English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 25/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
The Mustard Seed Parable & the Depth Of Faith
Matthew 13/31-35: “Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The
kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his
field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the
greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.’He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven
is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until
all of it was leavened.’Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables;
without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken
through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim
what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’ ’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on October 24-25/2024
To social media Politicized activists: Confront criticism with facts, not
threats and insults./Elias Bejjani/October 23/2024
Interview with, Youssef Y. El-Khoury, ...Introduction/Freely summarized and
written in English by the LCCC website publisher and editor, Elias Bejjani
French FM Says Conference for Lebanon Raised $1 billion in Pledges
Mikati says only state should carry arms
Lebanon aid conference raises $1 billion
Saudi Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Participates in International Conference
to Support of Lebanon
Israeli drone targets car in Kahale
Hezbollah says clashing with Israeli troops in Aita al-Shaab
Hezbollah targets Safad and Israeli base near Haifa
Pentagon chief voices 'deep concern' over Israeli strikes on Lebanon army
British minister says political solution is 'only answer' to Lebanon conflict
Israeli strike kills 2 Lebanese troops and an officer
Mikati urges instant ceasefire, deployment of 8,000 troops in south
Germany pledges 96 mn euros in aid for crisis-hit Lebanon
Lebanon’s Death Toll in Israel-Hezbollah Conflict Rises to 2,593
Israel Says it Hit Hezbollah Arms Facilities in Beirut’s Southern Suburbs
US Doesn't Want Protracted Israeli Campaign in Lebanon, Blinken Says
Israel Army Chief Sees Possibility for 'Sharp Conclusion' to Hezbollah Conflict
Israel’s attacks have devastated Hezbollah. How is it still fighting back?
Christians in South Lebanon’s Border Villages Stand Firm with Vatican
Reassurances
The War and Pain in Lebanon/Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
Force Cannot Protect Lebanon/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat./October 24, 2024
Iran Is Using Lebanon’s Airport to Fund Terrorism; The World Must Respond/Emanuele
Ottolenghi/The Algemeiner/October 24/2024
Massive displacement from war transforms Beirut's famed Hamra street
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 24-25/2024
Iran Expects Israeli Response Within a Week, Sources Say
US, Qatar announce new Gaza talks as Blinken eyes new options
Israel and UN are maneuvering fraught but fundamental ties during Middle East
wars
Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza
has killed 17
US Senator Graham says Israel-Saudi deal possible before year-end
Israel says it killed Hamas commander who doubled as U.N. aid worker
The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and
former detainees say
Bank of Canada cuts interest rates: Read the official statement
Pope Francis Denounces a World 'Losing its Heart' in 4th Encyclical of His
Papacy
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on October 24-25/2024
Iran's Assassination Program in Europe: Europe Goes Back to Sleep/Robert
Williams/Gatestone Institute./October 24, 2024
All eyes on Rafah...Israelis eliminate Hamas’s top terrorist, but the war must
go on/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/October 24/2024
Guterres embraces the authoritarians/Ben Cohen/Jewish News Syndicate/October
24/2024
Multi-front drone threats against Israel increase/Seth J. Frantzman/ FDD's Long
War Journal/October 24/2024
Iran’s Economy Braces for Impact of Clash With Israel/Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD.
Policy Brief/October 24/2024
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on October 24-25/2024
To social media Politicized activists: Confront criticism with facts, not
threats and insults.
Elias Bejjani/October 23/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135661/
Dear social media activists you MUST be aware that our duty toward the martyrs,
the country, and its people is not to appease anyone … government officials,
clergy, journalists, activists, or politicians—whoever they may be—are all meant
to be servants of the people, yes, servants of the people and their interests,
not deities to be worshiped, praised for their blessings, and shielded from
criticism or opposition to their stances and choices. Whoever supports any
politician, politica party leaderl or official in any position, part if they are
truly human and not mere mouthpieces, slaves, or parrots, must focus on
criticism based on documents and facts, not on insults, mockery, or threats. And
they shouldn’t sulk or leave or threaten to leave the groups they belong to.
Especially during times of crisis and war, it is crucial to explain the stances
and choices of politicians, and freely accept or reject them. Remember that the
saying, “No voice is louder than the voice of battle,” has led the Arabs, their
nations, our country, and our rulers to the depths of hell. Those who wish to
sulk يحرد are free to do so, but neither they nor anyone else has the right to
tailor criticism to fit their allegiance to the idols they worship. As for those
who act like herds of sheep they should at least remain silent and try to
educate themselves.
Interview with, Youssef Y. El-Khoury,
...Introduction/Freely summarized and written in English by the LCCC website
publisher and editor, Elias Bejjani
October 24, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/136124/
In this MTV (Arabic) podcast video interview with writer and director Youssef
Y. El-Khoury, he courageously delves into a thorough historical and
sovereignty-based analysis of the ongoing war between the terrorist Iranian
proxy, Hezbollah, and the state of Israel, exploring its causes and its
militarily decisive outcomes.
El-Khoury exposes the lies, illusions, and fabrications imposed by Hezbollah and
Iran on certain segments of the Lebanese population, and underscores the
necessity of standing for the truth, no matter the cost, and openly confronting
the dangers posed by those who fear doing so.
The interview emphasizes that Hezbollah did not liberate southern Lebanon in
2000, but rather continues to occupy it, just as it occupies the entire country.
The interview acknowledges the bravery and struggles of Lebanese refugees in
Israel, honoring their heroism and the hardships they endured before 2000,
particularly in light of the Lebanese state's abandonment.
El-Khoury sheds light on the true legacy of the South Lebanon Army (SLA),
describing it as a truly national force.
He stresses that, for those familiar with the Israeli mindset, there is no
surprise in what has befallen Hezbollah or the fate of its leaders.
The interview offers a historical narrative of both past and current events from
Lebanese, Israeli, Iranian, and Palestinian perspectives, concluding with the
undeniable collapse of Hezbollah.
French FM Says Conference for Lebanon Raised $1 billion
in Pledges
Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
France's foreign minister said an international conference for Lebanon raised $1
billion in pledges for humanitarian aid and military support to help the country
where war between Hezbollah and Israel has displaced a million people, killed
over 2,500, and deepened an economic crisis. Jean-Noël Barrot said: “We have
collectively raised $800 million in humanitarian aid and $200 million for the
security forces, that’s about $1 billion,” in his closing speech at the Paris
conference, which gathered over 70 nations and international organizations.
“We’re up to the challenge,” Barrot said.
The United States pledged to provide about $300 million, he said, The AP
reported. French President Emmanuel Macron had called on participants to bring
“massive aid” to support the country, as France promised $100 million. The
United Nations had previously estimated the urgent humanitarian needs in Lebanon
to be $426 million. Germany pledged a total of 96 million euros in humanitarian
aid to both Lebanon and neighboring Syria, also deeply affected by escalating
violence in the Middle East. Italy announced this week an additional 10 million
euros ($10.8 million) in aid for Lebanon. However, experts warn that delivering
aid could be challenging as Lebanon’s growing dependence on informal and cash
economy increases lack of transparency and corruption risks. The Paris
conference also aimed at coordinating international support to strengthen
Lebanon’s armed forces so they can deploy in the country’s south as part of a
potential deal to end the war. Such a deal could see Hezbollah withdraw its
forces from the border. This support to the Lebanese military includes “helping
with health care, fuel, small equipment, but also supporting the plan to recruit
at least 6,000 additional soldiers and to enable the deployment of at least
8,000 additional soldiers in the south,” Macron said. Paris also seeks to help
restore Lebanon's sovereignty and strengthen its institutions. The country,
where Hezbollah effectively operates as a state within a state, has been without
a president for two years while political factions fail to agree on a new one.
The International Organization for Migration has said about 800,000 people are
displaced, with many now in overcrowded shelters, while others have fled across
the border into Syria. Lebanon's army has been hit hard by five years of
economic crisis. It has an aging arsenal and no air defenses, leaving it in no
position to defend against Israeli incursions or confront Hezbollah. The
Lebanese army has about 80,000 troops, around 5,000 of them deployed in the
south. Hezbollah has more than 100,000 fighters, according to the militant
group’s late leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The militant group's arsenal, built with
support from Iran, is more advanced. Conference participants also are to discuss
how to support the 10,500-soldier-strong UN peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL.
European nations including France, Italy and Spain provide a third of its
troops. Italy, which has over 1,000 troops in UNIFIL, is pushing for the
peacekeeping force to be strengthened to “be able to face the new situation” on
the ground, an Italian diplomat said, speaking anonymously to discuss ongoing
talks.
Mikati says only state should carry arms
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Thursday that only the state should
carry weapons, as he pushed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
"Lebanese authorities must deploy over (all) Lebanese territory and weapons
should be carried only by the state and the Lebanese army," Mikati said on the
sidelines of a Lebanon aid conference in Paris, without explicitly calling for
the disarmament of Hezbollah, the only group that did not lay down its arms
after the end of the Lebanese civil war.
Lebanon aid conference raises $1 billion
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
A Paris conference Thursday on aid for conflict-stricken Lebanon raised around
$800 million for humanitarian aid and a further $200 million to support the
country's armed forces, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. "We have
risen to the occasion," Barrot told participants as the conference closed, while
adding that "we cannot limit ourselves to a humanitarian and security
response... we have to bring about a diplomatic solution" as fighting between
Israel and Hezbollah continues.
Saudi Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Participates in
International Conference to Support of Lebanon
Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
On behalf of Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, the Saudi Minister of
Foreign Affairs, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eng. Waleed ElKhereiji
participated on Thursday in the International Conference in Support of Lebanon’s
People and Sovereignty, held in Paris. During the conference, Eng. ElKhereiji
delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of collective commitment to
assisting Lebanon in confronting its current crisis and mitigating its
humanitarian repercussions. He reaffirmed the Kingdom’s support for
international efforts to enhance Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty, SPA
reported. Eng. ElKhereiji stated that, under the directives of the Custodian of
the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and Prince Mohammed bin
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia stands by the Lebanese people in these challenging times and the
Kingdom’s full commitment to supporting all efforts to achieve a ceasefire and
activate sustainable diplomatic solutions to bring peace to Lebanon, maintain
its stability, and respect its sovereignty. Eng. ElKhereiji reiterated the
Kingdom’s emphasis on the importance of supporting Lebanon’s state institutions
in fulfilling their constitutional duties to extend the state’s sovereignty over
all Lebanese territory. He remarked, “Permanent stability can only be achieved
by building a strong state capable of asserting its sovereignty and performing
its legitimate role in serving the Lebanese people.”Eng. ElKhereiji highlighted
the pivotal national role played by the Lebanese army in maintaining Lebanon’s
security and stability, affirming that the army is the cornerstone of enabling
the Lebanese state to initiate steps toward securing a safe future for the
Lebanese people, free from conflicts. He stressed the need to adhere to the
relevant international resolutions aimed at safeguarding Lebanon’s sovereignty
and independence, as well as implementing the Taif Agreement, which serves as a
framework for ensuring Lebanon’s stability and national unity. Eng. ElKhereiji
also noted the Kingdom’s commitment and supportive stance toward the Lebanese
people. He highlighted the Kingdom’s initiative to provide urgent humanitarian
aid by delivering medical, relief, and shelter supplies through an ongoing air
bridge to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people and meet their urgent
needs in these critical circumstances. The meeting was attended by Saudi
Arabia's Ambassador to France Fahd Alruwaily and Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to
Lebanon Waleed Bukhari.
Israeli drone targets car in Kahale
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
Lebanon's official National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a car on
a highway leading to the capital Beirut, as Israel and Hezbollah fight a
month-old war. "An enemy drone targeted a car on the Kahale road," the NNA said,
referring to a mountain area on the main highway between Beirut and the eastern
Bekaa Valley. Media reports said two people were killed in the strike.
Hezbollah says clashing with Israeli troops in Aita al-Shaab
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
Hezbollah said it was clashing at close range on Thursday with Israeli troops in
a south Lebanon border village, claiming it had hit two tanks. Hezbollah
fighters were engaged in "heavy clashes in the village of Aita al-Shaab" at
close range, the group said in a statement, adding that they hit a Merkava tank
that came to assist the troops after earlier saying it had "destroyed" another
tank.
Hezbollah targets Safad and Israeli base near Haifa
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
Hezbollah said Thursday it targeted an Israeli military base near Haifa, the
second time within 24 hours it has said it targeted the facility. Hezbollah
fighters "bombed" the "defense industry" base "north of the city of Haifa with a
salvo of rockets," a statement said, after claiming an attack Wednesday on the
same site. Hezbollah also said that it launched a "large rocket salvo" at the
northern Israeli town of Safad on Thursday. Hezbollah fighters bombed "the town
of Safad... with a large rocket salvo," the group said in a statement, adding
the launch came "in response to Israeli enemy attacks" on Lebanon.
Pentagon chief voices 'deep concern' over Israeli strikes
on Lebanon army
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has expressed "deep concern" to his Israeli
counterpart Yoav Gallant over strikes on the Lebanese army after three soldiers
were killed over the weekend.Lebanon's military said Sunday that an Israeli
strike had targeted the soldiers' vehicle in the country's south, where Israel
says it is pounding strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah. The deaths brought the
number of Lebanese troop casualties to eight killed since all-out war erupted
between Israel and Hezbollah last month. In a call with Gallant on Wednesday,
Austin "expressed his deep concern about the reports of strikes against the
Lebanese Armed Forces," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said in a
statement. He added that Austin "emphasized the importance of taking all
necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the Lebanese Armed
Forces and UNIFIL forces," referring to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
UNIFIL has accused Israel of attacking its members multiple times in recent
weeks. Austin also expressed his condolences for an Israeli brigade commander
killed in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged in a sweeping
assault targeting Hamas. Colonel Ahsan Daksa was killed in the Jabalia area when
an explosive struck him as he left his tank, Israel's military said on Sunday.
British minister says political solution is 'only answer'
to Lebanon conflict
Naharnet/October 24, 2024
The British Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer on Thursday attended
the Lebanon Support Conference in Paris to reiterate calls for a ceasefire in
Lebanon. Below is Falconer's speech at the conference as distributed by the
Brirish embassy in Lebanon: "The situation in Lebanon is worsening daily, and
civilian casualties are mounting. The risks of further escalation cannot be
overstated. We cannot let Lebanon become another Gaza. This is why today the UK
repeats our call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese
Hizballah. Let us not forget that this conflict started when Hizballah launched
rockets at northern Israel, forcing the Israelis to flee their homes. The UK
stands with Israel and recognises its right of self defence in the face of
unlawful Iranian attacks. Iran must immediately halt those attacks, and stand
down its proxies. Meanwhile, we are working with the Lebanese Armed Forces, the
sole legitimate defender of that state, to support security and stability. I am
pleased to be joined today by one of our most senior military officers, Air
Marshal Harvey Smyth, who leads our work to support the Lebanese Armed Forces.
We stand ready to do more. We are also committing £15 million to respond to the
humanitarian emergency in Lebanon, supporting food, medicine and clean water.
Many generous British citizens are now donating to the Disasters Emergency
Committee appeal for Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region - my government will now
pledge to match that generosity up to £10 million. The aid workers striving to
alleviate suffering in Lebanon must be able to carry out their duties in safety
– including UN workers, who have a vital role to play in resolving armed
conflict and mitigating its impact. Britain condemns all threats to the security
of UNIFIL.We call on all parties engaged in this conflict to take all necessary
precautions to avoid civilian deaths and injuries and protect essential
infrastructure.
Before I conclude, let me reflect briefly on the wider crisis in the region.
Following the death of the terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, it is time for a new
chapter in Gaza. We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire, the release
of all hostages, and an increase in humanitarian aid.
We must focus all our efforts on stopping this cycle of violence. A political
solution consistent with 1701 is the only answer – and the only way to secure a
stable future for those on both sides of the Blue Line."
Israeli strike kills 2 Lebanese troops and an officer
Associated Press/October 24, 2024
The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops,
including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern
Lebanon. In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the
southern town of Yater. The army says Israeli forces have targeted it on eight
occasions since all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which said it was
looking into the reports. It apologized for an earlier strike on Sunday that
killed three Lebanese soldiers, saying it had targeted a vehicle in an area
where Hezbollah had recently launched attacks without realizing it belonged to
the army. Lebanon’s armed forces have largely kept to the sidelines in the
latest conflict. The army is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah
or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.
Mikati urges instant ceasefire, deployment of 8,000
troops in south
Associated Press/October 24, 2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday callied for an immediate
cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last
Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer
zone along the border with Israel. Mikati spoke at a conference in Paris in
support of Lebanon. “The devastating impact of this war on our nation cannot be
overstated, and it has left a trail of destruction and misery in its wake. The
Israeli aggression has not only caused immense human suffering and loss of
lives, but also inflicted severe damage to the country’s infrastructure, economy
and social fabric," Mikati added. "It would've been possible to avoid the loss
of Lebanese civilian lives and the destruction had Israel agreed to the Sep. 25
joint statement and we call for an instant ceasefire and the deployment of 8,000
Lebanese troops south of Litani," Mikati said. "What Lebanon urgently needs
today is an instant ceasefire and we are counting on you to exert all the
necessary pressure to achieve a ceasefire," he added. The Lebanese Army has
largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict between Israel and
Hezbollah. It says Israeli forces have targeted its soldiers on eight occasions,
killing and wounding several. Israel apologized for a deadly strike on Sunday.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, called for
Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from areas south of Lebanon’s Litani
River and for the area to be controlled by the Lebanese Army and U.N.
peacekeepers. Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that
Hezbollah built up military infrastructure all the way to the border. Lebanon
has accused Israel of ignoring other provisions, including by violating its
airspace. The Lebanese Army has around 80,000 forces, with around 5,000 deployed
in the south. Representing the Lebanese Army at the Paris conference, Brig. Gen.
Youssef Haddad said that Lebanon is working on recruiting 1,500 additional
soldiers to help implement the U.N. resolution, the state-run National News
Agency reported. Hezbollah boasts tens of thousands of fighters. Lebanon’s
military is not strong enough to impose its will on the militant group or to
resist Israel’s ground invasion.
Germany pledges 96 mn euros in aid for crisis-hit Lebanon
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
Germany pledged 96 million euros ($103 million) in additional aid to crisis-hit
Lebanon at a Paris aid conference Thursday as conflict rages between Israel and
Hezbollah. "At today's Lebanon Support Conference, Germany is pledging a total
of 96 million euros in additional funds to help deal with the crisis in
Lebanon," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Lebanon’s Death Toll in Israel-Hezbollah Conflict Rises
to 2,593
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that 19 people were killed and 118
wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of
conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,593 killed and 12,119 wounded.
Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 111 airstrikes and shelling incidents in
the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh
province. An Israeli airstrike in the Bekaa Valley killed five people and
wounded several others on a Hillaniyeh town in Baalbek, Lebanon’s state media
said. Some 1,096 centers are sheltering 191,692 people, including 44,319
families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry
report said. Among these shelters, 928 have reached full capacity. Despite a
major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after
Israel hit the road several times, crowds have flowed across the border seeking
relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 24, Lebanese General
Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including
346,529 Syrian and 153,282 Lebanese citizens, the report said.
Israel Says it Hit Hezbollah Arms Facilities in Beirut’s
Southern Suburbs
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
The Israeli military said Thursday it hit Hezbollah weapons production
facilities in Beirut’s southern suburbs, in some of the fiercest strikes on the
area since the Lebanon war began. At least 17 raids levelled six buildings,
according to Lebanon's official National News Agency, with a huge ball of fire
enveloped in a tower of smoke soaring into the night sky. Israel is fighting
Hezbollah in Lebanon and has vowed to retaliate against Iran for an October 1
missile attack. The war in Lebanon erupted last month, nearly a year after
Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas
in Gaza following its October 7, 2023 attack. The Israeli “air force conducted
intelligence-based strikes on several weapons storage and manufacturing
facilities belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization" in the southern
suburbs of the capital, the Israeli military said. It said that it had "struck
more than 160 Hezbollah targets over the past day, including infrastructure
sites across Lebanon.”The NNA called the nighttime raids on the southern suburbs
"the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war.” Six buildings
were destroyed around the neighborhood of Laylaki, the NNA said, including a
residential complex hit by four Israeli strikes that caused "a large fire.” On
Thursday, Hezbollah said it launched a "large rocket salvo" at the northern
Israeli town of Safed, after vowing to keep firing into Israel until a ceasefire
is reached not only in Lebanon but also in Gaza.
US Doesn't Want Protracted Israeli Campaign in Lebanon,
Blinken Says
Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
The United States does not want Israeli actions in Lebanon to lead to a
protracted campaign, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, more
than a month since Israel began a major offensive against Hezbollah in the
country. Blinken also said he anticipated negotiators would meet in the coming
days for discussions on a Gaza ceasefire deal, signalling a renewed bid to
achieve a deal that diplomats have repeatedly failed to secure during more than
a year of conflict. Blinken has been on his first trip to the region since
Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Hamas-led Oct. 7,
2023 attack on Israel that sparked conflict across the Middle East. Washington
has expressed hope his death can provide an impetus for an end to the fighting.
Israel launched its Lebanon offensive with the declared aim of securing the
return home of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated in northern Israel during
a year of cross-border rocket fire by Hezbollah. Over the last month, Israel has
pounded southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley and
sent ground forces into areas near the border. The Israeli campaign has killed
more than 2,500 people, displaced more than 1 million people and spawned a
humanitarian crisis, Lebanon says. "As Israel conducts operations to remove the
threat to Israel and its people along the border with Lebanon, we have been very
clear that this cannot lead, should not lead, to a protracted campaign," Blinken
said, speaking in Doha alongside the prime minister of Qatar, Reuters reported.
"Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not
endanger UN peacekeepers or Lebanese armed forces," he added. Earlier on
Thursday, an Israeli strike killed three Lebanese soldiers as they were trying
to evacuate wounded people from the village of Yater near the border, the
Lebanese army said. Blinken said the United States was "working intensely" on a
diplomatic resolution which would allow civilians on both sides on the border to
return to their homes. Hezbollah opened fire on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with
its Palestinian allies in Gaza, prompting a conflict that had largely played out
in areas at or near the border until Israel launched its major escalation.
Blinken said he anticipated the negotiations on Gaza would concern a return of
hostages and a ceasefire. If Hamas cared about people of Gaza it would engage in
negotiations and conclude an agreement, he said. The United States was looking
at "different options" that it could pursue when it comes to Gaza ceasefire
talks, he added.
Israel Army Chief Sees Possibility for 'Sharp Conclusion'
to Hezbollah Conflict
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that 19 people were killed and 118
wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of
conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,593 killed and 12,119 wounded.
Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 111 airstrikes and shelling incidents in
the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh
province. An Israeli airstrike in the Bekaa Valley killed five people and
wounded several others on a Hillaniyeh town in Baalbek, Lebanon’s state media
said. Some 1,096 centers are sheltering 191,692 people, including 44,319
families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry
report said. Among these shelters, 928 have reached full capacity. Despite a
major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after
Israel hit the road several times, crowds have flowed across the border seeking
relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 24, Lebanese General
Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including
346,529 Syrian and 153,282 Lebanese citizens, the report said.
Israel’s attacks have devastated Hezbollah. How is it
still fighting back?
Paul MILLAR/France 24/October 24, 2024
More than a month into the outbreak of open war between Israel and Hezbollah,
the Shiite group is still showing itself capable of launching rockets, drones
and now precision missiles deep into Israeli territory despite the near
obliteration of its political and military leadership. In the third week of
September, in the final weeks before the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October
7 terrorist attacks on Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the world
that the aims of Israel’s war were changing. With Gaza in ruins, more than
42,000 Palestinians dead and hundreds of thousands more forced from their homes,
Israel was turning its gaze to its northern border with Lebanon, where steady
exchanges of rocket fire across the border with Iran-backed Shiite group
Hezbollah had driven tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to take shelter far
from the frontier. Gerges said that Israel’s killing of secretary-general
Nasrallah and much of the military command structure had badly damaged the
militant group.
Christians in South Lebanon’s Border Villages Stand Firm
with Vatican Reassurances
Beirut: Paula Astih/October 24, 2024
Intense pressure from residents and local leaders in Lebanon’s southern border
town of Rmeish has delayed the withdrawal of Internal Security Forces, just days
after the Lebanese Army had already left.Residents are determined to keep a
government presence in their town, refusing to be “left to their fate.” Security
officials, however, want to avoid any confrontation with Israeli soldiers, who
continue trying to breach the country’s southern border. Rmeish’s parish priest,
Father Najib Al-Ameel, said their efforts led to the decision to keep the
security forces in place. “There hasn’t been any army presence for days, and
even the military clinic has closed. Now, we only have one clinic left, and the
nearest hospital is in Tyre,” he said. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Father Al-Ameel
added that around 6,000 people remain in the town, while those who left did so
mostly for health reasons. Explaining why they stay when others have fled, he
said: “We don’t have fighters or military posts. Our town is exposed, and anyone
firing from here would be easily seen.”He also mentioned reassurances from the
Vatican’s ambassador to Lebanon, who has visited several times since Oct. 7 to
support their decision to stay. Rmeish and other Christian villages in southern
Lebanon haven’t faced shortages, with supplies reaching them under army and
UNIFIL protection. However, residents now worry about future deliveries after
the army’s withdrawal. Security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the army
hasn’t fully left the area, saying two brigades and a regiment remain. They
explained that Israeli forces have targeted both the army and UNIFIL, and some
supply routes have been cut. “We’re trying to avoid clashes with enemy
soldiers,” the sources said. Since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel
began in Oct. 2023, Christian villages along the border haven’t been directly
targeted by Israeli strikes. The focus has been on Hezbollah positions and later
expanded to Shiite villages, forcing Shiite residents to flee. In the eastern
border town of Qlaiaa, which also has a Christian majority, most residents have
stayed. One local told Asharq Al-Awsat that they’ve received assurances that
they won’t be targeted by Israel. “Supplies are still reaching us, so we see no
reason to leave. We also fear that if we go, militants could move in and launch
attacks, putting our village in danger,” they said
The War and Pain in Lebanon
Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al Awsat/October 24, 2024
Amid destruction and ruin, as bombs are dropped on Beirut and its suburbs, it is
certainly misguided to assume that the Lebanese people, in all their diversity,
are keeping quiet about their pain "in solidarity" with Hezbollah. Indeed, this
is the last drop that made the cup of sorrow spill over, clearing the fog of the
obscured pain engendered by the accumulation of harmful policies. Lebanon’s pain
begins with foreign interference, especially Iran’s interference in the country
through Hezbollah, and it is compounded by the domestic crises, shortages,
inflation, and the government’s failures, which are the result of both
interference and elite failure. This pain precedes the Israeli bombs falling on
civilians in Lebanon, as they had in Gaza, under the same pretext: Hamas in Gaza
and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran's intervention in Lebanon is explicit. Its proxy, Hezbollah, is openly
deployed to serve its interests in regional conflicts. Iran’s Parliamentary
Speaker, Mohammad-Bagher, openly said that "Tehran is ready to negotiate with
France regarding the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701." His
remarks prompted the Lebanese prime Minister to hit back, affirming Lebanon's
sovereign right to make its own decisions and characterizing the Iranian
official's remark as a blatant attempt to interfere in Lebanon’s affairs that
the country unequivocally rejects.
Mikati stated, "Negotiating the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution
1701 is the prerogative of the Lebanese state, and everyone must support its
efforts, not to seek to impose a new form of tutelage that is rejected on all
national and sovereign levels."
Mikati’s statements, as the country’s prime minister, are a clear and explicit
message affirming Lebanese sovereignty, a move to liberate it from Iran’s
control and push back against Iranian interference in Lebanon’s affairs, which
had been tasked to Hezbollah in the past.
Mikati's stance has been characterized as courageous, leading some to call for
supporting Mikati. They believe that his statement deserves our attention and
praise, seeing it as the first step toward building an independent state that
rejects the intervention of any country in its affairs.
The opposition of the Lebanese to Hezbollah’s hegemony is evident from the mass
protests we had seen in the past in downtown Beirut, which led to clashes around
Riad Solh Square. These protests demonstrate that its people do not consent to
Lebanon’s transformation into a fiefdom of Hezbollah, Tehran's proxy, nor
governmental paralysis and parliamentary failure, nor the neglect of citizens'
problems. Hyperinflation, immense inequality, and devastating poverty that has
left many hungry define the current moment in Lebanon. This equation needs to be
rebalanced; otherwise, the expansion of poverty, hunger, and disease will be
wielded into a sword of fury whose attack will not end until all the idols
standing in the way of the Lebanese people fall.
The government's failures are clear. They cannot be concealed, particularly its
failure to address scarcity, tackle inflation, and curb monetary manipulation
that undermines the local currency and embarrasses the government, exposing its
utter incapacity.
The reasons for the pain and resentment of the Lebanese are many and varied:
widespread corruption, money laundering, and the unjustified immense fortunes of
some officials who are not involved in trade or industry, nor come from wealth.
Some protesters addressed this clearly: "Look at your deputies and their
fortunes; where did they get them from? Where had they been before, and where
are they now!?" These grievances drove the angry masses to raise the slogan
"Where did you acquire this?" in the face of corrupt figures in Lebanon.
The Lebanese crisis did not begin today, nor is the current beleaguered
government to blame. Indeed, it is merely a coalition of ministers from various
blocs and parties, most of whom were not chosen by the Prime Minister. Rather,
they are appointed through partisan power-sharing, and thus, they represent
their parties and their interests, enjoying the authority of a Prime Minister, a
minister. Moreover, the blocking third in Lebanon’s parliament had stalled the
presidential election for years, to the benefit of Iran.
Lebanon's crisis cannot be summed up in a snapshot; it results from an
accumulation of issues. However, it begins with the Hezbollah militia, which
considers itself a state within a state. It engages in regional conflicts with
fighters in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and it has even intervened and trained
militants in Libya.
Force Cannot Protect Lebanon
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat./October 24, 2024
In the torrent of talk about "protecting Lebanon," many of us have reiterated
that rebuilding our state and its army is what protects us. This claim hits the
nail on the head, drawing the lessons that many bitter experiences have taught
us. Indeed, it has become abundantly clear that the danger of the entanglements
imposed by the militia far outweighs whatever protection it provides. Moreover,
entrusting the state and the army with this matter adheres to a sound principle,
defining the responsibilities of states and armies and granting the latter a
monopoly on the legitimate means of violence without partners.
Nonetheless, some are getting carried away; taken with a culture popularized by
successive militant and radical movements, they suggest we build a fearsome army
in Lebanon to protect it. Rather, Hezbollah supporters themselves defend their
role by presenting it as one they were forced into out of necessity, sometimes
claiming that only the establishment of this ferocious army could justify
disbanding their armed group. It is clear that, in many instances, this argument
is intended to raise the bar to impossible heights- that is, it seeks to close
the door to the kind of army we could feasibly build in the name of an army that
we cannot.
Moreover, proposing that we build a ferocious army, even if the proponents of
the idea are sincere, is dangerous. The risks of taking this path are no less
dangerous than those posed by Hezbollah, even if the two threats are different
in nature. An army that dominates society, militarizes life, and consumes the
lion's share of the national economy to "protect us" from Israel, would achieve
nothing but turning us into a militarized society. It is antithetical to all
democratic aspirations and the pursuit of a life free of despotism. After
undergoing a phase in which it was claimed that the militia is an alternative to
the army, the proponents of this idea want us to enter a phase in which the army
presents an alternative to the militia, with the world seen through the lens of
war and perceived as being defined by conflict. Our lived experience shows that
the slogans associated with this vision- "building a resistant state,we are all
a resistance," and similar nonsense- inevitably give rise to the triad of a
strong army, iron-fisted single-party rule, and state ideology. Since the
battles of ferocious armies are necessarily ferocious, we can expect a dark
future in the event that such a proposal materializes. A ferocious army, under
the rule of a "state that resists," would not protect a belligerent Lebanon.
What it could do is drive us to focus on building an arsenal that would never
surpass Israel’s but would create avoidable risks. In other words, rather than
militias, we need an army that can protect the peace, safeguard domestic
stability, and ensure calm on our borders, an army that can be one of the few
sources of consensus among Lebanese. Real protection, however, can only come
from the adoption of a militarily neutral stance on foreign conflicts, with the
armed forces tasked with safeguarding this policy. This kind of inclination
would find its future reinforcement in a regional move to a state of peace that
culminates in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. In turn,
the initiative of the Lebanese and the capacities they find within themselves
could, in this event, be channeled towards making the political and social
changes the country needs, instead of being used to build an unstoppable army so
that it can fight on "fierce battlefields." We know, from the October 17
movement for change, that those championing a "Lebanon of resistance" and a
"strong Lebanon" were the first to oppose this push for change, under the
pretext of a single cause that leaves no room for any other.
As for the policy of military neutrality that can offer protection, it requires
a culture that corresponds to it, one that understands that the world is not
necessarily a jungle where if you are not a predator, you are the prey, and that
we can aspire to a post-war and a post-Netanyahu world, if not tomorrow, then
the day after. This entails promoting a culture of peace, which has
traditionally been weak in Arab political thought, as well as a rupture with the
culture of force that glorifies "manhood,heroism,martyrdom," and other notions
that have seeped through from epic tales to a time that is no longer epic.
In the final analysis, force is incompatible with the makeup of Lebanon, an
entity that was not founded on force but on avoiding it. Lebanon has only
collapsed at moments when war was championed with pathological bravado. The
chapter of force and its champions might end with the end of this war.
Nevertheless, building immunity against violence- regardless of who stands
behind it, whether it be the state or a militia, and irrespective of their sect
or ideology- remains necessary in the future.
There is also a need for the people of Lebanon to reflect on the bitter
experiences of their neighbors in Syria, where the principle of an "ideological
army" prevailed, for decades, in a strong state run by a single party. We now
see the tragic outcome of this experience for Syria and its people, and how they
have ended up weaker than they had ever been in their modern history after the
state went on a relentless rampage against Syrian society, drained it of its
energy, and killed the aspirations of its people. What ended in tragedy for a
country of Syria’s size will inevitably be a farce in a country the size of
Lebanon. It might be time to leave tragedies and farces behind once and for all,
in order to transition towards normal states that address their problems and
improve the conditions of their people, avoiding grandiose claims of all sorts.
If, that is, the country can shake off the debris and go back to normal life.
Iran Is Using
Lebanon’s Airport to Fund Terrorism; The World Must Respond
Emanuele Ottolenghi/The Algemeiner/October 24/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/136110/
The Lebanese government has a choice to
make — reclaim effective control of its main international airport from
Hezbollah, or see that air hub destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces. As
government ministers in Beirut ponder their decision, Washington can help.
For the past year, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport has been the main
gateway for Iran’s resupply of weapons to Hezbollah, its terror proxy in
Lebanon. Hezbollah’s full control of the airport has allowed Iran to easily
resupply its allies there.
But not anymore.
Hours after Israel’s successful elimination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan
Nasrallah, on September 28, an Iranian cargo plane left Tehran’s international
airport for Beirut. But upon entering Lebanon’s airspace, the control tower —
under threat of Israeli kinetic action — denied landing permission to the
aircraft, which turned around and headed back to Iran.
Data obtained from an open source — commercial flight tracker FlightRadar24 —
show that subsequent Iranian flights, on October 1, October 5 and October 7,
also failed to reach Beirut, also reportedly due to Israeli interdiction.
The Israeli Air Force has closed the Tehran-Beirut air resupply route: Iranian
cargo has now been diverted to Latakia, Syria, with weapons then continuing by
truck to Lebanon through border crossings that Israel’s air force has also been
targeting.
For Israel, blocking the flow of Iranian weapons into Lebanon is essential to
preventing Hezbollah from reconstituting its arsenal. But the cat-and-mouse game
in the skies of the Levant is not a long-term solution, as long as Hezbollah
controls Lebanon’s only civilian, commercial, international airport.
Breaking Hezbollah’s grip on the relevant arms of the Lebanese government is the
only way to ensure Iran can no longer replenish Hezbollah’s arsenal.
Previously, Israel’s air interdiction had focused on Syria, which for years had
been the key destination for Iranian weapons deliveries. Israeli precision
strikes on Syrian runways and weapons warehouses led to the Iranian shift toward
Beirut — especially after October 7, 2023, when Hezbollah joined Hamas in its
onslaught against Israel’s civilian population.
The Iranian carrier Mahan Air — which the US Department of the Treasury has
repeatedly sanctioned for transporting weapons, militias, and illicit
procurement on Iran’s behalf — began flying into Beirut at least weekly.
With hostilities escalating from cross-border exchanges into a full-fledged
conflict, Mahan flights have stopped going to Beirut, but continue to head into
Latakia, Syria, alongside other carriers, including a cargo Boeing 747 operated
by Fars Air Qeshm, a US sanctioned Iranian regime proxy of Mahan Air, previously
involved, on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, in the transfer
of weaponry to Syria and other destinations — including, reportedly, Ethiopia,
Myanmar, and Sudan — since 2017.
With Israel methodically hitting Hezbollah’s hidden weapons caches across
Lebanon, the only way Iran can ensure Hezbollah can live to fight another day is
to resume these deliveries. That is why, despite international airlines having
cancelled all flights to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International airport, Iranian
carriers are scrambling to make it there.
Despite the trappings of state institutions formally running Lebanon’s transport
and travel infrastructure — airports and ports authorities, airport security,
customs, and a ministry of public transports — Hezbollah officials control or
have heavily infiltrated them, thereby enabling Hezbollah’s activities rather
than preventing them.
For years now, Hezbollah has suborned the airport to its needs: Drug shipments
from Latin America go unchecked through security and customs, before they reach
lucrative Middle East markets in exchange for a fee paid to the Hezbollah
officials who clear the illicit merchandise. And weapons shipments have come in
regularly from Iran, before being offloaded and stored nearby.
Hezbollah’s continuing grip on Beirut’s airport will sooner or later make the
airport a target for Israeli action.
Washington and its allies can help remedy this situation.
First, Hezbollah officials implicated in turning Lebanon’s points of entry into
smuggling machines should be sanctioned. Under President Trump, the US
Department of the Treasury targeted Wafiq Safa, the man in charge of security at
Beirut’s airport.
According to Treasury, Safa — the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus —
“exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and
facilitate travel on behalf of Hizballah, undermining the security and safety of
the Lebanese people, while also draining valuable import duties and revenue away
from the Lebanese government.” But that was five years ago. More pressure is
needed, including on the Hezbollah-backed minister of public transports, Ali
Hamieh.
The European Union spent 3.5 million euro to bolster Beirut’s airport security
in 2020, and recently pledged another billion euro to help Lebanon’s fledgling
economy and strengthen state institutions, including the improvement of border
management and security — all after Lebanon’s airport chief had been sanctioned
by the US.
Holding the Lebanese government responsible for failing to use European taxpayer
funds for the purposes for which they were earmarked should become a first
priority, making any future security aid conditional on removing any Hezbollah
officials from the public transport and infrastructure sector.
Lebanon is at a crossroads. If its government can be convinced to degrade
Hezbollah infiltration of its government institutions, such as its international
airport, it stands a chance to get back on its feet. The alternative is that,
having relinquished control over its international border crossings to Hezbollah
and Iran, it will risk losing its only gateway to the world to IDF action. That
would be a tragedy for Lebanon — but an inevitable casualty of a conflict for
which Lebanon’s authorities have only themselves to blame.
**Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a non-partisan research institute in Washington, DC, focusing on
foreign policy and national security. Follow him on X @eottolenghi
https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/10/22/iran-is-using-lebanons-airport-to-fund-terrorism-the-world-must-respond/
Massive
displacement from war transforms Beirut's famed Hamra street
Associated Press/October 24, 2024
Inside what was once one of Beirut's oldest and best-known cinemas, dozens of
Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah war spend
their time following the news on their phones, cooking, chatting and walking
around to pass the time.
Outside on Hamra Street, once a thriving economic hub, sidewalks are filled with
displaced people, and hotels and apartments are crammed with those seeking
shelter. Cafes and restaurants are overflowing. In some ways, the massive
displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from south Lebanon, the eastern
Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs has provided a boost for this
commercial district after years of decline as a result of Lebanon's economic
crisis.
But it is not the revival many had hoped for. "The displacement revived Hamra
Street in a wrong way," said the manager of a four-star hotel on the boulevard,
who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the problems the influx has
caused for the neighborhood.
For three weeks after the war intensified in mid-September, his hotel enjoyed
full occupancy. Today, it stands at about 65% capacity — still good for this
time of year — after some left for cheaper rented apartments. But, he said, the
flow of displaced people has also brought chaos. Traffic congestion, double
parking and motorcycles and scooters scattered on sidewalks has become the norm,
making it difficult for pedestrians to walk. Tensions regularly erupt between
displaced people and the district's residents, he said. Hamra Street has long
been a bellwether for Lebanon's turbulent politics. During the country's heyday
in the 1960s and early 1970s, it represented everything that was glamorous,
filled with Lebanon's top movie houses and theaters, cafes frequented by
intellectuals and artists, and ritzy shops. Over the past decades, the street
has witnessed rises and falls depending on the situation in the small
Mediterranean nation that has been marred by repeated bouts of instability,
including a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. In 1982, Israeli tanks rolled
down Hamra Street after Israel invaded the country, reaching all the way to west
Beirut.
In recent years, the district was transformed by an influx of Syrian refugees
fleeing the war in the neighboring nation, and businesses were hammered by the
country's financial collapse, which began in 2019. Israel dramatically escalated
its attacks on parts of Lebanon on Sept. 23, killing nearly 500 people and
wounding 1,600 in one day after nearly a year of skirmishes along the
Lebanon-Israel border between Israeli troops and the militant Hezbollah group.
The intensified attacks sparked an exodus of people fleeing the bombardment,
including many who slept in public squares, on beaches or pavements around
Beirut. More than 2,574 people have been killed in Lebanon and over 12,000
wounded in the past year of war, according to the country's Health Ministry, and
around 1.2 million people are displaced.
Many have flooded Hamra, a cosmopolitan and diverse area, with some moving in
with relatives or friends and others headed to hotels and schools turned into
shelters. In recent days several empty buildings were stormed by displaced
people, who were forced to leave by security forces after confrontations that
sometimes turned violent. Mohamad Rayes, a member of the Hamra Traders
Association, said before the influx of displaced people, some businesses were
planning to close because of financial difficulties.
"It is something that cannot be imagined," Rayes said about the flow of
displaced people boosting commerce in Hamra in ways unseen in years. He said
some traders even doubled prices because of high demand. At a cellular shop,
Farouk Fahmy said during the first two weeks his sales increased 70%, with
people who fled their homes mostly buying chargers and internet data to follow
the news.
"The market is stagnant again now," Fahmy said.
Since many fled their homes with few belongings, men's and women's underwear and
pajama sales grew by 300% at the small boutique business owned by Hani, who
declined to give his full name for safety reasons. The 60-year-old movie
theatre, Le Colisee, a landmark on Hamra Street, had been closed for more than
two decades until earlier this year when Lebanese actor Kassem Istanbouli,
founder of the Lebanese National Theater, took over and began renovating it.
With the massive tide of displacement, he transformed it into a shelter for
families who fled their homes in south Lebanon.
Istanbouli, who has theaters in the southern port city of Tyre and the northern
city of Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest, has turned all three into shelters
where people, no matter their nationality, can take refuge. This week, displaced
people in the Beirut movie theater sat on thin mattresses on its red carpeting,
checking their phones and reading. Some were helping with the theater's
renovation work. Among them was Abdul-Rahman Mansour, a Syrian citizen, along
with his three brothers and their Palestinian-Lebanese mother, Joumana Hanafi.
Mansour said they fled Tyre after a rocket attack near their home, taking
shelter at a school in the coastal city of Sidon, where they were allowed to
stay since their mother is a Lebanese citizen. When the shelter's management
found out that Mansour and his brothers were Syrian they had to leave because
only Lebanese citizens were allowed. With no place to stay, they returned to
Tyre. "We slept for a night in Tyre, but I hope you never witness such a night,"
Hanafi said of the intensity of the bombardment. She said one of her sons knew
Istanbouli and contacted him. "We told him, 'Before anything, we are Syrians.'
He said, 'It is a shame that you have to say that.'" Istanbouli spends hours a
day at his theaters in Beirut and Tripoli to be close to the displaced people
sheltering there. "Normally people used to come here to watch a movie. Today we
are all at the theater and the movie is being played outside," Istanbouli said
of the ongoing war.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 24-25/2024
Iran Expects Israeli Response Within
a Week, Sources Say
London: Asharq Al Awsat/October 24,
2024
Iraqi sources reported on Wednesday that Iranian officials told leaders of the
ruling Shiite coalition that Israel is likely to respond militarily to recent
missile attacks from Tehran within “a week.”These officials, involved in Iraqi
affairs, shared this assessment with leaders of the Coordination Framework,
suggesting that the Israeli strike could happen soon. Tehran has also received
“very negative signals” indicating that efforts to persuade Israel not to attack
have failed. The Iranian information circulating within the Coordination
Framework shows a reduced chance that Israel will hold off on an attack.Iranian
officials warned Iraqi party leaders to be cautious, especially if the Israeli
response targets facilities associated with Iran-backed groups in Iraq. Sources
indicate that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was hopeful about avoiding
an Israeli strike during his visit to Baghdad on Oct. 11. However, the outlook
has since turned more negative. These new assessments followed Araghchi’s recent
tour of the region, but Iranian officials are still committed to mediation
efforts, despite the difficulties. The information shared by Iranian officials
with their Iraqi counterparts does not provide specific details on the scale or
targets of a potential strike. However, there is a growing belief that an
Israeli response is now more likely than ever. Meanwhile, political sources in
Tel Aviv reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken advised Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials during his visit, which
ended Wednesday, to delay any military action against Iran and align with US
views on developments in the region.
US, Qatar announce new Gaza talks as Blinken eyes new
options
Agence France Presse/October 24, 2024
The United States and Qatar on Thursday announced a resumption of negotiations
on a Gaza ceasefire, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators
were exploring new options after months of failing to seal a U.S.-led plan. With
less than two weeks before U.S. elections, Blinken is paying his 11th trip to
the region since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which last week
killed the militant group's leader Yahya Sinwar. Blinken said negotiators would
resume talks "in the coming days" on ways to end the year-long Gaza war and free
hostages seized in the October 7 attack. "We talked about options to capitalize
on this moment and next steps to move the process forward," Blinken said, after
talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.
He said that the two partners were seeking a plan "so that Israel can withdraw,
so that Hamas cannot reconstitute, and so that the Palestinian people can
rebuild their lives and rebuild their futures." "This is a moment to work to end
this war, to make sure all the hostages are home, and to build a better future
for people in Gaza," he said. The Qatari prime minister said Israeli and U.S.
delegations would meet in Doha on the ceasefire. Blinken declined to give
further details on the talks. President Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan that
would temporarily halt fighting and seek freedom for hostages still held by
militants in Gaza. But talks bogged down, with a major sticking-point being
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on an Israeli troop
presence on the Gaza-Egypt border. Blinken, on the third stop of a tour that
took him to Israel and Saudi Arabia, repeated his assertion that Sinwar was the
main impediment and that his death offers an opportunity. Sheikh Mohammed said
there was so far "no clarity what will be the way forward" from Hamas but that
Qatari mediators had "re-engaged" with the group since Sinwar's death. "There
has been an engagement with the representatives from the political office in
Doha. We had some meetings with them in the last couple of days," he said,
adding that Egypt has "ongoing" discussions with Hamas. U.S. officials had
described Sinwar as intransigent in negotiations brokered by the United States,
Qatar and Egypt on a ceasefire that would also see the release of hostages from
Gaza. Critics say the issue was not just Hamas but the Biden administration's
failure to secure the support of Israel, which has received a near continuous
flow of billions of dollars in U.S. weapons.
'Different options' -
Hamas has yet to choose a successor to Sinwar. Two Hamas sources told AFP this
week that the group was leaning towards appointing a Doha-based leadership
committee rather than an individual leader. Blinken said the United States was
ready to explore "new frameworks" on Gaza.
"We're looking at different options, but as you heard the prime minister say, we
haven't yet really determined whether Hamas is prepared to engage," Blinken
said. "But the next step is getting the negotiators together... we'll certainly
learn more in the coming days." Blinken is also looking for greater clarity on a
plan for reconstruction and post-war governance of Gaza, seeing it as a vital
component of efforts to end the war. He announced another $135 million of aid to
the Palestinians, bringing the total since the start of the war to some $1.2
billion. Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007, and for more than a decade
has maintained an office in Qatar, initially with the blessing of Israel and the
United States. The office has allowed communication with the group, whose main
patron is U.S. arch-foe Iran, with Qatar -- a nimble regional player which also
hosts a major U.S. base -- channelling money to support Hamas governance of
impoverished Gaza. After the October 7 attack, Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas
and bring the hostages home. It stands accused of killing Hamas' Qatar-based
political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was visiting Iran in July.'
Israel and UN
are maneuvering fraught but fundamental ties during Middle East wars
Jamey Keaten And Edith M. Lederer/October 24, 2024
A year ago, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Hamas' Oct. 7
attacks in Israel but said in remarks to the Security Council that they " did
not happen in a vacuum.” That phrase was immediately denounced by Israel and
still looms over U.N. activities in the Middle East.
Outraged Israeli officials and civilians accused the U.N. chief of trying to
justify the horrors that day, in which some 1,200 people were killed and about
250 taken hostage. Palestinian leaders praised Guterres for voicing a defense of
human rights and recognizing the troubles that Palestinians have faced in over a
half-century of occupation. While Israel's poor relations with the world body
date back decades before Guterres was in charge — with Israeli leaders long
accusing the U.N. of anti-Israel bias — the secretary-general's Oct. 24, 2023,
comment set a tone for ties between the two during the conflict. Those relations
are at a low ebb — many say the lowest ever.
Here's a look at the fraught, but in many ways fundamental, relationship between
the U.N. and Israel and its implications for people in Gaza, the West Bank and
Lebanon:
Why are Israel-U.N. relations so bad?
The longtime strains in Israel’s relationship with the 193-nation U.N. have
worsened in recent months.
On Oct. 2, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz deemed Guterres “persona non
grata” — not welcome — in the country. He tweeted that the U.N. chief had not
“unequivocally” condemned an Iranian attack on Israel the night before and
claimed Guterres was giving backing to militant groups in region, which would be
"remembered as a stain on the history of the U.N.”
Israel also has stepped up its effort to get rid of the U.N. agency helping
millions of Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. Two bills approved by an
Israeli parliamentary committee this month to ban its operations in Israeli
territory are awaiting final approval from the Knesset, its parliament.
The head of UNRWA says the adoption could cause the agency to collapse and leave
hundreds of thousands of people in need. Israel alleges that some of the
thousands of employees of UNRWA, the top aid provider in Gaza, participated in
the Oct. 7 attacks. More than a dozen staffers were subsequently fired following
an internal probe. In Lebanon, where an Israeli offensive is underway, Israeli
forces have repeatedly fired on U.N. peacekeepers monitoring a 2006
Hezbollah-Israeli cease-fire near southern border with Israel. Israel says
Hezbollah has built up military infrastructure next to U.N. positions and that
the peacekeepers are essentially serving as human shields by refusing Israeli
demands to evacuate. Over the summer, the U.N.’s top court issued a nonbinding
opinion saying Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories was
unlawful and called for it to end, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to retort that the areas were part of the historic homeland of the Jewish
people.
And Netanyahu attacked the world body in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly
last month, saying that until Israel “is treated like other nations, until this
antisemitic swamp is drained, the U.N. will be viewed by fair-minded people
everywhere as nothing more than a contemptuous farce.”
In May, the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution granting the
non-member observer state of Palestine new rights and calling on the Security
Council to reconsider its request for full U.N. membership. Israel’s retaliatory
offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded tens of
thousands, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many were
combatants but say more than half were women and children. It has caused major
devastation and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million. The
United Nations says the war in Gaza has caused more deaths of U.N. personnel in
a single conflict that any other since the world body’s founding after World War
II in 1945. Where has the U.N. been effective during the conflict?
Despite the ill-feeling and sour relations, U.N. aid agencies have had a few
pockets of success.
UNICEF says its cash distribution programs have helped offset the economic
fallout from soaring unemployment and spiking prices when food and other aid
doesn’t get through. Its trucks ferry in water, and its teams help rebuild
desalination plants. It has brought in 1.2 million polio vaccine doses.
The World Health Organization has used “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to
carry out a polio vaccination campaign for kids in Gaza. However, it was unable
to start vaccinating children in northern Gaza on Wednesday because of fighting
and insecurity.Despite a repeated lack of access, WHO has provided water,
sanitation and hygiene services to nearly 2 million people.
Despite intense pressure from Israel, UNRWA remains essential, with its network
of drivers, loaders, warehouse staff, shelter personnel, trash collectors,
water-well maintenance teams and more. Since Oct. 7, 2023, it has provided
nearly 6 million medical consultations in Gaza — roughly equal on average to
three per person. “UNRWA’s the backbone,” and without it, “the whole thing falls
apart,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder said. “Particularly, as UNRWA has been more
restricted, everyone has had to step up. But everyone’s had to step up knowing
full well they can’t step into those shoes.”
In Lebanon, the U.N.’s World Food Program said it was well-prepared before the
conflict between Hezbollah and Israel intensified and is delivering hot meals,
ready-to-eat rations, food parcels and cash assistance to more than 200,000
people in shelters.
Where has the U.N. faced challenges?
The list of hurdles faced by the U.N. to ease the fallout is much longer.
Guterres and the heads of every U.N. agency say what’s needed most is a cease-fire.The
United Nations has been shut out of cease-fire talks, and its efforts to provide
desperately needed food and other aid have faced numerous obstacles. Even if
convoys cross the border into Gaza, getting help to people has become
exceedingly difficult. U.N. officials point to many problems: fighting, numerous
Israeli evacuation orders, lawlessness and stripping of aid convoys, Israeli
delays of preapproved deliveries, and lack of security for drivers and
humanitarian staff. At a U.N. Security Council meeting last week, Israel’s U.N.
Ambassador Danny Danon pointed to Hamas for the lack of humanitarian aid in
Gaza.
“The terrorist organization steals, stores and sells the aid that enters the
Gaza Strip and uses it to feed its terrorist machine and not to feed the Gazans.”
He said defeating and disarming Hamas is “the only way to improve the
humanitarian situation in Gaza.” The latest report from international experts
said the threat of famine looms over Gaza and around 86% of Gaza’s population
are experiencing crisis levels of hunger. The United States, Israel’s closest
ally, has given the government 30 days to expand humanitarian deliveries to 350
trucks every day or face the threat of cuts in weapons funding.
U.N. teams bemoan a lack of access to aid: Medicines, food, fuel and other
needed items, as well as Israel’s limitations on the number and duration of
visas for some U.N. staff. Just over 5,100 people have been evacuated from Gaza
for health reasons, and more than three times that many still await urgent
medical evacuations, WHO said. Israel’s closing of the Rafah border with Egypt
has been one obstacle to getting sick and wounded Palestinians out of Gaza. Dr.
Hanan Balkhy, head of the WHO eastern Mediterranean region, which covers Lebanon
and Palestinian areas but not Israel, said her staff faced “major problems”
accessing some areas, like beleaguered northern Gaza. WFP is among the many
agencies that say they need more financial support: It’s appealing for $116
million to help up to 1 million people through year-end — if ports and supply
lines can remain open.
Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza
has killed 17
Wafaa Shurafa And Fatma Khaled/DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/October 24, 2024
An Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the
central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people on Thursday, mostly women and
children, Palestinian medical officials said. Another 42 people were wounded in
the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda
Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were seven children as
young as 11 months, as well as three women. There was no immediate comment from
the Israeli military. Israel has carried out several strikes on
schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it precisely targets Hamas
militants hiding out among civilians. The strikes often kill women and children.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile announced another $135 million in
aid to the Palestinians, saying it is critical that aid enters Gaza. Blinken
spoke in Qatar on Thursday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of
the war in Gaza. The United States has pressed Israel to allow more aid into the
war-ravaged Palestinian territory. The war began when Hamas-led militants
stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza,
a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has
killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does
not say how many were combatants but says women and children make up more than
half the fatalities. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000
fighters, without providing evidence. The war has displaced around 90% of Gaza's
population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people
are crammed into tent camps along the coast after entire neighborhoods in many
areas were pounded to rubble. Months of cease-fire negotiations brokered by the
United States, Egypt and Qatar sputtered to a halt over the summer. The war has
meanwhile expanded to Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion more than
three weeks ago after trading fire with the Hezbollah militant group for much of
the past year. The United States hopes to renew the negotiations after Israeli
forces killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side
has shown any sign of moderating its demands.
May Almighty God Bless his soul. My
heartily felt condolences for you and your family
US Senator Graham says Israel-Saudi deal possible before year-end
Andrea Shalal/MELVINDALE, Michigan (Reuters)/October 23, 2024
U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and believed that an agreement to normalize
relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be reached before the end of the
year.
Graham, who is in Michigan campaigning for Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump, told Reuters that Netanyahu supported work on a deal with Saudi
Arabia, adding that the next U.S. administration was unlikely to be able to
secure enough votes in Congress after President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan.
20. "I think the time to do this is on Biden's watch," said Graham, who had also
met with Netanyahu earlier this month. He said Vice President Kamala Harris was
"far more beholden to the left" and had not shown interest in working for such
an agreement, but Biden was keen to see a deal get done and would be able to
mobilize the needed Democratic votes. Normalizing Israeli-Saudi relations would
mark an expansion of the “Abraham Accords” sealed when Trump was in office. The
accords led to the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Morgan Finkelstein, National Security
Spokeswoman for the Harris campaign said: “Vice President Harris has
consistently supported efforts to ensure Israel is more deeply integrated in the
Middle East region, including a potential historic normalization agreement with
Saudi Arabia. She believes such integration is critical to counter the threats
posed by Iran.”Democrats would be reluctant to support Trump if he won the
election and the initiative slipped into next year, Graham said. The Biden
administration had been working to broker a normalization accord between the two
countries that would include U.S. security guarantees for Gulf state Saudi
Arabia, among other bilateral deals between Washington and Riyadh, but those
efforts stalled after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. A defense pact would
require a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate, or 67 votes. Analysts have
said that an Israel-Saudi normalization deal would be difficult to achieve
without a clear path to establishing an independent Palestinian state, which
most Israelis oppose.
Graham expressed confidence that a solution could be found to ensure creation of
a sovereign state in a Palestine that was de-militarized and could not threaten
Israel. "We're moving in the right direction," he said, adding that he expected
Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to be supportive since
absence of a deal would undermine his economic goals. Graham said there was an
"opening a mile wide" for a ceasefire in Lebanon given Israel's attacks on
Hezbollah leaders, but ensuring a lasting peace in the region also required a
plan to rebuild Gaza after the war and the West Bank, something he said should
be led by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas
militants on Israel killed around 1,200 people, with another 253 taken as
hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent war has devastated
Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead
thought to lie under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.
Israel says it
killed Hamas commander who doubled as U.N. aid worker
Reuters/October 24, 2024
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's military said on Thursday it killed a Hamas
commander who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel and also
worked for the U.N. aid agency in the Gaza Strip. The agency, UNRWA, has been
accused by Israel of having many employees who double as members of Hamas and
other armed groups. The U.N., after an investigation, said in August that nine
UNRWA staff were possibly involved in the Oct. 7 attacks and fired them. The
Israeli military said Mohammad Abu Itiwi was killed on Wednesday. It said he was
a Hamas commander and had been involved in the murder and abduction of Israeli
civilians. It also said he had been employed by UNRWA since July 2022 and that
his name appeared on a list of the agency's employees. UNRWA confirmed Itiwi was
a staff member and was killed on Wednesday. It said Itiwi's name was included in
a letter UNRWA received from Israel in July that included a list of 100 staff
members who were also allegedly members of armed groups, including Hamas. "The
UNRWA commissioner general responded to that letter immediately stating that any
allegation is taken seriously. He urged (the government of Israel) to cooperate
with the agency by providing more information so he could take action. To date,
UNRWA has not received any response to that letter," said Juliette Touma,
UNRWA's director of communications. UNRWA provides education, health and aid to
millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It
has long had tense relations with Israel but relations have deteriorated sharply
since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to
be disbanded. "Israel has requested urgent clarifications from senior UN
officials and an urgent investigation into the involvement of UNRWA employees in
the Oct. 7 massacre," said Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel
Hagari.
The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields
in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say
Mick Krever, Jeremy Diamond and Abeer Salman/Video by Mark Baron and Agne
Jurkenaite/CNN/October 24, 2024
Soldier says his unit used Palestinians as human shieldsScroll back up to
restore default view.
The Israeli military has forced Palestinians to enter potentially booby-trapped
houses and tunnels in Gaza to avoid putting its troops in harm’s way, according
to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier and five former detainees who said
they were victims of the practice.
The soldier, who said his unit held two Palestinian prisoners for the explicit
purpose of using them as human shields to probe dangerous places, said the
practice was prevalent among Israeli units in Gaza.
“We told them to enter the building before us,” he explained. “If there are any
booby traps, they will explode and not us.”It was so common in the Israeli
military that it had a name: “mosquito protocol.”
The exact scale and scope of the practice by the Israeli military is not known.
But the testimony of both the soldier and five civilians shows that it was
widespread across the territory: in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and
Rafah.
The soldier explained that, at first, his unit, which at the time was in
northern Gaza, used standardized procedures before entering a suspect building:
sending in a dog or punching a hole through its side with a tank shell or an
armored bulldozer.
But one day this spring, the soldier said an intelligence officer showed up with
two Palestinian detainees – a 16-year-old boy and 20-year-old man – and told the
troops to use them as human shields before entering buildings. The intelligence
officer claimed they were connected to Hamas.When he questioned the practice,
the soldier said one of his commanders told him, “‘It’s better that the
Palestinian will explode and not our soldiers.’”
“It’s quite shocking, but after a few months in Gaza you [tend not to] think
clearly,” the soldier said. “You’re just tired. Obviously, I prefer that my
soldiers live. But, you know, that’s not how the world works.”The soldier said
that he and his comrades refused to carry on with the practice after two days
and confronted their senior commander about it. Their commander, who first told
them not to “think about international law,” saying that their own lives were
“more important,” ultimately relented, releasing the two Palestinians, the
soldier said. The fact that they were released, he said, made it clear to him
that they had no affiliation with Hamas, “that they are not terrorists.”
CNN was connected with the soldier by Breaking the Silence, an organization that
provides a forum for Israeli soldiers to speak out and verifies their testimony.
Breaking the Silence provided CNN with three photos depicting the Israeli
military using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza. One haunting photograph
shows two soldiers urging a civilian forward in a scene of devastation in
northern Gaza. In a second, two civilians used as human shields sit bound and
blindfolded. A third shows a soldier guarding a bound civilian. In a statement,
the Israeli military told CNN: “The IDF’s directives and guidelines strictly
prohibit the use of detained Gaza civilians for military operations. The
relevant protocols and instructions are routinely clarified to soldiers in the
field during the conflict.”International law forbids the use of civilians to
shield military activity, or to forcibly involve civilians in military
operations. The Israeli Supreme Court explicitly banned the practice in 2005,
after rights groups filed a complaint about the military’s use of Palestinian
civilians to knock on the doors of suspected militants in the West Bank. Justice
Aharon Barak at the time called the practice “cruel and barbaric.”Israel has
long accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields, embedding
military infrastructure in civilian areas – allegations Hamas has denied. There
is ample evidence for it: weapons located inside homes, tunnels dug beneath
residential neighborhoods and rockets fired from those same neighborhoods in the
densely packed territory.The Israeli military frequently cites those practices
in blaming Hamas for the extraordinary civilian death toll in Gaza, where Israel
has dropped bombs on those same residential areas. Israeli attacks have killed
more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October last year, according to the
Palestinian Ministry of Health. The United Nations says that most of the dead
are civilians.“We saw Hamas using Palestinians as human shields,” the soldier
said. “But for me it’s more painful with my own army. Hamas is a terrorist
organization. The IDF shouldn’t use terrorist organization practices.”
‘Mosquito protocol’
Interviews with five Palestinian former detainees in Gaza tally with the
soldier’s account. All describe being captured by Israeli troops and forced to
enter potentially dangerous places ahead of the military. Israeli airstrikes
earlier this year forced Mohammad Saad, 20, from his home in Jabalya, in
northern Gaza. From his makeshift home near Khan Younis, between blankets strung
from rafters, Saad explained that he was picked up by the Israeli military near
Rafah, while attempting to get food aid for him and his younger brothers. “The
army took us in a jeep, and we found ourselves inside Rafah in a military camp,”
he said, adding that he was held there for 47 days, and during that time was
used for reconnaissance missions to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk.
“They dressed us in military uniforms, put a camera on us, and gave us a metal
cutter,” he said. “They would ask us to do things like, ‘move this carpet,’
saying they were looking for tunnels. ‘Film under the stairs,’ they would say.
If they found something, they would tell us to bring it outside. For example,
they would ask us to remove belongings from the house, clean here, move the
sofa, open the fridge, and open the cupboard.” The soldiers were terrified, he
explained, of hidden explosives.
“I usually wore the military uniform, but for the final mission, they took me in
civilian clothing,” Saad said. “We went to a location, and they told me I had to
film a tank left behind by the Israeli army. I was terrified and scared to film
it, so they hit me on the back with the butt of a rifle.”Bullets rang out as he
approached the tank, and Saad said he was shot through the back. Miraculously,
he survived, and was taken to Soroka Medical Center, in Israel. When he was
interviewed by CNN two weeks later in Khan Younis, he lifted his shirt to show
the wound where the bullet entered his back. Not all the Palestinians used were
adults. Mohammad Shbeir, 17, said that he was taken captive by Israeli soldiers
after they killed his father and sister during a raid on their home in Khan
Younis.
“I was handcuffed and wearing nothing but my boxers,” he recalled. “They used me
as a human shield, taking me into demolished houses, places that could be
dangerous or contain landmines.”
Dr. Yahya Khalil Al-Kayali, 59, was like so many others displaced over and over
after being forced from his home in Gaza City. He eventually found himself
living near Al Shifa Hospital, once Gaza’s largest medical complex, joining
thousands of internally displaced civilians who took up shelter there. In March,
the Israeli military laid siege to that medical complex for a third time,
alleging that Hamas was using it as a command center – something that Hamas
denied. Huge numbers of men were swept up in the two-week-long raid, which left
the hospital destroyed and inoperable. Al-Kayali was among them. “The leader of
this group, the soldier, asked me to come,” Al-Kayali recalled from the Mawasi
area of Khan Younis, by a beach tent encampment. “He was talking to me in
English. And he asked me to go out of the building to find any open holes or
tunnels under the ground.”Along a row of apartment buildings, again and again,
the soldiers told Al-Kayali to enter every room of every apartment and check for
militants and booby traps. The canons of Israeli tanks stood ready to fire, he
said, should Hamas fighters be uncovered.“I was thinking that I would be killed
or die within minutes,” he recalled. “I was thinking about my family. Because
there is no time to think about many things. But I was worried also about my
kids, because my kids and my family were in the building.”
To his relief, the buildings were empty, and he was released. In the end, he
said, he was forced to check as many as 80 apartments. All the Palestinians
interviewed by CNN were eventually released after being used as human shields,
and the soldier said that those detained by his unit were also let go. But after
the soldier left Gaza, he said he heard from his comrades that the so-called
“mosquito protocol” had resumed in his unit. “My own soldiers who refused it in
the beginning were back to using this practice,” he said. “They have no strength
like they had in the beginning.”
**Tareq Al Hilou and Mohammad Al Sawalhi in Gaza contributed to this report.
Bank of Canada cuts interest rates: Read the official statement
Financial Post Staff/October 24/ 2024
The Bank of Canada today reduced its target for the overnight rate to 3.75 per
cent, with the Bank Rate at 4 per cent and the deposit rate at 3.75 per cent.
The Bank is continuing its policy of balance sheet normalization. The Bank
continues to expect the global economy to expand at a rate of about 3 per cent
over the next two years. Growth in the United States is now expected to be
stronger than previously forecast while the outlook for China remains subdued.
Growth in the euro area has been soft but should recover modestly next year.
Inflation in advanced economies has declined in recent months, and is now around
central bank targets. Global financial conditions have eased since July, in part
because of market expectations of lower policy interest rates. Global oil prices
are about $10 lower than assumed in the July Monetary Policy Report (MPR). In
Canada, the economy grew at around two per cent in the first half of the year
and we expect growth of 1.75 per cent in the second half. Consumption has
continued to grow but is declining on a per person basis. Exports have been
boosted by the opening of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline. The labour
market remains soft—the unemployment rate was at 6.5 per cent in September.
Population growth has continued to expand the labour force while hiring has been
modest. This has particularly affected young people and newcomers to Canada.
Wage growth remains elevated relative to productivity growth. Overall, the
economy continues to be in excess supply. GDP growth is forecast to strengthen
gradually over the projection horizon, supported by lower interest rates. This
forecast largely reflects the net effect of a gradual pick up in consumer
spending per person and slower population growth. Residential investment growth
is also projected to rise as strong demand for housing lifts sales and spending
on renovations. Business investment is expected to strengthen as demand picks
up, and exports should remain strong, supported by robust demand from the United
States. Overall, the Bank forecasts GDP growth of 1.2 per cent in 2024, 2.1 per
cent in 2025, and 2.3 per cent in 2026. As the economy strengthens, excess
supply is gradually absorbed.
CPI inflation has declined significantly from 2.7 per cent in June to 1.6 per
cent in September. Inflation in shelter costs remains elevated but has begun to
ease. Excess supply elsewhere in the economy has reduced inflation in the prices
of many goods and services. The drop in global oil prices has led to lower
gasoline prices. These factors have all combined to bring inflation down. The
Bank’s preferred measures of core inflation are now below 2.5 per cent. With
inflationary pressures no longer broad-based, business and consumer inflation
expectations have largely normalized.
Pope Francis Denounces a World 'Losing its Heart' in 4th
Encyclical of His Papacy
Asharq Al Awsat./October 24, 2024
Pope Francis issued the fourth encyclical of his papacy on Thursday, denouncing
a world that “is losing its heart” during times of global turmoil marked by
“wars, socio-economic disparities and the uses of technology that threaten our
humanity.” The document titled “Dilexit Nos,” Latin for “He Loves Us,” was
issued to coincide with the 350th anniversary of St. Margaret Mary Alocoque's
first apparition, which helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
revealing his love of humanity, The AP reported. It is his fourth encyclical,
the best-known of which to date is the 2015 “Laudato Si,” or “Praised Be,” which
cast care for the environment in moral terms. In “Dilexit Nos,” the pontiff did
not cite specific examples of global turmoil in the 220-paragraph document
issued in eight languages, although he frequently refers to conflicts from
Ukraine to Gaza in homilies, weekly prayers and global travels. Francis often
asks for prayers for the “martyred” people of Ukraine and most recently cited
“inhumane attacks” in Gaza. In the Middle East conflict, he has tended to take a
balanced line, often mentioning Israel and the hostages still held by Hamas
alongside the suffering of the Palestinians. In the document, the pontiff said
the failure to “feel that something is intolerable” in the suffering on both
sides of conflict “is a sign of a world that has grown heartless.”
“When we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or
indifference of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan
interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart,’’
he wrote. The pope warned that consumer-driven societies “dominated by the
hectic pace and bombarded by technology,” risked interfering with the
possibility of engaging with an “interior life.”He noted that algorithms have
revealed that “our thoughts and will are much more ‘uniform’ than we had
previously thought. They are easily predictable and thus capable of being
manipulated.”In an era of artificial intelligence, "we cannot forget that poetry
and love are necessary to save our humanity,’’ he wrote.
he Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on October 24-25/2024
Iran's Assassination Program in Europe: Europe Goes Back to Sleep
Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute./October 24, 2024
"In order to maintain a degree of separation from the terror cells it operates
in Europe and to ensure plausible deniability, there is no direct contact
between Tehran and members of the cells. In the case of the recently detained
French cell, instructions on where and when to carry out attacks were relayed
via international networks of criminals and drug smugglers." — Daniel Dolev,
Israeli investigative journalist, shomrim.news, September 5, 2024.
In addition to the Iranian dissidents that it has been hunting for years, the
Iranian regime now literally hunts Jews in Europe.
Iran, in other words, has extended its operations from having terrorists as
proxies to having criminals as proxies.
According to Britain's MI5, the situation is about to get much worse....
Despite all this clear knowledge... the leadership of the European Union and the
UK refuse to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization. Instead, European
countries target Israel with arms boycotts, constant condemnation and general
opprobrium, although Israel's fight against Iran belongs at least as much to
Europe and the West, no matter how hard -- out of dread -- they might try to
deny it.
If they think that pressuring Israel not to confront this existential threat
will make it disappear, they are sadly mistaken. As in World War II, it is by
supporting Israel in defeating aggression that they will stop it.
Last year, by an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament passed a
resolution to that effect, but the EU nevertheless refused to designate the IRGC
as such. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed there were legal
obstacles, however, that claim has been refuted as a lie.
After Iran's direct missile attack on Israel on April 13, the European
Parliament again, by an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution to designate
the IRGC a terrorist organization.... It also requested that the EU add
Hezbollah to the terror list. Borrell, once more, simply refused, arguing that
"listing this organisation as a 'terrorist organisation' would have no practical
effect."Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization would make it possible
to press terrorism charges and prosecute both members of the organization and
those supporting it. It seems as if the majority of European leaders are once
again determined, as in appeasing Churchill's crocodile, to be "eaten
last.""Putting IRGC on the EU terror list is an important step to protect the
national security, to protect our communities, particularly the Iranian diaspora
and the Jewish community because there is a genuine terror threat and because
they are not only targeting and conducting terror plots but they are also
nurturing homegrown Shia islamist radicalisation, using the Isis and Al Qaeda
methods. However, because IRGC is not proscribed (as a terror group), these
activities are not outlawed." — Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at
United Against Nuclear Iran, eureporter.co, May 6, 2024.
Are European politicians really that eager for the votes of their unassimilable
newcomers -- who appear to be planning to take over Europe? Or are Europe's
politicians afraid that if they fail to delegitimize Israel at every
opportunity, the newcomers might inflict even more terrorism on European soil?
Does Europe really want to live in a state of being permanently extorted? The
price goes only one way: up.
Iran, the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism," has been recruiting gang
members and drug dealers in Europe to murder Iranian dissidents, Israelis and
Jews, according to a report published in September. Pictured: Iran's President
Masoud Pezeshkian looks on from the dais, as a Fattah ballistic missile is
displayed during at a military parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. Fattah
missiles were used in Iran's October 1, 2024 attack on Israel. (Photo by Atta
Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
Iran, the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism," has been recruiting gang
members and drug dealers in Europe to murder Iranian dissidents, Israelis and
Jews, according to a report published in September by the European Investigative
Collaborations (EIC) organization and journalists from nine outlets, including
France's Mediapart, Germany's Der Spiegel, Spain's Infolibre and Israel's
Shomrim.
This is happening at the same time as Europe, and most of the world, led by the
Biden-Harris administration, are doing all they can to stop Israel from putting
an end to the Iranian regime and its multiple terrorist and proxy wars against
Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Sudan. US and European
authorities have termed it the "Iranian Transnational Assassinations Network."
One of these networks -- there are several -- is led by a drug dealer. According
to the US Treasury Department:
"The network is led by Iranian narcotics trafficker Naji Ibrahim
Sharifi-Zindashti (Zindashti) and operates at the behest of Iran's Ministry of
Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Zindashti's network has carried out numerous
acts of transnational repression including assassinations and kidnappings across
multiple jurisdictions in an attempt to silence the Iranian regime's perceived
critics. The network has also plotted operations in the United States...
"The MOIS and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have long targeted
perceived regime opponents in acts of transnational repression outside of Iran,
a practice that the regime has accelerated in recent years. A wide range of
dissidents, journalists, activists, and former Iranian officials have been
targeted for assassination, kidnapping, and hacking operations across numerous
countries in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. The regime increasingly
relies on organized criminal groups in furtherance of these plots in an attempt
to obscure links to the Government of Iran and maintain plausible deniability."
The criminal groups hired by Iran increasingly target Israelis and Jews in
Europe, including Israeli embassies and private Jewish individuals:
In Sweden, two violent criminal gangs, "Foxtrot," headed by Iranian-born
criminal Rawa Majid, and its rival "Rumba," headed by Ismail Abdo, have
reportedly been recruited by Iran, which pays them to commit terror against
Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe. The two gangs have been connected with
repeated shooting attacks against the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm. Foxtrot,
according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT, was also behind an attack using
hand grenades close to the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen on October 2. Three
"Swedish" men were arrested in connection with the attack.
An Iranian-recruited terror cell arrested in France was plotting the murder of
four Israeli citizens working in France, as well as three senior members of the
Jewish community in Germany, according to the Shomrim report. The terror cell,
apparently recruited to set fire to buildings belonging to Israeli-owned
companies in the south of France, was headed by "a major drug dealer" from the
Lyon area called Umit Bulbul, whom French authorities believe to be currently in
Iran. The cell's operations were carried out by Algerian-born French national
known as Abdulkarim S, who has previously served prison time for his involvement
in a gang warfare double-murder in Marseilles, in addition to drug trafficking.
According to the Shomrim report:
"In order to maintain a degree of separation from the terror cells it operates
in Europe and to ensure plausible deniability, there is no direct contact
between Tehran and members of the cells. In the case of the recently detained
French cell, instructions on where and when to carry out attacks were relayed
via international networks of criminals and drug smugglers."
One of the Israelis targeted in France, Roey, was informed by French security
services that an Iranian-directed terror cell was planning to kill him. For
months, he received more such alerts; was told that it would be safer for him to
leave the country, and that he would have to move between no fewer than six
different apartments during his time in France. In addition to the Iranian
dissidents that it has been hunting for years, the Iranian regime now literally
hunts Jews in Europe.
Iran, according to reports, was behind the foiled terrorist attack against the
Chabad House of Athens, Greece, which hosts a Jewish community center and a
kosher restaurant. Here, Iran, via a Pakistani named Sayed Fakhar Abbas, offered
to pay a local acquaintance in Greece 15,000 euros for each Jew that he managed
to kill. According to the Washington Post, Iran hires Eastern European criminals
as well as "old" and established gangs, such as Hells Angels. Iran, in other
words, has extended its operations from having terrorists as proxies to having
criminals as proxies. The Washington Post wrote: "In recent years, Iran has
outsourced lethal operations and abductions to Hells Angels biker gangs, a
notorious Russian mob network known as 'Thieves in Law,' a heroin distribution
syndicate led by an Iranian narco-trafficker and violent criminal groups from
Scandinavia to South America."
Earlier this year, an Iranian couple in Sweden, pretending to be Afghan refugees
-- who had arrived in 2015 with fake identities but were acting at the behest of
the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC -- were caught plotting to
kill three Swedish Jews.
There is nothing new about these Iranian terrorist activities, but they appear
to have accelerated since October 7, at least when it comes to Israeli and
Jewish targets. It is estimated that Iran has been hiring criminals for murder
abroad for at least a decade.
According to Britain's MI5, the situation is about to get much worse: the UK
will see a "staggering rise" in assassination attempts by Iranian-hired
criminals, but also by criminals hired by Russia, with both countries recruiting
from the underworld to "do their dirty work."
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said that in the UK alone, his organization
had foiled 20 "potentially lethal" plots backed by Iran since 2022 with the
majority of the threats until now aimed at Iranians abroad.
McCallum said that radicalized individuals and a revived Islamic State group
have combined to create "the most complex and interconnected threat environment
we've ever seen."
Despite all this clear knowledge about the Iranian regime's assassination and
terrorist plots on European soil -- and the IRGC's crucial role in them -- the
leadership of the European Union and the UK refuse to designate the IRGC a
terrorist organization. Instead, European countries target Israel with arms
boycotts, constant condemnation and general opprobrium, although Israel's fight
against Iran belongs at least as much to Europe and the West, no matter how hard
-- out of dread -- they might try to deny it.
As stated by the US Congress, the IRGC "trains, funds, arms, and shares
intelligence with dangerous proxy forces throughout the Middle East and abroad"
and also, as described by the Wall Street Journal, prepared and trained Hamas
and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists for the October 7, 2023 massacre in
Israel. If they think that pressuring Israel not to confront this existential
threat will make it disappear, they are sadly mistaken. As in World War II, it
is by supporting Israel in defeating aggression that they will stop it.
The US Congress, Israel and thousands of Iranians have urged the European Union
to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Last year, by an overwhelming
majority, the European Parliament passed a resolution to that effect, but the EU
nevertheless refused to designate the IRGC as such. EU foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell claimed there were legal obstacles, however, that claim has been
refuted as a lie.
After Iran's direct missile attack on Israel on April 13, the European
Parliament again, by an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution to designate
the IRGC a terrorist organization, while strongly condemning Iran's
unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, and "vowing full support for the
security of Israel and its citizens against the threats of the Iranian
government and its proxies." It also requested that the EU add Hezbollah to the
terror list. Borrell, once more, simply refused, arguing that "listing this
organisation as a 'terrorist organisation' would have no practical effect."
German MEP Hannah Neumann said in response:
"What more does this regime have to do until you finally wake up to the harsh
realities? The IRGC is a terror organisation ...The drones and missiles
attacking Israel and attacking our ships in the Red Sea are manufactured in
Iran, and we should have sanctioned all those involved months ago."Swedish MEP
Charlie Weimers bluntly called Borrell a liar:
"You shamelessly lied to protect the IRGC. We won't miss you, Mr. Borrell, but
I'm sure the mullahs will."
The IRGC is not designated a terrorist organization by any of the individual
European states either, including the UK, but in May, the Swedish parliament
voted in favor of designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Sweden has
also been pressing the EU to do the same.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in October:
"The only reasonable consequence is that we get a common terror classification,
so that you can act more broadly than the sanctions that already exist."
Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization would make it possible to press
terrorism charges and prosecute both members of the organization and those
supporting it. It seems as if the majority of European leaders are once again
determined, as in appeasing Churchill's crocodile, to be "eaten last."
Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI),
said:
"Putting IRGC on the EU terror list is an important step to protect the national
security, to protect our communities, particularly the Iranian diaspora and the
Jewish community because there is a genuine terror threat and because they are
not only targeting and conducting terror plots but they are also nurturing
homegrown Shia islamist radicalisation, using the Isis and Al Qaeda methods.
However, because IRGC is not proscribed (as a terror group), these activities
are not outlawed."
Perhaps little Israel will take on Iran, thereby saving the Europeans, along
with the Iranian people, from their cowardly, quisling-like rulers.
Are European politicians really that eager for the votes of their unassimilable
newcomers -- who appear to be planning to take over Europe? Or are Europe's
politicians afraid that if they fail to delegitimize Israel at every
opportunity, the newcomers might inflict even more terrorism on European soil?
Does Europe really want to live in a state of being permanently extorted? The
price goes only one way: up.
*Robert Williams is based in the United States.
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not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
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or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
All eyes on Rafah...Israelis eliminate Hamas’s top
terrorist, but the war must go on
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/October 24/2024
Last week, young Israeli soldiers on patrol in Gaza encountered and eliminated
Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander who plotted and implemented the invasion of
Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the brutal massacre that followed. This
long-anticipated milestone was a significant battle won in a war that will not
soon end. To understand why, you need to understand who Mr. Sinwar was and the
cause for which he fought. His goal was not to force Israel to end the
“occupation” of Gaza because, as a matter of incontestable fact, all Israelis
departed Gaza in 2005.
Instead, his goal was to destroy Israel “from the river to the sea” and then
replace it with a theocracy – an emirate of the coming caliphate. Hamas seized
absolute power in Gaza in 2007, following a brief but bloody civil war against
the Palestinian Authority.
Over the years that followed, Hamas constructed a vast labyrinth of tunnels in
which, following the Oct. 7 attack, Mr. Sinwar was able to hide, surrounded by
emaciated hostages had dragged out of Israel by his thugs. These terrorists
utilized the tunnels as fortifications, popping up to shoot Israeli soldiers and
steal aid intended for Gazan civilians – for whom Hamas built not a single
shelter.
Instead, his minions boobytrapped Gazan homes, schools, and mosques, the better
to kill Israelis and turn Gazan civilians into human shields – martyrs for the
“Palestinian cause.”
Mr. Sinwar was born in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis in 1962. A
precocious terrorist, he was just 25 when he organized Hamas’s internal security
operation, the al-Majd.
He murdered, often with his own hands, Gazans suspected of cooperating with
Israelis, earning the sobriquet: “Butcher of Khan Younis.”
After murdering 12 Palestinians in 1989, he was given four life sentences in an
Israeli prison.
During his 22 years behind bars, he learned Hebrew. Though language can be a
window into culture, Mr. Sinwar saw nothing about Israel or Israelis to justify
their existence, not even after Israeli doctors, in 2004, saved his life by
removing an aggressive brain tumor.
In 2011, Israel cut a deal with Hamas: The Jewish state released 1,027 convicted
criminals in exchange for a single hostage, Gilad Shalit, a corporal in the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who had been kidnapped in 2006. Mr. Sinwar was among
those freed.
He didn’t regard the high value Israelis place on their citizens as admirable.
He saw it as a vulnerability he could exploit.
Prior to the Oct. 7 attacks, he could have told his minions: “Kill and capture
soldiers, not civilians. We’re honorable Islamic warriors, not barbarians. We
don’t murder children. We don’t rape women. We don’t desecrate corpses.”
But he gave no such instructions. Why was he not worried about the reaction of
the “international community”? Because he knew that anti-Zionists would condone
the carnage based on “context” – their insistence that the Jewish state must be
dismantled, one way or another.
Because he knew that self-declared “social justice warriors” would contend that
“international law” permits the “oppressed” to commit all manner of crimes
against the “oppressors.” That’s patently false but try explaining that to
self-righteous ignoramuses indoctrinated by TikTok videos.
And because he knew that cosplaying revolutionaries and tenured professors (but
I repeat myself) would declare Hamas’s orgy of murder and rape “exhilarating.”
Let me now recount Mr. Sinwar’s final moments. A unit of IDF trainees in Rafah –
a city President Biden had admonished Israelis not to enter – spots four gunmen.
Shots are exchanged. One man is seen running alone into a bombed-out building.
An Israel drone flies through an open window and hovers above a wounded man in
an armchair. He throws a stick at the drone. A tank launches a shell at the
building which collapses.
Hours later, Israeli soldiers locate the man in the rubble. He looks familiar.
They find a pistol, cash, a roll of Mentos, nail clippers, a passport, and UN
IDs.
Based on dental records and DNA, he is quickly identified. An autopsy concludes
that a bullet to the head caused his death.
Was Mr. Sinwar attempting to escape to Egypt? He could have had a deal: a
guarantee of safe passage to a third country of his choosing in exchange for
freeing the hostages. He rejected that option. Think about that.
Mr. Sinwar’s demise leaves Khaled Meshal as Hamas’s top dog. He lives in Qatar
which President Biden officially named a “major non-NATO ally.”
Mr. Biden should now demand that Qatar’s rulers tell Mr. Meshal: “Order your
forces in Gaza to release the American and other hostages immediately.
Otherwise, we will extradite you to the U.S. for trial.”If Qatar’s leaders
demur, they should be considered accessories to Hamas’s crimes – as, in reality,
they’ve always been – and serious consequences should follow.
Over the weekend, Israeli planes dispersed leaflets over Gaza. They made this
offer: “Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to
leave and live in peace.”
If Hamas can be incapacitated, will that bring an end to the bloodshed? No,
because an existential war against Israel will continue to be waged by
Hezbollah, Houthi rebels in Yemen, various Shia militias in Syria and Iraq,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other anti-Zionist groups in the West Bank.
I’ll remind you that all these terrorists are funded, armed, and instructed by
the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. Biden is again pressuring Israel to cease
firing and offer deals.
He fails to comprehend what abundant evidence has by now clearly established:
that enemies determined to kill you for ideological or theological reasons
cannot be appeased.
A big stick may deter them but offers of carrots only whet their appetite for
more war, genocide, and conquest.
**Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.
Guterres embraces the authoritarians
Ben Cohen/Jewish News Syndicate/October 24/2024
By attending a three-day summit in Russia and lending credence to Putin’s
despotism, the U.N. secretary-general is effectively spitting in the faces of
both Ukraine and Israel.
It’s often said about antisemitism that Jews are the canary in the coal mine:
What starts with them won’t end with them, and sooner or later, the rest of
society will suffer the consequences of this thoroughly anti-democratic
ideology. I’m not going to delve into that proposition here, save to say that
while I don’t entirely agree with it, there are times when its core observation
can prove useful.
A case in point concerns the secretary-general of the United Nations, António
Guterres. Back in June, I gave voice to the disappointment I know is shared by
many other Jews over the evolution of his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. After initially appearing quite promising and making all the right
noises on why antisemitism is a global threat that needs to be dealt with,
Guterres transformed for the worse after the Hamas pogrom in Israel on Oct. 7,
2023, joining the chorus chiding the Jewish state on the international
stage—from Ireland to South Africa, from Spain to Chile, and all points in
between. Particularly disgraceful was his decision to place Israel on a
blacklist of countries whose militaries abuse children, alongside such paragons
of virtue as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, Burma/Myanmar, Somalia,
Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. Other democracies, including the United States,
France and the United Kingdom, could easily end up on a list like this given the
actions of their militaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they don’t because the
United Nations understands that the political costs of such an action are
minimal only when it comes to Israel.
Now Guterres is burrowing deeper into the authoritarian, conspiracy-addled
universe from which antisemitism springs. Last week, the U.N. chief arrived in
the Russian city of Kazan for a three-day summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China, South Africa) bloc of states, which bills themselves as an
alternative to the economic institutions, like the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, that have dominated the post-World War II global
order.
The summit was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delightedly used
the occasion to demonstrate that his illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine
hasn’t exactly robbed him of allies. More than 20 world leaders joined him in
Kazan, among them Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud
Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Other states eager to
enter the BRICS fold, including Ethiopia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,
also sent senior representatives to sit at Putin’s feet.
By attending the summit in Russia, Guterres was effectively spitting in the
faces of both Ukraine and Israel. In doing so, he proved that when you flirt
with antisemitism and legitimize its tropes, you open yourself up to embracing
all of its associated baggage—fake news, outlandish theories and the recasting
of terrorism as a form of “resistance.”
BRICS isn’t an exact copy of the Warsaw Pact—the treaty organization that bound
the Soviet Union to its Communist satellite states during the Cold War—but it is
certainly making moves in that direction. Among its five founders, only Brazil
and India have an interest in keeping relations cordial with Western
democracies, but they are no match for Chinese or Russian imperatives in this
regard. Meanwhile, South Africa and those states that have knocked on the BRICS
door more recently—like Turkey, despite its status as a NATO ally—regard the
bloc as much more than an economic association. Critically, BRICS will provide
rogue states like Iran and even North Korea with a veneer of legitimacy denied
to them in Western circles.
Indeed, none of the subjects that the Russian news agency Tass, quoting a
Kremlin statement, reported as being on the agenda at a private meeting between
Putin and Guterres concerned trade or economic development. Their “discussion
will be given to pressing issues on the international agenda, including the
Middle East crisis and the situation around Ukraine,” the Kremlin said. What
Guterres will hear from Putin is the standard Russian line, defaming Ukraine’s
democratic government as a collection of “neo-Nazis” and richly complaining,
nearly three years into the invasion of Ukraine, that it is Israel’s multi-front
defensive war against an axis of Iranian proxies that is causing instability!
Meanwhile, Iran continues to supply Russia with missiles and drones, while North
Korea has—according to South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence reports—sent
thousands of its troops to fight alongside the Russians.
By feting a group of states who represent, in the words of Kyiv Post commentator
Orhan Dragas, “a worrying mix of authoritarianism, anti-democratic governance,
and war crimes,” Guterres is compromising the basic values of the world body’s
founding charter. His presence amounts to an approval of Russia’s actions in
Ukraine and the deepening alliance between Moscow and Tehran. The only way to
avoid that impression would be for Guterres to state clearly that Russia must
withdraw entirely from Ukraine and that Israel, as a sovereign U.N. member
state, has an unquestioned right to defend itself against an association of
states and client paramilitaries seeking its destruction. He won’t, of course,
say anything that comes even close to that.
The elephant in the room here is the U.S.-led alliance of democratic states
around the world. Over the last 80 years, there has been any number of reasons
for them to ditch the United Nations in favor of a new world organization that
doesn’t allow its members to repress their own populations or sew regional havoc
in the name of “national sovereignty.” Yet they have not done so, mainly because
they fear an outcome in which they are unable to influence or check the behavior
of authoritarian states. And with the future of U.S. foreign policy up for grabs
ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, Putin correctly calculates
that now is the perfect time for him to strut the world stage, presenting a
vision of international relations that will strengthen the positions of Russia
and its allies while weakening ours.
The practical effects of this weakness are already painfully visible. To take a
few examples: Qatar—an Iranian ally that practices a form of apartheid by
disenfranchising nearly 90% of its population—has been elected to the U.N. Human
Rights Council; UNRWA—the U.N. agency solely dedicated to the descendants of
Palestinian refugees—continues to function despite copious evidence of the
overlap between members of its staff and Hamas; and the U.N.’s top official is
breaking bread with a Russian leader eager to revive the threat posed by his
country during the Cold War.
I could go on, but it will suffice to say that the head-in-the-sand approach of
Western leaders to our fracturing international institutions is in large part
responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves. The only real pushback
that Guterres has received so far has come from Israel, which has declared him
persona non grata. As welcome as that decision is, it is an isolated one that
will have little impact until other countries pluck up the courage to follow
suit.
*Ben Cohen, a senior analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,
writes a weekly column for JNS on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics.
Multi-front drone threats against Israel increase
Seth J. Frantzman/ FDD's Long War Journal/October 24/2024
On October 21, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted five unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) that were detected flying over an area of the Mediterranean Sea.
The IDF did not disclose where it intercepted the drones or what area they may
have threatened, though it specified they were intercepted before crossing into
Israeli territory. It is one of a number of recent high-profile drone incidents,
including a Hezbollah UAV attack on an IDF training base that killed four
soldiers and wounded 60 on October 13.
In a major escalation, Hezbollah also carried out a drone attack targeting a
coastal residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on October 19.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for this attack on October 22, and Israeli
media confirmed the drone struck the residence. The UAV was caught on camera
flying close to an Israeli combat helicopter, with the drone’s profile clearly
visible against the sky. It was similar to the UAVs the Houthis used to target
Tel Aviv in July and other types employed by Iranian-backed groups.
The drone threat is increasing. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other
Iranian-backed groups, such as Shiite militias in Iraq, have been using UAVs
over the past year to strike at Israel. Each of these groups has employed drones
in a different way or to target various areas of the country. The types of
drones used by the Houthis, Iraqi militias, and Hezbollah appear to have similar
capabilities and characteristics, and they are all influenced by Iran’s backing
for these groups.
For instance, the Iranians based HESA Shahed 136 drones with the Houthis in
Yemen as early as 2021. This same model was later exported to Russia to be used
against Ukraine. The Houthis have also used other UAVs linked to Iran for
attacks over the last decade. Iranian-backed militias have employed drones to
target US forces in Erbil, Iraq, and Kataib Hezbollah used a UAV to kill three
US service members in Jordan in January. The war that Hamas launched on October
7, 2023, has led to various Iranian-backed groups increasing these types of
attacks on Israel from multiple fronts.
Israel takes the drone threat seriously, although confronting it on multiple
fronts is difficult. In Gaza, the threat from Hamas UAVs was largely eliminated
in the first months of the war as the IDF targeted most Hamas commanders linked
to the group’s “aerial” units. In addition, the IDF has targeted Hezbollah
members linked to that group’s UAVs, though Hezbollah has launched hundreds of
kamikaze drone attacks on Israel since October 8, 2023. During the week of
October 14 to 21, the IDF said it intercepted 30 UAV attacks targeting Israel,
and Hezbollah likely continues to possess a significant arsenal.
On October 22, the IDF said that “over the past day, the IAF [Israeli Air Force]
struck approximately 230 Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist targets in Lebanon and
the Gaza Strip, including three command centers belonging to the Hezbollah
Aerial Unit (Unit 127), which, among other things, is responsible for launching
UAVs toward the State of Israel.” Early in the morning on October 21, a drone
from Iraq targeting Israel was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force. Another
attack from Iraq was intercepted the previous day, in addition to a drone from
Syria on October 19.
The use of drone attacks by Israel’s Iranian-backed adversaries has become an
everyday occurrence. For instance, on Friday, October 19, the IDF said that
“sirens sounded at 3:35 in the northern Golan area” and “a UAV that was fired
from the east was identified crossing into Israeli territory from the area of
Syria.” On October 18, the IDF also intercepted a drone over the Mediterranean,
and “two UAVs that approached Israeli territory from Lebanon were intercepted by
the IAF.”
On October 14, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attended a demonstration
showcasing several defense-industry technologies that Israel can use to confront
the UAV threat. Because drones have different shapes, sizes, and capabilities,
from small commercially available quadcopters to models the size of small planes
that have a range of 2,000 miles, the types of systems needed to stop the threat
run the gamut from missiles to guns and jammers. Gallant took part in the
demonstration alongside Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology
Gila Gamliel, Director General of the Israel Ministry of Defense Major General (Res)
Eyal Zamir, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Amir Baram, and Brigadier
General (Res) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Directorate of Defense Research and
Development at the ministry.
The event took place in southern Israel. “After analyzing the trial results, the
Ministry of Defense will select several technologies to enter an accelerated
development and production process,” the ministry said. “The UAV threat is a
multi-arena threat originating from Iran, which supplies UAVs to Lebanon, Yemen,
and Iraq, and even launches them itself,” Gallant said.
Other officials present noted how countering the drone threat is a national
priority, and the defense establishment and Israel’s defense industry are
committed to this goal. This isn’t news to Israel’s defense industry, which
already makes various systems to counter UAVs. However, the recent precision
attacks have been a renewed wake-up call for additional defensive capabilities.
*Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a
contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East
correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7
War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).
Iran’s Economy Braces for Impact of Clash With Israel
Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD. Policy Brief/October 24/2024
Iranians remain on edge as they wait for Israel’s response to Iran’s latest
ballistic missile barrage. The Iranian currency reflects local anxiety as the
street value of the Iranian rial to the dollar has plummeted more than 11
percent since October 1, 2024.
As Israel’s conflict with Iran and Iranian-backed proxies intensifies, Tehran’s
financial fortitude will play a significant role in determining the length and
outcome of the clash. President Masoud Pezeshkian’s proposal to cut gasoline
subsidies, long a political hot potato, and significantly increase the defense
budget likely reflects government recognition that it needs to prepare
financially for protracted conflict.
While the scope and timing of any Israeli retaliation dominate diplomatic
discussions, Iran’s own foreign exchange markets reflect the concerns of
ordinary Iranians. The Iranian government maintains an official foreign exchange
rate, but ordinary Iranians trade currency on the black market, which responds
to market forces and reflects public confidence. Here, the dollar strengthened
from 618,000 rials on October 1, 2024, to 684,500 rials three weeks later. In
the special market where exporters and importers exchange currency, known as
NIMA, the U.S. dollar increased 4 percent from 464,114 rials on October 1 to
485,320 rials three weeks later. Other measures also reflect decreasing
confidence. The Tehran Stock Exchange has fallen 6 percent since October 1 but
more than twice that when converted first into a dollar-denominated index using
the unregulated exchange rate.
Tehran is entering the conflict with structural economic weaknesses caused by
four decades of corruption, mismanagement, and international isolation. However,
the Biden administration’s decision not to enforce U.S. sanctions has increased
Tehran’s financial resilience. According to Washington’s Energy Information
Agency, Tehran sold $144 billion of petroleum and petroleum products from 2021
to 2023. In its latest report, the IMF estimates that during Biden’s four years
as president, Iran will export $439 billion of goods and services. The IMF
forecasts that Tehran’s readily available reserve by the end of this year will
be $31.3 billion.
Over the next few weeks, two events will determine the fate of Iran’s economy in
the near future.
The scope and targets of Israel’s military response will determine its impact on
Iran’s economy. A narrow response as in April 2024 may even lead to a temporary
recovery in currency and stock markets. Yet if the Israel Defense Forces target
economic infrastructure such as oil export terminals, refineries, or ports, the
Iranian rial and stock market will immediately experience further collapse.
Capital flight and disruption of exports will compound the damage and could lead
to social and political unrest.
The U.S. presidential elections will also affect the Iranian economy. Should
Kamala Harris win and continue her predecessor’s policy of sanctions relief or
non-enforcement, the Iranian Central Bank will likely acquire more hard currency
with which to stabilize the rial. A Donald Trump return and resumption of
“maximum pressure,” however, could reduce Tehran’s revenue and access to its
reserve while amplifying the negative impact on the Iranian economy of military
conflict with Israel.
While the cash cushion, the fruit of Biden’s lax enforcement of sanctions,
offers Tehran a breathing gap, Iran’s structural economic weaknesses at a time
it suffers from a legitimacy crisis, domestically and among its proxies, make it
impossible for the regime to successfully pursue a direct, wide, and long
military conflict with Israel. Tehran and its proxies are weaker than what they
have been projecting. This is not a time for de-escalation. Washington should
use this opportunity to push the Islamic Republic towards collapse through a
dual-wing strategy of maximum pressure on the regime and maximum support for the
people of Iran.
*Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior advisor on Iran and financial economics at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Iran
Program and Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). Follow Saeed on X @SGhasseminejad.
For more analysis from Saeed and FDD, please subscribe HERE. FDD is a
Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.