English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 01/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Parable Of The The Widow & The judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people
Luke 18/01-08: “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 31-September 01/2024
South Lebanon: Intermittent Fire Exchange
Israeli artillery shelling in Yohmor Al Shaqif, South Lebanon, causes fires near homes
Firefighters persist in containing Yohmor Al Shaqif fire in South Lebanon following Israeli artillery shelling
Hezbollah and the Presidential Candidates
Bukhari at Ain al-Tineh
FPM leader Bassil tells Hezbollah: We support you in defending Lebanon, not in starting wars
Algerian Fuel Grant to Lebanon: High Quality Confirmed Amid Speculations
Presidential Election: Berri Reiterates Call for National Dialogue
Moussa Sadr: The Charismatic Father of the Shia Awakening/Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/August 31/2024
Lebanon Joins Middle East Green Initiative
Abu Faour representing Jumblatt in a Golan, Palestine, Lebanon gathering: Jumblatt denotes a guarantee of the Arab Islamic identity of the Druze from Palestine to Syria to

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 31-September 01/2024
Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements
Israeli forces kill two attackers in West Bank, military says
Reuters/August 31, 2024
Israeli army announces death of soldier during West Bank operation
Israeli military reports several bodies found in Gaza; hostages' families, others protest
Netanyahu clashes with defense minister over Gaza deal terms, Israeli media reports say
‘Nothing is left’: Israel’s military tells Gaza residents to go home but they find only rubble
Frail and malnourished, rescued hostage hopes war in Gaza ends ‘for all Palestinian and Israeli families’
Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in war-torn Gaza
Egypt bolsters defenses against cholera threat
Death toll from war in Gaza Strip rises to 40,691 martyrs
Al-Azhar warns against Israeli occupation’s plans to seize ownership of West Bank, judaizing its landmarks
Yemen’s Houthis suspected of firing missiles at a container ship as an oil tanker burns
Iran’s president says his country needs more than $100 billion in foreign investment
Decades after independence, France-Algeria ties still tense
Libyan authorities dismantle human trafficking network
Raid by US, Iraqi forces kills 15 Daesh operatives in Anbar
Where do US presidential candidates stand on major Middle East issues?

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 31-September 01/2024
Will The Biden-Harris Administration Allow the World's Leading State Sponsor of Terrorism to Acquire Nuclear Weapons?/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 31, 2024
Do Israel and Hamas really want to end the conflict?/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/August 31, 2024
Europe and the post-America Middle East/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/August 31, 2024
Egypt, Turkiye pin hopes on a new era of cooperation/Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/August 31, 2024
Ukraine’s daring move will do little to alter a war of attrition/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/August 31, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 31-September 01/2024
South Lebanon: Intermittent Fire Exchange
This Is Beirut/August 31/2024
Intermittent exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army continued throughout the day in southern Lebanon on Friday. Late in the day, Israeli aircraft launched air strikes on the outskirts of the village of Zebqine in the western sector. A drone then targeted the same area, and artillery bombarded the plains of Marjayoun and Kfar Kila. The town of Yaroun was also struck by a guided missile. In the evening, Israeli warplanes attacked the village of Tayr Harfa. At dawn, Israeli warplanes had carried out a series of raids on the outskirts of the villages of Zebqine, Naqoura and Wadi Hamoul in the western sector, causing extensive damage to property, crops and surrounding forests. The Israeli army also fired several mortar shells at the outskirts of the town of Aita al-Shaab. The outskirts of the villages of Naqoura and Alma al-Shaab were the target of Israeli artillery fire.
The Israeli army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, stated on X that “readiness on the northern front has been stepped up; the Galilee Division (91) carried out a joint maneuver with police forces and other security agencies.” For its part, in a series of communiqués, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for strikes on the Zabdin barracks and on deployments of Israeli soldiers in Horsh Baram and Metula.

Israeli artillery shelling in Yohmor Al Shaqif, South Lebanon, causes fires near homes
LBCI/August 31/2024
On Saturday, the National News Agency (NNA) reported that the outskirts of Yohmor Al Shaqif and the riverbed in southern parts of the area were hit by Israeli artillery shelling. The attacks resulted in fires that spread to the edges of nearby homes.

Firefighters persist in containing Yohmor Al Shaqif fire in South Lebanon following Israeli artillery shelling
LBCI/August 31/2024
The municipality of Yohmor Al Shaqif reported that "firefighting teams from the Lebanese Civil Defense, the Islamic Health Association's Civil Defense, and the Risala Scout are still combating the fire that broke out on Saturday morning on the western outskirts of the town, facing the areas of Deir Seryan and Taybeh. The teams are making a concentrated effort to control the fires due to the rugged terrain, while hostile drones repeatedly drop incendiary materials on the fire-affected area."

Hezbollah and the Presidential Candidates
This Is Beirut/August 31/2024 
Potential presidential candidates are visiting Dahyeh (the southern suburbs of Beirut) in a bid to secure support and endorsement. During these visits, the head of Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, Mohamad Raad, meets with these visitors, attentively listening to their proposals, opinions, and plans without making any explicit comments, whether positive or negative. Upon parting ways, he simply suggests, “Let’s keep in touch.”Raad expresses regrets to the visitors for his inability to arrange a meeting with “Sayyed” (Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah), citing Nasrallah’s involvement in pressing matters on the battlefield, leaving him with limited availability due to ongoing conflicts.Informed sources disclose ongoing communications between select candidates and Dahyeh. Recent briefings have highlighted an offer put forth by Gebran Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement. This proposal entails withdrawing the candidacy of Jihad Azour in exchange for Hezbollah retracting its support for Sleiman Frangieh, thus pivoting towards a third candidate. Bassil has presented a roster of three names endorsed by himself and aligned with Hezb’s political stance, assuring non-betrayal and steadfastness.
Nevertheless, this proposition has not been accepted, as the party has yet to rescind its support for Sleiman Frangieh, its current candidate.

Bukhari at Ain al-Tineh
This Is Beirut/August 31/2024 
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri received Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari in Ain al-Tineh to discuss the general situation in Lebanon, regional issues, and bilateral relations between Lebanon and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

FPM leader Bassil tells Hezbollah: We support you in defending Lebanon, not in starting wars
LBCI/August 31/2024
MP Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, commented, "In this country, some say we can't coexist, while others, like us in the Free Patriotic Movement, believe we can only live together." At a dinner with the Free Patriotic Movement's Chouf branch, Bassil stated, "People question our position on Hezbollah and accuse us of inconsistency. We tell Hezbollah: We stand with you in defending Lebanon, but not in starting wars. We support a defensive strategy, not an offensive one... and this does not mean we support Israel." Bassil added, "Commitment in a political party doesn't need explaining. Diversity is a strength. We follow a broad path with principles, not a narrow ideology. The issue arises when someone strays from this path and, even more, insists on demonstrating their lack of commitment to decisions." He continued, "The decision is made, but we won't tolerate anyone speaking negatively about those who left, especially on social media, or about their supporters."

Algerian Fuel Grant to Lebanon: High Quality Confirmed Amid Speculations
LBCI/August 31/2024
After the arrival of the Algerian fuel grant on Tuesday to Beirut for operating the power plants, voices were heard casting doubt, claiming that this fuel did not meet specifications. Some even began talking about a new deal or an attempt to "whitewash" the reputation of Sonatrach, the Algerian national company that had previously been responsible for supplying part of the fuel to Lebanon and is involved in a lawsuit related to the so-called "adulterated fuel" case. Upon investigation, it was found that the fuel granted to Lebanon consists of 30,000 tons of high-quality fuel known as Sahara Blend, which is one of the best quality types worldwide and is, in fact, of the highest quality. It is light and contains a very low sulfur content. However, the Zahrani and Deir Ammar power plants currently in operation do not use this type of fuel. Potential FATF sanctions: Can Lebanon curb the risks of a cash-fueled economy amid financial crimes? Therefore, the Ministry of Energy launched a tender through the Public Procurement Authority to exchange the shipment of fuel granted to Lebanon for another shipment that meets the required specifications. The shipped fuel, sourced from the well-known Skikda region, is valued at more than 25 million dollars. The Ministry of Energy sent samples from the ship to Bureau Veritas in Dubai to verify its specifications. Thus, the talk by some about the poor quality of the Algerian fuel is completely unfounded. Algeria has no issue with how Lebanon benefits from this unconditional grant, how it is used, or the possibility of exchanging it for a type that is compatible with Lebanon's power plants. The decision is left to the concerned authorities, and Algeria’s stance is: "Our support for Lebanon is far from any ulterior motive or interest, and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's decision was made with the aim of sparing Lebanon from darkness, especially as it faces Israeli aggression."

Presidential Election: Berri Reiterates Call for National Dialogue
This Is Beirut/August 31/2024 
In a televised address on the 46th anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Musa al-Sadr and his two companions, Amal movement leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, while accusing Israel of failing to comply with it.
On August 31, 1978, Imam Musa al-Sadr and his two companions were last seen in Libya, after which they were reported missing. Berri pointed out that Israel violated Lebanon’s sovereignty “more than 30,000 times by land, sea and air.” In his speech, he urged the Lebanese government to move beyond “theatrical posturing” and focus on providing “the most basic needs” to the displaced people of southern Lebanon, who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflict in the region. He also stressed that resistance – diplomatic, cultural and military – is essential to counter Israel. On the subject of the presidential election, which has been blocked for almost two years, the head of the Amal movement reiterated his August 31 call for a national dialogue or consultations, followed by successive sessions to elect a president of the Republic. This initiative was rejected by the sovereignist bloc, notably the Lebanese Forces, which refused to accept that a dialogue chaired by the head of Parliament should be a prerequisite for the election, and considered it a violation of the Constitution. Berri insisted that “the election of a president is an internal constitutional obligation that has nothing to do with Gaza and the war in the south,” urging political leaders to seize the moment to fulfill this constitutional duty as quickly as possible. Berri described the situation in Gaza and the region as “an open attempt to impose new facts in the Middle East,” warning that the fall of Gaza “would be a resounding fall for the nation in its national security, history, future and borders, as a prelude to dividing the region into sectarian and confessional states, where Israel would be the strongest entity.” Berri also criticized the Netanyahu government, saying, “Netanyahu’s government is assassinating any effort to stop this unprecedented war in modern history, and is paving the ideological ground for the extermination of the Palestinian people.” He added that “Israel is absolute evil and dealing with it is forbidden, period.”

Moussa Sadr: The Charismatic Father of the Shia Awakening
Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/August 31/2024
The Libyan capital, August 25, 1978: Imam Moussa Sadr, the spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community and President of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council (SISC), along with two of his close associates Sheikh Mohammad Yacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine, arrived in Libya at the invitation of then-leader Colonel Moammar Gaddafi. On August 31, Imam Sadr and his two companions were seen for the last time in Libya. Since then, they have been reported missing. The Libyan regime claimed they had flown to Rome, but Italian authorities confirmed that the three men never arrived, and no trace of them was ever found in Italy. This disappearance occurred amid a highly volatile situation in the Middle East: Ayatollah Khomeini was orchestrating the Islamic Revolution from his Parisian exile in Neauphle-le-Château, starting the winter of 1978. Meanwhile, the escalating tensions in southern Lebanon, where armed Palestinian groups were repeatedly launching Katyusha rockets on Israel, provoked retaliatory air raids on villages predominantly Shia-inhabited. The heavy impact of Moussa Sadr’s disappearance is still deeply felt today. As a pivotal figure, the missing imam was instrumental in asserting the Shia community’s presence and rights in Lebanon, effectively ending a long history of ostracism. For example, during the Ottoman rule, the advisory council for the two kaimakams established in Mount Lebanon in the mid-19th century included representatives from Maronite, Greek-Catholic, Greek-Orthodox, Sunni, and Druze communities. However, the Shia, who had a minimal presence in Mount Lebanon, were represented by a Sunni delegate.After the formation of Greater Lebanon in 1920, political marginalization was exacerbated by a pronounced socio-economic divide. Moreover, Mount Lebanon (or Little Lebanon) had enjoyed substantial autonomy under Ottoman rule, resulting in notable advancements in education, culture, healthcare, and economic development. However, the peripheral regions—such as the South, the Bekaa, and parts of the North—that were integrated into this “center” (Beirut and Mount Lebanon) in 1920 were predominantly Shia and had not benefited from the same level of development experienced in Mount Lebanon. This socio-economic gap between the “center” and the periphery persisted after independence in 1943, setting the stage for the missing imam to play a crucial role from the 1960s onward.
Originally from Jabal Amel
Moussa Sadr was born in Qom, Iran, in 1928, to a family originally from Jabal Amel in southern Lebanon. He then pursued his religious and classic academic studies in Qom, Tehran, and Najaf in Iraq. He moved to Lebanon in 1959 and acquired Lebanese citizenship in 1963. In the 1960s, Sadr spearheaded a major outreach campaign, organizing conferences, meetings, and debates in clubs and places of worship. This initiative was parallel to the efforts of two other dignitary Shia figures, Sheikh Mohammed Mehdi Chamseddine and Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who also arrived in Beirut in the 1960s after accomplishing their studies in Qom and Najaf. Moussa Sadr swiftly distinguished himself in the Shia community thanks to his exceptional charisma, commanding presence, and deep religious knowledge. These fundamental qualities were also embodied by Sheikh Chamseddine and Sheikh Fadlallah, who similarly traveled throughout the country to educate and mobilize the Shia population. Imam Sadr articulated a clear vision for the political and social strategies needed to guide the community towards comprehensive development and to advocate for Shia rights. By the late 1960s, his relentless efforts had made him a pivotal and influential figure in both political and communal aspect. In 1967, Moussa Sadr secured the creation of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council (SISC) from the central government, a body aimed at strengthening the socio-political presence and identity of the Shia community. He assumed its presidency in May 1969. However, due to the inactivity of traditional leaders, the SISC turned into merely a forum for community notables. In response, the Imam shifted his focus to establishing the “Movement of the Dispossessed” in 1974, a movement dedicated to championing the political aspirations of the Shia community and addressing socio-economic underdevelopment. The “Movement of the Dispossessed” has been the first political structure established by the Shia community since the Ottoman era. Many analysts believe the purpose of the movement was to shield the Shia underclass from the influence of armed Palestinian groups and leftist parties, particularly the Communist Party and the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (CAOL) led by Mohsen Ibrahim. Building on the “Movement of the Dispossessed,”, Moussa Sadr announced the formation of the “Amal” militia in January 1975, just three months before the onset of the Lebanese Civil War in April 13, 1975. Although the militia was established in 1974, Imam Sadr had kept it secret until its existence was revealed by a fatal accident at a training camp in the Bekaa Valley.
Socio-Economic Development
Through his extensive political and military efforts, Moussa Sadr spearheaded the awakening of the Lebanese Shia community, ending decades of marginalization from the 1960s onward. In addition, the imam has not overlooked the community’s socio-economic needs, and has established, starting 1963, a network of schools, primary healthcare centers, and vocational training institutes, especially for Shia girls and young women. To achieve these goals, he closely worked with Mgr. Grégoire Haddad, the former Greek-Catholic bishop of Beirut and founder of the Social Movement. Today, this network remains active under the Moussa Sadr Foundation, led by his sister, Rabab Sadr.
“Pro-Lebanese” Approach and Openness Policy
From Moussa Sadr’s extensive journey, Lebanese people will remember not only his historic contribution to the Shia awakening but also his “pro-Lebanese” stance and his openness policy, especially towards the Christian community. In 1963, he stood out as the only Shia dignitary to attend the enthronement of Pope Paul VI. At the national level, he maintained strong relationships with figures such as Bishop Grégoire Haddad and former MP Pierre Hélou. At the outset of the Lebanese Civil War, he delivered notable sermons on Good Friday at the Saint Louis Capuchin Cathedral in Beirut’s downtown. True to his inclusive approach, he refused to fully engage in the Lebanese war and undertook a hunger strike in Beirut in an attempt to compel the militias to cease fighting, though his efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. The most significant legacy of Moussa Sadr’s work lies in his staunchly “pro-Lebanese” stance, which was notably ahead of its time. His approach sharply contrasted with the rising transnational Shia ambition. By the winter of 1978, Khomeini’s ideology of Wilāyat al-Faqīh was beginning to emerge. This ideology would later face substantial criticism from figures such as Imam Mohammed Mehdi Chamseddine and Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who emerged as leading opponents of the Wilāyat al-Faqīh system, established by Ayatollah Khomeini with the onset of the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Lebanon Joins Middle East Green Initiative
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/August 31/2024
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister announced that the country has joined the Middle East Green Initiative, launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to mitigate the impact of climate change on the region. “This is an essential step for Lebanon, especially since our southern villages and towns have been exposed to significant environmental and agricultural damage due to Israeli attacks, which requires cooperation with all of Lebanon's friends,” a statement released by the Lebanese Council of Ministers quoted Mikati as saying.
Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan welcomed Lebanon’s participation in the initiative, confirming that a high committee has been established to ensure the project’s sustainability and facilitate relevant cooperation. He noted that the timing of the announcement “comes in light of the continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and this matter must be drawn to attention, especially since Israel is destroying very large areas, whether agricultural lands, fruit trees or forests.”Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said that the Middle East Green Initiative has very important goals to plant 40 billion trees across the region and protect the Gulf and the Middle East from climate change, stop land degradation and desertification and find the means to adapt to future challenges. The Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture estimates that more than 2.8 million square meters of forest and agricultural land were completely burned, while about 6.7 million square meters of agricultural and forest land were partially damaged as a result of Israel’s attacks and its use of internationally-banned incendiary munitions.

Abu Faour representing Jumblatt in a Golan, Palestine, Lebanon gathering: Jumblatt denotes a guarantee of the Arab Islamic identity of the Druze from Palestine to Syria to
NNA/August 31, 2024
Member of the “Democratic Gathering” parliamentary bloc, MP Wael Abu Faour, stressed that “Chief Walid Jumblatt is the guarantor of the Arab Islamic identity of the Druze community from Palestine to Syria to Lebanon,” considering that “the real compass is in Lebanon, and the real compass is with Walid Jumblatt, Taymour Jumblatt, and in Mukhtara, in this Arab and Islamic affiliation of the Druze of Syria, the Golan, Palestine, and everywhere.”“The Druze are not a minority in this land, neither a sectarian minority nor a religious, ethnic or racial minority, but rather part of the Arab Islamic majority in this nation," Abu Faour asserted. He added: “Walid Jumblatt is the guardian of this Arab and Islamic identity, and after him, Taymour Jumblatt is the guarantor of this Arab and Islamic identity against anyone who wants to tamper with it.”His words came as he represented Jumblatt in patronizing a book signing ceremony by journalist and writer Hassan Bahmad in his recent work honoring the great Arab poet Samih al-Qasim on the tenth anniversary of his passing, in a uniting Druze national gathering between the Golan, Palestine and Lebanon at the invitation of the Social and Cultural Council of Western Bekaa and Rashaya and the Progressive House, held at the Al-Irfan School premises in Dahr al-Ahmar. “In our national book, we are one...We differ and are distinct, but if our opinions differ, this does not rule out our nationalism. In our national book, there is no place for treason or political atonement...When it comes to the issue of Palestine, we differ in this matter, but the difference does not mean that anyone from this side or that has the right to reproach the other in his affiliation or nationalism, for we are all sons of this homeland and we all care about it,” Abu Faour underscored.He added: “This persistence, represented by Samih al-Qasim and many of the sons of occupied Palestine, has today become a real dilemma for the Israeli occupation, which views more than one million and two hundred thousand Arabs, equivalent to 22 percent of the size of the Israeli electorate, as are Arabs clinging to their Arab identity.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 31-September 01/2024
Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements
AFP/August 31, 2024
JENIN:Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin. Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city. Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months. The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt. At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank. The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel. The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head. The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified. Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis. In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.
In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement. The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died. Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.Hamas praised what it called a “double heroic operation” in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was “a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks. Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation. Amid the gunfire, armored bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have plowed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas. Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities. Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank — under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war — and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.

Israeli forces kill two attackers in West Bank, military says
Reuters/August 31, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military on Saturday said its forces killed two people in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, after one infiltrated an Israeli settlement and another shot at soldiers after his car exploded .Israel’s ambulance service said two men were wounded by gunshots in the incidents. It did not identify them. “Terrorists attempted to run over a security guard at the entrance to the community Karmei Tzur a short while ago and infiltrated the community,” the military said, referring to an Israeli settlement. Soldiers who arrived at the scene killed one assailant who had opened fire at them and were searching for others, it said.In another incident, a car caught fire and exploded in a gas station, the military said. It said forces sent to the scene “shot and eliminated the terrorist who exited the vehicle and tried to attack them.” The military said it was too soon to know if the incidents were related.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas issued a statement on Saturday praising what it called a “double heroic operation” in the West Bank, saying it “is a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.” The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks. Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before the war in Gaza, has escalated recently, with stepped-up Israeli military raids and settler and Palestinian street violence.

Israeli army announces death of soldier during West Bank operation
AFP/September 01, 2024
JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s army on Saturday announced the first death of a soldier during its ongoing raid in the occupied West Bank that began four days ago. An army statement said 20-year-old Elkana Navon “fell during operational activity” on Saturday and that another soldier was “severely injured” in the same incident, without providing details. Since Wednesday at least 22 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank. Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel. Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began. Twenty Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures. During a visit to Jenin on Saturday, Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi said Israeli forces “have no intention of letting terrorism (in the West Bank) raise its head” to threaten Israel. “Therefore the initiative is to go from city to city, refugee camp to refugee camp, with excellent intelligence, with very good operational capabilities, with a very strong air intelligence envelope... We will protect the citizens of Israel just like that.”Of the 22 Palestinians reported dead since Wednesday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have said at least 14 were members of their armed wings. Earlier on Saturday, Hamas issued a statement saying one of its fighters carried out an “ambush” using “a highly explosive device” in the Jenin refugee camp “which led to the deaths and injuries of members of the advancing (Israeli) force.”

Israeli military reports several bodies found in Gaza; hostages' families, others protest
Allen Cone/United Press International/ August 31, 2024
Aug. 31 (UPI) -- After Israel Defense Forces reported finding "a number of bodies" in the Gaza Strip, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum rallied, demanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a hostage deal. The IDF has not confirmed if the bodies are those of hostages. IDF said it will not be able to confirm any specifics until the bodies have been returned to Israel and checked, likely Sunday. "At this stage, the forces are still operating in the area and carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies, which will last several hours," the military said in statement. IDF sources told the Jerusalem Post if the bodies are hostages, that they were not killed by any recent fight with Hamas in the area because the military did not use force nearby. "Netanyahu abandoned the hostages! This is now a fact," a statement issued by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum read. Thousands already rallied at Hostage Square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and in front of Netanyahu's residence on Saturday night and plans are for more protests Sunday. "Starting tomorrow the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. We will stop the country," the statement continued. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said: "While our sons and daughters are abandoned and die in captivity, Netanyahu is busy spinning the narrative.""We will continue to stand by the families and hug and protect them in difficult times," he added. There are 107 total hostages, living and dead, being held in Gaza according, to Israel's Prime Minister's Office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Of those, 103 hostages are from the Oct.7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Netanyahu clashes with defense minister over Gaza deal terms, Israeli media reports say
Tim Lister, Eugenia Yosef and Lauren Izso, CNN/August 31, 2024
A bitter dispute about the conditions for a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza erupted between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet on Thursday night, according to multiple reports in Israeli media. The two men argued furiously over whether, as part of any deal, the Israeli military should leave the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) that runs along the border between Gaza and Egypt, according to CNN affiliate Channel 12, the Times of Israel and other outlets. The Philadelphi corridor is currently controlled by the IDF. The deployment of Israeli troops along the corridor during the first phase of a ceasefire agreement has been a major point of contention between Israel and Hamas, with Hamas saying Israeli troops must withdraw from the border zone.
According to multiple accounts, Netanyahu produced maps showing how the IDF should remain in the corridor during the first phase of the deal – in which hostages are also meant to be released – so as to prevent Hamas from resuming arms smuggling through tunnels under the corridor. “I would like to bring the decision on the IDF troops remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor for the Cabinet’s approval,” Netanyahu is reported to have said.
Gallant interjected, according to the accounts of the meeting, saying: “The significance of this is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released.” He also alleged that Netanyahu had drawn up different maps to those preferred by Israeli negotiators in Cairo, adding: “You imposed these maps on them.” Netanyahu angrily rejected the claim, but Gallant persisted. “Of course you forced (it). You’re running the negotiations on your own. Since you disbanded the War Cabinet, we hear everything after the fact.” Gallant appeared to receive support from the Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, who was at the meeting. He is reported to have said that the IDF could withdraw from the corridor and return “at the end of six weeks of ceasefire. There are enough constraints for negotiations, there’s no need to add another one.”
According to published accounts, Gallant said at one point that “the prime minister can indeed make all the decisions, and he can also decide to kill all the hostages,” provoking rebukes from other ministers. He added that “30 lives are at stake.”
Gallant added that “in the end Sinwar will dictate to you and you’ll retract,” a reference to the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is thought to be in hiding in Gaza. Netanyahu in response reportedly insisted that no one dictated to him, saying that “only determined negotiation will make him (Sinwar) fold.”
The cabinet proceeded to vote on the maps that Netanyahu presented, approving them by eight to one, the only dissenter being Gallant. The right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir abstained from the vote. Israeli media cited sources close to him as saying he opposed any gradual decrease in the number of soldiers in the corridor. An Israeli official told CNN on Saturday that they were unable to comment on the maps presented to the meeting but confirmed Netanyahu asked the cabinet to hold a vote on forces remaining in the Philadelphi corridor.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum responded to the media reports of the meeting with a statement that they “should cause every Israeli citizen to lose sleep.”
West Bank incidents
Reports of the dispute between top Israeli officials emerged as violence continues to rock the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Two security incidents happened overnight on Friday, in which two men were shot dead and a vehicle exploded, according to the IDF.
The IDF said that a vehicle caught fire and exploded late Friday at a gas station at the Gush Etzion intersection. “Forces that arrived at the point shot and killed the terrorist who got out of the vehicle and tried to attack them.”
The IDF said that nearby, “terrorists tried to run over a security guard at the entrance to the settlement of Karmei Tzur,” a settlement north of the city of Hebron. One of them was killed. The IDF said there had been several casualties in the two incidents.
The Israeli emergency services (MDA) said that shortly before midnight it received a report of two gunshot victims near the gas station. The victims were moderately injured with gunshot wounds. The MDA said that a vehicle apparently breached the entrance to the Karmei Tzur community. The head of security at the settlement received minor injuries when pursuing the vehicle, according to the IDF, and “during the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated.” The Palestine Islamic Jihad movement said its fighters were responsible for the attacks and claimed without offering evidence that a number of Israeli soldiers had been killed. The IDF said Saturday that security forces continue searches for additional suspects near Karmei Tzur community. “The initial examination of the vehicle explosion at the Gush Etzion gas station indicated that the incident was an attempted car bombing by a terrorist,” it said.
Several soldiers had received light or moderate injuries, it said. The incidents come amid a substantial Israeli operation in the West Bank over the past few days which the IDF has said is targeting militants preparing attacks on Israel.
In the north of the West Bank, Israel’s military is continuing its offensive in Jenin city and refugee camp for a fourth consecutive day, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Saturday, citing local sources.
It said eyewitnesses claimed Israeli military reinforcements had been deployed to the Jenin refugee camp and raided several homes. “Israeli military bulldozers have been destroying streets and infrastructure in both the city and the refugee camp, causing significant damage to electricity and water networks,” WAFA reported. Videos obtained by CNN on Saturday appear to show Israeli military bulldozers digging up streets in Jenin refugee camp on Saturday. The IDF says this is done to find and dismantle explosive devices. CNN’s Eve Brennan, Ibrahim Dahman and Eugenia Yosef contributed reporting.

‘Nothing is left’: Israel’s military tells Gaza residents to go home but they find only rubble
Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Abeer Salman and Tim Lister, CNN/August 31, 2024
Health officials request pause in Gaza fighting to administer polio vaccinesScroll back up to restore default view. For the first time since the Israeli military began ground operations in Gaza in October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has sent out messages to people’s phones and on social media saying that the residents of some areas can return to their neighborhoods. The IDF posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday that people who had been ordered to leave three neighborhoods of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza could go home. CNN interviewed a number of families who had returned to find scenes of destruction. One man, Abdulfattah Al Bourdaini, said: “We came home and found nothing, no power, no gas, no house, and we cannot change our clothes.”All he had been able to salvage was a teddy bear for the son he hoped one day to have. “I am penniless like the day I was born,” Al Bourdaini said. “I have nothing. I came to check on my house, didn’t find a house or anything, nothing is left… There is nothing left to cry about.”
His brother, Musa Al Bourdaini, surveyed the scene in disbelief, telling CNN: “Why would they want to destroy this house? This house could have housed 120 people… What did they do to the house? They didn’t find a single human being in it, but yet they hit it with missiles and destroyed an entire neighborhood.”He said he had come home with a key to his own, neighboring building – but had found no house for it. “Now we will bring a tent, that is if we find a tent, and put it next to our house,” he added. Several people said they had been displaced from the neighborhood about 10 days ago, when the Israeli military posted on X and dropped leaflets telling people to evacuate the area for their own security. Many Gaza residents have been displaced multiple times since October, worsening the ongoing humanitarian crisis; experts also warn that evacuation orders have complicated aid efforts. In its post on X on Thursday, the IDF said that “following the operations against terror organizations in the (Deir Al Balah) area, the IDF is enabling the return to these blocks which are part of the designated Humanitarian Area.”
On Friday, the IDF announced that people in three more blocks in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza could also return home, saying on X: “‎After the IDF’s activities against terrorist organizations in the area, you can return to these blocks. In the meantime, the humanitarian zone will be adapted and those areas will from now on be classified as part of the humanitarian zone.” In a statement Friday detailing its operations in recent weeks, the Israeli military said “troops of the 98th Division have completed their divisional operation in the Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah area, after about a month of simultaneous above and underground operational activity.”Israeli forces had “eliminated over 250 terrorists,” and destroyed terrorist infrastructure including six underground tunnel routes in the course of the operation, the statement said. “In some of the tunnel routes the troops eliminated terrorists and located terrorist hideouts and weapons.”Abdul Raouf Radwan said that he and his family had moved into a tent closer to the coast to escape the bombardment. They had returned hoping to reoccupy their home, “hoping to find a life, find something, find a room to live in,” he said. “We found nothing but destruction. Our dreams were destroyed, our memories were destroyed… The house that our ancestors built was all gone.”His brother, Muhammad Ramzi Radwan, said he had already lost a son as a result of the Israeli military’s operations. “A young man of 30, who built himself up from scratch, education, marriage, a son. All is gone, nothing is left.”“My message is to stop the war,” Radwan said. “There is no time left to rebuild ourselves… We have endured this. This is beyond our capacity.”
Yamen al Tabi’s house was also destroyed. He said the family had left the neighborhood out of fear and returned to find their home completely ruined. “I wish I had been buried in the house. I wish I had died in the house and not returned and seen the scene that I saw,” he told CNN. “Where will we go now without shelter?” Raouf Ayesh said he and his children had taken refuge in tents. “And we said, ‘Oh God, let us return to our homes and find our belongings, our clothes, our winter clothes.” But they returned to nothing but debris. Ayesh appeared to place some of the blame on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “Let Sinwar be satisfied,” he said. “Can you hear? They ruined us. We were not like this.”Hanan Al-Arabeed, a widow who had returned to her home with her children, found it in ruins. “Should I go to a tent I am now in the street, I have two disabled children. I did not take anything with me from my house, there is total destruction as you can see,” she said.Al-Arabeed had harsh words for Arab governments, saying: “We demand that the Arab countries stand with us, they make us feel that we are not Muslims…. The negotiations are at whose expense? At the expense of the martyrs, at the expense of the blood of children that is wasted.” Her sister, Umm Kareem Al-Arabeed, said she was collecting whatever she could from the ruins of her apartment. “Unfortunately, Israel has made its decision to eliminate the Gaza Strip. Indeed, it wants to eliminate the Palestinian people so that they do not raise their heads from here for 100 years. But you know, we are a steadfast people, coping people,” she said. “We will start from the beginning and anew. We will start over,” she added. Nearly 84% of the enclave has been placed under evacuation orders since the start of the war, according to the United Nations’ main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, UNRWA. All the while, the Israel-designated “humanitarian zone” has been steadily shrinking. In the past month alone, the IDF has reduced this zone by 38% – with the remaining space making up just over a tenth of Gaza’s total area, according to a CNN analysis.

Frail and malnourished, rescued hostage hopes war in Gaza ends ‘for all Palestinian and Israeli families’
Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN/ August 31, 2024
After more than 300 days in Hamas captivity, a frail and malnourished Farhan Al-Qadi sat in a large tent set up by his family and friends in the Negev desert, where loved ones came by to welcome him home on Wednesday. “I am well,” Al-Qadi told reporters, adding that he wishes “that the war ends for all Palestinian and Israeli families.”“I know that there are negotiations in Cairo,” he said regarding ongoing discussions on a proposed ceasefire-for-hostages deal aimed at halting the fighting. “I wish to God that this is all resolved.”The 52-year-old Bedouin Israeli citizen from southern Israel lost some 65 pounds (30 kilograms) in captivity, his family told CNN, and his complexion appeared pale from lack of sun exposure. His eyes were glassy, often seeming tired. The Israeli military said Tuesday that Al-Qadi is the eighth hostage to be rescued alive in Gaza by the Israeli military since the beginning of the war – but he is the first to have been reclaimed alive from inside Hamas’ tunnel network underneath Gaza. Al-Qadi sat at the center of long rows of plastic chairs, where visitors greeted him with long embraces and kisses on the cheek in a gathering near Tarabin – one of Israel’s many unrecognized Bedouin villages.
With limited power and water services, the village is about 20 miles from the Gaza Strip and is not protected by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. The closest city is Rahat, which is the largest Arab Bedouin city in Israel. The Bedouin community – a Muslim, semi-nomadic, and ethnically Arab group – is considered a subset of Israel’s Arab population, which makes up about 20% of the total population. While some identify as Bedouin Israelis, others see themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Unlike Jewish Israelis, Bedouins are not required to serve in the Israeli military, though some choose to volunteer, often serving in specialized units like the Gadsar 585, known as the Bedouin battalion, which operates in the Negev desert, where most Bedouins originate.
‘Isolated alone’
From the village, CNN’s team on the ground could hear heavy strikes and impacts from the nearby Gaza Strip.Fayez Sohaiban, Al-Qadi’s relative and the former mayor of Rahat city, said the former hostage had lived in captivity not knowing what his fate would be the next day, and food “was almost nonexistent.”
Al-Qadi was working as a security guard in Kibbutz Magen when he was taken 11 months ago. He told reporters on Wednesday that he spent a lot of his time in a tunnel, and had not seen the sky for eight months before his rescue. He added that he did not meet other hostages during his time in Gaza. “No one, no. Not once,” his brother, Juma’a, said, adding that Al-Qad was “isolated alone” the entire time.
Ali El-Ziyadne, whose brother and nephew were also kidnapped on October 7 and remain in Gaza, joined the Bedouin community to welcome Al-Qadi home. His brother, Youssef Ziyadne, and nephew, Hamza Ziyadne, have been held hostage by Hamas for 11 months, he said. “We are afraid for their lives. We don’t know anything about them,” El-Ziyadne told CNN, adding that Youssef suffers from diabetes. El-Ziyadne said he pleaded several times to Hamas that they release his relatives, who are Muslim, hoping to appeal to the group’s “Islamic values and humanity.”
El-Ziyadne asked about his brother and nephew when he met Al-Qadi, but the former hostage did not see them, he said. Before Israel’s founding in 1948, the Negev was home to 92,000 Bedouins, but only 11,000 remained after the Arab-Israeli war of that year, according to Minority Rights Group. Those who stayed “were treated harshly, uprooted time and again and forced to live in reservations,” the international human rights organization said. Today, Bedouin in the Negev still struggle to exercise basic human rights to water, shelter and education, according to Minority Rights Group, which blames Israeli authorities for withholding essential services from Bedouin villages it does not recognize. Tens of thousands of Bedouin live in such villages, where they face the threat of home demolition, eviction or forced displacement, the group estimates. According to the National Library of Israel, there are almost 250,000 Bedouins, many of whom live in towns that are yet to receive recognition from the state, while others live in unincorporated villages. Al-Qadi’s rescue means there are now 103 hostages from the October 7 attack being held in Gaza, according to figures from the Israeli prime minister’s office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Last week the bodies of six Israeli hostages were retrieved from Gaza during an overnight military operation in Khan Younis, Israeli authorities said. Hopes of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, which would halt fighting in Gaza and see the return of people held by Hamas, have repeatedly been raised and dashed in recent months. Negotiators are continuing to work on a deal, and have met with increasing intensity in recent weeks. Talks made progress over the weekend, according to a senior US official familiar with the discussions in Cairo, Egypt, where mediators discussed “final details” of a potential agreement. An Israeli delegation is expected to head to Doha on Wednesday for ceasefire talks. Clarification: This story has been updated to provide additional context on the current issues faced by the Bedouin community in Israel.

Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in war-torn Gaza
AFP/August 31, 2024
GAZA: A health official said a polio vaccination campaign had begun in Gaza on Saturday after the war-torn territory recorded its first case of the disease in a quarter of a century. Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs “are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region,” Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at the Gaza health ministry, told AFP. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, though officials had earlier said the campaign was expected to start on Sunday. After beginning in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza. The campaign, which involves two doses, aims to cover more than 640,000 children under 10. Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, told the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, with another 400,000 still to arrive. The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said earlier this month that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on. The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal. Bakr Deeb told AFP on Saturday that he brought his three children — all under 10 — to a vaccination point despite some initial doubts about its safety. “I was hesitant at first and very afraid of the safety of this vaccination,” he said.“After the assurances of its safety, and with all the families going to the vaccination points, I decided to go with my children as well, to protect them.”Abed, the health official, stressed on Saturday that the vaccine was “100 percent safe.” The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.Incessant Israeli bombardment has also caused a major humanitarian crisis and devastated the health system.

Egypt bolsters defenses against cholera threat
Layla Mohamed/Arab News/August 31, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt has introduced new measures to tackle cholera despite having not recorded any recent cases, amid growing reports of outbreaks in neighboring countries, including Sudan. The guidelines for diagnosing and treating the disease were announced by the Ministry of Health and Population. “We have implemented health surveillance measures, particularly for passengers, transport and goods arriving from countries affected by cholera,” ministry official Dr. Gamal Hussein told Arab News. “The first step is screening passengers and crew on all regular, charter and cargo flights coming from cholera-affected countries, directly or indirectly. “Suspected cases will be referred to a designated hospital for evaluation and the preventive medicine department, general administration of quarantine and the relevant health affairs directorate will be notified immediately,” he said. “We will implement the highest level of infection control measures when handling suspected cases.”Any food and beverages entering the country would be destroyed unless stored in sealed, tamper-proof containers and not suspected of contamination, Hussein said. “If a suspected case is found, the means of transport will be disinfected and any waste from the transport will be treated as hazardous and disposed of safely under quarantine supervision.”Egypt was also ready to care for anyone who might arrive in the country already infected with the disease, he said. “Patients infected with cholera will be admitted to fever hospitals, where contact isolation precautions will be enforced and they will be placed in a single room with a dedicated bathroom. “The situation in Egypt is safe at present but we are fully prepared to respond to any emergency.”Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said: “Cholera is a severe bacterial infection. It can lead to rapid dehydration and loss of salts from the body within hours if not treated promptly. “Most people infected with cholera show no symptoms or have only mild symptoms and they can be effectively treated with oral rehydration solutions. “In the 19th century, cholera spread globally from its original reservoir in the Ganges Delta in India, leading to six worldwide pandemics that caused millions of deaths,” he told Arab News. According to a statement from the Health Ministry, there are between 1.3 million and 4 million cholera cases reported each year around the world, with 21,000 to 43,000 deaths. The rapid spread of outbreaks is primarily attributed to its short incubation period of between two and five days, it said. In the first seven months of this year, 307,233 cases and 2,326 deaths were reported to the World Health Organization, the ministry said.

Death toll from war in Gaza Strip rises to 40,691 martyrs
NNA/August 31, 2024
The Hamas Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday that the death toll from the war between Israel and the Palestinian movement, which has been going on for ten months, has reached at least 40,691 martyrs, according to Agence France-Presse.
The ministry said in a statement that during the past 48 hours, it counted “89 martyrs and 205 injuries” who arrived at hospitals, noting that the total number of wounded had risen to 94,060 in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.

Al-Azhar warns against Israeli occupation’s plans to seize ownership of West Bank, judaizing its landmarks
NNA/August 31, 2024
Al-Azhar condemned, in a statement issued today, "the Zionist terrorist aggression on the cities of the West Bank, and its destruction of a large sector of roads, facilities and homes, and the shedding of the blood of dozens and the injury and arrest of hundreds," according to the Palestinian "Wafa" news agency.
Al-Azhar warned "the entire world" of "a Zionist plan being implemented on the occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank with the aim of seizing its ownership and Judaizing its landmarks, killing its owners and Palestinian citizens, and committing a new genocide in light of the brutality of this entity, and in light of international collusion and the unprecedented international collusion and UN failure, and in light of the world’s preoccupation with the daily massacres taking place on the proud land of Gaza, reassuring the enemy that no one would lift a finger regarding what was happening there.”
It also warned of the "danger of this aggression on the security and stability of the region," calling on "the human community and all active parties" to "assume their responsibilities towards the tragic and painful number of brutal massacres committed by the Zionist killing machine against the people of the Gaza Strip, and what is about to happen in the West Bank, and the necessity of exerting all efforts to stop the Zionist plans aimed at taking lives, stealing land and falsifying history as if everything is permissible!”

Yemen’s Houthis suspected of firing missiles at a container ship as an oil tanker burns
AP/August 31, 2024
SANAA: Two missiles suspected to have been fired by Yemen’s Houthis targeted a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden late Friday, splashing down nearby without causing any damage, authorities said. The attack comes after the Houthis repeatedly assaulted and then boarded a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the nearby Red Sea, planting explosives on it they later detonated. That attack, the worst in weeks, risked a major oil spill as the militia’s campaign disrupts the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as well as halting some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen. The attack Friday saw two missiles “exploding in close proximity to the vessel” some 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of Aden, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The ship “reports all crew are safe and proceeding to next port of call,” the UKMTO said. “Investigations are ongoing.” The Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational body overseen by the US Navy, on Saturday identified the vessel targeted as the Liberian-flagged container ship Groton. The Groton came under attack Aug. 3 as well in a similar Houthi assault off Aden that included two missiles fired at the vessel, with one causing minor damage.The ship “was targeted due to other vessels within its company structure making recent port calls in Israel,” the center said. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack Friday. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a United States-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets. The militia maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Meanwhile, the US military’s Central Command said Saturday it destroyed two drones over Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.

Iran’s president says his country needs more than $100 billion in foreign investment
AP/September 01, 2024
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s president said Saturday his country needs some $100 billion in foreign investment to achieve an annual target of 8 percent economic growth up from the current rate of 4 percent. The remarks by Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July, came in his first live televised interview by state TV. Pezeshkian said Iran needs up to $250 billion to reach its goal but more than half is available from domestic resources. Experts say growth in GDP of 8 percent would reduce double-digit inflation and unemployment rates. Hundreds of entities and people in Iran — from the central bank and government officials to drone producers and money exchangers — are already under international sanctions, many of them accused of materially supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and foreign militant groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Pezeshkian in his interview complained about the sanctions and said his administration plans to reduce inflation, which is running at more than 40 percent annually, “if we solve our problems with neighbors and the world.” He did not elaborate. Pezeshkian confirmed that his first visit abroad will be to neighboring Iraq and he would then fly to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Sept. 22-23. He said while he was in New York he would meet with Iranian expatriates to invite them to invest in Iran. Out of more than 8 million Iranian expatriates, some 1.5 million Iranian live in the United States. Pezeshkian, who is viewed as a reformist, was sworn in last month and parliament approved his cabinet earlier in August, promising a softer tone both inside and outside the country. His predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protege of Iran’s supreme leader who led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels, died in a helicopter crash in May, along with seven other people. Iran’s economy has struggled since 2018 after then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program and imposed more sanctions. Pezeshkian said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.

Decades after independence, France-Algeria ties still tense
AFP/September 01, 2024
ALGIERS: The fraught relations between France and its former colony Algeria had eased a little in recent years, but a new rift over Paris backing Morocco’s autonomy plan for disputed Western Sahara has sent rapprochement efforts into a tailspin. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is seeking a second term in presidential elections on September 7, was set to travel to France for a state visit, but this has been rescheduled twice and it is now doubtful in will happen at all. Last month, Algiers withdrew its ambassador to Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron said Morocco’s autonomy plan was the only solution for the territory. Algeria, which backs the territory’s pro-independence Polisario Front, denounced this as a “step that no other French government had taken before.” France colonized Algeria in 1830 and the North African country only gained independence in 1962, after a war that authorities say killed more than 1.5 million Algerians. French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. While France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds, it refuses to “apologize or repent” for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in the devastating eight-year war. Experts now accuse both countries of exploiting the war for present-day political ends. “The national narrative about the Algerian war is still dominant and during a campaign like the presidential election, Algerians are sensitive to these issues in their internal policy choices,” Hasni Abidi of the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center told AFP. Abidi said Tebboune now needed to “readjust his electoral speeches to protect himself from criticism on foreign policy” after the “complete fiasco” of failed attempts to restore relations with Macron.
Last week, Algeria marked its Moudjahid National Day commemorating war combattants with a speech by Tebboune, in which he said France wrongly “believed it could stifle the people’s revolution with iron and fire.”In 2022, the two countries set up a joint commission of historians in an attempt to mend historical differences and appease tensions.
But, according to Abidi, the commission didn’t work fast enough and “did not succeed in freeing itself from political supervision.” The expert said France’s latest move backing Morocco’s plan in Western Sahara “will deal another blow to the issue of memory” at the risk of “reopening old wounds and stigma from the colonial past.”What followed France’s conquest of then Ottoman ruled Algiers was the destruction of its socio-economic structures, mass displacement, and the bloody repression of numerous revolts before the war erupted in 1954. This chapter in the two countries’ history has been “exploited according to their issues and interests of the moment,” historian Hosni Kitouni told AFP. During the historians’ debate, Algeria asked France to return the skulls of resistance fighters and historical and symbolic artifacts from 19th-century Algeria, including items that belonged to Algerian anti-colonial figure Emir Abdelkader.
“These items are in museums in France, where, from a legal standpoint, their presence is illegal,” Amira Zatir, an adviser at the Emir Abdelkader Foundation, told AFP. She said many of these items were stolen when French forces looted the emir’s library during the Battle of Smala in 1843. Algeria has also demanded the return of original archives from the Ottoman and colonial eras that were transferred to France before and after Algeria’s independence. Algeria seeks reparations for actions committed by the former occupying power, such as the 17 nuclear tests conducted in its Sahara desert between 1960 and 1966. Mustapha Boudina, a 92-year-old former war combattant who now heads the National Association of Former Death Row Inmates, said Algeria should require even more reparations.“We need to put pressure on our enemies of the time so that they repent and apologize” for their “numerous crimes,” he said. Several historians believe that recognizing French colonization as a “crime against humanity” would be more appropriate. That was exactly how Macron described it during a visit to Algiers amid his presidential campaign in 2017, sparking an outcry from the French right.

Libyan authorities dismantle human trafficking network
Reuters/September 01, 2024
CAIRO: Libyan authorities have dismantled a human trafficking network operating in the country’s southwest and arrested members of the group, the country’s Attorney General’s office said on its Facebook page on Saturday. Authorities arrested one of the network’s leaders and 10 members who are accused of murder, illegal detention, torture, and rape of migrants, the statement said. The investigation documented violations affecting 1,300 migrants, including cases of forced detention, torture, and extortion for their release.
Libya descended into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 led to the overthrow and killing of leader Muammar Qaddafi, with two competing governments backed by militias scrambling for control of the oil-producing country. Daesh militants also gained a foothold in the North African state. People smugglers operating with impunity in Libya have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants by sea to Europe, mainly Italy, since 2014. Thousands have died during the voyages.

Raid by US, Iraqi forces kills 15 Daesh operatives in Anbar
AP/August 31, 2024
BAGHDAD: The US military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected Daesh terrorists in the country’s western desert that killed at least 15 people and left seven American troops hurt, officials said on Saturday. For years after dislodging the militants from their self-declared caliphate across Iraq and Syria, US forces have fought Daesh. However, the casualties from this raid were higher than in previous ones. The US military’s Central Command said the militants were armed with “numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive ‘suicide’ belts” during the raid on Thursday, which Iraqi forces said happened in the country’s Anbar Desert. “This operation targeted Daesh leaders to disrupt and degrade Daesh’s ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as US citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond,” Central Command said.
“Iraqi security forces continue to further exploit the locations raided.”It added: “There is no indication of civilian casualties.”An Iraqi military statement said “airstrikes targeted the hideouts, followed by an airborne operation.”“Among the dead were key Daesh leaders,” Iraq’s military said, without identifying them.
“All hideouts, weapons, and logistical support were destroyed, explosive belts were safely detonated, and important documents, identification papers, and communication devices were seized.”A US defense official said that five American troops were wounded in the raid, while two others suffered injuries from falls during the operation.The official said that one who suffered a fall was transported out of the region, while one of the wounded was evacuated for further treatment. “All personnel are in stable condition,” the official said. It was not immediately clear why it took two days for the US to acknowledge it took part in the raid. Iraq did not say the US took part in the operation when initially announcing it, as politicians debate the future of having American troops in the country.
There are approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq.
Since the US toppled Saddam Hussein with its 2003 invasion of Iraq, the country has struggled to balance relations between America and neighboring Iran. Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, Iraqi militias allied to Iran have targeted US forces there, leading to American airstrikes targeting them.
At its peak, Daesh ruled an area half the size of the UK. It attempted to enforce its extremist policies, which included attacks on religious minority groups. A coalition of more than 80 countries led by the US was formed to fight the group, which lost its hold on the territory it controlled in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. However, the militants have continued to operate in the Anbar Desert in Iraq and Syria while claiming attacks carried out by others elsewhere in the world inspired by the group. That includes the two suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift’s shows in Vienna. Meanwhile, the Daesh branch in Afghanistan is known to carry out intensely bloody assaults. Last month, the US military said the number of attacks claimed by Daesh in Syria and Iraq was on track to double this year compared with the year before. Daesh claimed 153 attacks in the two countries in the first six months of 2024, compared with 121 attacks in 2023. Iraqi officials say that they can keep the IS threat under control with their forces and have entered into talks with the US aimed at winding down the mission of the US-led military coalition in Iraq. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last October, US military presence in the region has become particularly contentious. An umbrella group of Iran-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has periodically launched drone attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria, which they said was in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza and were aimed at forcing US forces to withdraw from Iraq.

Where do US presidential candidates stand on major Middle East issues?
ANAN TELLO/Arab News/August 31, 2024
LONDON: With the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the looming threat of a full-scale war in the Middle East, a stalemate in Ukraine, and intensifying competition between the US and China, America’s 47th president will face multiple foreign policy challenges.
Indeed, international affairs could prove even more demanding than domestic economic concerns for the incoming administration, with implications for national security, the price of commodities, and America’s standing in the world. And while uncertainty hangs over the trajectory of the next US president’s Middle East policy, there are indications it will broadly align with the status quo, with regional alliances playing a key role in helping Washington address current and emerging challenges. Saudi-US partnership, built on more than 70 years of friendship, has been strengthened by exchange opportunities promoting mutual understanding. (AN archives). Analysts believe America’s cooperation with Gulf states, notably with regional leader Saudi Arabia, will continue to yield strategic benefits in areas including energy security and regional stability.
Norman Roule, a former senior US intelligence official, told Arab News: “There is no shortage of areas in which the US and its partners in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, can cooperate.”Vital growth areas for the US and Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, include trade, defense, energy, artificial intelligence, space, communications, environmental technology and strategic investments.
Despite a rocky start early in his presidency, President Joe Biden has upheld America’s long-standing security, educational and institutional ties with Saudi Arabia. This partnership, built on more than 70 years of friendship, has been strengthened by exchange opportunities promoting mutual understanding. “The next US president and administration can build on the work of its predecessors by reinforcing existing collaboration with regional allies,” Joe Macaron, a fellow at the Washington-based Wilson Center, told Arab News.
This appears to be high on the agenda for both of the main party candidates — Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump — both of whom view Riyadh as an important partner for Washington.
Throughout his term as president, from 2017 to 2021, Trump placed Saudi Arabia at the heart of his Middle East agenda, viewing the Kingdom as a key business partner and an ally against Iran’s malign influence in the region. Likewise, Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee in July, has acknowledged Riyadh as an important partner.
In 2019, she told the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and Saudi Arabia “still have mutual areas of interest, such as counterterrorism, where the Saudis have been strong partners,” and stressed the need for continued coordination. However, Macaron emphasized that “as challenges and new geopolitical trends” continue to emerge in the Middle East, “US interests are at stake in the next four years.
“The US can potentially enhance trade and cooperation, but most importantly the expectation is for the US to have a clear and predictable approach to the Middle East,” he said. Failure to do so could have dangerous consequences. For Roule, “the region’s broken states,” including the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, “cannot be ignored,” as “doing so makes them vulnerable to Iran, Iranian proxies and terrorism.”
“Sudan, Yemen and Libya stand out as areas where much more work needs to be done,” he said. “The end of the Gaza war will bring highly expensive reconstruction projects that will require careful and long-term management.”
Israel’s assault on Gaza, which came in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, has threatened to spill over into neighboring countries, including Lebanon and Syria, raising concerns about the potential for a regional war pitting Israel and Iran and its proxies. As the US is Israel’s biggest financial and military backer, the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and the possibility of a full-scale Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon have become key issues in the US election race. While reaffirming his staunch support for Israel, Trump has urged the Israeli government to quickly conclude its military operation in Gaza, saying the prolonged war is damaging Israel’s global image. In an interview he gave in April, Trump said Israel needed to “finish what they started” and “get it over with fast” because it was “absolutely losing the PR war.”“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” he said on the “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Harris, too, has been clear about her support for Israel’s security and its right to exist. Despite opposing an arms embargo on Israel, the vice president has said she and Biden are working to end the conflict. Since the launch of her presidential campaign in July, Harris has sought strike a balance between reaffirming US support for Israel and expressing sympathy for Palestinian civilians — mirroring Biden’s approach to the conflict. In her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, she said: “Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating … The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.”INNUMBERS.
• 40k+ US troops and contractors in the Middle East. • 7.5k Personnel aboard two aircraft carrier groups deployed in the region. For her part, Green Party candidate Jill Stein has been a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights, openly vowing in several media appearances and social media posts to “end the Gaza genocide.”
On Tuesday, the Green Party told the Jewish news website Forward that Stein believes the Gaza war “makes any other issue pale in comparison.”
Caption
Earlier this month, she also slammed Israel in a post on X for “attempting to drag the US into escalations on the brink of WWIII. “We are seeing ourselves on the verge of potentially nuclear conflicts, which is terrifying,” she said, referring to the possibility of all-out war between Israel and Iran. More than 40,000 US military personnel deployed across the Middle East, including in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, are at risk of being drawn into a broader conflict should regional tensions escalate.
A US Army soldier hands out candy to children while on joint patrol with local forces on May 25, 2021 near the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. (Getty Images)
Trump has also voiced concerns that conflict in the Middle East could drag the US into a third world war scenario. “Who is negotiating for us in the Middle East? Bombs are dropping all over the place!” he posted on X.
“Let’s not have World War lll, because that’s where we’re heading!”Fears of an all-out war between Israel and Iran have intensified in recent weeks following Israel’s suspected killing of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on July 31 and of Hezbollah number two Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, immediately threatened Israel with a “harsh punishment” for the suspected killings. Iran’s security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian, meanwhile, told Mehr news agency that “all fronts of the resistance will take revenge for Haniyeh’s blood.”On Aug. 25, Hezbollah launched hundreds of missiles at Israeli targets, marking the onset of its retaliation for its slain commander. Shortly beforehand, Israel launched a wave of preemptive airstrikes aimed at thwarting Hezbollah’s barrage.
All of the US presidential candidates have expressed a desire to prevent a broader war in the Middle East, yet their specific strategies for this remain unclear. One thing they appear to share in common, however, is a commitment to normalization.“At a time of great political polarization in US politics, there is an emerging consensus on the importance of deepening and broadening the process of normalizations between Israel and America’s Arab partners,” Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, told Arab News.“The style and pace might differ depending on who is elected to the White House, but not the strategic trajectory.”

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 31-September 01/2024
Will The Biden-Harris Administration Allow the World's Leading State Sponsor of Terrorism to Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 31, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/08/133908/
Iran's runaway strides in its nuclear program have taken place largely under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration.
Will this administration allow the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to acquire nuclear weapons? It many have been what the Obama administration wished -- so long as it was "not on my watch" -- but it was a terrible idea then, and it is a worse one now. The prospect of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arming groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias with nuclear weapons is bad for the world's health.
Iran's regime that has also repeatedly vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and the United States— after that, presumably, the oil-rich Gulf states. Iran already controls five other countries in the region: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. There are flashing neon signs that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's dream of "exporting the Revolution" is steadily extending to America's backyard. Latin American rogue states allied with Iran could potentially be transformed into nuclear-armed threats.
Iran's runaway strides in its nuclear program have taken place largely under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration. Will this administration allow the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to acquire nuclear weapons? The prospect of Iran arming groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias with nuclear weapons is bad for the world's health.
Despite widespread concerns over Iran's advancing nuclear program, the Biden-Harris administration, along with European leaders, are largely inactive in curbing this growing threat. As the clock ticks, there has been no concrete strategy proposed to halt Iran's march towards nuclear weapons, leaving the world in an alarming position.
In a recent development, Representative Mike Turner, Chairman of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, voiced extreme concern regarding Iran's potential declaration as a nuclear weapons state. Turner pointed out the unsettling prospect that Iran could announce its nuclear status "by the end of the year." He further blamed the Biden administration's policies for contributing to this dangerous situation, and stated that they have set the stage for a significant escalation. Turner emphasized:
"There is a possibility, with the advances that have been made under the Biden administration's policy, that Iran could, reports are out, that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapon state by the end of the year, if—and you would not have had that."
The gravity of the situation has also been acknowledged by the State Department. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issuing a warning that Iran is on the verge of producing the materials needed for a nuclear weapon, potentially achieving this within just "one or two weeks." This prediction underscores the immediacy of the threat and the limited time left to address it.
Iran's runaway strides in its nuclear program have taken place largely under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration. During this administration's tenure, Iran not only surpassed the level of 3.67% uranium enrichment but also accumulated a large stockpile of low-enriched uranium well beyond the 300 kg cap. Additionally, Iran has expanded the number of its centrifuges and invested heavily in additional research and development of centrifuge technology, bringing the regime close to nuclear-weapons capability.
Recent reports paint an even more alarming picture: Iran's uranium enrichment levels have now reportedly reached 84%, a level uncomfortably close to the 90% threshold required for weapons-grade material.
It is perplexing-verging-on-treasonous that the Biden-Harris administration has not taken any decisive action to prevent Iran from going nuclear, or even causing any less devastation in the Middle East. Iran was also behind "over 150 attacks" on US troops in the Middle East, just since October 7, 2023, wounding many American troops.
Will this administration allow the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to acquire nuclear weapons? It many have been what the Obama administration wished -- so long as it was "not on my watch" -- but it was a terrible idea then, and it is a worse one now. The prospect of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arming groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias with nuclear weapons is bad for the world's health.
Iran's regime that has also repeatedly vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and the United States— after that, presumably, the oil-rich Gulf states. Iran already controls five other countries in the region: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. There are flashing neon signs that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's dream of "exporting the Revolution" is steadily extending to America's backyard. Latin American rogue states allied with Iran could potentially be transformed into nuclear-armed threats.
Adding to the problem is the Biden-Harris administration's lack of a clear plan, let alone any desire, to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. Instead of enforcing stringent sanctions, the administration has provided and enriched Iran with over $50 billion, thereby financing not only its nuclear program, but also its regional aggression as well – including against the US.
The US and the West have only a narrow window of time left to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state. It is imperative not only to cut off the flow of funds to the Iranian regime by fully enforcing sanctions and preventing oil sales, but also to neutralize Iran's nuclear plans -- the sooner, the better.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20909/biden-harris-iran-nuclear-weapons

Do Israel and Hamas really want to end the conflict?
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/August 31, 2024
In principle, negotiations are aimed at bridging differences with the ultimate objective of resolving a conflict. But then there is the Israel-Hamas negotiating approach, one that increasingly leaves the impression that they engage, albeit indirectly, in ceasefire talks more for the sake of them, while failing to convince anyone that reaching a deal is their top priority. All the evidence shows that they are more invested in continuing the conflict than ending it, or are at least incapable of internalizing that neither side has anything to gain in prolonging the war, and that it is only by agreeing on the necessary compromises that this horrific bloodshed will end. For both the Israeli and Palestinian people a ceasefire is an urgent necessity, one that will also ensure that the hostages who are wasting away in captivity will be freed. But the same sense of urgency is not shared by their respective leaderships.
The longer that this most violent episode in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1948 continues, the more it becomes evident that there are no political achievements possible for either side to gain from it. Moreover, the war from its outset has been internationalized, at some points leaving the entire region on the very brink of a regional war and providing the Iranian-led so-called “Axis of Resistance” an opportunity, more accurately an excuse, to dangerously draw the battle lines between themselves, the rest of the region, and the Western powers, in the name of defending the Palestinian cause.
The route to defusing bilateral and regional tensions, even if not immediately resolving their underlying causes, goes through a ceasefire in Gaza. Hence the constant derailing and delaying tactics of the Israeli government, and especially of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that are being employed to save his political skin rather than for any viable strategic reason, have become detrimental to the future of Israelis, Palestinians, and regional stability.
There is a credible argument that at least until last week, when Israel pre-empted a massive Hezbollah missile and drone attack and consequently limited its scope and damage, enough had been done to satisfy both sides that all scores had been settled, at least for now. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was also uninterested in a ceasefire, in the hope that Israel’s recent spate of assassinations carried out in Beirut and Tehran would lead to a powerful military retaliation against Israel, leaving the latter weakened and thus improving his position with or without negotiations.
Now that this danger has, at least temporarily, been averted and ceasefire negotiations have resumed in Cairo and Doha, comes the real test of both sides’ desire for a ceasefire, and of the determination of the mediators and other elements in the international community to use their power to convince both protagonists that it is in their interests first to reach a ceasefire deal, but only as a first step toward a comprehensive agreement that will peacefully resolve the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
All the evidence shows that they are more invested in continuing the conflict than ending it.
Yet, on the Israeli side, and not only on this issue, it is the presence of Netanyahu and his disturbing reliance on the far right that is perpetuating a political-diplomatic bottleneck. I have long been a critic of Netanyahu’s politics, his unquenched hunger for power and his lack of morality. However, the current Netanyahu model that has emerged since he was charged with corruption, and the subsequent formation of his sixth administration in December 2022, is in a different league altogether and is totally self-serving. His responsibility for the misperceptions and miscalculations that for years built up Hamas’ military power; the lack of preparedness on Oct. 7; the weakening of Israeli society as a whole by forming a coalition with the most damaging, extreme right-wing elements who see Armageddon as desirable rather than as a cataclysm to be avoided; in addition to his and his family’s sheer hedonism in the midst of a war when so many people are dying every day — all of these failures are bound to be officially and thoroughly investigated when the war ends. But prolonging the war has become a means for Netanyahu to indefinitely delay such an investigation that would bring the curtain down on his time in Israeli politics.
To expect that Netanyahu would show any sympathy for all the Palestinians who have been killed, maimed or lost everything in the war and who are in desperate need of humanitarian aid would be reasonable, but also a big ask of someone with a psychological profile such as his, one that also dictates his policies. Yet, for a right-wing nationalist who fashioned himself as the defender of Israel and its people, his callous attitude toward the hostages and their families while it becomes increasingly evident that more dead hostages than live ones are returning home while those still held in Gaza have been going through hell for almost a year and soldiers are dying almost every day, is truly shocking.
Delaying a deal, one that his defense minister and the chiefs of the different branches of the security forces are encouraging him to reach, is evidence of someone who has lost all sense of judgment and morality. Netanyahu sends representatives of the Israeli Defense Forces, Mossad, and Shin Bet to negotiate in Cairo and Doha, seems to give them some leeway to make progress, and then presents new conditions that pull the carpet from under the feet of the negotiators, condemning many more people to immense suffering.
Israel’s demands for security and ensuring that Oct. 7 will never happen again are an understandable priority, as should be the security of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, but holding onto the Philadelphi Corridor or even the Netzarim/Salah Al-Din Road Corridor will not result in long-term security, but merely perpetuate the occupation and the conflict, as Netanyahu and his government have been advised by so many current and past senior security chiefs. What hurts and divides Israeli society is the hostages issue, one that is breaking the bond between the people and a state that is failing in its basic responsibility to protect them from danger, something it failed to do on Oct. 7 and ever since by abandoning the hostages in the tunnels of Gaza. What makes it even worse is that it is being done for Netanyahu’s self-preservation and under duress from his coalition partners with their messianic ambitions to reoccupy and settle the Gaza Strip. It makes both the prime minister and his Cabinet culprits in prolonging this horrific war that should have long ago been concluded in a ceasefire.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

Europe and the post-America Middle East
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/August 31, 2024
In the days following US President Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his reelection campaign, a wave of hope surged among American policy influencers and key decision-makers anxious about Washington’s waning commitment to its global security responsibilities. Current polls suggest the race for the Oval Office this November remains tight between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — tempering expectations for the success of the electoral challenge to the latter’s isolationist “America First” ideology. But a palpable shift has reignited discourse among those convinced that only US leadership can navigate the world’s geopolitical crises, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, despite Washington’s elites repeatedly asserting the primacy of American leadership in a restless world, the failures of the administrations’ handling of threats to global stability clearly signals an irreversible erosion of US influence. For the world weary roaming the halls of power in Washington, the US still faces tough questions about the coming post-America order for the Middle East, regardless of who wins in November.
However, Brussels cannot simply ignore or sideline the Arab region, a volatile neighborhood merely a stone’s throw from its own shores. In a world where US influence is increasingly diluted, Europe finds itself at a crossroads. Long relegated to playing second fiddle in a region once dominated by post-First World War European powers, the continent must now confront its limitations, while recognizing its core interests in the Middle East. The stakes are high; from the threat of nuclear proliferation to proxy conflicts and the implosion of entire Arab states, the region’s instability has direct and severe repercussions for Europe. As America’s retreat looms, Europe cannot afford passivity. Instead, it must carve out a strategic role that promotes stability and preempts the disastrous cycles of conflict and impoverishment threatening to spill over into European territory.
Gone are the heydays, long before the current administration, where the US had sufficient breadth to grapple with a unique unipolar ability to shape outcomes in sprawling crises and critical conflicts, counting on unreserved support from a Europe preoccupied with complex institution-building. With the tenor of US engagement slowly shifting toward absenteeism in favor of a vaunted “pivot” to the Indo-Pacific, Europe must now grapple with a new Middle East “reality.” It will demand a permanent detachment from colonial pasts and patronizing post-Second World War era policies for new forms of diplomatic engagement among equals.
Unfortunately, recent efforts have left much to be desired.
Contradictory, highly self-interested policies of France and Italy in Libya failed to achieve reunification under an effective government. Tunisia’s much-praised democratic ascent has since collapsed under a Kais Saied “hyper-presidency,” emboldened by Brussels’ unwillingness to check the attacks on political pluralism. Similarly, France’s inability to mediate in Lebanon has highlighted its dwindling influence, capped off by rising anti-French sentiment in parts of North Africa and the adjacent Sahel. Worse yet, myopic border externalization policies have inadvertently led to Europe bankrolling aspiring despots and turning a blind eye to serious human rights violations and the kleptocratic networks that thrive on trafficking in desperate migrants. Brussels cannot simply ignore or sideline the Arab region.
If Europe is to have a role to play in a fast-changing Arab region, it must do more than acknowledge its limitations, unforced errors, and grave miscalculations. On the contrary, Europe’s economic clout, diplomatic experience, and strategic interest provide it with unique tools to affect the region. One area of critical engagement is Iran and its nuclear ambitions. As Washington recalibrates its foreign policy and distances itself from the dizzying geopolitics of the Middle East, Europe confronts an unavoidable reality: stepping up to fill the void. The E-3 — Britain, Germany, and France — must galvanize efforts not merely to chastise Iran for its nuclear ambitions but also to enact concrete measures, such as reintroducing sanction “snapbacks,” which could decisively curb Tehran’s regional machinations or, at the least, heighten the cost of Iranian adventurism.
Europe’s proximity also necessitates a proactive stance on issues such as Iran’s influence through its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The region, rife with proxy wars and political instability, carries enormous repercussions for European security and economic interests. A united European front, coupled with strategic collaboration with a US eager to hand over the reins, could deter escalating threats. While US engagements in the region wane, Europe’s leadership, assertive diplomacy, and economic sanctions, could forge a path to more stable and less volatile dynamics on its doorstep.
For instance, in Iraq, Europe can counter Tehran’s growing influence by bolstering local political forces that resist Iranian meddling through strategic economic aid and an enduring security presence. Drawing parallels from the bloc’s relatively successful economic diplomacy in the Balkans, the application of targeted financial incentives could fortify Iraq’s political factions against Iran’s hegemonic aspirations. Concurrently, a coordinated European-American approach could thwart Iran’s ambitions of transforming Iraq into a proxy state and impede its strategic objective of establishing land corridors stretching to the Mediterranean. Lebanon, on the other hand, has proven a more formidable challenge given Hezbollah’s entrenched influence that renders its swift disentanglement virtually impossible. Realistically, any involvement in Lebanon, while fraught with complexity, is not without precedent and serves as a crucial test of Europe’s ability to act as a stabilizing force. By backing anti-Iranian political factions through economic and military aid, Europe can proactively lay the groundwork for long-term stability. Europe’s conditional financial support for political reforms in Eastern Europe teases the relative efficacy of such an approach. Concurrently, enhancing the UN Interim Force in Lebanon could help dislodge Hezbollah’s stranglehold on Lebanon and disrupt its operational capabilities.
Ultimately, in a post-America Middle East, Europe must reshape its role to align with the region’s evolving realities. The era of futile, ad-hoc initiatives must end. Whether it is Iran’s nuclear brinkmanship, Iraq’s struggles with reasserting its sovereignty, the messy aftermath of Syria’s civil war, Lebanon’s fragmentation, the shattered prospects of Palestinian statehood, or even North Africa’s peculiar dynamics, Europe must develop a cohesive, proactive approach. This shift requires a fundamental rethinking and restructuring of Europe’s engagements in the Arab region.
The future Middle East, less shaped by American influence, will demand a Europe that is not just a partner but a leader. As America’s footprint recedes, Europe must fill the vacuum with determined diplomacy, strategic foresight, robust action, and ensuring historical mistakes are not repeated but, instead, lessons are learned and applied. What unfolds over the next decade will define not just the Middle East’s trajectory, but also Europe’s role in the global order.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. X: @HafedAlGhwell

Egypt, Turkiye pin hopes on a new era of cooperation
Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/August 31, 2024
The relationship between Egypt and Turkiye has experienced significant and varied developments over the past decade, transitioning from a state of disagreement and tension that almost escalated into open conflict to a new phase of rapprochement and constructive dialogue. This relationship, shaped by multiple geopolitical and regional factors, reflects deep changes in the position of both countries toward each other, and on regional and international issues. To understand the current shift in Egypt-Turkiye relations, it is necessary to review the background of the tensions that arose between the two following the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, a time when the region witnessed drastic political changes. Turkiye, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was one of the countries that supported the Arab uprisings, especially those that brought Islamist groups to power, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The uprisings led to the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power, which paved the way for the Muslim Brotherhood to take control. Consequently, Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Brotherhood, assumed the presidency of Egypt in 2012. At that time, Egyptian-Turkish relations were at their peak, marked by close cooperation between the two countries’ leaders. Turkiye, under Erdogan’s leadership, viewed Morsi’s rise as a positive development, in line with its broader support for Islamist movements in the region. However, Morsi’s presidency did not last long. In 2013, Egyptians ousted the Brotherhood-affiliated leader following widespread popular protests, supported by the Egyptian military led by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the defense minister at the time.
Ankara strongly condemned Morsi’s ousting, supported him, and denounced his removal in international forums, leading to clear tension in relations with Cairo. This was accompanied by frequent Turkish criticism of the new Egyptian authority, and a refusal to recognize the new government, resulting in a severe deterioration in relations and almost a decade of diplomatic estrangement. During this period, mutual trust was absent, and conflicting positions emerged on several regional issues. The discord was further exacerbated by the two countries’ opposing stances on various regional conflicts, especially in Libya, where Turkiye supported the Government of National Accord, while Egypt backed the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar. As relations deteriorated, Egypt and Turkiye moved into a phase of political and diplomatic escalation, halting official visits, withdrawing ambassadors, and filling speeches with mutual criticism. The tension also extended to other areas, such as the media and economy, with both countries seeking to limit the other’s influence. For instance, Turkiye supported media channels opposing the Egyptian regime.
The real shift in Egyptian-Turkish relations began in 2021, when the two countries began “exploratory talks” aimed at rebuilding ties. This step came after both realized the need to move beyond old disputes, and adapt to regional and global changes. The geopolitical landscape in the Middle East and the world had undergone significant alteration since the peak of the conflict between Egypt and Turkiye. Several factors contributed to the move toward reconciliation.
The region began what could be called a realignment of regional alliances. The Middle East witnessed a wave of diplomatic realignments driven by changing power dynamics and a desire for stability. Economic considerations cannot be overlooked. Both Turkiye and Egypt have faced significant economic challenges in recent years. Turkiye has been struggling with a severe economic crisis characterized by high inflation and a depreciating currency, while Egypt has been working to stabilize its economy through reforms and international aid. Both countries realized that it was necessary to enhance cooperation rather than confrontation in order to open new avenues for economic partnership that would benefit both parties. Regional security was also an important factor, as both Cairo and Ankara understood that regional stability depended on coordination between major regional powers. In Libya and Syria, there were emerging understandings on how to end conflicts and reach political solutions, with the realization that political settlement is the only viable path to stability.
Both countries have faced significant economic challenges in recent years.
Moreover, both countries faced pressure from international actors to ease tensions, particularly as the US shifted its focus from the Middle East to Asia. With declining direct interest in the region from Washington, regional powers such as Egypt and Turkiye needed to strengthen their relations to protect their interests. This shift prompted both countries to reposition themselves in the new global order. Clearly, a cooperative and coordinated relationship could enhance their ability to negotiate with global powers and give them a degree of decision-making independence, even if within certain limits.
Regarding the restoration of relations, the turning point in the relationship occurred in February 2024, when Erdogan made a historic visit to Cairo at the invitation of El-Sisi. This visit marked a significant milestone in the reconciliation process, being the first official trip by a Turkish leader to Egypt since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in 2013. The visit was characterized by a warm reception and high-level discussions on various issues, including trade, investment, regional security, and cultural exchange.
The February visit sent a strong message to the international community that both countries were serious about mending their relations and exploring opportunities for cooperation. It also emphasized the importance of direct dialogue in resolving long-standing disputes. Joint statements issued during the visit reaffirmed a commitment to building a “new chapter” in bilateral relations based on mutual respect and shared interests.
Now, the upcoming visit of El-Sisi to Ankara raises the question: What can we expect?
There are high expectations, with several key issues likely to be on the agenda that could shape the future of Egypt-Turkiye relations as they enter a new phase. Several areas could see fruitful cooperation, with economic cooperation being one of the most important, particularly in the fields of energy, infrastructure, and trade. Turkish investments in Egypt constitute a significant part of the foreign direct investments, and political understandings could enhance these investments and increase the volume of trade exchange. The Middle East conflicts, particularly those in Libya and Syria, may also be on the agenda, as both sides recognize that a continuation of the troubling situation is not in their favor. The visit could lead to progress in cooperation between the two countries on the issues of Libya and Syria, as Egypt and Turkiye have shared interests in regional stability, and their coordination could contribute to achieving lasting political solutions. It is true that the Egyptian president’s visit to Turkiye carries many opportunities, but politics and history always teach us lessons, the most important of which is that there are no opportunities without challenges. Despite the significant opportunities for cooperation, challenges remain. Among these are ideological differences that still exist, particularly regarding support for Islamist groups. These differences could hinder reaching agreements on some sensitive issues if there is no trust in the parties’ commitment to what they promise. Turkiye has taken concrete steps in this regard, but there is still anticipation regarding the seriousness and sustainability of this new Turkish approach. Additionally, Turkiye and Egypt may find themselves in conflicting positions in the future over other regional issues. Overcoming this requires sufficient clarity in managing the relationship between the two countries in its new phase. Furthermore, the impact of international pressures on this relationship cannot be ignored. Pressures from actors such as the US, Russia, or China could influence the trajectory of relations between the two countries if they find that this rapprochement affects their interests. Again, the way the relationship between the two countries is managed will play a significant role in dealing with these pressures if they arise.
Recent progress in bilateral relations between Egypt and Turkiye suggests that both sides are ready to overcome these challenges in pursuit of common goals. The key to the success of this reconciliation will be sustained political will, pragmatic diplomacy, and a focus on areas of shared interest. By building on the momentum of recent high-level visits and translating political goodwill into tangible actions, Egypt and Turkiye have the opportunity not only to strengthen their relations but also to establish a strategic partnership that could contribute to the stability and prosperity of the region.
• Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy is a critically acclaimed multimedia journalist, writer and columnist who has covered war zones and conflicts worldwide.
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Ukraine’s daring move will do little to alter a war of attrition
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/August 31, 2024
Kyiv’s dramatic incursion into Russia in early August is widely seen as a spectacular attempt to reframe the narrative of the Ukraine conflict. However, about 900 days after the Russians launched their invasion, the most likely outcome remains a continued war of attrition, at least until the November US presidential election, which could prove to be a “game-changer.” The surprise Kursk offensive has resulted in the greatest loss of western Russian territory since the Second World War. Ukraine claimed this week that it had captured more than 100 small-sized settlements, taken about 600 Russian military personnel prisoner, and seized over 1,000 sq. km of territory, forcing tens of thousands of Russians from their homes. Kyiv has targeted this border area, around 200 km northwest of the closest front line in Kharkiv, and 350 km from the main front, because it was weakly defended.
To put the territorial gains into perspective, the amount of land seized is similar to that occupied by Russia in Ukraine so far this year. However, it is much smaller than the 100,000 sq. km — around 20 percent of Ukraine’s total homeland — taken by Russia in recent years.Ukraine’s daring move may not ultimately turn out to be a decisive factor in the war, but it has changed, at least temporarily, the story so far in 2024 of steady Russian gains in Ukraine. The offensive deep into the Kursk region adds to the challenges facing Moscow. After a troubled two-and-a-half-year campaign, unverified estimates this month from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces indicate Moscow has lost about 600,000 troops. Ukraine also asserts that Russia has also lost about 8,500 tanks, 16,500 armored fighting vehicles, 23,000 vehicles and fuel tanks, 17,000 artillery systems, 1,150 multiple-launch rocket systems, 900 air defense systems, 360 aircraft, 330 helicopters, almost 30 warships and boats, and one submarine. This underlines how the war has not gone to plan despite Moscow hoping for a victory within days.
Yet, many military experts are skeptical that Kyiv’s latest bold move will fundamentally change the course of the war, with Russian forces still on the offensive in Ukraine. Russia is estimated to have hundreds of thousands of troops on the front line, so diverting a few thousand may not have a large impact. This means Ukraine may be unable to hold its new Russian territory in the long term as a potential bargaining chip in any future peace negotiations. Even in the event of a Harris presidency, there is every possibility that Ukraine will fail to achieve all of its strategic war objectives.
In this context, the most likely scenario remains a continued war of attrition, at least until the US presidential election. At that point it will be clear if US support for Kyiv will probably remain steadfast, under a Kamala Harris administration, or potentially open to complete reversal under a second Donald Trump presidency.
A Harris leadership is most likely to broadly continue the Biden administration’s policy — avoiding escalation, and providing military assistance only in small amounts to try to avoid direct confrontation with Russia — meaning the war may become more protracted.
However, a big Republican win could see Trump try to make good on his wholly unrealistic pledge to “end the war in 24 hours.” This could result in him seeking to cut off support for Kyiv, a fear that has only grown since the selection of Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, with his comments that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” and “the American people will not tolerate another endless war, and neither will I.” It remains unclear what a Trump policy toward Ukraine would exactly look like. However, there is no question that it could be hugely different to that of team Biden. That is why there is so much Ukraine policy uncertainty emanating from the US presidential election. Hence, why Kyiv and its allies are undertaking much planning of scenarios for 2025 and beyond.
Even in the event of a Harris presidency, there is every possibility that Ukraine would fail to achieve all of its strategic war objectives. If Republicans control one or more chambers of Congress, for instance, there could be significant attempts to frustrate Harris’ full policy ambitions.
A growing number of Western experts share the view of Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, who highlights the possibility of a Korea-style scenario. This would result in Russia keeping control of perhaps around a fifth of pre-war Ukraine, the amount of territory it controls today, and the remainder moving in pro-Western direction in the years to come. However, even this scenario might appear unrealistic under a Trump presidency. What Washington’s allies, especially those in Europe, particularly want to avoid is any result that is perceived as a big Russian victory, which it is feared would only embolden Moscow and its allies across the world. This is why US allies are thinking through how they might be able to “buy Ukraine time” in 2025 under a potential second Trump presidency. What the Brussels-based club has done, already, is move forward with around half the previously promised aid to Ukraine — €50 billion ($55 million) over the next four years — in order to offer Kyiv more predictability with its strained budget. Ukraine’s offensive is changing the narrative about the war, but is unlikely to fundamentally affect the course of the conflict. More important, potentially, could be the result of the US election in November, with possibly huge differences between a Trump and a Harris administration.
**Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.