English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 21/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites,thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
First Letter to the Corinthians 06/01-11/:"When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer and before unbelievers at that? In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud and believers at that. Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.".

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 20-21/2024
Text and Video: Commemorating the Martyrdom of Wissam al-Hassan and the Betrayal, Cowardice, and Failure of the March 14 Party Leaders/Elias Bejjani/October 19/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and Video/The Lebanese Zajal Troupe’s Echo: Come, Let’s Congratulate Mikati
Iran in the Final Stages Before the Regime's Collapse"/Colonel Charbel Barakat/October 20/2024
Journalist Marwan Al-Amin: To Hezbollah and its mouthpieces, and those who echo their slogans
Israel's military says it attacked Hezbollah's intelligence HQ in Beirut
Israel blasted by UNIFIL for bulldozing observation tower
Blasts heard in Lebanon as Israel vows to hit Hezbollah's financial sites
Gallant says Israel 'destroying' Hezbollah in south Lebanon
Gantz tells Netanyahu to stop posting videos, warns against long war in Lebanon
Lebanese Army says 3 soldiers killed in Israeli strike
Berri says has plan to rescue Lebanon and that US wants ceasefire
Ghalibaf Strikes Again: “Khamenei, a Pillar for the Lebanese”
Beirut’s Suburbs Hit at Dawn, the Israeli Army Announced the Killing of a Hezb Expert in Communications
Report: Qassem fled Lebanon and is now living in Tehran
Fearing Israeli attacks on airport, Lebanese leave by sea
Lebanon Bound by Resolution 1559 as Hochstein Introduces Mechanisms for Resolution 1701
Bishop Elias Odeh: Did we not realize after the interests of the outside do not fit with the interest of our country
LACC: For an Immediate Ceasefire and the Sovereignty of Lebanon on all its Territories
‘No life left there’: The suburbs bearing the brunt of Israel’s strikes on Beirut/Joel Gunter - Reporting from Beirut/BBC/October 20, 2024
Canonization of the Massabki Brothers: A Triumph of Blood Ecumenism/Fady Noun/This Is Beirut/October 20/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 20-21/2024
Israel releases footage said to show Sinwar and family in Gaza tunnels ahead of October 7th attack
Israel to take legal action against Macron over naval trade show ban
Israel’s ties with Europe strained by wars in Gaza and Lebanon
Israel Hones Plans to Attack Iran After Attempt on Netanyahu
In Israeli footage of the last minutes of Hamas leader's life, some see a symbol of defiance
UN Condemns Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahiya
Netanyahu Tells Trump Israel Will Make Decisions Based on its Interests
Hamas to Conceal Identity of Sinwar’s Successor, Five Candidates Considered

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 20-21/2024
This Day in History: The ‘Elites’ Betray Christians to Muslim Slaughter at Own Nation’s Expense/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 20/2024
The Biden-Harris Administration Owes Israel's Netanyahu An Apology/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./October 20, 2024
How the Abraham Accords and Kurdish alliances could transform the Middle East/Veysi Dag/Jerusalem Post/October 21/2024
UNIFIL’s future questionable as Israel criticizes its role in Lebanon conflict/Tatiana Waisberg/Jerusalem Post/October 21/2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 20-21/2024
Text and Video: Commemorating the Martyrdom of Wissam al-Hassan and the Betrayal, Cowardice, and Failure of the March 14 Party Leaders
Elias Bejjani/October 19/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135924/
On the anniversary of the assassination of martyr Wissam al-Hassan, it is crucial to remember that Hezbollah, Iran's armed terrorist proxy, is the force behind his murder. This group, with its long and bloody history, has assassinated hundreds of Lebanese who dared to oppose its occupation and criminal grip on the country. Wissam al-Hassan was one of many courageous figures who paid the ultimate price for resisting Hezbollah’s dominance and exposing its destructive agenda.
Hezbollah has become a relentless assassination machine, silencing anyone who stands against it—politicians, military figures, journalists, and activists alike. Its operations are not isolated incidents of political rivalry; they are part of a systematic effort by Iran's regime to tighten its control over Lebanon through fear, violence, and bloodshed. From Wissam al-Hassan to countless others, Hezbollah’s methods have always been ruthless and calculated, designed to eliminate any figure who advocates for Lebanese sovereignty and independence.
What is perhaps even more appalling is the role played by Lebanon's political elite in enabling this occupation. The heads of Lebanon’s political parties, including many who once identified with the March 14 coalition, have betrayed the principles of freedom and resistance that Wissam al-Hassan and others died defending. Instead of standing firm against Hezbollah’s tyranny, they chose to collaborate with it, seeking personal gains—positions of power, government posts, and political influence—while turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s systematic destruction of Lebanon’s independence.
These political leaders, who once vowed to oppose Hezbollah, now participate in a government that grants legitimacy to the very group responsible for the assassination of one of their own. Their actions have not only undermined justice for Wissam al-Hassan and other martyrs but have also paved the way for Hezbollah to continue its campaign of terror unchecked.
Today, as we remember Wissam al-Hassan, we must recognize that the real enemy is not just Hezbollah but also the corrupt political class that has sacrificed the country’s sovereignty for personal interests. Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon remains strong, not solely because of its weapons and militias, but because the political leaders have sold out the nation’s independence in exchange for short-term personal benefits. This betrayal is as damaging as the assassinations themselves.
Hezbollah will continue its deadly path unless the Lebanese people, and the international community, hold both the terrorist group and its enablers within the political system accountable for their crimes. It’s time to expose not only Hezbollah’s murderous agenda but also the complicity of those who have allowed it to thrive, to restore justice for Wissam al-Hassan and countless other victims of their treachery.

Elias Bejjani/Text and Video/The Lebanese Zajal Troupe’s Echo: Come, Let’s Congratulate Mikati/ Remember That Mikati is an Assad-made puppet, full of empty rhetoric, & brought in as PM by Hezbollah.
Elias Bejjani/October 18, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135843/
In the spirit of the “Let’s congrtulate Mikati” culture, today a large number of politicians, journalists, and activists from the Lebanese Zajal troupes suffered from verbal diarrhea and a state of “hypocrisy and babble.” They expressed, in their poetic fashion tweets and statements, their amazement at Mikati’s so-called courage, claiming that he “drank lion’s milk” for denouncing a statement by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, which insulted Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence. Ghalibaf reportedly told a French newspaper that Tehran was ready to negotiate with France regarding the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
It’s both strange and amusing how these hypocritical “echoes” drown in their own sycophancy. Where was Mikati during the Beirut port explosion, when Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon literally controlled the situation? Where was his so-called “lion’s milk” when the Iranian Foreign Minister came to Lebanon and prevented Mikati and Berri from acting on what they had agreed with Jumblatt, namely the demand to implement international Resolution 1701 and call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militia? And where were all these mouthpieces when Mikati cowardly, sycophantically, and brazenly declared that the decision of war and peace does not rest in the hands of the Lebanese government, saying, “We did not declare war, so we cannot end it”?
Because these hypocrites have the memory of a fish, let’s remind them—though they surely know better—that Mikati is a product of the criminal Assad regime. He is corrupt and a thief, having amassed his wealth from the pockets of the Lebanese people. It was the Assad regime that inserted him into Lebanese politics, and Hezbollah that appointed him as head of the current government, which is 100% a Hezbollah government. He is nothing more than a mouthpiece and a puppet, just like all his ministers and, with them, Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri, who has been tamed, stripped of his authority, and had his freedom confiscated since the battles of Iqlim al-Tuffah.
Therefore, there is no value or weight to their false claims of a Mikati “uprising,” for the man is, in reality, merely a tool—nothing more than a tool—in the hands of Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist militia. End of story.

Iran in the Final Stages Before the Regime's Collapse"
Colonel Charbel Barakat/October 20/2024
(freely quoted and translated from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani, LCCC Website editor & publisher)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135958/
In an analysis by Colonel Charbel Barakat, a retired Lebanese Army officer and terrorism expert who testified before the U.S. Congress on Iranian and Syrian terrorism, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, Jihadism, and peace in the Middle East, he presents a compelling scenario on the imminent collapse of Iran's Mullah regime. Barakat argues that Iran orchestrated the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and is now driving a parallel conflict from Lebanon against Israel. He sees these actions as desperate attempts by the Iranian regime to reassert dominance and avoid exclusion from Middle East peace initiatives led by Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Colonel Barakat explains that the Iranian regime is in its final stages of collapse. He points to the peaceful path taken by Gulf states, like the UAE and Bahrain, which saw success in rapprochements with Israel and other Arab nations. These developments left Iran isolated from diplomatic negotiations, undermining Tehran's claims of controlling key Middle Eastern capitals like Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and Sana'a. In response to this diplomatic isolation, Iran provoked the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which culminated in the brutal conflict that extended to Lebanon.
Barakat uncovers that the Iranian regime's motivations for the attacks were to showcase its relevance and prevent peace initiatives from advancing without Tehran's involvement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long aware of the existential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program and regional destabilization efforts, responded forcefully by mobilizing Israel for a protracted war. Barakat highlights that Netanyahu's aggressive stance, which included decisive military action in Gaza, was aimed at crippling terrorism and neutralizing Iran's ability to manipulate conflicts.
He condemns Iran's subsequent decision to escalate tensions in Lebanon through Hezbollah, referring to the campaign as a "war of attrition" aimed at distracting Israeli forces and stretching their resources. Barakat praises Israel's measured response, noting that while Israel focused on Gaza, it also prepared for the inevitable confrontation with Hezbollah. He asserts that dismantling Hezbollah, though difficult, is crucial to breaking Tehran's influence over Lebanon and the wider region.
Barakat emphasizes that Israel's current military operations, targeting Hezbollah's leadership and infrastructure, are necessary despite the toll they take on Lebanon. He explains that Hezbollah's fortified positions along the Blue Line have long been prepared for such a conflict, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards directly overseeing the militia's operations. He predicts that Israel's relentless campaign will continue until Hezbollah is fully eradicated, regardless of the humanitarian costs in southern Lebanon, as Israel refuses to allow Hezbollah or Tehran to manipulate ceasefire negotiations.
Barakat strongly supports Israel's actions, viewing them as a necessary step toward regional stability. He expresses gratitude for Israel's sacrifices, which he believes will rid Lebanon of Hezbollah's stranglehold and weaken the Iranian regime. He advises patience, urging observers not to rush to judgment on Israel's operations. According to him, once the fog of war lifts and the Iranian regime collapses, it will become clear that Israel’s intervention was vital for the future of the Middle East.
Colonel Barakat concludes with a bold prediction: the end of the Iranian Mullah regime is near. He argues that Iran's costly interventions in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have weakened the regime domestically, with Iranians themselves increasingly disillusioned by poverty and repression. The final blow, Barakat suggests, will come from Israel, whose military action against Iran's proxies will hasten the regime's downfall. He envisions a new Middle East, liberated from the grip of extremist ideologies imposed by the Mullahs, where cooperation and peace prevail.
This analysis by Colonel Charbel Barakat, a seasoned expert on Middle Eastern terrorism, paints a vivid picture of the Iranian regime’s impending collapse and praises Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hezbollah and Hamas as part of a broader strategy to end Tehran’s reign of terror.

Journalist Marwan Al-Amin: To Hezbollah and its mouthpieces, and those who echo their slogans
October 20/2024
(Translated from Arabic and quoted by LCCC website & publisher)
The well known patriotic journalist, Marwan Al-Amin stressed in a Facebook post on October 20, 2024: that (who are against Hezbollah-Iranian occupatio) "We are the ones who will test your loyalty to the Iranian schemme and your dealings with Israel. The treachery comes from you and lives within you, and you are drowning in it up to your necks. My goodness, how shameless you are!"
Al-Amin explained that a group of people, whether from Hezbollah’s environment, former March 14 supporters, former October 17 activists, or even new so-called 'resistance' advocates, including some involved in NGOs, both inside and outside Lebanon, have for some time been distributing certificates of patriotism and treason to others.
He added that these individuals began their campaigns after October 7 with the slogan 'Palestine is the central cause,' then shifted to 'We are in a state of war, there’s no room for debate.' Following the mass displacement from the south, they raised the slogan 'This is not the time for politics; it’s time for relief work.' More recently, their slogan became 'Warning of civil war, the priority is social solidarity.'
He emphasized that they want us, the public, to follow these instructions without asking questions, otherwise the accusation is ready: 'You are serving Netanyahu,' implying that any rejection or criticism of Hezbollah’s path, which has led us to this point, is considered justification for Israel and participation in the destruction of the country and the killing of people.
Al-Amin rebuked these accusations, noting: "For months, they have been accusing us of treason, whether directly or indirectly, and we haven’t responded. But let’s be clear: those who informed Israel about the locations of Hezbollah leaders and led to their deaths were people like you, far more important than you, occupying different positions within Hezbollah, from sympathizers and low-ranking members all the way up to the leadership. And they too, like you, were betraying us while accusing us of treason."

Israel's military says it attacked Hezbollah's intelligence HQ in Beirut
Reuters/October 20, 2024
Israel said its air force attacked Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut on Sunday as well as an underground workshop for the production of weapons. In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group's southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development. It was not clear if the three were killed in the attack on the headquarters or in separate actions. Hezbollah made no immediate comment. Israel's military said on Saturday it had destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday. Early on Sunday, two Israeli strikes targeted the Harat Hreik neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a residential building near Bahman Hospital, Lebanon's state-run national news agency said. Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from Beirut's suburbs on Sunday morning, but it was not clear if this was a result of the same strike. Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Since October 2023, more than 2,400 people have been killed, according to Lebanon's health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel blasted by UNIFIL for bulldozing observation tower
Adam Schrader/UPI/October 20, 2024 Israel has once again been scolded by the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which accused Israeli fighters of bulldozing one of its observation towers near Marwahin. "Yet again, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of U.N. personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of U.N. premises at all times," the peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement. "Yet again, we note that breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701." The peacekeeping force noted that Israeli fighters have repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line, a demarcation drawn by the United Nations in 2000 to confirm Israel's withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon after years of occupation. Last week, UNIFIL warned Israel for the fourth time in as many days against "further flagrant violation of international law" after peacekeepers were injured by smoke caused by the IDF. At the time, UNIFIL added that three platoons of Israeli fighters breached the main gate of its camp with tanks and forcibly entered to demand that the peacekeepers leave to aid Israel in its assault on Lebanon. The head of the peacekeeping force has since vowed that the blue helmets would stay put, despite Israel's demands. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said: "the decision was made that UNIFIL would currently stay in all its positions, in spite of the calls that were made by the IDF to vacate the positions that are in the vicinity of the Blue Line."Israel is known for bulldozing the buildings of its enemies, often demolishing the homes of Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Blasts heard in Lebanon as Israel vows to hit Hezbollah's financial sites
Jaroslav Lukiv - BBC News/October 20, 2024
Smoke rises across the skyline of southern Beirut, appearing to come from a building glowing orange on the far right of the scene. Smoke was seen rising over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli air strikes late on Sunday [Reuters] The Israeli military has warned residents in 24 areas in Lebanon - including 14 in the capital Beirut - that it plans to carry out strikes in the coming hours and throughout the night. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would target banks and other financial infrastructure supporting Hezbollah. A BBC correspondent in Beirut said there have been eight air strikes in the capital's southern Dahieh district, an area controlled by Hezbollah. Lebanon's state-run media also reported a strike in the east of the country. It is unclear whether there were any casualties.Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it had fired more rockets into Israel on Sunday, targeting military bases.In a statement on Sunday evening, IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari warned that "anyone located near sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities must move away from these locations immediately". "We will strike several targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night," he said. "In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah's terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism," the Israeli spokesman added. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported a strike on the bank Al-Qard Al-Hassan association in the country's eastern Bekaa Valley.
Israel accuses the association of financing Hezbollah. Earlier in the day, the IDF said that dozens of projectiles were fired at northern Israel in the past 24 hours. It also said that its warplanes conducted "an intelligence-based strike on a command centre of Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut".
It said steps had been taken to "reduce the possibility of civilian casualties".
Israel has been accused by Hezbollah and Lebanese officials of targeting civilians, which it denies. Earlier on Sunday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) accused the IDF of deliberately demolishing an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in the southern Lebanese town of Marwahin on the border with Israel. It follows similar incidents in recent weeks."Yet again, we note that breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701," the Unifil said in a statement. UN urges probe into deadly Israeli strike on north Lebanon. Israel's row with UN over Lebanon peacekeepers driven by long distrust. In a separate development, the Lebanese army said three of it soldiers were killed after a military vehicle was hit by an Israeli air strike in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Israel has not yet commented on the two reported incidents. Lebanon's army has historically stayed out of cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah - but a number of its troops have been killed in Israeli attacks since fighting escalated last month. Hezbollah - a powerful militant group in Lebanon - says it has been firing on Israeli positions in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran.

Gallant says Israel 'destroying' Hezbollah in south Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 20/2024
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that the military was stepping up its strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. "Not only are we defeating the enemy, but we are destroying them in all the villages along the border, in the places that Hezbollah planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel," Gallant told troops during a visit to the border. The Israeli military presence in the border area was "overwhelming the terrorists," he said. Gallant's comments came after Lebanese official media reported 14 Israeli strikes within minutes on the border village of Khiam, and as Israel kept hammering Hezbollah targets elsewhere in Lebanon. The defense minister said the intense military action in Lebanon since late September could eventually allow Israelis displaced by the violence to return home."Our goal is to completely clean the area (of Hezbollah) so that Israel's northern communities may return to their homes and rebuild their lives," Gallant said. He also said that Hezbollah prisoners captured by Israeli forces "have informed us of the great fear

Gantz tells Netanyahu to stop posting videos, warns against long war in Lebanon
Naharnet/October 20/2024
Responding to criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Likud party that he failed to condemn a Hezbollah drone attack against the prime minister’s home in Caesarea for reasons of “petty politics,” Benny Gantz’s National Unity party called on the premier to “stop dealing in press statements and embarrassing videos.”“At a time when hundreds of rockets are being launched at the citizens of Israel … citizens are being murdered and soldiers are falling, the Prime Minister is busy with himself and the property tax,” the party stated. The Kan public broadcaster reported that property tax officials and a gardener had visited Netanyahu’s home after the attack. Netanyahu must not allow Israel to be “dragged into a long war of attrition” in Lebanon, the opposition party continued, insisting that Israel must increase its strikes on Lebanon, including on state targets. In addition, Israel must launch an “effective response” against Iran “as soon as possible,” the statement concluded.

Lebanese Army says 3 soldiers killed in Israeli strike
Associated Press/October 20/2024
The Lebanese Army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday on their vehicle in southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment on that from the Israeli military, which said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day and continued ground operations there. Lebanon’s army has largely kept to the sidelines in the war. The military is a respected institution in Lebanon, but isn't powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion. Israel's military said Hezbollah fired more than 170 rockets into Israel on Sunday. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said three people were slightly injured from a fire sparked by a rocket attack on the northern city of Safed. Israel has increased strikes on southern neighborhoods of Beirut known as the Dahieh, a crowded residential area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It is also home to many civilians unaffiliated with the militant group.

Berri says has plan to rescue Lebanon and that US wants ceasefire
Naharnet/October 20/2024
With U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Monday amid major escalation in Lebanon, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that this visit is "the last chance before the U.S. elections to reach a solution" in the country. He stressed in an interview with Al-Arabiya television that he has been authorized by Hezbollah to negotiate on behalf of it since 2006 and that Hezbollah agrees to U.N. resolution 1701. He added that there is consensus among the Lebanese on Resolution 1701, considering it a rare consensus."We adhere to it," he added.
Berri also refused any amendments to 1701, revealing that he has a plan to save Lebanon that he is working on. He added that there is U.S. desire to stop the war in Lebanon prior to the U.S. presidential election, noting that what is being said about Iranian obstacles to the course of his plan is false.Berri also stressed that the nomination of the army commander requires a constitutional amendment and the agreement of more than 86 deputies, adding that the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati is facing unprecedented challenges. Berri adder that the real light in the region is the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, noting that Israel is destroying everything in Lebanon as it did in Gaza. He also pointed out that he has never spoken about electing a Lebanese president before the ceasefire.

Ghalibaf Strikes Again: “Khamenei, a Pillar for the Lebanese”
Al-Markaziya/This Is Beirut/October 20/2024
The Iranian Speaker of Parliament has once again taken the liberty of expressing himself on behalf of the Lebanese. In comments reported by the local news agency Al-Markaziya, he stated, on behalf of the Lebanese, that their reference point is none other than the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Al-Markaziya, Ghalibaf claimed that “Ali Khamenei, Iranian officials, and the Iranian people represent the main pillars for the Lebanese people,” although it should be noted that the Lebanese have a completely different opinion on the matter. The President of the Iranian Parliament also expressed “his gratitude” to the Lebanese people and their leaders “for the welcome” they extended to him during his visit to Lebanon on October 12. On Thursday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed outrage over Ghalibaf's comments during an interview with Le Figaro, instructing caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to summon the Iranian chargé d'affaires to convey Lebanon’s protest. Ghalibaf stated to Le Figaro that Tehran was ready to engage in talks with Paris to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which involves the withdrawal of Hezbollah to the north of the Litani River and the deployment of the Lebanese Army, alongside UNIFIL, in the southern part of the country. Additionally, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament noted that “Israel is accumulating losses on the ground, making the battle (with Hezbollah) extremely difficult for them.”

Beirut’s Suburbs Hit at Dawn, the Israeli Army Announced the Killing of a Hezb Expert in Communications
This Is Beirut/October 20/2024
Four Israeli airstrikes targeted Beirut southern suburbs at dawn. ©This is Beirut
The Israeli army announced that it had killed Reza Abbas Awada, a Hezbollah expert in wireless communications, in a strike on his car on Saturday in Jounieh, Keserwan area. Two people were killed in the raid. The second passenger was a woman of Iranian origin, according to a statement from the Iranian embassy. “Maasouma Karbachi was with her husband in the car targeted by an Israeli raid”, it stated. The embassy called on the international community to ‘protect civilians who are constantly threatened by the Israeli war machine’. The Israeli army also claimed responsibility for killing Ahmad Ali Hussein, head of Hezbollah's weapons production team. It also said it attacked a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons production facility in the southern suburb of Beirut, targeted on Sunday morning. Since dawn on Sunday, Israel has bombarded Beirut's southern suburbs with five airstrikes following warnings for civilians to evacuate Hezbollah's stronghold. Two strikes targeted the Hadath area, a third hit a residential building in Harat Hreik, and the fourth struck near Bahman Hospital. On Saturday, the southern suburbs were hit by around 10 Israeli airstrikes after a period of relative calm over the past few days.
Field Developments in the South
A ground incursion was attempted towards the town of Dahira, leading to fierce clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, with direct artillery shelling on the outskirts of Dahira and the town of Bustan. Early on Sunday morning, at around 3:30 AM, several villages and towns in the Nabatiyeh area were hit by consecutive airstrikes. At 2:15 AM, another strike destroyed the Kamal complex at Nabatyieh's western entrance, resulting in multiple victims, according to the National News Agency. Rescue teams are clearing rubble. The Nabatiyeh-Zebdine road, blocked by debris, has been reopened. Several southern towns, including Khiam and the Marjayoun plain, have been heavily shelled by Israeli artillery, which has not stopped since midnight. Moreover, fierce clashes erupted between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army on the Aita al-Shaab front in southern Lebanon. At around 9:00 AM today, Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike targeting the area between the towns of Abba and Zrariyah.

Report: Qassem fled Lebanon and is now living in Tehran
Naharnet/October 20/2024
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has been residing in Tehran after fleeing Lebanon on an Iranian plane over two weeks ago, the UAE-based Erem News outlet reported, quoting an anonymous Iranian source. Qassem reportedly left Beirut on October 5 on the aircraft used by Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for a state visit to Lebanon and Syria. His transfer was ordered by top leaders of the Islamic Republic for fear of assassination by Israel, the source said. Qassem has delivered three speeches since the death of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. While the first was recorded in Beirut, the second and third were delivered in Tehran, the source said.

Fearing Israeli attacks on airport, Lebanese leave by sea
Agence France Presse/October 20/2024
Hassan Alik, fleeing escalating violence in the Israel-Hezbollah war, left Lebanon on Saturday aboard a ship to avoid Beirut's airport, which he feared "could be bombed" at any moment.
The 31-year-old traveled to the northern port of Tripoli, on Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, which has so far been spared Israeli bombardment in a month of intense fighting across much of the tiny country. And though Lebanon's only international airport has not been hit either, Israel's military last month warned it could strike there to stop weapons transfers to Iran-backed Hezbollah. Since then, many Lebanese seeking safety abroad have favored the 13-hour sea trip to Turkey aboard cargo ships adapted for passengers, instead of flying from Beirut's airport, which was targeted during Israel's last major war with Hezbollah in 2006. "I'm traveling from here because I'm afraid to go through the airport," said Alik at the Tripoli port. "If I buy a plane ticket the airport could be bombed," said the man from the densely-packed south Beirut suburbs -- a Hezbollah stronghold that has seen heavy bombardment over the past weeks. On September 23, Israel launched an intense air campaign on Lebanon and later sent in ground forces after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group over the Gaza war. Since then, the war has left at least 1,454 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher. With the exception of national carrier Middle East Airlines, most companies have stopped serving Beirut's airport due to the violence.
'Not safe'
The massive ships at the Tripoli port used to carry cargo to Turkey's southern shores five times a week, but about a year ago they started carrying passengers too, selling tickets for about $350, said captain Salem Jleilati. But demand has soared since September, from about 150 passengers a week to at least 900, he said. Muammar Malas, 52, from Lebanon's north, said he "chose to travel by boat because it's difficult to reach the" airport in Beirut, which is "very close to the southern suburbs," a Hezbollah bastion. The cargo vessels are not designed to carry passengers, "but we are forced to use them," said Malas. More than one million people have fled the violence across Lebanon, officials have said. Mohammad Hawar, 22, has been displaced twice, first from the southern city of Nabatieh -- where intense Israeli strikes this week killed a few dozen people -- and then from south Beirut.
"The best thing to do now is flee Lebanon," he told AFP as he boarded the boat. Passenger Israa Sweidan, a Palestinian woman from the nearby Beddawi refugee camp which has also been targeted by strikes, said the sea journey out of Tripoli was "currently the safest option in Lebanon."

Lebanon Bound by Resolution 1559 as Hochstein Introduces Mechanisms for Resolution 1701
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/October 20/2024
Lebanon Bound by Resolution 1559 as Hochstein Introduces Mechanisms for Resolution 1701
This handout satellite picture taken on October 8, 2024 shows a view of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's (UNIFIL) base in the costal area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon close to the border with northern Israel. ©Planet Labs PBC / AFP
A diplomatic source at the United Nations indicated that Lebanon cannot disregard the implementation of Resolution 1559 if it truly intends to comply with Resolution 1701. Lebanon has reiterated its commitment to both resolutions, along with Resolution 1680, by endorsing the recent Security Council decision that renewed the mandate of international forces in southern Litani, issued on August 28 and designated as Resolution 2749.
Technically speaking, paragraph 1 of this resolution states that the Security Council calls for the full implementation of Resolution 1701 and highlights the aim of achieving a long-term solution based on the principles and elements specified in paragraph 8 of Resolution 1701. This paragraph calls for the complete application of the provisions of the Taif Agreement and Resolutions 1559 and 1680, which require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.
Based on these facts, the diplomatic source at the United Nations revealed that French-Iranian discussions are taking place behind the scenes to fully implement Resolution 1701, including Resolutions 1559 and 1680. The United States is kept informed about the progress of these talks through US envoy Amos Hochstein, assessing whether they will yield a decisive outcome that garners the approval of both the US and Israel, thereby initiating the implementation process.
Furthermore, the source pointed out that discussions regarding a new Security Council resolution addressing the situation in southern Lebanon are not currently appropriate due to the ongoing conflict between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine crisis, which is affecting all matters involving both nations, including developments in the Middle East and relations with Tehran. Moreover, the situation on the ground in southern Lebanon remains unclear. As a result, the Americans, through Hochstein, are discussing what is referred to as Resolution 1701 Plus; however, this does not suggest an amendment to the existing resolution, as modifying Security Council resolutions is not an option within the United Nations framework. Therefore, Hochstein's proposal aims to establish implementation mechanisms for Resolution 1701 from the Lebanese perspective, outlining in detail the deployment of the Army and UNIFIL forces, the disarmament of Hezbollah in southern Litani, and the measures and procedures necessary to ensure that the area remains free of illegal weapons and armed groups.
Finally, the diplomatic source at the United Nations emphasized that the overall implementation mechanisms for Resolution 1701 will be strictly enforced and will depend on the actions of Israeli forces in their ground operations in southern Lebanon. Consequently, Hochstein will not provide any specifics regarding these implementation mechanisms, as the Israeli side has not yet disclosed its full intentions. However, on-the-ground indications suggest that Israel is no longer willing to accept Resolution 1701. Notably, the Israeli forces operating in the border area are targeting the two key pillars of Resolution 1701: The Lebanese Army and UNIFIL forces.

Bishop Elias Odeh: Did we not realize after the interests of the outside do not fit with the interest of our country
NNA/October 20/2024
Metropolit Beirut and its dependencies to the Greek Orthodox, Bishop Elias Odeh, presided over the Mass service in St. George's Cathedral, in the presence of a crowd of believers. After the Bible, he said a sermon in which he said. He asked: "Isn't this what happens in Lebanon? Instead of everyone to save the country, each team cares about what suits it and blows its pride even at the expense of Lebanon. Instead of everyone wrapping around the public interest they turn to their own interests, leaving the country drowning in it. By procrastination, we will lose Lebanon that He destroys. A president with this difficulty in the countries that respect its constitutions? And his interests? . He concluded: "Our call today is to put our country in the forefront of our interests and that each of us perform his duty honestly towards his homeland, and to remain attached to Christ with mourning, love and humility, not to follow Satan and his games that weigh our shoulders and restrict our souls with the chains of death."

Press Release/ The Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC)/For an Immediate Ceasefire and the Sovereignty of Lebanon on all its Territories
For an Immediate Ceasefire and the Sovereignty of Lebanon on all its Territories
Washington/October 18, 2024
As we follow the suffering of the Lebanese people caused by Israeli bombings, and because of the lack of independence of the present Lebanese government through its acceptance to abide by regional agendas rather than by the Lebanese agenda; we strongly believe that our top priority is to save Lebanon and its people.This can be achieved by abiding by the Lebanese constitution and by implementing the United Nations resolutions concerning Lebanon.
The Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC), calls for the following:
Intensifying the diplomatic efforts led by the United States and the friends of Lebanon in the Arab World and the rest of the world to ensure an immediate cease fire that will protect Lebanon’s civilians and implement UN Resolutions 1559, 1680, 1701. The above, if implemented, will lead to a sustainable peace that protects Lebanon and its people. Reasserting the Lebanese government’s sovereignty over Lebanon’s soil unequivocally and without delay, based on the prelude of the Taëf agreement that stipulates the disarming of all militias, ensuring that the decision of war and peace rests in the hands of Lebanon’s government, and limiting the existence of arms to be in the hands of Lebanon’s Armed Forces and Lebanon’s Security Forces. Empowering the Parliament to immediately elect a new President for Lebanon who is committed to sovereignty and reforms; as well as to executing the Lebanese Constitution; implementing the international resolutions mentioned in this statement; and administering the needed economic, social, and financial reforms. The new President will steer the country toward prosperity and away from paths that will destroy Lebanon’s national security as well as the security of its people.
Appointing a cabinet committed to regaining the constitutional and sovereign role of Lebanon’s government, and to a plan of governance that rebuilds the country and ensures the return of the Lebanese citizens who have been displaced, to their cities, towns, and villages. Lebanon can and must preserve its crucial role of valuing and protecting its diversity as a beacon to the world by living together as one people under a constitution that protects and values the equality of all of Lebanon‘s people. The government needs to commit to a path that ensures Lebanon’s neutrality from the regional and global conflicts.
Increasing the international support to Lebanon’s Armed Forces (LAF) as well as its Internal Security Forces (ISF) and ensuring that arms on Lebanese soil are restricted to the hands of the LAF and ISF, which alone empower and defend Lebanese sovereignty and the security of its people.
Ensuring the return of all the Lebanese to be loyal citizens of Lebanon and to honor and protect its unique constitution. This is a safe way to ensure the protection of Lebanon. We believe in a call to all Lebanese citizens to stop considering political choices that do not fit under the umbrella of Lebanon’s constitution. LACC believes that the unique identity of Lebanon that is based on: Liberty, Diversity, and the enrichment of Living Together is worth saving.
The Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC), wishes to thank the many countries within the Arab World, as well as the many countries and organizations from the international community that offered substantial humanitarian aid to Lebanon and its people during these extremely difficult times. We also ask them to continue supporting Lebanon and its sovereignty as a unique model in the region, which commits itself to basic human freedoms, celebrates diversity, and reinforces the concept of a diverse population enriching their lives by living together.
The Lebanese-American Coordinating Committee (LACC)
*** END ***

‘No life left there’: The suburbs bearing the brunt of Israel’s strikes on Beirut
Joel Gunter - Reporting from Beirut/BBC/October 20, 2024
The air strike that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah shook the earth for hundreds of metres in every direction. A few blocks away, in the Beirut suburb known as the Dahieh, Mehdi Moussawi thought his own building was falling down.
From his balcony, the 45-year-old taxi driver and his wife Zahraa – who asked that their names be changed for this story – watched as a thick blanket of smoke and dust enveloped everything around them. In the distance, they could hear debris raining down, and overhead the familiar buzz of an Israeli drone.The drones had become so common over Dahieh in the previous few days that they barely noticed them anymore. A majority Shia suburb in the south of Beirut, Dahieh was once again under Israel’s watchful eye; its more than half a million residents again under threat of death from above.
“The missiles come down from the sky,” Mehdi said, gesturing the arc of a projectile falling to earth, “and suddenly everything you have is gone.”He was sitting on a dirty, sun-baked patch of pavement on the edge of Martyrs’ Square in central Beirut – now home for the couple and their teenage boys. Around them were hundreds of others in similar circumstances, many from Dahieh. The suburb has borne the brunt of the recent Israeli bombing of Beirut, prompting a mass exodus of virtually its entire population.
Dahieh is largely under the control of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed political and paramilitary group that is a powerful force across Lebanon. Hezbollah refused requests from the BBC for permission to enter the suburb for this story, to see the bomb damage, but a BBC analysis of video footage, Israeli evacuation warnings and recent satellite imagery shows at least 65 air strikes which have severely damaged or completely destroyed buildings. Some of those strikes have comprised dozens of individual bombs, and many have levelled not only the apparent target building but destroyed or severely damaged several adjacent buildings too. This was the fate of Mehdi and Zahraa’s apartment – to be next door to an Israeli strike. Zahraa wept when she saw footage of their blackened and mangled building. “Look at us,” she pleaded. “Our home is gone. We have no hygiene, we cannot wash. We have nothing.”
'I felt like my heart was going to explode': Beirut reels from heaviest night of strikes
Israel's row with UN over Lebanon peacekeepers driven by long distrust
Dahieh is often described as a Hezbollah stronghold. The term does not reflect the totality of the suburb – a densely packed residential area where other political parties operate and where not everyone supports Hezbollah – but the group is certainly the strongest force there. Above ground, it is woven through the suburb’s social and political fabric, and provides services like welfare and education. Below, it has bunkers and tunnels from which it can operate. The IDF has targeted Dahieh in order to assassinate Hezbollah leaders, and says the group uses its bunkers to store weapons among the civilian population. It says it is targeting Hezbollah in order to safely return 60,000 of its own citizens to the north of Israel, which has come under rocket fire from Lebanon over the past year. The damage to Mehdi and Zahraa's apartment, to the right of the image, was captured by someone filming following the strike.
Unlike other parts of Beirut, Dahieh doesn’t have its own name, as such – the word simply means ‘suburb’. It is one of the most densely populated residential areas in all of Lebanon – a place of narrow streets and alleyways, where buildings seem to jostle for available space. It was heavily bombed in the previous war, back in 2006, and still bears scars from it. “Dahieh was originally a very beautiful place but all the wars have taken their toll,” said Rasha al-Ameer, a novelist and publisher who was born and raised in the suburb and still lives there. Her brother, a prominent critic of Hezbollah, was assassinated in Lebanon in 2021. “It is still a very vivid place and a diverse place. We have a cultural institution there and a lot of political activity,” she said. “It would be a terrible thing if Dahieh was destroyed. Though the bombing has destroyed much already.”As well as homes, the Israeli air strikes have destroyed or damaged shops, businesses, restaurants and clinics. “Destruction on destruction,” said Mohaned Khalaf, a 45-year-old Sunni Muslim bakery worker, of his street in Burj El Brajneh, the most heavily targeted part of the suburb. A damaged vehicle lies amid rubble after an air strike in the Chiyah area of Dahieh.
A damaged vehicle lies amid rubble after an air strike in the Chiyah area of Dahieh [Reuters]
Khalaf, already a refugee once, from Syria, has gone back into Dahieh periodically to check on the apartment he shares with his two brothers and their mother, to see if his furniture remains. “The buildings around ours have been destroyed,” he said. “There is no life left there, not a person to be seen.”The destruction has tested some Dahieh residents’ patience with Hezbollah – particularly Sunnis and other non-Shias. “This war is hurting everyone,” said Khalaf’s mother, Sameera, who wept on the street. “I am 63 years old,” she said. “I just want a place where I can wash.”
Sameera does not want to return to Dahieh, even after the war. “Yes, we could go back and rebuild, but Hezbollah and Israel will fight this war over and over again,” she said. “And Dahieh will suffer again.”Shia Muslims, Hezbollah’s more natural support base, took a more supportive view – even those whose lives had been completely upended by the conflict. Members of Hezbollah had handed out food and $100 bills to displaced Shia families on the streets in central Beirut, several families said, and helped assist with shelter places.
“We used to support Hezbollah and we still support Hezbollah,” said Gharib Ali, a 61-year-old janitor who fled the suburb. Around him, his family nodded in agreement. The effect of the war on their lives “changes nothing for the Shia community,” he said. “If anything, it only increases our support. Every Shia feels the same.”Signs at the entrance to part of the Dahieh warn it is dangerous to enter or take photographs without permission from Hezbollah.
In this way, Mehdi and Zahraa may be something of an outlier – a Lebanese Shia couple, residents of Dahieh for decades, who were critical of Hezbollah for its role in the conflict. “Dahieh is not Hezbollah, we are not Hezbollah, our building was not Hezbollah,” Zahraa said, angrily. “We went to sleep one night and woke up in someone else’s war.” The family’s apartment is now uninhabitable, though the building may be salvageable. The Israeli army has sometimes issued social media warnings ahead of its air strikes, but there was no warning for the strike that hit Mehdi and Zahraa’s building. Their eldest son had gone home that day to shower, taking advantage of a seemingly quiet moment, and was knocked over and cut by flying glass when the bomb hit.International humanitarian law generally requires an effective advance warning ahead of a strike that might affect civilians. But the BBC has found evidence of repeated Israeli strikes against Dahieh and other parts of Beirut where no warning was issued. And where there were warnings, some have been sent as little as 30 minutes beforehand, sometimes in the middle of the night. “That timeframe is not an effective advance warning for someone who lives in Dahieh,” said Ramzi Keiss, a Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These are people are sleeping, they’re in their beds. They are not looking at social media." Hezbollah was also possibly violating international humanitarian law, Keiss said, by placing its military commanders in and around the civilian population. “But that doesn’t give you a free pass to bomb as heavily as you can,” he added, referring to Israel. “When you’re using 2000lbs in densely populated areas, you’re going to put civilians at the risk of great harm.” Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed in the country over the past year and more than 1.2 million been displaced. Israel says 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period.
Back in the 2006 war, after Israel had pounded Dahieh and heavily bombed Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure, a senior IDF officer, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, sketched out what would become known as the “Dahieh doctrine”. It called for applying “disproportionate force” against civilian areas, with the goal of pressuring the people of Lebanon to turn on Hezbollah.
The recent escalation by Israel had gone “beyond Dahieh doctrine”, said Prof Amal Saad, an expert on Hezbollah and lecturer in politics at Cardiff University. “This is more like Gaza doctrine, which is similar, but has the goal of specifically targeting and displacing a community.”
In Dahieh, Israel’s actions were currently “somewhere between its Dahieh and Gaza doctrines”, she said. The destruction would not bring about, as the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly expressed hope for, a reduction in support for Hezbollah in places like Dahieh, Prof Saad said. “Whenever Israel invades like this, it only increases support for Hezbollah among Shias,” she said. “After 2006, support skyrocketed. I don’t know much higher it can go now than 90%, but this will solidify it.”An image of a Hezbollah fighter is displayed on the rubble following an Israeli strike on the suburb. An image of a Two weeks after the bombing of Dahieh began, the air strikes ceased unexpectedly, following pressure from the US government, which said it had made it clear to Israel it was unhappy with the “scope and nature” of th
One day passed without any strikes, then another, then another. After three days, residents began returning on Monday and Tuesday to check on their apartments and retrieve possessions. Among them was Mehdi, who took his eldest son’s scooter and headed back into the devastated area around their building to grab clothes for the boys.
Then, early on Wednesday morning, Israel began bombing Dahieh again.
“We knew it was only a matter of time,” said Mehdi. He was sitting with Zahraa and the boys, a few hours after the strikes resumed, on the street by their makeshift tent, which was really just two rugs thrown over an improvised frame. Towering over them was an upscale, new, and completely empty apartment building. It bore a similar name to their apartment building, Zahraa said. “But for the cost of one of these apartments you could buy an entire neighbourhood in Dahieh,” she said. They would go back and rebuild, she said. She raised her arms in a mock bicep curl, to demonstrate the strength of the people from the Dahieh. “We have no choice,” Mehdi said. “Some people have choices, we don’t.” They would return the moment the ceasefire was announced, he said. He knew that there would be no electicity, no water, and no windows in the buildings. But it was still better than being on the street. Overhead, an Israeli drone was buzzing. Mehdi looked up at the empty apartments across the street, and down at the tent they were sleeping under. “God willing, the ceasefire will come before the rain,” he said.
*Joanna Mazjoub contributed to this report. Paul Brown contributed research.

Canonization of the Massabki Brothers: A Triumph of Blood Ecumenism
Fady Noun/This Is Beirut/October 20/2024
Today, October 20, the universal Church has been graced with the addition of 14 new figures of holiness, including eleven martyrs: eight Franciscan religious and three Maronite laymen, the brothers Francis, Abdel Mohti, and Raphael Massabki.
All were brutally killed in Damascus during the night of July 9 to 10, 1860, for their refusal to renounce their Christian faith.
The canonization mass, presided over by Pope Francis, took place in St. Peter's Square. Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai also participated in the mass. However, due to the circumstances the country is facing, a relatively small number of Lebanese attended the ceremony on-site.
The context surrounding what has been termed the "Massacres of Damascus" is complex and rich in insights. “Due to socio-economic changes,” writes historian Henry Laurens, a professor at the Collège de France, “Christian populations grew significantly during the 19th century (...). Moreover, through missionary outreach, they gained better access to modern education and, therefore, were better positioned in the job market (editor's note: emphasis added).
Finally, under pressure from Western public opinion, they became a marker of modernity: treating non-Muslim communities well demonstrates a civilized political relationship with the population (...). The conflicts between Druze and Christians thus unfolded within a confessional interpretation of the region. The massacres of 1860 were the result of the relative frustration of local Muslim groups toward those perceived as benefiting from reforms, recent shifts in power dynamics, and the intervention of external stakeholders.” (*)
Academic Language and Reality
This academic language should not cover up a daily reality characterized by deep-seated confessional animosities exacerbated by Ottoman governors, European colonial powers, and their economic agendas, along with a rising awareness that was hostile to the feudal structures of the time.
The outbreak of confessional violence initially began in Mount Lebanon before extending to Zahleh and Damascus.
The Massabki family was one of the distinguished families in Damascus. Francis, the eldest of the three brothers, was the most prominent member. Married and a father of eight, he was a silk merchant whose vast home welcomed everyone, and his popularity extended beyond Syria. Legend has it that in Mount Lebanon, church bells were rung in villages as his caravan of mules drew near.
When they discovered that the rioters had ransacked the Greek Orthodox church and were heading toward their neighborhood, the Massabki brothers took refuge at the nearby Franciscan monastery on Francis' advice, convinced they would be safe. They were sorely mistaken. Led by a traitor, the group of assassins hunting for them entered the monastery through a secret passage.
Nothing destined the Massabki brothers for martyrdom except their faith, their understanding of the Church’s history, and their profound courage and integrity. The attackers initially captured Francis. Seated at the back of the church, he had witnessed the murder of Father Emmanuel Ruiz, the superior of the Franciscan community, and now realized that his time had come. He had lent 8,000 piasters to the ulama Abdallah el-Halabi, one of the masterminds behind the massacre, along with Ahmed Pasha, the Ottoman governor.
The attackers offered him a way out — both for himself and his entire family, along with repayment of his loan — in exchange for his faith. He answered, “Sheikh Abdallah can keep my money. You may take my life, but no one can take away my faith. I cannot renounce my God. I am Christian.” He was brutally hacked to pieces with knives and an axe. The fate of his brothers, Abdel Mohti, a family man and teacher with the Franciscans, and Raphael, a rather simple man, as well as that of the Franciscan brothers, was no better. Two of them were thrown to their deaths from the top of the building where they had sought refuge. In total, between July 9 and July 18, 1860, over 10,000 Christians were killed in Damascus and Zahleh. Eleven churches and three monasteries were destroyed in the Syrian capital, and between 1,500 and 2,000 homes, along with 200 shops, were burned or reduced to rubble.
The French Expedition
News of the massacres in Damascus reached Paris on July 16, 1860, leading the French government to order the deployment of an expedition of 7,000 soldiers to restore order. Concerned about potential interference from France and other European powers, Fouad Pasha, the Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs, traveled to Syria. Over a hundred Ottoman officers and soldiers were executed for their roles in the massacre. Governor Ahmed Pasha and 56 other officials were hanged. Thus, civil justice was served, although this justice did not diminish the sacrifice of those who bravely accepted death to bear witness to their faith. The three Massabki brothers were beatified by the Catholic Church on October 10, 1926, together with eight Franciscans (seven Spaniards and one Austrian). The Maronite Church celebrates their feast day on July 10. On that same date, the Greek Orthodox Church honors one of its priests, Youssef Mehanna Haddad, who was killed in Damascus under similar circumstances. In his presentation of the Massabki brothers' beatification case to Pope Pius XI in 1926, the Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, Mgr Bechara Shemali, stated that, in a sense, the massacres in Damascus allowed for “the blood of the children of Saint Maron from the East to mix with that of the spiritual sons of Saint Francis from the West.”
According to Guy-Paul Noujeim, the emeritus bishop of the Maronite Patriarchal Vicariate of Sarba and president of the commission overseeing the canonization process, the Latin, Maronite, and Orthodox communities may come together on July 10, 2025, to commemorate the memory of these massacres. This joint commemoration would establish a “blood ecumenism,” serving as a precursor to the dogmatic ecumenism that the Churches around the world have been slow to achieve, hindered by political and worldly reasons that are apparent to all.
Syrian worshipers followed the canonization ceremony on Sunday from the Church of Saint Paul of the Franciscans in Bab Touma. The altar on which Father Luiz, the superior of the convent was slain, remains still.
Beneath the altar, a transparent reliquary contains several skulls and bones, symbolically representing the relics of the Franciscan martyrs. The remains of the three Massabki brothers rest in a wooden ossuary displayed in a section of the church. According to tradition, all the victims from the convent were buried together, and the bones could only be identified by their clothing.
(*) Henry Laurens, Histoire contemporaine du mond

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 20-21/2024
Israel releases footage said to show Sinwar and family in Gaza tunnels ahead of October 7th attack
Canadian Press Videos/October 20/2024
Israel releases footage said to show Sinwar and family in Gaza tunnels ahead of October 7th attackScroll back up to restore default view.
The video that the IDF said is from the night of October 6 in Khan Younis, shows the Hamas leader along with three children and a woman, described by the spokesperson of the army, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, as Sinwar’s children and wife, moving back and forth through a tunnel carrying various equipment including mattresses, water bottles and other objects.

Martyr or coward? Israel and Hamas offer competing narrative on Sinwar’s death
Ivana Kottasová, CNN/October 20, 2024
The video depicts a desperate, abandoned man trying to attack a sophisticated military drone with a wooden stick. Or perhaps it shows a defiant hero who is staring the enemy in the eye while fighting till the bitter end. It depends on who is watching. When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the killing of Yahya Sinwar last week, they released several photos and a video showing the Hamas leader during his last moments alive and after his death.
It was meant to be proof that the man they said was one of the main architects of the October 7 terror attack was indeed dead, and a warning to Israel’s enemies that no matter where they hide, the IDF will eventually get them. But the decision to release the footage appears to have backfired, at least in part, as it has since been used to celebrate Sinwar for dying as a martyr and a resistance fighter. Now, Israel is in damage control mode, releasing older photos and videos of Sinwar hiding in tunnels with stashes of money in an attempt to portray the Hamas leader as a selfish man who only ever cared for himself. Gershon Baskin, a Middle East expert, peace activist and a former Israeli hostage negotiator who used to speak to Hamas through backchannels, said the release of the footage was misguided and likely motivated by Israeli politics.
As a negotiator for Israel, Baskin mediated the 2011 prisoner swap that saw more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners exchanged for Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier who had been held in Gaza for five years. Yahya Sinwar was among the Palestinian prisoners released in that deal.
“It is all about controlling the narrative from the side of Netanyahu – he needs this as his victory pictures,” Baskin told CNN. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under criticism from all sides over the way the war in Gaza is going. Domestically, it is facing huge anger over its inability to bring back the 101 hostages still held in Gaza. Internationally, it is under pressure over the mounting Palestinian death toll and horrific humanitarian situation in the strip.
“They have no idea that (by releasing the video) they are cementing the legacy of Sinwar in Palestine and the Arab world as a new kind of Saladin, a hero, a fighter to the very end,” he said, referring to the famous 12th-century Muslim warrior who defeated a much bigger Crusader army and conquered Jerusalem. Hamas was quick to seize the narrative and declare Sinwar a martyr who fought and died for the cause, but even Palestinians who have opposed Sinwar and Hamas in the past said the photos and video show defiance and bravery. “I think (the Israelis) were looking for an image of victory, but Sinwar gave them a different image. He was not hiding in a tunnel, as Netanyahu claimed, he was not hiding behind Palestinian civilians, taking them as human shields, as Israeli propaganda used to say. He was not hiding behind Israeli prisoners or captives, as they also claimed, he was fighting,” Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician and president of the Palestinian National Initiative, told CNN. “And this image will make him look like a hero for most Palestinians and most Arabs and most people who are against Israeli occupation and against the oppression that Palestinians are subjected to,” he added. The video also raises questions about the way Sinwar was killed. The IDF, Israel’s security services and its intelligence agency Shin Bet had been searching for Sinwar for over a year, getting help from the CIA. Yet in the end, it was only by pure chance that a group of soldiers stumbled upon Sinwar and killed him. At first, they didn’t even know who it was they had killed – the video shows Sinwar wearing a face covering and military clothes. It was only a day later when Israeli soldiers returned to the building to examine the scene that they realized it was Sinwar.
‘Truth is in the eye of the beholder’
Gil Siegal, a legal scholar and head of the Center for Medical Law, Bioethics and Health Policy at the Ono Academic College in Israel, said the fact that the video was used by both Israel and Hamas to make a point that suited their respective goals was not a surprise. “The truth is in the eye of the beholder. Objectively, the picture shows a person covered with dust, clearly injured, attempting to throw an object on a drone. This is the fact, the objective fact,” he said. “Now let’s interpret this fact. One would say: ‘oh, you see this person is fighting to his last gasp.’ The second would say: ‘you see, this is the Stone Age fighting the age of startups and technology.’ And the third will say: ‘you see, even at the last moment, this person remains violent and determined to cause damage,’ and so on.”
Siegal said there were likely several reasons why the IDF released the materials publicly, including a desire to show that Sinwar was in fact dead. “It’s a proof. For example, people said that (Hamas’ military chief) Mohammed Deif is still alive. There were days of refutation following (the death of the Hezbollah leader) Hassan Nasrallah,” he said.
To counter the portrayal of Sinwar as a brave martyr, the IDF has since released several videos and photos of him hiding in the tunnels underneath Gaza with his family, accompanied by claims about him living a comfortable life and prioritizing himself over his people. The IDF said the footage had been captured by a Hamas security camera on October 6 and October 10 last year and obtained by the IDF in recent days.
Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, said the IDF found huge sums of money, food and water in Sinwar’s hideouts. “He was hiding with his family in a luxurious tunnel while the children of Gaza were out in the open as a result of his crimes and brutality,” Adraee said on X.
Posting a photo of Sinwar’s wife carrying a bag, Adraee suggested the accessory was a luxury piece that cost tens of thousands of dollars. “While the people of Gaza do not have enough money for a tent or basic necessities, we see many examples of Yahya Sinwar and his wife’s special love for money,” he said. Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, said the release of photos and videos from the tunnels was likely an attempt at “course correction on the part of Israel.”Israel’s narrative had long been that Sinwar left the people of Gaza to suffer while he was sheltering underground, surrounding himself with the hostages taken from Israel as an insurance policy, she said.
“And then, all of a sudden, what you see is this guy and not only is he not in the tunnel and not with hostages, he’s fighting heroically like the last soldier, right, wearing armor, he looks thinner and even with his arm hanging, he lost an arm and he’s still fighting. This was not Israel’s intent,” she said, adding that the videos posted subsequently by the IDF are an attempt to reinforce their preferred narrative. It is a known fact backed by Western intelligence agencies that Hamas has built a vast network of underground tunnels in Gaza, using them to store weapons, to move around undetected and to shelter. The IDF said repeatedly that it believed Sinwar was moving around the tunnel network accompanied by hostages and said his DNA was found in a tunnel near where the bodies of six hostages who were killed by Hamas in late August were found.
Hamas has already issued a statement rebutting the Israeli version of events, accusing the IDF of “blatant lies” and “a failed theatrical performance” in its portrayal of the last year of Sinwar’s life.
The group said Sinwar was killed while “engaging in the battlefield” after having spent the past year “moving across various combat fronts in the Gaza Strip,” adding that “Commander Sinwar and his brothers” had humiliated the Israeli army. But Siegal said that there was likely another reason for the IDF releasing the video showing Sinwar all alone at the end. “Those who lead a revolution, those who lead a military campaign, are usually surrounded by the people that support them, people that live for them, people that will do everything in their power to help him. And guess what? This person supposedly fighting for the Palestinian people, the people left him by himself. He was all by himself,” he said.

Israel to take legal action against Macron over naval trade show ban
Reuters/October 20, 2024
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday he had ordered his ministry to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show. The decision to bar Israeli firms is the latest incident in a row fuelled by the Macron government's unease over Israel's conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Euronaval, organiser of the Nov. 4-7 event in Paris, said in a statement last week that the French government had informed it that Israeli delegations were not allowed to exhibit stands or show equipment, but could attend the trade show. The decision affected seven firms, it said. "I have instructed the Foreign Ministry to take legal and diplomatic action against French President ... decision to prevent Israeli companies from showcasing their products at the @SalonEuronaval exhibition in Paris next month," Katz said in a statement on social platform X. "The boycott of Israeli companies for the second time, or the imposition of unacceptable conditions, are undemocratic measures that are not acceptable between friendly nations. I urge President Macron to cancel them entirely."

Israel’s ties with Europe strained by wars in Gaza and Lebanon
Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN/October 20, 2024
Israel has been on the receiving end of scathing criticism from European leaders who are trying to restrain the Jewish state from pressing on with its wars in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
From calls for a complete halt of weapons sales to Israel and considering sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers, to talks among EU members on reviewing Israel’s Association Agreement with the bloc, European leaders are trying to use their leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into negotiating ceasefires. Adding impetus to their effort is the fact Israeli military strikes are now hitting UN peacekeeping bases in southern Lebanon, which house European troops. “Israel’s ties with the EU are under unprecedented stress at this point in time,” Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Berlin-based European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank, told CNN. The bloc’s position is starkly different to what experts described as unwavering support for Israel from European states on October 7 last year, when Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 others hostage. But as Israel’s retaliation against Hamas morphed into what critics call a “forever war,” killing more than 42,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, European countries have sought to distance themselves from the Jewish state.
The rising European criticism comes as the United States appears either unable or unwilling to put significant pressure on Israel just weeks ahead of the presidential election in November, experts said. “There is a lot of frustration, in western European capitals at least, with how the US has managed diplomacy over the last year,” Lovatt said, adding that some EU states felt the US should have done more to “moderate and constrain Israeli actions.” Last weekend, the Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government demanding it act to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance. In veiled criticism on Thursday, the European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said that too many people could die in that time. “The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay,” the EU foreign policy chief told reporters ahead of a leaders’ summit, according to Reuters. “One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It’s too many people,” Borrell said.
Lebanon war ‘tipped things over the edge’
Relations were initially strained because of Israel’s assault in Gaza, Lovatt said, “which is seen by many European governments, including those who are still supportive of Israel, as having been disproportionate and in contradiction to international law.” Israel’s ground operation against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon may have “tipped things over the edge” for many European states, Lovatt said. European reproach of Israel reached new levels when Israeli military strikes began hitting posts of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. The mission, UNIFIL, has been stationed there since 1978 and is made up of 50 nationalities, including troops from Spain, Ireland, Italy and France. Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, director of the Israel-Europe Relations Program at the Mitvim think tank in Jerusalem, said that “when it comes to defending their own soldiers,” European states tend to be more vocal. The UN has said Israel’s military has fired on its peacekeepers multiple times in recent weeks, injuring more than a dozen. Israeli forces also forcibly entered a base, and stopped a critical logistical movement, the UN said. Israel has said it has no intention of harming the UN’s peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon but accused Hezbollah of using UNIFIL personnel as human shields. Netanyahu has warned that UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon are in “harm’s way,” and called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to get them out “immediately.”
The diplomatic spat between Israel and some European leaders burst into the open this week. In remarks that drew a sharp response from Israel, French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying in a cabinet meeting Tuesday that “Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” according to the Paris-based Agence France-Presse (AFP). Macron was referring to UN Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, which paved the way for Israel’s creation in 1948. “Therefore, this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” Macron added, according to AFP. The French president had earlier called for the complete suspension of the sale to Israel of arms used in the war in Gaza, while stressing France has not been involved in their supply. In a statement Tuesday, Netanyahu said that “it was not a UN decision… but the victory that was achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters” that created the State of Israel, adding that many of those fighters “were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France.”Netanyahu added that the UN has “in recent decades… approved hundreds of antisemitic decisions” against Israel, with the purpose of denying the Jewish state the “right to exist and its ability to defend itself.” Israel has repeatedly accused the UN, and Guterres, of antisemitism and this week designated the UN chief as persona non grata and banned him from entering Israel. The EU’s Borrell condemned the decision, calling the accusations of antisemitism against Guterres “slanderous.”The EU and UK consider Hamas a terrorist organization and have repeatedly condemned its actions since October 7. The EU has also sanctioned the military wing of Hezbollah.
‘We have blocked everything’
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also condemned Israel’s actions in Lebanon, including an Israeli military strike that hit a UN peacekeeping base where around 1,100 Italian troops are stationed. “We defend Israel’s right to live in peace and security, but we reiterate the need for this to happen in compliance with international humanitarian law,” Meloni said Tuesday. Italy is the third largest supplier of arms to Israel, providing the Jewish state with helicopters and guns, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). However, following the start of the war in Gaza, Italy suspended all new export licenses and canceled any agreements signed after October 7, Meloni was quoted as saying Tuesday by Italian state news agency ANSA. This policy is “much more restrictive than that applied by our partners - France, Germany and United Kingdom,” Meloni said, according to ANSA. “We have blocked everything.”Among the harshest critics of Israel have been the Irish and Spanish leaders, who have called on the EU to review its Association Agreement with Israel, saying the Jewish state is breaching the trade deal’s human rights clause in its Gaza war. Last week, Borrell said the issue would be discussed in the Foreign Affairs Council, as there is “enough evidence” to merit the discussion.
Changing the agreement would hurt Israel, Sion-Tzidkiyahu said, especially if trade is affected. The EU is Israel’s biggest trade partner, with trade between Israel and the bloc totaling $50.7 billion (€46.8 billion) in 2022, according to EU data. In an earlier move that protested Israel’s war in Gaza, Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized Palestinian statehood in May. While no longer a member of the EU, Britain has also sought to restrain Israel’s behavior, most recently by considering sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that his government was “looking at” sanctions against Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Meanwhile, David Cameron, who served as British foreign secretary under the previous government until July, told Sky News on Wednesday that he had planned to sanction the two ministers during his time in office, with the intention that it would show Israel that, while the UK supported the right to self-defense, “we do want you to try and obey humanitarian law.”Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich rejected Starmer’s comments. Ben Gvir accused the UK of working to “prevent” the establishment of the Jewish state. “The British must realize that the days of the mandate are over,” Ben Gvir’s spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the British administration of Palestine between 1917 and 1947.Last month, the UK suspended 30 of its 350 arms export licenses with Israel over risks of such weapons being used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. The decision was rebuked by Israeli officials.
German support
Experts said the EU is not a homogenous bloc, however, and its members have voiced varying degrees of criticism of Israel. When it comes to Israel, Germany is often the exception to European policy. Berlin is the second-largest supplier of weapons to Israel after the US, contributing some 30% of Israel’s arms as of 2023. On Wednesday, the news agency DPA reported that, in the past eight weeks, the German government had approved military equipment and munitions exports to Israel worth €31 million ($33.7 million). That is more than twice as much as during the rest of the year, DPA said. On Thursday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country would continue supplying weapons to Israel. German politicians have repeatedly stated that Israel’s security is Germany’s “reason of state.” This term is a reference to Germany’s special relationship with Israel due to its Nazi past, which saw the German state systematically murder 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. This genocide profoundly shaped the country’s policymaking. Despite the recent tensions with the wider bloc, Sion-Tzidkiyahu said the EU’s relations with Israel “are still very strong” and remain “important to Israel.” They have not caused material harm yet, she said, but risk “taking away the legitimacy under Israel’s seat.”

Israel Hones Plans to Attack Iran After Attempt on Netanyahu
Ethan Bronner and Galit Altstein/Bloomberg/October 20, 2024
A day after a Hezbollah drone penetrated Israel’s air defenses and exploded next to the private home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he held a series of meetings with top security aides to discuss the next attack on Iran. The planning for such an assault has been underway for three weeks since Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel following Israeli assassinations of leaders of Iran-sponsored militias. Saturday’s precise drone attack on Netanyahu’s coastal home north of Tel Aviv stunned many Israelis. While neither Netanyahu nor his wife were home and no one was injured, he and his ministers said it was another reason retaliation is warranted. “There is no doubt that another red line has been crossed here,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 14 on Saturday night. “We must defeat Iran’s ability to pose a threat.”Even as Israel weighed its next move against Iran, the head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, traveled to Egypt to discuss the prospects of renewing cease-fire negotiations with Hamas, according to an Israeli official. It was the first meeting between security chiefs to take place since the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by the Israeli Army last Thursday. No further information was made available on the outcome of the meeting. US President Joe Biden and his administration have said over the past days that Sinwar’s killing should serve to speed up talks and domestic pressure on Netanyahu has also ramped up to do the same — though hardliners aligned with Netanyahu oppose concessions.
Iran’s Denial
While Iran awaits Israel’s attack — and has vowed to hit back even harder — it made a point of denying involvement in the Saturday drone assault on Netanyahu’s home in the town of Caesarea.
The retaliation has taken longer than many expected, perhaps because of coordination between the US and Israel. Washington is urging Israel to avoid hitting either energy or nuclear installations and has sent Israel sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defense weapons for if and when Iran hits back.
An apparently leaked Pentagon document over the weekend detailed some of Israel’s preparations for such an attack. The leak, the authenticity of which wasn’t verified, appeared on the Telegram account of a pro-Iranian group called Middle East Spectator. On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that while it takes into account what the US advises, Israel makes its own decisions. It’s unclear when a decision will be reached or when retaliation will occur. Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 14, “There is no facility, whether military or civilian, nor any person in Iran that is immune. None of them sleeps well at night.” Donald Trump, the former US president running in next month’s election, told a campaign rally that Netanyahu had called him and said that after Israel’s recent assassinations of militia leaders, it was in a much better position to fight back against Iran and its proxies.
Netanyahu’s Sunday planning for the attack on Iran, first with close advisers and then with his security cabinet, came at the end of another day of intense military activity both in Lebanon and in Gaza. Hezbollah sent scores of projectiles at Israel’s north.
Late Sunday, Israel launched a military operation targeting Hezbollah economic strongholds, in particular a financial institution used by the Iran-backed militant group and its leadership. The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings to civilians as it sought to hit targets associated with the Al Qard Al Hassan Association, which serves as Hezbollah’s alternative banking system and allows the Shi’ite group to function. It operates outside of Lebanon’s legal banking system. The Israeli military also said it struck a command center for Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut.
In northern Gaza, health authorities said an Israeli strike overnight in the town of Beit Lahia killed dozens. The Israeli military disputed the toll but said it was pursuing Hamas operatives who’d reconstituted themselves in that area. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the yearlong war triggered when Hamas operatives swarmed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 250.
Some 100 hostages remain in Gaza, perhaps half of them alive, and Israel is offering rewards to Gazans to help return them. Israel’s killing of Sinwar, the Hamas leader, was viewed by many as a potential turning point, a moment when fighting might yield to negotiation and diplomacy. But in the days since, combat has intensified with Hezbollah and Hamas. Both are considered terrorist organizations by the US and other countries. Meanwhile, Israel expressed dismay that the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, offered condolences for Sinwar and described him as a martyr and “great national leader.” Sinwar was the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and slaughter. Abbas and the Authority are viewed by much of the world as moderate alternatives to Hamas, willing to live in peace with Israel if granted a state, whereas Hamas is openly dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Netanyahu and his government say Abbas and his Authority are, in fact, no less hostile or violent in their view of the Jewish state. “We aren’t surprised,” Netanyahu’s diplomatic adviser, Ophir Falk, said of the PLO’s statement. “They never condemned the October 7 massacre and they have a long history of praising mass murderers of Jews.”

In Israeli footage of the last minutes of Hamas leader's life, some see a symbol of defiance
Sarah El Deeb And Fatma Khaled/The Associated Press/October 20/2024
The world’s final glimpse of Hamas’ leader was rough and raw, showing him wounded and cornered as he sat in a bombed-out Palestinian home and faced down the Israeli drone filming him, hurling a stick at it. For Israel, the scene was one of victory, showing Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Oct. 7, broken and defeated. But many in the Arab and Muslim world — whether supporters of Hamas or not — saw something different in the grainy footage: a defiant martyr who died fighting to the end.
Clips from the released drone footage went viral on social media, accompanied by quotes from Sinwar's speeches in which he declared that he would rather die on the battlefield. An oil painting of a masked Sinwar sitting proudly on an armchair was widely shared, apparently inspired by the last image of him alive.
“By broadcasting the last minutes of the life of Yahya Sinwar, the occupation made his life longer than the lives of his killers,” Osama Gaweesh, an Egyptian media personality and journalist, wrote on social media. In Gaza, reactions to Sinwar’s death were mixed. Some mourned his killing, while others expressed relief and hope that it could bring an end to the devastating war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that he is said to have directed. Across the Arab and Muslim world, and away from the devastation in Gaza, opinions varied.
One thing, though, was clear. The footage was hailed by supporters and even some critics as evidence of a man killed in confrontation who at least wasn't hidden in a tunnel surrounded by hostages as Israel has said he was for much of the last year.
Three days after he was killed, Israel’s military dropped leaflets in south Gaza, showing another image of Sinwar lying dead on a chair, with his finger cut and blood running down his forehead. “Sinwar destroyed your lives. He hid in a dark hole and was liquidated while escaping fearfully," the leaflet said. “I don’t think there is a Palestinian leader of the first rank who died in a confrontation (like Sinwar), according to what the leaked Israeli version shows,” said Sadeq Abu Amer, head of the Palestinian Dialogue Group, an Istanbul-based think tank.
Sinwar's demise was different
Unlike Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in his hotel room in Iran, or the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group Hassan Nasrallah, bombed in an underground bunker by dozens of massive munitions, Sinwar was killed while apparently fighting Israeli forces, more than a year after the war began.Iran, the Shiite powerhouse and a main backer of Hamas, went further. It contrasted Sinwar’s death with that of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Tehran’s archenemy.
In a statement by Iran’s U.N. Mission, it said Saddam appeared disheveled out of an underground hole, dragged by U.S. forces while “he begged them not to kill him despite being armed.” Sinwar, on the other hand, was killed in the open while “facing the enemy," Iran said.
In a strongly worded statement, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the world, blasted Israel’s portrayal of Sinwar as a terrorist. Without naming Sinwar, the statement said that the “martyrs of the resistance” died defending their land and their cause.
In Israel, the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, described Sinwar as “defeated, outcast, and persecuted.” Many celebrated the news of the killing of the architect of the Oct. 7 attack. Video posted online showed a lifeguard on a Tel Aviv beach announcing the news to applause, while Israeli media showed soldiers handing out sweets. Residents of Sderot, a town that was attacked by Hamas militants, were filmed dancing on the streets, some wrapped in Israeli flags. On Telegram, some shared pictures of a dead Sinwar, likening him to a rat.
But there were also protests from families of hostages and their supporters who want Israeli leaders to use the moment to bring the hostages home.
Some are energized, not demoralized
Susan Abulhawa, one of the most widely read Palestinian authors, said the images released by Israel were a source of pride. Israel “thought that publishing footage of Sinwar’s last moments would demoralize us, make us feel defeat,” she wrote on X. “In reality, the footage immortalizes Sinwar and galvanizes all of us to have courage and resolve until the last moment.”
In the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, some remembered him with respect, while others expressed anger. “He died as a fighter, as a martyr,” said Somaia Mohtasib, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza City. For Saleh Shonnar, a resident of north Gaza now displaced to the center, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed. “Hundreds, tens of senior leaders were martyred and replaced with new leaders.”In Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace, mourners in a bombed-out mosque recited the funeral prayer for a Muslim when the body is missing. Israel has kept Sinwar's body. Dozens of men and children took part in the prayers. And in Wadi al-Zayne, a town in Lebanon’s Chouf region with a significant Palestinian population, Bilal Farhat said that Sinwar’s death made him a symbol of heroic resistance.
“He died fighting on the front line. It gives him some sort of mystical hero aura,” Farhat said.
Some Palestinians took to X to criticize Sinwar and dismiss his death in comparison to their own suffering. One speaker on a recorded discussion said there is no way of telling how he died. Another blamed him for 18 years of suffering, calling him a “crazy man” who started a war he couldn’t win. “If he is dear, we had many more dear ones killed,” one yelled. In the long run, the think tank’s Abu Amer said that the effect of the support and empathy for Sinwar after his death is unlikely to change the Arab public’s view of Oct. 7 and what followed.
“Those who supported Oct. 7 will continue to, and those who opposed Oct. 7 — and they are many — will keep their opinions, even if they show sympathy or admiration for him. Most Palestinians are now focused on ending the war," he said.

UN Condemns Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahiya
Asharq Al Awsat/October 20/2024
The UN peace envoy for the Middle East on Sunday condemned the continued attacks on civilians after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahiya killed dozens late on Saturday. "This follows weeks of intensified operations resulting in scores of civilian fatalities and near total lack of humanitarian aid reaching populations in the north," said Tor Wennesland, the UN Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. For his part, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said: "Our civil defense crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza." Bassal also said that more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip were recovered, including Jabalia and its refugee camp, since Israel's operation began. "More than a year has passed, and every day our blood is shed," displaced Gazan Nasser Shaqura said outside a hospital in Deir el-Balah, where victims of an Israeli air strike were taken. "Every day, every hour, there is a massacre," he said. "This is what our live

Netanyahu Tells Trump Israel Will Make Decisions Based on its Interests
Asharq Al Awsat/October 20/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with former US President Donald Trump, the prime minister's office said on Sunday. "Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated what he has also said publicly: Israel takes into account the issues the US administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests," it said. Trump, speaking later to reporters in Philadelphia, said he had had "a very nice call" with Netanyahu on Saturday. The Israeli leader had asked his opinion about what to do with Iran, he said. Israel is pondering its military reaction to recent Iranian missile strikes.
"He was asking what I thought. And I just said, you do what you have to do," Trump said.

Hamas to Conceal Identity of Sinwar’s Successor, Five Candidates Considered
Ramallah: Kifah Zboun/October 20/2024
Hamas is set to keep the identity of its new political bureau chief secret after Israel assassinated Yehya Sinwar, the group’s Gaza leader, on Wednesday. This follows the killing of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran less than three months ago. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas leaders are discussing the decision to hide the new leader’s name due to growing security risks. “The leadership is likely to keep the identity confidential for safety reasons,” one source said. The move is aimed at giving the new chief more freedom to operate and avoiding Israeli assassination attempts, which have targeted many of Hamas’ leaders. The secrecy is also expected to help maintain internal order and protect the group’s structure. Hamas wants to keep Israel uncertain about who will make decisions if talks resume on a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange in Gaza. Since Friday, after officially announcing Sinwar’s death, Hamas leaders have been discussing who will replace him and whether to reveal their identity. Sinwar was appointed about three months ago to send a defiant message to Israel and to show Hamas’ commitment to its “Al-Aqsa Flood” campaign. His selection also aimed to reduce pressure on the group’s external leadership, which faces Israeli threats, political pressure from mediators, and calls for host countries to expel Hamas leaders.
Potential Successors:
Darwish, the ‘Shadow Man’
Several candidates are being considered to replace Sinwar, who faced no competition for Hamas’ political leadership after Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on July 31. The focus is now on Mohammad Darwish (Abu Omar Hassan), head of Hamas’ Shura Council. He was relatively unknown until gaining attention after Haniyeh’s death. Many believe he has a strong chance, having appeared in recent official meetings ahead of some long-standing leaders. A Hamas source said Darwish, once seen as the “shadow man,” is now taking on a more prominent role, receiving visitors and leading key activities. Darwish spent much of his life abroad and was closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas originally emerged. Hamas later revised its charter and distanced itself from the Brotherhood.
Khalil al-Hayya: Sinwar’s Deputy
Alongside Darwish, Khalil al-Hayya is seen as a key contender, believed to be Sinwar’s deputy. Al-Hayya became a leading figure in Gaza after Sinwar’s disappearance and assassination. A veteran political leader in Gaza, al-Hayya became Sinwar’s deputy and a close ally. He now leads Hamas in Gaza and is in charge of ceasefire negotiations and a potential prisoner exchange. Al-Hayya has represented the group on key occasions, including speeches marking the October 7 attack and mourning Sinwar, calling him “the leader of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle.”He promised that Hamas would continue its fight for full Palestinian liberation and a state with Jerusalem as its capital. Al-Hayya also stated that Israeli prisoners held by Hamas would not be released unless Israel halts its offensive on Gaza, withdraws, and frees Palestinian prisoners. Known as a political hardliner, al-Hayya, like Sinwar, supports strong ties with Iran. Khaled Meshaal: Closer to the Muslim Brotherhood than Iran. In addition to al-Hayya and Darwish, Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Mohammad Nazzal are also possible candidates to lead Hamas. Meshaal led Hamas’ political bureau for about 21 years and now heads the group’s external branch. After Haniyeh’s assassination, Meshaal reportedly declined the leadership role due to health reasons and the current situation. It is unclear if he will now step in after Sinwar's death. Meshaal is widely known politically and is seen as more connected to the Muslim Brotherhood than to Iran. Mohammad Nazzal: A Hardliner in Hamas. Mohammad Nazzal’s influence was evident in the recent elections. Born and raised in Amman, Jordan, Nazzal is originally from the West Bank and studied in Kuwait. He joined Hamas at its founding and has been a member of the political bureau since 1996. Nazzal is regarded as one of the hardliners within the group.
Mousa Abu Marzouk: First Head of the Political Bureau
Mousa Abu Marzouk is another candidate for leadership. He co-founded Hamas in 1987 and was its first head of the political bureau. He currently serves as the deputy head of Hamas’ external branch. Born in 1951 in the Rafah refugee camp, his family was displaced from a village near Ramla. It is expected that the next Hamas leader will be chosen from among these candidates rather than from Gaza, especially given the communication breakdown with some leaders in the territory.
Hamas has a system for selecting successors for vacant positions.
Hiding the Identity of Hamas' Leader
Hamas began concealing the identity of its leader in 2004 after Israel assassinated founder Ahmed Yassin on March 22, followed by his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, on April 17. For a long time, Hamas did not disclose the name of its leader in Palestine to avoid Israeli targeting. Sinwar was killed on October 17, a major setback for Hamas that came just three months after former political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran. Sinwar’s death has prompted Hamas to start extensive consultations to shape its future approach to the ongoing conflict and ceasefire negotiations. This shift returned decision-making power to the external leadership after Gaza had been the focus. Future decisions are likely to involve broader discussions, especially with the absence of influential historical leaders. While not indicating a collective leadership model like Hezbollah's in Lebanon, it suggests a move towards more inclusive consultation. Since its founding in 1987, Hamas has had four leaders of the political bureau: Abu Marzouk (1992-1996), Meshaal (1996-2017), Haniyeh (2017 until his assassination), and Sinwar. A fifth leader is expected to be chosen soon.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 20-21/2024
This Day in History: The ‘Elites’ Betray Christians to Muslim Slaughter at Own Nation’s Expense
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 20/2024
One of history’s most terrible pitched battles between Christians and Muslims on European soil — which was waged over three carnage-soaked days — concluded on October 20, 1448.
The Ottoman Turks had been invading and terrorizing the Balkans for several years. One of the staunchest Christian foes of the Muslims, John Hunyadi, governor of Hungary, decided enough was enough, as evident in a letter he wrote to the pope on September 17:
[T]he enemy attacks our neighbors [the Serbs], incites [them] to war against us. We have decided to attack him instead of waiting for him to attack us. We have had enough of our men enslaved, our women raped, wagons loaded with the severed heads of our people, the sale of chained captives, the mockery of our religion…. [W]e shall not stop until we succeed in expelling the enemy from Europe. Unfortunately for Hunyadi, none of the Hungarian nobles, who had always despised the veteran fighter for not being a true member of the nobility — or, in modern parlance, the elites — supported him; it didn’t help that many of them were secretly working with the Ottomans against their own people. Nor would the pope, whom Hunyadi had implored on several occasions, send aid. Hunyadi set off counting on at least being able to meet up with the Albanians, but the mercurial Serbian despot — casting his lot with the Ottomans once again — prevented their passage. Frustration turned to rage when Hunyadi and his men learned that the Serbs had betrayed them, including by “refusing to take up arms against the Turks, though the war was started to right their wrongs and recover their possessions now in Turkish hands,” writes a Polish chronicler. Finally, at the fields of Kosovo — where, nearly 60 years earlier, and rather ominously, the Turks had first crushed an overly “proud” Christian coalition in 1389 — Sultan Murad II and 60,000 Ottomans met Hunyadi and his 24,000 men. The latter defiantly harangued his outnumbered men to fight with all their might and either “win a good and secure life for our country, forever,” or “die with glory, and eternal life is waiting for us on the other side.” For his part, the Muslim sultan dismounted, fell to the floor facing Mecca, performed two prostrations, and implored Allah to empower the “umma [community] of Muhammad.”
Mass Decapitation
The battle lasted a full three days, from October 17–20, with many reverses and much bloodshed. The contemporary account of Aeneas Silvius (the future Pope Pius II) follows:
Hunyadi did not wait to be challenged but initiated the fight himself. When battle was commenced, the outcome of the struggle long remained uncertain. Where Hunyadi fought, the enemy was routed and turned tail, and a great slaughter was carried out. In the same way, Murad was victorious on his own wing, where he overwhelmed and routed the Hungarians. Finally, when the two victors came head to head, the Christians were unable to withstand the onslaught of the Turks. Although they were superior in courage, they were surpassed in numbers and compelled to give way out of exhaustion rather than defeat.
Despite Hunyadi’s “threats and pleas,” the outnumbered Christian army began to crumble, and its “rank and file was massacred.” Fifteen thousand Christians lay dead; not content, Murad ordered them all decapitated, with the heads of commanders placed on spears.
During the carnage and chaos, three Muslims captured Hunyadi without knowing who he was, for he was often fighting at the front alongside his men. The chronicler Jan Długosz has the rest:
One of them goes off to hunt other fugitives, leaving the others to guard Hunyadi. These now quarrel over a golden crucifix he wore under his shirt, which they had not previously noticed. As they are squabbling, Hunyadi picks up a sword and kills one of them and wounds the other, and so recovers his possessions. He wanders for several days and eventually reaches Serbian territory and, trustingly, goes to a castle, where he is seized and kept prisoner for three months.
Clearly, the significance of the word “Balkanization” is much older than commonly assumed. As for Hungary’s elites, they got what they wanted: the disgrace of Hunyadi — even though it hurt their own country. He remained governor, though his prestige tanked; no one wanted to hear any more talk of resisting the Turks. Considering that the army he had spent two years rebuilding had been annihilated at Kosovo, the upper nobles became increasingly aggressive and defiant. Rather than fold and capitulate, however, Hunyadi revealed that there was more to him than battle and bloodshed, and the next few years saw him transformed into an adroit politician and diplomat, culminating with his saving Hungary from the Ottoman jihad during the great siege of Belgrade in 1456 — where the Turks suffered one of their most humiliating defeats at his hands. If the story of John Hunyadi sounds eerily familiar, it should. After all, at this very moment, we are witnessing another popular and patriotic leader, whom the globalist-minded elites despise and are doing everything they can to humiliate and keep out of power — even at the expense of their own nations’ security and wellbeing.
*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, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam.

The Biden-Harris Administration Owes Israel's Netanyahu An Apology
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./October 20, 2024
"Again and again we see that Israel absolutely made the right call in not heeding the Biden administration and the rest of the world's insistence that the IDF not invade Rafah." — Lahav Harkov, Israeli journalist, X, October 17, 2024.
"Pretty rich after a year of undermining Netanyahu, saying he MUST go to a ceasefire, MUST deescalate, trying to stop Israel from going into Rafah WHERE SINWAR WAS KILLED, and Kamala boycotting his joint address to Congress - now Biden & Harris have the nerve to congratulate him for setting the path to peace. I'm sure the phone call sounds something like 'You were right Bibi [Netanyahu], we apologize,'" — US Rep. Mike Waltz, X, October 18, 2024
Israel's killing Sinwar and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure in Rafah sadly show how steadfastly the Biden-Harris administration was trying to prevent Israel from achieving victory over the Iran-backed Islamist murderers and rapists responsible for the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
Netanyahu deserves credit for ignoring the warnings and threats by Biden and his senior officials. Thanks to Netanyahu, Hamas has been significantly debilitated and Sinwar has been eliminated, making the Middle East a safer place. It now remains to be seen whether the Biden-Harris administration will reconsider its failed foreign policies and apologize to the Israeli prime minister for attempting to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism and bring more security and stability not only to Israel, but the entire Middle East as well.
Israel's killing Yahya Sinwar and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure in Rafah sadly show how steadfastly the Biden-Harris administration was trying to prevent Israel from achieving victory over the Iran-backed Islamist murderers and rapists responsible for the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Pictured: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explains the importance of Rafah's Philadelphi corridor during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 4, 2024
Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration spent weeks warning Israel not to enter the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where many of the leaders of the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas were believed to be hiding. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had prepared to enter the city as part of a counterterrorism offensive to destroy Hamas's military capabilities and rescue some of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by the terrorist group on October 7, 2023.
The October 17 killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Rafah area proved that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did the right thing in ignoring the warnings of the Biden-Harris administration. The IDF eventually entered Rafah, where it succeeded in killing hundreds of Hamas terrorists and recovering the bodies of some of the hostages. In addition, the IDF managed to rescue one of the hostages held in a Hamas tunnel in the Rafah area.
Had Netanyahu caved in to the warnings and threats by President Joe Biden and other senior US administration officials, Sinwar would still be alive today and Hamas terrorists would still be controlling Rafah and the nearby Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Biden's pressure on Israel to refrain from sending its troops to Rafah reached its peak in May, when the president said he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel if Netanyahu ordered a major invasion of the city, saying:
"I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven't gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem."
Later, in a phone call with Netanyahu, Biden repeated his demand that Israel refrain from entering Rafah. "The President reiterated his clear position on Rafah," according to a White House summary of the call.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was also quoted as opposing Israel's plan to invade Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in the city. According to the Financial Times:
"Sullivan has warned the Israeli government against 'smashing into Rafah' as the Biden administration underlines its opposition to the planned assault on one of Gaza's biggest cities.
"The US was continuing to urge the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect civilians and find a path for a long-term peace, Sullivan said. But an assault on the southern Gaza city was not necessary in the effort to 'crush Hamas', he added."
Sullivan was also quoted as saying: "We still believe it would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also joined the anti-Rafah invasion chorus. Blinken said in May:
"We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed and no, we've not seen such a plan. There are other ways, and in our judgment better ways, of dealing with the... ongoing challenge of Hamas that does not require a major military operation in Rafah."
In March, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris said:
"[A]ny major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake. Let me tell you something, I have studied the maps... And so, we've been very clear that, um, it would be a mistake to move into Rafah with any type of military operation."
Since the IDF entered Rafah on May 6, however, it discovered and destroyed countless Hamas tunnels and eliminated several senior commanders of the terrorist group. In September, the IDF announced that it had defeated Hamas's Rafah brigade and killed more than 2,000 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists. IDF troops also destroyed some 80% of the smuggling tunnels located near and beneath the Philadelphi Corridor.
A few weeks earlier, the bodies of Israeli hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Ori Danino were found in a Hamas tunnel in Rafah. The hostages had been murdered by Hamas terrorists. The IDF revealed on October 17 that slain Hamas arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar had used the six hostages as human shields to avoid being killed or captured by Israel's military.
The Israeli military operation in Rafah has proven to be a huge achievement in the war against Hamas, whose members carried out the October 7, 2023 massacre that resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis, many of whom were raped, tortures, beheaded and burned alive, and the abduction of more than 250 others.
The IDF's biggest achievement was not only killing Sinwar, but also eliminating Hamas's military infrastructure in the area. The dispatch of Sinwar is a severe military and moral blow to the terrorist group, which will undoubtedly find it hard to replace him with a leader of equal standing and popularity.
"Again and again we see that Israel absolutely made the right call in not heeding the Biden administration and the rest of the world's insistence that the IDF not invade Rafah," remarked Israeli journalist Lahav Harkov after the elimination of Sinwar.
US Rep. Mike Waltz commented on X:
"Pretty rich after a year of undermining Netanyahu, saying he MUST go to a ceasefire, MUST deescalate, trying to stop Israel from going into Rafah WHERE SINWAR WAS KILLED, and Kamala boycotting his joint address to Congress - now Biden & Harris have the nerve to congratulate him for setting the path to peace.
"I'm sure the phone call sounds something like 'You were right Bibi [Netanyahu], we apologize.'"
Israel's killing Sinwar and destroying Hamas's military infrastructure in Rafah sadly show how steadfastly the Biden-Harris administration was trying to prevent Israel from achieving victory over the Iran-backed Islamist murderers and rapists responsible for the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
Netanyahu deserves credit for ignoring the warnings and threats by Biden and his senior officials. Thanks to Netanyahu, Hamas has been significantly debilitated and Sinwar has been eliminated, making the Middle East a safer place. It now remains to be seen whether the Biden-Harris administration will reconsider its failed foreign policies and apologize to the Israeli prime minister for attempting to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism and bring more security and stability not only to Israel, but the entire Middle East as well.
**Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

How the Abraham Accords and Kurdish alliances could transform the Middle East - opinion
Veysi Dag/Jerusalem Post/October 21/2024
Kurds see hope in the Abraham Accords but face serious opposition from Iran and Turkey. Could alliances shift?
The Middle East has experienced a significant upheaval since the ratification of the Abraham Accords in September 2020, which marked a paradigm shift in the Arab-Israel conflict – ongoing since the end of World War II – paving the way for a new era of harmonious relations between Israel and several Arab nations.
The major objectives of the Abraham Accords are to end the hostility that has persisted since 1948 and to enhance peace, business and energy interests, technological developments, and security cooperation between the Arab states and Israel with massive implications for the Middle Eastern people, including oppressed communities such as Kurds and their religious Yezidi and Alevi factions.
Kurdish troops successfully fought pan-Sunni Islamist jihadists such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda-linked groups and were able to build an inclusive model in Rojava in Syria, encouraging multiple ethnic and religious communities to coexist together. The Kurdish forces have simultaneously advocated for regional peace by bolstering secular and emancipatory agendas for harmony among Middle Eastern peoples – a pluralistic harmony that includes regional, national, ethnic, and religious minorities. This Kurdish paradigm mirrors the objectives of the Abraham Accords, which Israel and Gulf Arab states have been pursuing since September 2020.
However, the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 against Israeli civilians and sites were intended to obstruct the implementation and expansion of the Abraham Accords in the hopes of restoring the status quo that persisted from 1948 until recently. Turkey, Iran have targeted communities supportive of accords
To put it another way, the Iranian and Turkish regimes, along with their pan-Sunni and pan-Shia proxies, backed Hamas in their efforts to thwart peaceful coexistence following the Abraham Accords – and reignite the hostilities that the Arab states, striving to usher in a new era in Middle East history, are gradually abandoning.
Yet, to succeed in implementing the Abraham Accords, Israel is currently engaged in multiple conflicts on seven fronts with pan-Shia Islamists in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran, as well as pan-Sunni Islamists including Hamas and numerous other jihadist groups in Gaza and the West Bank. The Iranian and Turkish regimes have already objected to the Abraham Accords, condemned their signatories, and empowered the Sunni and Shia proxies, causing the failure of this peace agreement. These regimes have also targeted communities such as the Kurds who desire the Abraham Accords’ spirit – on the grounds that they implement “the Zionist agenda.”
Consequently, the Kurds face daily deadly attacks from the Turkish military in the north and Iranian proxies in the east of Syria. Moreover, the Iranian regime has continued its systematic oppression of Kurdish citizens, executing them on a regular basis.
The murder of 22-year-old Jina [her Kurdish name, “Mahsa” in Persian] Amini in September 2022 serves as a symbol of Iranian repression toward Kurds and other minoritized ethnic groups in general. Furthermore, regime forces have frequently employed missiles to attack Kurdish civilian sites in Erbil and the camps of Kurdish refugees from Iran in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. The Turkish regime forces have arbitrarily arrested ordinary Kurdish individuals for speaking their native language or participating in dancing performances and have imprisoned Kurdish politicians and journalists, frequently without a fair court trial due to Erdogan’s direct control.
Additionally, Turkish forces repeatedly targeted Kurdish populations and infrastructure in Syria and Iraq. They have been accused of ethnic cleansing in Afrin and other Kurdish areas.
Turkish journalists, professors, and former generals have asserted that the Turkish invasion in Afrin and other Kurdish cities was aimed at thwarting “Zionist” efforts to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, the Iranian and Turkish regimes justify their draconian measures against Kurds by citing “Zionist agendas” and “Kurdish efforts to establish a second Israel.” The Kurdish authorities have refuted the Iranian regime’s claims that they are harboring Mossad bases in the Kurdistan Region. While inflicting significant cruelty on Kurds, both Iranian and Turkish regimes internally divide them by creating factions driven by anti-Kurdish and antisemitic objectives. The legal version of Hezbollah, specifically HÜDA-PAR in the Kurdish region, is one of the main factions. HÜDA-PAR endeavors to preserve the status quo, a strategy that the Iranian and Turkish regimes employ to suppress any potential for regional peace. This group has transformed Kurdish cities, particularly the symbolic Kurdish capital city of Diyarbakir, into a hub of pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah, pan-Islamist, antisemitic, and anti-Kurdish activities.
The Turkish state authorities promote HÜDA-PAR’s activities by encouraging and transporting masses – along with village guards and civil servants – from Kurdish cities in an attempt to create the impression that the Kurds are against Israel’s objectives, supporting the antagonistic agendas of pan-Islamist forces and opposing the Abraham Accords peace initiative. Yet the local Kurds do not, for the most part, back HÜDA-PAR and its ideological agendas.
The pro-Kurdish DEM-Party’s elites represent a problematic position, which ordinary Kurds designate as a position of the repressive states, upholding the status quo in the region. These elites, mostly Turkish leftists and Kemalists, hold a dominant position within DEM-Party’s structures. For instance, the DEM-Party chairs recently expressed their outrage over Hassan Nasrallah’s death and denounced Israel – a stance that aligns with that of both the Iranian and Turkish regimes. The DEM-Party’s co-chair, Tülay Hatimogulları, of Arab descent, claimed that the “imperialists” intended to reconfigure the Middle East by remapping its borders and urging people in the region to “unite for peace” against this policy. Her statement aligns with the official Turkish and Iranian regime’s stance. For example, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on the authoritarian regimes in Iran, Syria, and Russia to take measures against Israel, which threatens Syria and the region.
Yet a large number of Kurdish social media users have condemned the statements of this co-chair, emphasizing their opposition to her representation of the Kurds.
Encourage Israel to extend
Based on my communication with Kurdish activists and politicians in the diaspora and observation of the DEM-Party’s social media accounts, they claimed to support the transformation of the status quo, encouraging Israel to extend the zone of the Abraham Accords to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This approach implies a cleavage between the Kurdish grassroots and the non-Kurdish DEM Party’s elites.
In contrast to the DEM-Party’s elites, the Kurdish grassroots portray themselves as progressive advocates for the transformation of the current Middle East’s status quo through the Abraham Accords, which pave the way for democracy, freedom, and self-determination.
By ignoring these demands, the DEM Party’s elites adopt agendas that cater to the Turkish state’s needs, thereby upholding the status quo in the region.
Despite differing narratives, Israel and the Kurds share a desire to reform authoritarian and dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, particularly in Turkey and Iran, which have long been responsible for violence and antagonism. The progressive Jews, Kurds, and other populations in the Middle East could create a peaceful and democratic order in the region through the Abraham Accords, which offer security, welfare, and business opportunities to Middle Eastern indigenous populations.
By eliminating the hostile pan-Sunni and pan-Shia forces, the Abraham Accords will certainly replace the dark Middle East with a bright Middle East, offering its people peace, welfare, and democracy. To this end, Kurdish actors in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria must move beyond ideological dogmatism and listen to their people’s democratic demands in order to advocate for the peace project embodied by the Abraham Accords.
Likewise, Israeli politicians should recognize that the overwhelming majority of Kurds (over 40 million people) sympathize with the spirit of the Abraham Accords, believe it will have a positive impact on their lives, and therefore wish to see it implemented.
In this sense, Israeli decision-makers should consider openly embracing the Kurds and formally welcoming them to participate in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious model for the Middle East that the Abraham Accords represent, a model of that which they have long upheld.
The approach Israeli policymakers take toward the Kurds is crucial to securing full confidence between the Kurdish people and Israel, undermining the adverse influence of authoritarian regimes that are destructive to Kurdish-Jewish relations.
*The writer is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

UNIFIL’s future questionable as Israel criticizes its role in Lebanon conflict - opinion
Tatiana Waisberg/Jerusalem Post/October 21/2024
UNIFIL must adapt its strategy if it is going to have a role in the current conflict with Hezbollah.
The row involving Israel, the UN, and some countries regarding UNIFIL is not as self-evident as it appears to be. Peacekeeping forces have no formal provision within the United Nations Charter.
The United Nations’s system formally recognizes either peaceful solutions to conflicts (Chapter VI); or measures of the use of force, restricted to the self-defense of states, in case of an armed attack (Chapter VII). It is rather the international practice that has determined the peacekeeping forces should back ceasefires, or interfere on humanitarian grounds.
According to the UN, “Peacekeepers protect civilians, actively prevent conflict, reduce violence, strengthen security, and empower national authorities to assume these responsibilities. This requires a coherent security and peacebuilding strategy that supports the political strategy.”
UNIFIL, established in 1978, changed its mandate to increase its presence. Following the Second Lebanon War (2006), the Security Council expanded UNIFIL’s original mandate, stating that its purpose was to “monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons.”
That means that whenever there is no longer a cessation of hostilities (as occurred since October 8, 2023) UNIFIL’s main task is undefined, and it may find itself playing a role contrary to its original purpose, as a peacekeeping force.
How can UNIFIL act reliably?
Nevertheless, UNIFIL can have a positive role during wartime. But for this purpose, both parties to the conflict must have confidence in it; In other words, the peacekeeping force must be extremely careful about impartiality, and this is much more challenging during wartime.
So how can UNIFIL continue functioning as a reliable actor, both in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of Lebanon?
In Lebanon, the government sided with UNIFIL when some of its personnel were injured during the battle between Israel and Hezbollah. The same happened with countries participating in UNIFIL. Italy, the country that is currently leading the UNIFIL peacekeeping effort in Lebanon has adopted a hostile tone toward Israel. This approach, however, ignores the facts on the ground, and risks further aggravating the mistrust between Israel and the UN.
Israel has accused UNIFIL of providing a shield for Hezbollah. From Israel’s point of view, without a buffer zone, the tiny positions granted to UNIFIL in South Lebanon turn into an asset to Hezbollah. As such, the blame game between the UN and Israel increases as the IDF advances in South Lebanon.
There is truth in Israel’s claim that the force’s insistence on remaining in the same positions in South Lebanon is at best counterproductive. Not only is there a danger that UNIFIL members could be caught in the crossfire, but there is also the question: How are they supposed to continue to provide humanitarian aid to the population of southern Lebanon that is no longer in place (and unlike UNIFIL was displaced and fled north.)
Does UNIFIL then have an active role to play during the war? The answer is yes. However, it needs to adapt its strategy to cope with the current situation. Humanitarian assistance to the local population does not have to stop, on the contrary, UNIFIL can help ease the suffering of the civilian population, but it should show more flexibility while doing so.
Unlike other peacekeeping forces, which have had their reputation damaged by scandals, including sex abuse in exchange for aid, this is not the case for UNIFIL.
Its size and capabilities can now be redirected toward logistical support. It can collaborate with other organizations, states, and NGOs. This could be a step toward curbing Israel’s intention to push for an end to UNIFIL. Alternatively, it risks turning into an entity exploited by Hezbollah as a trap for IDF forces.
**The writer is a legal consultant on strategic international advocacy. She is a former senior lecturer on international law in Brazil and a Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies fellow researcher.