U.N. assessment in September
based on satellite footage. It said around 66% of structures, including more
than 227,000 housing units, had sustained at least some damage.
If there's a cease-fire, around half of all families “have nowhere to go back
to,” said Alison Ely, a Gaza-based coordinator with the Shelter Cluster, an
international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The devastation in Gaza rivals front-line towns in Ukraine
Almost as many buildings have been destroyed or damaged in Gaza as in all of
Ukraine after its first two years of war with Russia, according to Corey Scher
and Jamon Van Den Hoek, U.S.-based researchers who use satellite radar to
document the wars' devastation.
To put that into perspective: Gaza is less than half the size of Ukraine's
capital, Kyiv.
The amount of destruction in central and southern Gaza alone, Scher said, is
roughly equivalent to what was lost in the front-line town of Bakhmut, the scene
of one of the deadliest battles in the Ukraine war and where Russian forces
destroyed nearly every building in their path to force Ukrainian troops to
withdraw. The destruction in northern Gaza is even worse, he said.
Gaza’s water and sanitation system has collapsed. More than 80% of its health
facilities — and even more of its roads — are damaged or destroyed. “I can’t
think of any parallel, in terms of the severity of damage, for an enclave or a
country or a people,” Scher said.
At the end of January, the World Bank estimated $18.5 billion of damage — nearly
the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022. That was before
some intensely destructive Israeli ground operations, including in the southern
border city of Rafah.
’I couldn’t tell where people’s homes were’
When Israeli ground forces pushed into the southern city of Khan Younis in
January, Shifaa Hejjo and her family fled their four-story home with only the
clothes they were wearing.
They spent months in various tent camps before she decided to return – and the
sight brought her to tears. Her entire neighborhood had been destroyed, her
former home and the roads leading to it lost in a sea of rubble. “I didn’t
recognize it,” she said. “I couldn’t tell where people’s homes were.” Around 90%
of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple
times, according to U.N. estimates. Hundreds of thousands have crowded into
sprawling tent camps near the coast with no electricity, running water or
toilets. Hunger is widespread.
Hejjo lived in a tent in the courtyard of a hospital. Before that, she was in
Muwasi, the main tent camp in southern Gaza. “It smelled bad,” she said. “There
were diseases spreading.”She said her husband, who was suffering from liver
disease, was broken-hearted when he heard their home had been destroyed and he
died shortly thereafter. She was among the first to return after Israeli forces
withdrew in April. Her neighbors stayed away, fearful they would find bodies or
unexploded bombs.
But for her it was still home.
“It is better to live in my home, where I lived for 37 years, even though it is
destroyed,” she said.
Hejjo and her children dug through the rubble with shovels and their bare hands,
going brick by brick and saving whatever could be reused. Torn clothes were used
to feed cooking fires.
Rats had crept in, and swarms of mosquitoes hovered over the ruins. There was
broken glass everywhere. They set up a tent fortified by corrugated metal
sheeting and some bricks salvaged from her destroyed home. A light drizzle wet
their clothes as they slept.
U.N. agencies say unemployment has soared to around 80% — up from nearly 50%
before the war — and that almost the entire population is living in poverty.
Even those with means would find it nearly impossible to import construction
materials because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of
law and order. There are mountains of rubble, little water and no electricity.
The first obstacle to any significant rebuilding is the rubble – mountains of
it. Where houses, shops and office buildings once stood, there are now giant
drifts of rubble laced with human remains, hazardous substances and unexploded
munitions. The U.N. estimates the war has left some 40 million tons of debris
and rubble in Gaza, enough to fill New York’s Central Park to a depth of eight
meters (about 25 feet). It could take up to 15 years and nearly $650 million to
clear it all away, it said.
There’s also the question of where to dispose of it: The U.N. estimates about
five square kilometers (about two square miles) of land would be needed, which
will be hard to come by in the small and densely populated territory.
It isn’t just homes that were destroyed, but also critical infrastructure. The
U.N. estimates nearly 70% of Gaza’s water and sanitation plants have been
destroyed or damaged. That includes all five of the territory’s wastewater
treatment facilities, plus desalination plants, sewage pumping stations, wells
and reservoirs. The employees who once managed municipal water and waste systems
have been displaced, and some killed. And fuel shortages have made it difficult
to keep operating facilities that are still intact. The international charity
Oxfam said it applied in December for a permit to bring in desalination units,
and pipes to repair water infrastructure. It took three months for Israel to
approve the shipment, but it still has not entered Gaza, Oxfam said.
The destruction of sewage networks has left streets flooded with putrid water,
hastening the spread of disease. There has been no central power in Gaza since
the opening days of the war, when its sole power plant was forced to shut down
for lack of fuel, and more than half of the territory's electrical grid has been
destroyed, according to the World Bank.
Can Gaza be rebuilt?
Wealthy Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have said
they are only willing to contribute to Gaza’s reconstruction as part of a
postwar settlement that creates a path to a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled that out, saying he won’t allow Hamas or
even the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza. He has said Israel
will maintain open-ended security control and delegate civilian affairs to local
Palestinians. But none are known to have volunteered, and Hamas has threatened
to kill anyone who aids the occupation. Rebuilding Gaza would also require the
import of massive amounts of construction supplies and heavy equipment, which
Israel is unlikely to allow as long as there’s a potential for Hamas to rebuild
its militant infrastructure. In any case, Gaza has only a small number of
crossings with limited capacity. The Israeli military body that coordinates
civilian affairs in Gaza says it does not restrict the entry of civilian
supplies and allows so-called dual-use items that could also be used for
military purposes. Israel allowed some construction materials in before the war
under what was known as the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, but it was subject to
heavy restrictions and delays. The Shelter Cluster estimates that it would take
40 years to rebuild all of Gaza’s destroyed homes under that setup.
For now, aid providers are struggling just to bring in enough basic tents
because of the limited number of trucks going into Gaza and the challenges of
delivering aid. Efforts to bring in more robust temporary housing are still in
the early stages, and no one has even tried to bring in construction materials,
according to Ely. In September, the Shelter Cluster estimated 900,000 people
were still in need of tents, bedding and other items to prepare for the region's
typically cold and rainy winters.
Gaza Journalist Hassan Hamad Killed in Drone Strike
Stephanie Kaloi/The Wrap/October 07/2024
Hassan Hamad, the 19-year-old freelance journalist who often reported from his
home in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, was killed in a drone strike early Sunday
morning, according a statement posted to Hamad’s account on X by a colleague.
Hamad often reported for Al-Jazeera over the last year. Maha Hussaini, a
Palestinian journalist, told the news broadcaster that Hamad had received
threats in the days that led to his death.
Hussaini posted on X in the hours after Hamad died that the journalist had
received a message via WhatsApp that read, “Listen, If you continue spreading
lies about Israel, we’ll come for you next and turn your family into […] This is
your last warning.” He also received multiple calls which were said to be “an
Israeli officer ordering him to stop filming in Gaza. He didn’t comply.”
The statement shared on Hamad’s account following his death by a colleague read,
“With deep sorrow and pain, I mourn the journalist Hassan Hamad. I testify
before God that you fulfilled your duty. Hassan Hamad, the journalist who did
not live past the age of 20, resisted for a full year in his own way. He
resisted by staying away from his family so they wouldn’t be targeted.”
“He resisted when he struggled to find an internet signal, sitting for an hour
or two on the rooftop just to send the videos that reach you in seconds,” the
statement continued. “Yesterday, from 10 p.m., he moved between the bombed
locations and then returned to search for an internet signal, only to go back
and cover the scenes of the scattered remains.”
“He endured the pain of an injury to his leg, yet continued filming. At 6 a.m.,
he called me to send his last video. After a call that didn’t last more than a
few seconds, he said, ‘There they are, there they are, it’s done,’ and hung up.
It’s a feeling no human can bear. Hassan also resisted the occupation, leaving
behind a mark and a message that we will carry on after him. We belong to God,
and to Him we shall return,” the statement concluded.
A video shared online by journalist Mohamed Mohana reportedly shows Hamad’s
remains being carried in a small blue plastic bag.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported Friday that to date, at least 128
journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel and Gaza since Oct. 7,
2023. CPJ also reported that at least 42,000 Palestinians have died in the
conflict and cited numbers by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs.
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price –
their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international
presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial
jobs to tell the world the truth,” CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la
Serna said in a statement. “Every time a journalist is killed, injured,
arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those
responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law
and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
As civilians, journalists are protected by international law and are not
supposed to be military targets, and to deliberately target a journalist is a
war crime.
Foreign journalists are prohibited from entering Gaza without explicit
permission from Israel, which has included being accompanied by Israeli forces.
The result is that many Palestinian journalists have turned to the few options
they have: a news station such as Al-Jazeera and social media platforms such as
TikTok, Instagram and X.
The ban on allowing foreign journalists into Gaza limits the amount of
information that can flow into or out of the territory and has also limited the
ability of independent news to be reported. Journalists in Palestine are coping
with two realities: their obligation to report in real-time what is happening on
the ground as well as ensuring their own safety and protection from the ongoing
war.
In May, cable news upstart NewsNation sent a letter to Israel’s embassy in
Washington, D.C. and requested journalistic access to Gaza. The letter was
signed by NewsNation programming and specials president Michael Corn and
president and managing editor of news and politics Cherie Grzech. “Since the
subsequent military operations by Israeli forces began, the worldwide public has
had to rely on Palestinian accounts of the war, the humanitarian situation
there, and the number of civilian casualties,” the letter reads. “The resulting
information vacuum has led to reliance on reports that have often turned out to
be exaggerated, inflated, or flat out false.”
Allowing independent journalists into Gaza would “allow the public to see for
themselves what is happening with food aid intended for civilians, as well as
whether Hamas tactics include operating in civilian enclaves, public
infrastructure, and in and around hospital facilities.”
“We, as journalists, believe we have an essential role to play in the public’s
right to know the details of a life-and-death struggle that will have
international repercussions for years to come,” the letter continued. “We are
asking your permission to allow us to fulfill that vital role.”
The CPJ reported that five journalists — Issam Abdallah, Hamza Al Dahdouh,
Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul and Rami Al Refee — are believed to have been
deliberately targeted as part of the war in Israel.
Abdallah — who often reported on business, human rights, and culture for Reuters
— died Oct. 13, 2023 after two shells fired by Israeli soldiers hit him and
injured six other journalists who were covering cross-border fire exchanged
between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah at the border with Lebanon.
Reuters conducted its own investigation into Abdallah’s death and determined
“the shells were fired from Israel, that the journalists were wearing helmets
and flak jackets marked ‘press’ and were close to a car with ‘TV’ written across
its hood, and that they were not near any active fighting or military targets at
the time of the attack.”
Al Dahdouh, a journalist and cameraman for Al-Jazeera, and Thuraya, a freelance
video journalist for Agence France-Presse, both died Jan. 7, 2024 following a
drone strike that appeared to target their car. The Times of Israel reported the
next day that Dahdouh and Thuraya were traveling with a “drone-operating terror
operative.” The IDF did not reply to CPJ requests to release the identity of the
third passenger who was an alleged terrorist.
Al Ghoul and Refee, who both worked for Al-Jazeera, were killed July 31, 2024.
The pair were filming outside the home of assassinated Hamas leader Ismail
Haniyeh in Gaza just before the car they left in was hit by a drone strike. The
IDF later confirmed they had targeted Al Ghoul, who they stated was a member of
Hamas.
In February, members of a U.N. Human Rights Council-appointed panel of U.N.
experts condemned the deaths of journalists in Gaza. “We are alarmed at the
extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been
killed, attacked, injured and detained in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
particularly in Gaza, in recent months blatantly disregarding international
law,” the experts said in a statement.
“We condemn all killings, threats and attacks on journalists and call on all
parties to the conflict to protect them.” The post Gaza Journalist Hassan Hamad
Killed in Drone Strike appeared first on TheWrap.
Israel-Hamas war 1 year later: Key moments that have
defined the conflict after Oct. 7 massacre
Katie Mather/Yahoo News/October 07/2024
Today marks one year since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing
over 1,100 people at a music festival and taking hundreds more hostage. The
event spurred the start of the Israel-Hamas War, which has killed tens of
thousands of people, caused mass civilian casualties and destroyed critical
infrastructure. While Egypt and Qatar have brokered several ceasefire
negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the last year, nothing has come to
fruition to end the war.
Over the last year, more than 41,000 Palestinians — including over 16,000
children — have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, as
reported by Human Rights Watch. More than 10,000 Palestinians are considered
missing. In the West Bank, at least 723 Palestinians have been killed. At least
127 journalists and media workers have been killed, according to the Committee
to Protect Journalists. In Israel, more than 1,100 people have been killed.
Below are the key events since Oct. 7, 2023, that have contributed to the
historic, irrecoverable damage in the Middle East. Oct. 7, 2023: Hamas launches
an attack on Israel during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah — the deadliest
attack against Jewish people since the Holocaust. Over 1,100 people are killed
and about 250 are taken hostage.
Oct. 8, 2023: Israel declares war against Hamas. A counterattack by Israeli
forces in the Gaza Strip, one of two Palestinian territories, kills more than
400 people, including 78 children.
Oct. 9, 2023: Israel orders a complete siege of Gaza, which is home to more than
2 million Palestinians. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but still had a land,
air and sea blockade set since 2007. Days later, Israel warns residents in
northern Gaza to evacuate.
Oct. 27, 2023: Israel launches ground invasion into Palestinian territory. The
United Nations General Assembly votes for a resolution, calling for an immediate
truce — the U.S. votes against it. Nov. 6, 2023: Gaza health ministry says more
than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the first month of the war.
Nov. 24, 2023: Israel and Hamas call a temporary ceasefire to exchange hostages
and prisoners. Hamas releases more than 100 Israeli hostages and Israel releases
240 Palestinians being held as prisoners. The truce only lasts for one week.
Dec. 4, 2023: Israeli forces push into southern Gaza, claiming that Hamas leader
Yahya Sinwar, who is credited with planning the Oct. 7 attack, is hiding in the
area.
Dec. 22, 2023: More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to
local officials.
Dec. 28, 2023: The U.N. condemns the “rapidly deteriorating human rights
situation in the occupied West Bank.”
Jan. 26: The U.N. International Court of Justice orders Israel to do more to
prevent more Palestinian civilians from being harmed or killed in Gaza.
Feb. 23: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases postwar plans, which
include Israel having indefinite military control of Gaza and the southern
border.
Feb. 29: More than 30,000 Palestinians were reported killed.
April 1: Seven humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen, founded by
celebrity chef José Andrés, are killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike.
May 7: The Israeli army launches a ground attack in Rafah, the southernmost city
in Gaza, where a majority of Gazan citizens have relocated to find shelter. The
Rafah Crossing, which connects Gaza and Egypt, is one of the few border areas
not controlled by Israel and allows for aid to come into the territory.
July 24: Netanyahu addresses Congress, pledging a “total victory” against Hamas.
During his U.S. trip, Netanyahu meets with President Biden, Vice President
Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Aug. 6: Israel announces that the remains of the last missing person from the
Oct. 7 attacks have been found.
Aug. 13: The U.S. approves $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel.
Aug. 15: More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Read more from the Associated Press: With Gaza's death toll over 40,000, here's
the conflict by numbers
Aug. 18: Hamas rejects the newest U.S. proposal for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire
deal, saying, “Netanyahu is still putting obstacles in the way of reaching an
agreement, and is setting new conditions and demands with the aim of undermining
the mediators' efforts and prolonging the war.”
Aug. 20: Protesters advocating for a ceasefire between Israelis and
Palestinians, are arrested outside of the Democratic National Convention.
Sept. 30: Israel invades Lebanon targeting the terrorist group Hezbollah, making
it Israel’s sixth invasion of Lebanon in 50 years. Hezbollah claims it was
attacking Israel on behalf of the people in Gaza. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are
groups backed by Iran with the common goal of eliminating Israel. Both
organizations have been designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.
Oct. 4: Israel launches its deadliest airstrike attack on the West Bank, another
Palestinian territory, since Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is alive, unharmed
in Iran attack | Fact check
BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY/October 07/2024
The claim: Israel’s defense minister was killed in Iranian missile attack
An Oct. 2 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a photo of Israeli
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant standing in front of the nation’s flag.
“Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant killed during Iranian missile attack,”
reads the caption on the post.
Other versions of the claim spread on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email
newsletter | Facebook page
Our rating: False
Gallant was not killed in the Oct. 1 Iranian missile attack. He appeared in
public days after the strike. A man in the West Bank was the only reported
fatality.
Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 in retaliation for Israel's
killing of Hezbollah leaders. Israel's air defense systems intercepted most of
the missiles.
There has only been one reported death from the attack − and it wasn't Gallant.
Various news outlets, including The Times of Israel and The New York Times,
identified the one fatality in the attack as Sameh al-Asali, a Palestinian man
who was staying in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
There are no credible news reports about Gallant being injured or killed in the
attack. There are likewise no statements about him being injured or killed on
the Israel Defense Forces’ website or social media accounts. On the contrary,
there is an abundance of evidence showing he is alive.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he spoke with Gallant after the
missile attack and "committed to remain in close contact" with him in an Oct. 1
X post.
Gallant also shared a photo of himself meeting with air defense fighters on Oct.
2 and a video of himself addressing a group of soldiers on Oct. 4 on his X
account. He also met and was photographed with Israel Defense Forces officers in
northern Israel on Oct. 4, as reported by The Times of Israel.
Fact check: Americans haven't been ordered to enlist for Israel-Hamas war
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about the conflict unfolding in the
Middle East, including false assertions that a video showed Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fleeing to a bunker in October, that a video showed
Israeli strikes in Yemen in September 2024 and that none of Iran’s rockets hit
Israel in its April attack.
USA TODAY reached out to several users who shared the post for comment. One user
told USA TODAY they later realized the information was incorrect.
Reuters also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Israel Defense Forces, accessed Oct. 4, Facebook account
Israel Defense Forces, accessed Oct. 4, IDF Media Releases
Israel Defense Forces, accessed Oct. 4, X account
The Times of Israel, Oct. 4, Defense Minister Gallant: Israel has ‘more
surprises in store’ for Hezbollah
The Times of Israel, Oct. 1, Shrapnel from Iranian missile kills Palestinian man
near Jericho
Yoav Gallant, Oct. 4, X post
Yoav Gallant, Oct. 2, X post
Yoav Gallant, Oct. 1, X post
Lloyd Austin, Oct. 1, X post
The New York Times, Oct. 1, Laborer From Gaza Is First Reported Fatality of
Iran's Missile Attack
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition,
ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network,
which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and
transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
*This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Israeli defense minister was
not killed in attack
Saied re-elected Tunisia president with 90.7 percent of
the vote
AFP/October 07, 2024
TUNIS: Kais Saied has been re-elected president of Tunisia with 90.69 percent of
votes cast, electoral authority ISIE said Monday, although low turnout reflected
widespread discontent in the cradle of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings.
Three years after Saied made a sweeping power grab, rights groups fear his
re-election will entrench his grip on the only democracy to emerge from the 2011
protests. Saied, 66, won Sunday’s vote by a landslide with 2.4 million votes —
but with turnout at only 28.8 percent of nearly 10 million eligible voters. His
imprisoned rival Ayachi Zammel received just 7.3 percent, and third candidate
Zouhair Maghzaoui only 1.9 percent, ISIE head Farouk Bouasker said on national
television. Critics said the low turnout reflected widespread disillusionment
with the election. On Sunday, the ISIE said just six percent of voters were aged
18-35, a category constituting a third of the initially eligible electorate.
After longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in 2011, Tunisia
prided itself on being the birthplace of the regional revolts against
authoritarianism that became known as the Arab Spring.
But the North African country’s path changed dramatically after Saied was
elected in 2019 with 73 percent of the vote.
Two years later, he dissolved parliament, and later rewrote the constitution.
Sunday’s turnout was the lowest recorded in a Tunisian presidential after Ben
Ali’s ouster. In 2019, 58 percent turned out to vote for Saied as president. “I
didn’t vote yesterday, simply because I no longer have confidence and I am
desperate,” said Houcine, 63, giving only one name for fear of retribution.
Political commentator Hatem Nafti, author of a forthcoming book on Saied’s
authoritarian rule, said: “The vote’s legitimacy is undoubtedly tainted with
candidates who could have overshadowed (Saied) being systematically sidelined.”
On Monday, the European Union said it had “taken note” of criticisms from rights
groups “concerning the integrity of the electoral process” and “various measures
deemed detrimental to the democratic requirements of credibility” of the vote.
Late Sunday, hundreds of Saied supporters took to the streets of Tunis in
celebration after exit polls announced his potential win with 89 percent. “I
voted yesterday, and the results are excellent, everything is going very well,
the atmosphere is great,” said Mounir, 65.
“What we need now is a drop in prices. We want better education, health and
above all safety.” Saied had been widely expected to win after the ISIE barred
14 candidates from standing, leaving just Zammel and Maghzaoui as challengers.
Zammel, a little-known liberal businessman, has been behind bars since his bid
was approved by the ISIE in September. He faces more than 14 years in prison for
allegedly forging endorsements. Maghzaoui had backed Saied’s power grab, and was
seen as no threat. Rights groups have condemned a democratic backslide in
Tunisia in recent years. According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, more
than “170 people are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising
their fundamental rights.”Other jailed figures include Rached Ghannouchi, head
of the Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha, which dominated political
life after the revolution. Also detained is Abir Moussi, head of the Free
Destourian Party, which critics accuse of wanting to bring back the regime
ousted in 2011.Saied had called on Tunisians to “vote massively” to usher in
what he called an era of “reconstruction.”He cited “a long war against
conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles,” accusing them of “infiltrating
many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects.”Ben Ali and other Arab
leaders often cited foreign conspiracies to justify crackdowns on dissent. The
International Crisis Group think tank has said that while Saied “enjoys
significant support among the working classes, he has been criticized for
failing to resolve the country’s deep economic crisis.”Celebrating the exit
polls late Sunday, Saied again warned of “foreign interference,” pledging to rid
Tunisia “of the corrupt and conspirators.” Nafti said Saied will use his
re-election as carte blanche for further crackdowns. “He has promised to get rid
of traitors and enemies of Tunisia,” Nafti said. “He will harden his rule.”
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on October 07-08/2024
When October 7 Was a Day of Victory Against Islamic Terror
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 07/2024
Before October 7 was known as a day of Islamic atrocities against Israel, it was
known — indeed, was celebrated for centuries — as a day when Christians
thoroughly chastised Muslims, also for committing atrocities.
Context: In 1570, Muslim Turks — in the guise of the Ottoman Empire — invaded
the island of Cyprus, prompting Pope Pius V to call for and form a “Holy League”
of maritime Catholic nation-states, spearheaded by the Spanish Empire, in 1571.
Before they could reach and relieve Cyprus, its last stronghold at Famagusta was
taken through treachery. After promising the defenders safe passage if they
surrendered, Ottoman commander Ali Pasha — known as Müezzinzade (“son of a
muezzin”) due to his pious background — had reneged and launched a wholesale
slaughter. He ordered the nose and ears of Marco Antonio Bragadin, the fort
commander, hacked off. Ali then invited the mutilated infidel to Islam and life:
“I am a Christian and thus I want to live and die,” Bragadin responded. “My body
is yours. Torture it as you will.”
So he was tied to a chair, repeatedly hoisted up the mast of a galley, and
dropped into the sea, to taunts: “Look if you can see your fleet, great
Christian, if you can see succor coming to Famagusta!” The mutilated and
half-drowned man was then carried near to St. Nicholas Church — by now a mosque
— and tied to a column, where he was slowly flayed alive. The skin was afterward
stuffed with straw, sown back into a macabre effigy of the dead commander, and
paraded in mockery before the jeering Muslims.
The Sea and the Fire Seemed as One
News of this and other ongoing atrocities and desecrations of churches in Cyprus
and Corfu enraged the Holy League as it sailed east. A bloodbath accordingly
followed when the two opposing fleets — carrying a combined total of 600 ships
and 140,000 men, more of both on the Ottoman side — finally collided on October
7, 1571 off the western coast of Greece, near Lepanto. According to one
contemporary: The greater fury of the battle lasted for four hours and was so
bloody and horrendous that the sea and the fire seemed as one, many Turkish
galleys burning down to the water, and the surface of the sea, red with blood,
was covered with Moorish coats, turbans, quivers, arrows, bows, shields, oars,
boxes, cases, and other spoils of war, and above all many human bodies,
Christians as well as Turkish, some dead, some wounded, some torn apart, and
some not yet resigned to their fate struggling in their death agony, their
strength ebbing away with the blood flowing from their wounds in such quantity
that the sea was entirely coloured by it, but despite all this misery our men
were not moved to pity for the enemy. … Although they begged for mercy they
received instead arquebus shots and pike thrusts.
The pivotal point came when the flagships of the opposing fleets, the Ottoman
Sultana and the Christian Real, crashed into and were boarded by each other’s
fighters. Chaos ensued as men everywhere grappled; even the grand admirals were
seen in the fray, Ali Pasha firing arrows and Don Juan swinging broadsword and
battle-axe, one in each hand.
Victory for Christians
In the end, “there was an infinite number of dead” on the Real, whereas “an
enormous quantity of large turbans, which seemed to be as numerous as the enemy
had been, [were seen in the Sultana] rolling on the deck with the heads inside
them.” The don emerged alive, but the pasha did not.
When the central Turkish fleets saw Ali’s head on a pike in the Sultana and a
crucifix where the flag of Islam once fluttered, mass demoralization set in, and
the waterborne mêlée was soon over. The Holy League lost twelve galleys and
10,000 men, but the Ottomans lost 230 galleys — 117 of which were captured by
the Europeans — and 30,000 men. It was a victory of the first order, and
hitherto quarreling Catholics and Protestants rejoiced. Practically speaking,
however, little changed. Cyprus was not even liberated by the Holy League. “In
wrestling Cyprus from you we have cut off an arm,” the Ottomans painfully
reminded the Venetian ambassador a year later. “In defeating our fleet [at
Lepanto] you have shaved our beard. An arm once cut off will not grow again, but
a shorn beard grows back all the better for the razor.”
Islam Can Be Stopped
Nonetheless, this victory proved that the relentless Turks, who over the
previous centuries had conquered much of Eastern Europe, could be stopped.
Lepanto suggested that the Turks could be defeated in a head-on clash — at least
by sea, which of late had been the Islamic powers’ latest hunting grounds. As
Miguel Cervantes, who was at the battle, has the colorful Don Quixote say: “That
day … was so happy for Christendom, because all the world learned how mistaken
it had been in believing that the Turks were invincible by sea.”
Modern historians affirm this position. According to military historian Paul K.
Davis, “More than a military victory, Lepanto was a moral one. For decades, the
Ottoman Turks had terrified Europe, and the victories of Suleiman the
Magnificent caused Christian Europe serious concern. … Christians rejoiced at
this setback for the Ottomans. The mystique of Ottoman power was tarnished
significantly by this battle, and Christian Europe was heartened.”
Even so, and underscoring the perennial nature of Islamic hostility, if October
7 was once a day of victory against Muslim atrocities, today that date is a
reminder of them.
From “Lepanto” by G.K. Chesterton
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings’ horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign—
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate’s sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!
*Raymond Ibrahim is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone
Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Portions of this article were excerpted from his book, Sword and Scimitar.
© Copyright 2005 – 2024. All Rights Reserved. RaymondIbrahim.com claims no
credit for images posted unless otherwise noted. Images on this site are
copyright to their respectful owners. If an image belonging to you appears here
and you desire it removed, please contact us with the details and it will be
promptly removed.
© 2024 · RaymondIbrahim.com · Website by Managing Greatness
Israel is fighting to beat Iran's doomsday clock
Yossi Klein Halevi/Los Angeles Time/October 07/2024
In Palestine Square in Tehran, a large screen keeps track of the number of days
left until the destruction of Israel. The calculus is based on a 2015 prophesy
by Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, that within 25 years, the Jewish state
would disappear. Ever since Khamenei’s prediction, a digital clock has
maintained the countdown.
The purpose of the war Israel is fighting on multiple fronts is to beat Iran’s
doomsday clock.
The Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, gave new credibility to Khamenei’s prophesy.
On that day, Israel’s military deterrence — essential for a besieged state
surrounded by enemies aligned with Iran — collapsed. The shock of Oct. 7 went
far deeper than Hamas’ atrocities. The most devastating blow in Israel’s history
was delivered by its weakest enemy. Israel’s high-tech, state-of-the-art border
was overrun by terrorists on tractors.
The Hamas massacre was a pre-enactment in microcosm of the destruction of
Israel: the Israel Defense Forces in disarray, the government AWOL, civilians
left to fend for themselves with pistols. The strategic goal of Israel’s
counteroffensive was to restore its shattered deterrence. Israelis across the
political spectrum agreed that the first step was destroying Hamas’ ability to
govern. Allowing the regime responsible for Oct. 7 to remain on Israel’s border
would undermine Israelis’ belief in their ability to defend themselves while
emboldening their enemies to commit further atrocities. Destroying the Hamas
regime meant denying it immunity. Terrorists would not be allowed to massacre
Israeli civilians, cross back into Gaza and hide behind Palestinian civilians.
Destroying Hamas’ capacity to govern required pursuing terrorists wherever they
operated, including inside hospitals and mosques. It meant entering homes, many
of them booby-trapped, and Hamas’ vast network of tunnels. The result was
Israel’s most brutal — and most necessary — war.
But the war that began in Gaza was never about Gaza alone. Defeating Hamas was
only the first stage of a regional conflict between Israel and the Iranian-led
axis of radical Islamism. Now that the fighting has largely shifted from Gaza to
Lebanon, the true dimensions of this conflict are clear. Israel’s stunning
success against Hezbollah — from the mass but pinpointed beeper attack on its
operatives to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of
his senior staff — has gone a long way to restoring our military credibility.
Still, Iran’s massive ballistic missile strike against Israel last week proves
that Israel’s enemies are hardly deterred. Tens of thousands of missiles and
rockets are aimed at Israeli cities. If Iran and its proxies unleash their full
arsenal, Israel’s much-vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile system will be
overwhelmed. In its war against the Jewish state, Iran achieved two historic
victories. The first was to surround Israel with terrorist enclaves. The second
was to outwit the Israeli campaign — which included sabotaging nuclear
installations and assassinating Iranian scientists — to prevent Iran from
nuclear breakout. Today, Iran sits at the nuclear threshold.
No country, including the United States, is likely to use force to prevent the
Iranian regime from developing a nuclear bomb. No country, that is, except
Israel. The Jewish state, founded on the promise of providing a safe refuge for
the Jewish people, cannot allow the ayatollahs to attain the means to fulfill
Khamenei’s genocidal prophesy.
The culminating moment of this war to restore Israeli deterrence against
existential threat will be preventing Iran’s nuclear breakout. Denying
terrorists immunity applies most of all to the Iranian regime. For decades the
ayatollahs have hidden behind terrorist proxies. Time and again, Israel has
fought Hamas and Hezbollah, while avoiding direct conflict with the source of
regional terrorism. On Oct. 7, the era of Iranian immunity ended.
Far from sabotaging chances for regional peace, Israel’s determination to
prevent a nuclear Iran is precisely what has attracted Sunni Muslim states to
seek normalization with the Jewish state. Arab leaders are terrified not of
Israel but of an imperial Iran, which has spread its influence over at least
four Arab nations — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen — and seeks hegemony over the
rest of the region. It is hardly coincidence that those Sunni nations dominated
by Iran are all failed states. By contrast, Arab nations seeking an alliance
with Israel — the Gulf states, Morocco, Saudi Arabia — are keen to modernize.
The real divide in the Middle East is between those living in the past and those
committed to the future.
The worst-kept secret in the Middle East is that Arab leaders are quietly hoping
for an Israeli victory over Hamas and Hezbollah and most of all Iran.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was always part of a larger war. In Israel’s
formative decades, it faced a united Sunni front seeking its destruction.
Beginning with the Egyptian-Israeli peace of the late 1970s and culminating in
the 2020 Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab nations, the Sunni war
against Israel has been gradually replaced by the Shiite-Israeli conflict.
Solving the Palestinian tragedy can only happen in the context of a wider peace
agreement. The last remaining hope for a two-state solution is for Israel and
its new Arab allies to work together to gradually end the occupation and create
a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank that would not become another
Gaza, destabilizing the region.
Unlike Israeli governments in the past, which sought reconciliation with a
recalcitrant Palestinian leadership, the hard-right coalition led by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot make the necessary compromises to enable
regional peace.
But this government will not last forever. Since Oct. 7, polls have consistently
shown the Israeli opposition winning the next election. Meanwhile, even Israelis
who loathe the Netanyahu government agree that we must defeat the Iranian axis.
Winning this regional war is the first step to creating a regional peace.
**Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in
Jerusalem. He is writing a book on the meaning of Jewish survival.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-10-07/israel-hamas-oct-7-iran-hezbollah
The United Arab Emirates can help bring Israeli hostages
home
Moshe Emilio Lavi, opinion contributor/The Hill/October 07/2024
Families of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, continue to plead with
world leaders for the release of their loved ones. These appeals highlight not
only the suffering of the families but also the international community’s
failure to secure their release and hold Hamas accountable for its actions.
While Israel’s role in the crisis is often scrutinized, the responsibility lies
more broadly. The failure to reach an agreement to secure the release of the
hostages — including my brother-in-law, Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from
kibbutz Nahal Oz — doesn’t fall on Israel alone. Hamas, its accomplices and the
international community have played an even more damaging role.
The failure to hold Hamas accountable has allowed the group to remain a
destabilizing force in Gaza. Despite global outrage, little substantive action
has been taken against Hamas on a global basis. Yes, Israel’s military campaign
has weakened the group, but major global players have been reluctant to engage
key international enablers such as Iran and Turkey, whose harmful policies
shield Hamas from accountability. This protection has emboldened Hamas to
prioritize its military objectives over the welfare of Palestinians.
Qatar has received the most attention, given its role in funneling funds to
Hamas’s governing apparatus and hosting its leadership, both in coordination
with Israel and the U.S. But Iran is Hamas’s most significant backer. Through
financial support, weapons and military training, Iran has helped Hamas grow
into the dominant force it was on the eve of the Oct. 7 atrocities.
Iran’s involvement has come at the cost of both Palestinian and Israeli lives,
continuing to fuel conflict rather than fostering stability. This support
mirrors Iran’s support of Hezbollah, another militant group that hijacked a
territory, southern Lebanon, complicating efforts for stability in the region.
Turkey, while not materially supporting Hamas to the same extent, offers
rhetorical backing that is just as harmful. Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has frequently portrayed Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement. He
avoids acknowledgment of Hamas’s role in inciting violence and extremism, and
supports it on the international stage. The international community’s broader
failure to confront the group has played a significant role in Hamas’s
continuing influence. Over the last three decades, global responses to conflicts
between Israel and Hamas have disproportionately focused on Israel’s military
actions, often ignoring Hamas’s exploitation of civilian infrastructure, the
intentional targeting of civilians and its authoritarian grip over Gaza.
Criticism of Israel’s military actions is necessary, but this imbalance in the
narrative has allowed Hamas to escape accountability, while portraying itself as
a champion of Palestinian rights rather than the main culprit in Gaza’s
destruction.
Furthermore, Hamas’s strategy of hostage-taking is a war crime that the
international community has failed to address adequately since Gilad Shalit was
kidnapped in 2006. The hostages taken on Oct. 7 are held in tunnels under Gaza,
deprived of basic needs and subjected to torture, as evidenced by revelations
from released hostages. Some have been murdered, underscoring Hamas’s brutality.
Yet global rhetoric focuses almost exclusively on Israel’s actions, ignoring
Hamas’s culpability and depriving Gazans of any agency in taking down the
oppressive Hamas regime. This imbalance emboldens Hamas, as the group believes
it can escape consequences. Without acknowledging the central role that Hamas
plays in perpetuating violence, there is little hope for a cessation of
hostilities. The international community must shift its approach; failing to do
so will only ensure that Hamas survives this conflict and remains in power,
making future wars inevitable.
There is, however, a potential way forward that has yet to be undertaken
earnestly. The United Arab Emirates could be key in brokering an end to the
current round of violence. The UAE’s relationships with Israel, the U.S. and
powers like Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Russia position it as a potential mediator.
This is a role Qatar failed to exercise, as it continues to shield Hamas and
propagate its narrative on the global stage — most recently by Sheikh Tamim ibn
Hamad Al Thani in his address to the UN’s General Assembly.
The Abraham Accords have demonstrated the UAE’s ability to engage diplomatically
with Israel while maintaining open channels with Palestinian leadership and
regional actors. Its growing influence could persuade Hamas’s backers,
particularly Iran, to reconsider their stance and force Yahya Sinwar to agree to
a cease-fire deal. Such a deal would will bring home the hostages, release
convicted Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons and provide relief to
Gazans. It would create a new equation in Gaza, with Sinwar going into exile, as
part of a comprehensive end to the crisis. This would align with Iranian
interests in the region, as its strongest proxy, Hezbollah, gradually loses its
assets in Lebanon due to Sinwar’s continuous refusal to sign a viable deal — and
to Hassan Nasrallah’s bet on joining the hostilities on Oct. 8, which ultimately
cost him his life.
Any solution must involve confronting Hamas. Israel’s policies should be
scrutinized, including by its independent judicial system. Still, Israel, a
democratic state actor that sought to resolve the conflict in the past, cannot
be treated similarly to Hamas. This Islamist terrorist organization seeks to
perpetuate the conflict. As long as Hamas remains entrenched in Gaza, a peaceful
future remains out of reach. Without pressure on Hamas’s backers on the global
stage and a shift in the international narrative, violence will continue.
Increased involvement by the UAE may be the best path for achieving a hostage
deal that could reunite families, offer Gaza a chance to rebuild and bring on
board regional actors that back Hamas materially and ideologically. But this can
only happen if the international community acknowledges the destructive role
Hamas plays, and unites behind the demand to remove it from power in post-war
Gaza.
**Moshe Emilio Lavi was born in Sderot, Israel. He is a former captain of the
Israel Defense Forces and now works as a management consultant. His
brother-in-law Omri Miran is a hostage in Gaza.
**Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The four observations that mark a year since Oct. 7
Faisal J. Abbas/Arab News/October 07, 2024
One year after Oct. 7, it is now definite that the Middle East will never return
to the way it once was.As the voice of a changing region, we try on this day to
document and analyze what these groundbreaking events mean within our special
coverage marking this horrific year.
The first observation to note is that Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies
in the Middle East may have been painted way taller than they actually are, as
renowned political commentator and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria told Arab News in
an exclusive interview on our talk show: “Frankly Speaking.”
“It’s really extraordinary, first, just to note how well Israeli intelligence
was able to penetrate Hezbollah,” Zakaria said, commenting on the exploding
pagers, the locations of the weapons caches and the locations of the leadership,
including that of its elusive Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
“I think that what we are seeing both with Hezbollah and with Iran is that
perhaps we have painted them to be 10 feet tall when they were really, you know,
more like 5 feet tall.”
It is unimaginable that, in 2024, a UN member state can have such impunity so as
to kill more than 43,000 people, injure nearly 200,000 and displace 3 million
across Lebanon and Palestine.
In his own recent interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on CNN,
Zakaria even noted that the newcomer implied that Iran “did not have the
capacity” to engage in an all-out war with Israel and that “this was up to
Hezbollah.”
“He said, essentially, we should call a meeting of Islamic countries to condemn
what Israel is doing. That’s not a particularly lethal response that you’d
imagine, and very different from his predecessors,” Zakaria said.
That being said, perhaps Hamas and Hezbollah themselves did not realize this
when they waged an attack that ended up causing unimaginable damage, destruction
and death across Lebanon and Palestine.
The second observation is the obscene failure of the UN. As we point out in our
story, the unconditional military and diplomatic support from many Western
countries exacerbated internal divisions within the Security Council and
severely impacted its ability to act.
Even the body’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — who has been declared a
persona non grata in Israel — confessed to us in an interview on the sidelines
of the General Assembly that “we (the UN) have no real power, let’s be honest.
The body of the UN that holds some power is the Security Council, and that body
is paralyzed.”You have the Saudi vision for a more integrated region versus the
havoc of continuing to allow extremists to continue doing the same thing while
the world expects a different result.
It is unimaginable that, in 2024, a UN member state can have such impunity so as
to kill more than 43,000 people, injure nearly 200,000 and displace 3 million
across Lebanon and Palestine, while a ceasefire continues to be vetoed and some
Western allies, who have long preached to us about human rights, continue to arm
them.
The third observation, which has become more and more apparent, is that you can
win much more with an open palm than a closed fist. This is what Saudi Arabia
has demonstrated with its marathon of diplomatic efforts, which managed to win
recognition for Palestine, as our story elaborates, with its leading of the
effort, notably securing more than 140 of the UN’s 193 member states’
recognition of the state of Palestine.
Fourth, and this has been repeated time and time again, the longer this
continues, the wider it becomes — as highlighted in our story of Lebanon’s
struggles as the world holds its breath and braces for a widely expected Israeli
retaliation on Iran.
To conclude, violence begets violence and the blame game will never end.
As reiterated in a recent Financial Times column by Saudi Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the only guarantee for Israeli security is a two-state
solution. However, there needs to be an appetite to push for it within Israel
and on the agenda of the next US president, whoever it may be. The rationale
cannot be any clearer: you have the Saudi vision for a more integrated, more
prosperous and more peaceful region versus the havoc of continuing to allow
extremists, be they in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government or militant groups, to
continue doing the same thing while the world expects a different result.
*Faisal J. Abbas is the editor-in-chief of Arab News. X: @FaisalJAbbas
Israel’s search for a definitive military solution
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/October 07, 2024
The question of a possible endgame for Israel to declare victory and then think
of a political process in the Middle East is a key one not only for regional
states and citizens, but also for the international community. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu envisions a “Greater Israel” without a Palestinian
state and he has no political solution for the endless military conflicts in
Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen. Netanyahu’s dream is based on a security-only approach
without any consideration for peace, which remains the main hurdle to
integrating Israel into the regional landscape.
The endless occupation of Palestine and perpetual wars in the region cannot be a
long-term political strategy for Israel. Overall, Israel’s strategic
considerations in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen reflect its broader security concerns
in the Middle East. The region’s volatility, driven by non-state actors like
Hezbollah, Iran’s influence and the ongoing conflicts in Yemen and Iraq, poses
challenges for Israel’s national security. In such a complex landscape, Israel’s
military and political objectives are shaped by its goals of attempting to
neutralize threats, secure its borders and maintain its military dominance.
Hezbollah has been Israel’s primary concern. Israel views Hezbollah’s missile
arsenal and military infrastructure as a major threat. A key objective is to
neutralize Hezbollah’s ability to fire rockets into Israel. Tel Aviv is using
precision strikes on Hezbollah’s weapons depots, rocket launch sites and
military installations. And by targeting Iranian-backed infrastructure and
logistics, Israel hopes to reduce Hezbollah’s power and undermine Iran’s
influence in Lebanon.
Tel Aviv hopes to be in a position to militarily target Iranian territories
without risking counterattacks by Hezbollah
By eliminating the threat of Hezbollah, Tel Aviv hopes to be in a position to
militarily target Iranian territories without risking counterattacks by
Hezbollah on its northern border. This is why Israel is keen on ensuring that
Hezbollah cannot establish control over areas near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
By creating buffer zones and enforcing demilitarized areas, Israel aims to
reduce the threat of cross-border attacks. A significantly degraded Hezbollah —
militarily and politically — would be a major victory for Israel.
Iraq is a major battleground for competing regional powers, particularly Iran,
which exerts significant influence over the country’s Shiite militias. These
militias, especially those aligned with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, pose a
direct threat to Israel. They could be used to facilitate the transfer of
weapons or deployed as proxies in a conflict with Israel.
Tel Aviv has reportedly conducted airstrikes on weapons convoys and bases
belonging to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The goal is to disrupt the flow of
weapons, including advanced missile technology, to groups that might be deployed
against Israel, particularly in Syria or Lebanon. The land corridor connecting
Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon is of strategic importance to Iran.
Israel views preventing the consolidation of this corridor as essential to its
broader strategy of curbing Iranian influence.
A victory for Israel would include severely limiting the operational capacity of
Iraqi Shiite militias that pose a potential threat to its national security.
From Israel’s perspective, this can only be achieved through a combination of
airstrikes, intelligence operations and diplomatic pressure. If Iraq’s central
government were to shift away from Iranian influence, perhaps through internal
political realignments or international pressure, this would represent a
significant win for Israel’s long-term regional security.
Also, Israel has strategic interests in ensuring that Iran does not gain a
foothold in Yemen, as this would pose a threat to its maritime routes and
regional allies. Israel’s primary concern is that Iran is using Yemen as a base
to launch attacks against its territories and that the Houthis are receiving
weapons, including advanced missiles, from Iran. Another Israeli objective is to
secure the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait. Indeed, controlling this critical
maritime chokepoint is vital for Israel’s trade and military logistics. A Houthi-controlled
Yemen, under Iranian influence, will disrupt shipping routes and pose a threat
to Israel’s naval operations.
For Israel, favorable outcomes include diminishing Iranian support for the
Houthis, limiting their military capabilities and preventing them from
destabilizing the region. Israel wants to see Yemen as part of a regional
pro-Western alliance. For Israel, victory is likely defined in terms of
achieving security and deterrence rather than territorial gains.
For Israel, victory is likely defined in terms of achieving security and
deterrence rather than territorial gains
Some possible conditions under which Israel might declare victory and move
toward a political process include the de-escalation of hostilities. Once the
immediate military threats are neutralized, Israel could think about a
ceasefire, either unilaterally or through international mediation.
Moreover, Israel could seek greater international involvement to reinforce the
new status quo, ensuring that Hezbollah, Iranian militias or the Houthis are
constrained by international agreements. This would limit Tehran’s capacity to
threaten Israel directly. This is why Israeli military forces are trying to
directly strike Iranian territories with US approval.
The end Israeli goal is to target the head of Tehran’s regional network of
influence. Nevertheless, Israel’s mistake is to think that regional proxies and
partners of the Islamic Republic are merely puppets of the Iranian supreme
leader. In fact, some are local actors that are seeking to achieve their own
domestic interests, which also fall within the framework of Tehran’s broader
objectives.
Israel’s potential plans in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen are interconnected with its
broader goal of countering Iranian influence and securing its borders from
militant groups. Victory, from an Israeli perspective, involves weakening
hostile forces like Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, while maintaining
control over key security zones. The political process can only begin once
Israel achieves a deterrence-based security arrangement; one that curbs Iran’s
influence and minimizes the military threats from its proxies.
Nevertheless, this Israeli search for a definitive long-term military solution
remains the main hurdle to any meaningful political solution to regional
conflicts involving Israel, given the high-level regional polarization in the
context of the Gaza war.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is the founder and president of the International
Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). X: @mohalsulami
Al-Qaeda, Daesh keeping their distance from Gaza war
Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/October 07, 2024
As Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip rages on, notably absent from the conflict are
the notorious extremist groups Al-Qaeda and Daesh. These organizations,
historically vocal and active in conflicts involving Islamic nations such as
Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, have remained unusually silent, particularly in
terms of ground operations. This lack of involvement, both physically and
through their propaganda outlets, raises questions about their current
priorities and capabilities.
To comprehend why these groups are missing from the Gaza scene, one must look
back at the ideological and strategic goals that guide them in their global
operations. While Palestine has often been used as a rallying cry by such
extremist movements, it has never truly occupied center stage in the agenda of
either Al-Qaeda or Daesh. One major reason for the current absence of these
groups from the conflict is their weakened state. Both Al-Qaeda and Daesh have
been severely undermined in recent years.
Al-Qaeda has always focused its efforts on the US and other Western powers,
which it refers to as the “far enemy.” In more recent times, its presence has
mainly been within conflicts in regions like Yemen and West Africa, leaving
little room to engage in Gaza.
One major reason for the current absence of these groups from the conflict is
their weakened state
The issue of liberating Jerusalem has been part of Al-Qaeda’s rhetoric since its
founding in the 1980s, despite the lack of attacks directed against Israel.
Osama bin Laden justified this in 2009 by saying that the organization was
unable to penetrate Israeli borders due to regional agreements. Its leadership
argues that dismantling regimes seen as collaborators with the West is a
prerequisite to any meaningful action in Palestine. Their strategy emphasizes
broader global objectives, rendering Palestine more of a symbolic cause rather
than a tactical priority.
Daesh, meanwhile, has shown little interest in the Palestinian struggle.
Emerging from the shadow of Al-Qaeda, the group centered its efforts on
establishing a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. However, after the loss of its
so-called caliphate, its efforts have been primarily focused on surviving and
regrouping in its remaining territories. Its leadership considers Palestinian
factions like Hamas to be compromised by their participation in democratic
processes and their focus on nationalistic rather than global objectives. This
view has led Daesh to disregard the Palestinian question, sometimes even
denouncing factions fighting Israel as apostates, thus rendering action in
Palestine to be secondary to other fronts.
It is evident that this detachment is in large part strategic. With their
resources stretched thin and leadership fragmented, both organizations have
opted to focus on consolidating their existing operations rather than risk
further losses by engaging in a high-stakes conflict like Gaza.
Engaging Israel directly could expose them to retaliatory strikes, not just from
Israel but also from global powers aligned against them, further diminishing
their already limited capabilities. This detachment underscores the declining
influence of these groups on the broader fundamentalist landscape, as well as
their diminishing relevance in conflicts like Gaza, where other actors have
taken the lead.
There is also the issue of geographical and logistical challenges. With the
increased security presence in countries surrounding Gaza, including Egypt,
opportunities for these groups to infiltrate or establish a foothold have
diminished. In addition, Israel’s advanced security apparatus poses a
significant deterrent, making any meaningful infiltration or attack highly
improbable.
Beyond these practical concerns, the question remains: do Al-Qaeda and Daesh
even see Israel as a priority? Historically, these groups have focused more on
overthrowing Arab regimes they see as complicit in the region’s problems,
leaving Israel as a secondary target. Despite the symbolic importance of
Jerusalem and other Islamic holy sites, neither group has mounted significant
operations against Israeli targets.
They have not taken any concrete steps to support factions like Hamas or to
launch attacks on Israel
While both Al-Qaeda and Daesh have issued statements of support for the
Palestinian resistance, particularly after the outbreak of violence on Oct. 7,
referred to as the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” their involvement has been limited to
rhetoric. They have not taken any concrete steps to support factions like Hamas
or to launch attacks on Israel. Their statements have mostly urged sympathizers
to take action independently, often promoting so-called lone wolf attacks rather
than organized military engagements.
In light of this, it can be observed that Al-Qaeda continues to exploit events
to support its propaganda linked to the Palestinian cause, although it has
failed to translate this support into direct operations against Israel. In
contrast, Daesh is likely to remain focused on other geographical priorities,
particularly in Africa, where it seeks to strengthen its presence and leverage
regional conditions to its advantage.
In response, Israeli intelligence has been closely monitoring the potential for
extremist groups to leverage the conflict. However, so far, these fears have not
materialized, thanks in part to Israel’s stringent security measures in areas
such as the West Bank.
One key observation is the position of these organizations toward Hamas.
Al-Qaeda praised the military arm of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, without
mentioning Hamas itself, while Daesh ignored the organization entirely. This
stance can be attributed to the ideological and political differences between
these organizations and Hamas, particularly regarding political participation
and Hamas’ relationship with Iran.
The current events in the region represent a pivotal moment that could have
significant effects on these organizations, as well as on regional and
international security.
It is expected that the current developments will impact the activities of both
Al-Qaeda and Daesh. Al-Qaeda may escalate its attacks against Western targets in
the coming period, attempting to regain the momentum it lost compared to Hamas.
On the other hand, Daesh is likely to remain distant from the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, focusing instead on its expansion in Africa.
*Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy has covered conflicts worldwide. X: @ALMenawy
Why did Iran take the Israeli bait?
Chris Doyle/Arab News/October 07, 2024
Iran’s launching of 180 ballistic missiles on Israel last week was some
statement. Yes, most were knocked out. Yes, the sole fatality was an unfortunate
Palestinian in Jericho hit by debris. Yes, these missiles did little damage.
But this, the second such direct Iranian strike on Israel this year, was all
about showing that Iran was not cowed. Questions abound. Answers, convincing
ones at least, are rare. To what extent have all the events of the last year
over Gaza, the last month between Israel and Hezbollah and between Iran and
Israel been by design? Or are they just a series of responses to the latest
escalation? Where does this go now? Most crucially, how does it end?
My columns have hammered Israel for its lack of strategy, while acknowledging
its tactical and operational brilliance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
responsible for the former but, as the polls improve for him, his strategy may
have moved beyond just personal survival to, as he has claimed, reordering the
entire region. He boasted that the removal of Saddam Hussein would achieve this
back in 2003. And who thinks that was a tremendous success?
One wonders whether the Iranian leadership would have been wiser to reign in
Hezbollah earlier to prevent this outcome
But what of Iran? Does it still have a viable strategy? From its vantage point,
one might understand its development over the last two decades of a so-called
axis of resistance. Back in 2003, Iran seemed surrounded, with the US in both
Iraq and Afghanistan. America and Israel have a hostile posture. Hezbollah in
particular was a potent deterrent. That asset is now compromised. Israel has
infiltrated the group, decapitated most of its leadership and is hell-bent on
finishing the job. One wonders whether the Iranian leadership would have been
wiser to reign in Hezbollah earlier to prevent this outcome. It underestimated
Israel, just as Israel had underestimated Hamas.
Ballistic missile attacks on Israel hardly help Iran. These are a gift for
Netanyahu, who is itching to deal Tehran a massive blow. Netanyahu can argue
that these missiles could have killed thousands if they had not been stopped.
Ten million Israelis, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, were terrified.
All the pressure on Israel that was slowly building up has evaporated. Back in
April, many European states were on the cusp of an arms embargo. British
ministers admitted to me that those Iranian attacks released all the pressure to
hold Israel to account. It should not have done, but that was the political
reality.
Some argue Iran had a right to defend itself. Like any state, it does — when
attacked. Israel also claimed that right after the Oct. 7 attacks. Iran was
attacked when Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, as it was when
Israel bombed its consular building in Damascus.
But that term “defend” has been hugely abused. Israel was not defending itself
when putting 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza under siege. Bombing civilian
targets is not defense. Iran has given missiles to all sorts of groups in the
Middle East, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, all of which have fired
on Israeli civilians. Lest one forgets, Hezbollah has killed Lebanese,
Palestinians and Syrians. The Houthis sent missiles to hit Saudi Arabia, as well
as civilian shipping in the Red Sea. Iran cannot just pretend it had nothing to
do with this.
Even if legal arguments do not convince, what about the rational arguments? Will
they help Iran or Iranians be safer? Will they liberate one inch of Palestine or
Lebanon? Will one Palestinian or Lebanese be freer or safer? Will they stop a
genocide?
Beware states and leaders that feel they have to prove they are strong. Real
strength is about making the right choices, not posturing. The answer to all of
these questions is a resounding no. Civilians across the Middle East are less
safe. Israel will continue to ramp up its attacks on Gaza, the West Bank and
Lebanon. By the time this article is in print, Israel may have bombed Iran.
What has held Netanyahu back in the past is the uncertainty of the US support
required to do this. Israel needs US military capabilities to hit Iranian
nuclear facilities and also to protect it from any counterattack. President Joe
Biden is cornered. He cannot or will not thwart an Israeli response. Netanyahu
can proceed knowing that the US weapons pipeline will continue, but also that US
military assets in the region are at his disposal. Should he be wearing his
pyromaniac hat, he can set fire to the region.
All of this must have been clear to the Iranian leadership. Perhaps the new
reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected to break free of international
isolation, was against it, but the hard-liners clearly won the argument.
Beware states and leaders that feel they have to prove they are strong.
Netanyahu falls into that category, but so too do the Iranian leaders. Real
strength is about making the right choices, not posturing. Iran can only lose
down this path, as will Israel. Many Iranians know that and are not impressed.
Iran and Israel are both guilty of reckless violent behavior and of refusing
real steps to compromise. Netanyahu has been deliberately goading Iran for
months, baiting it. On Oct. 1, it took the bait and the region — civilians above
all — will now pay the price in yet more blood.
*Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in
London. X: @Doylech