English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 04/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin
Letter of James 04/11-17/:’Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbour? Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money. ’Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that. ’As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 03-04/2024
The Danger, Sin, and Foolishness of Worshiping and Idolizing Politicians and Leaders/Elias Bejjani/September 02, 2024
Netanyahu says Israel can't accept current situation on Lebanon border
Gantz: The battle must be moved to the north with Lebanon
Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border
Le Drian to visit Lebanon and Quint to meet within weeks, reports say
Three wounded in Israeli strike and gunfire in Markaba, Khiam
Former Lebanese central bank chief detained in corruption probe
Justice Minister Henri Khoury on Riad Salameh's arrest: Judiciary has spoken, we respect its decision
Former Central Bank Governor Salameh accused of $110 million financial crimes: Two judicial sources
Riad Salameh detained in Lebanon over embezzlement charges
FPM lauds Geagea's stance on 'dialogue, coexistence, unity'
Berri says his initiative can pave way for speedy presidential election
Lufthansa to resume flights to Tel Aviv Thursday, flights to Beirut remain suspended

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 03-04/2024
Netanyahu says ‘shameful’ of UK to halt some arms export licenses to Israel
Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 33 Palestinians but pauses allow third day of polio vaccinations
Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27
Illegal Israeli outposts surge in West Bank: BBC analysis
Gaza hostage deal: US, Qatar and Egypt to put non-negotiable offer on table
Pressure piles on Israel's Netanyahu over Gaza
Gaza hostage deal includes IDF withdrawal from Philadelphi - White House says
Netanyahu vs. Gantz: Debate over security focus and Iranian threat - analysis
Gantz: If Netanyahu is too weak to stand up to international pressure, he should go home
White House says hostage deaths highlight urgent need for ceasefire in Gaza
IAEA chief discusses Ukraine, Russia nuclear plants with Zelenskyy, says situation fragile
Iran's Supreme Court backs death penalty for Guard volunteer over 2022 protest killing, lawyer says
Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media
Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis
Turkiye arrests alleged Mossad financial operative
Syria blast kills senior commander in Kurdish security forces: monitor
Saudi vessel Amjad was not targeted in Red Sea, shipping firm Bahri says
El-Sisi’s visit signals strategic shift in Turkiye-Egypt relations
At least 81 killed in Nigeria in suspected Boko Haram attack

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 03-04/2024
Israel: Ceasefire Deal Will Prevent Hostages from Coming Home, Anti-Government Protests Only Embolden Hamas/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./September 03/2024
The ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank may be inevitable/Chris Doyle//Arab News/September 03, 2024
How Gaza war could affect Jordan’s legislative elections/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/September 03, 2024
Netanyahu wants a fait accompli in the West Bank ... What are we doing about it?/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat./September 03, 2024
As Iran threatens Israel, the danger of Tehran's long-vaunted missile program remains in question/Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates/ September 03/2024
Iran’s diplomatic dilemma: The case for strengthening ties with Riyadh/Imran Khalid, opinion contributor/The Hill/September 03/2024
Massive Fire Consumes Coptic Christian Diocese in Egypt/Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/September 03/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 03-04/2024
The Danger, Sin, and Foolishness of Worshiping and Idolizing Politicians and Leaders
Elias Bejjani/September 02, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/133977/
Worshiping and idolizing politicians and leaders is not merely dangerous; it is a grave sin and an act of profound foolishness that imperils and puts at risk the very essence of human freedom. When we elevate politicians or leaders to the status of idols, we don't just admire them—we surrender our critical faculties and relinquish the sovereignty of our own minds and souls. This misplaced worship extinguishes and kills the spirit of critique and accountability within us, which are the bedrocks and pillars of any true democracy and free society.
True freedom is not merely the ability to make choices; it is the courage to see and acknowledge the flaws and errors of those in power, no matter how influential or revered, valued, well regarded they may be. When we idolize leaders, we willingly strip ourselves of this courage, becoming submissive followers who march in lockstep without question or reflection. This kind of voluntary blindness doesn’t just empower leaders; it emboldens them, placing them on a perilous pedestal where they begin to see themselves as above the law, unaccountable, and immune to criticism.
It is vital to understand that the instinct to worship is deeply embedded in human nature. We are instinctively driven to seek something greater than ourselves—be it in the form of religious faith, ideals, or leaders—toward which we can direct our love and devotion. However, the true measure of wisdom lies in how we channel this instinct. The wise individuals direct their worship toward enduring values and principles, not fallible-mortal human beings. To do otherwise is to surrender our intellect and emotions to mere mortals who are as susceptible to error and corruption as any of us.
Idolizing human beings, particularly those in positions of political power, is not just a mistake—it is a dangerous abdication of our responsibility to hold them accountable. Politicians and leaders are inherently fallible, and when we place them on a pedestal of worship, we create a toxic environment of unchecked power. This paves the way for tyranny, where the leader becomes seen as infallible in the eyes of their followers, enabling them to commit grave injustices without opposition or restraint.

Netanyahu says Israel can't accept current situation on Lebanon border
Naharnet/September 03, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overnight reiterated that Israel is determined to return its northern residents to their homes, adding that this would be possible through a “diplomatic agreement” or “military” action. Netanyahu also reminisced over Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in the year 2000 to defend his decision not to pull out from Gaza’s Philadelphi corridor. “We left south Lebanon in the past and now we are facing hundreds of rockets. We should have returned with the first rocket that was fired on us from there,” he said. He added: “We must change the situation on the northern border and we will do so. We destroyed all the drones that were launched by Hezbollah in our preemptive attack on it and we cannot accept the continuation of the current situation in the north.”

Gantz: The battle must be moved to the north with Lebanon
Al Markazia/September 3, 2024
Former Minister in the Israeli War Government Benny Gantz called on the Israeli government to "move the battle to the north with Lebanon." Gantz said, during a joint press conference with former member of the War Council Gadi Eisenkot, that "Israel must move the battle to the north and create alliances in the region against Iran." He added: "The detainees must be returned even if it comes at a heavy price, and we need to reach an agreement to return the kidnapped."

Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/September 03, 2024
BEIRUT: The Israeli army has begun using snipers across the land border with Lebanon to target passersby on adjacent roads after it paralyzed life in the border villages through the systematic destruction of their neighborhoods with airstrikes, drones, and incendiary bombs for nearly 11 months. On Tuesday, a civilian who works as a barber contracted with the Spanish battalion in UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was wounded by Israeli sniper fire on the Abil Al-Qamh road. The barber was hit by several bullets in his side while waiting in a Rapid-model car with a private license plate at a specific point, where a patrol from the Spanish battalion was supposed to pick him up, as usual, and take him to his workplace at the UNIFIL headquarters opposite the Metula settlement. He was transported to Marjayoun Governmental Hospital for treatment. This is the second time contractors working with UNIFIL have been targeted in less than 24 hours. On Monday morning, two civilians working for a company providing services to UNIFIL were killed on the Naqoura road by an Israeli drone strike that targeted their car. Hostile operations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have continued at a relatively lower rate. Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the towns of Aita Al-Shaab and Markaba, while another strike hit the heights of Jabal Al-Rihane.
The Israeli army also opened fire with heavy machine guns at dawn toward Ras Naqoura and Labouneh. The town of Khiam was subjected to heavy artillery shelling. Hezbollah’s military media announced that the party targeted in the afternoon “surveillance equipment at Al-Jardah site with appropriate weapons, hitting it directly and destroying it.” MP Hassan Ezzeddine, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said the party “managed to impose a deterrence equation with the Israeli enemy through its response to the assassination of military commander Fuad Shukr after the party’s drones reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv.” He added: “Whoever reaches there once, can reach it every time.”
Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in an updated report on the situation in southern Lebanon that “the total number of civilian deaths since Oct. 8, 2023, has reached at least 133, while the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that the total number of casualties since that date has reached 2,412, including 564 deaths.”The report revealed that “the number of displaced individuals from the border towns has increased to 111,940, with 94 percent of them originating from the districts of Bint Jbeil, Marjeyoun, and Tyre.”According to the report, “tensions in southern Lebanon reached a critical level over the past three weeks as the conflict intensified, increasing the risk to civilians. “The security situation along the Blue Line remains unstable, with approximately 150,000 residents living within 10 km of the border facing daily shelling and airstrikes.”The report indicates that “the Inter-Sector Coordination Groups have been working since August to develop a contingency plan in response to the escalating situation in southern Lebanon. “The groups are focusing their efforts on assessing the capabilities of various sectors. The UN (Office) for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has assisted in humanitarian sectors to address the current circumstances in Lebanon. “This includes cash assistance to 290 farmers (80 in the south and 210 in Nabatieh) to support their livelihoods and agricultural assets. “Additionally, 6,700 individuals received emergency cash assistance since June, while 1,614 Lebanese citizens and 778 Syrian refugees were granted cash aid to secure shelter from October 2023 until the report’s preparation date.”The assistance extended to the education sector, where 10,250 displaced children received emergency scholarships and were re-enrolled in schools to resume their educational programs. Additionally, food aid was provided to displaced individuals residing in refugee centers, as well as those who were taken in by relatives and families in the regions of Tyre, Sidon, Nabatieh, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, and Baalbek-Hermel.

Le Drian to visit Lebanon and Quint to meet within weeks, reports say
Naharnet/September 03, 2024
The ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon - the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar - will meet within two weeks to discuss the presidential impasse, diplomatic sources told local al-Liwaa newspaper. The sources added, in remarks published Tuesday, that French special envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian will likely visit Lebanon at the end of the month or in early October and that mid-September will witness intense efforts to break the presidential deadlock. The sources also mentioned a political effort to gather a parliamentary majority of 86 representatives to hold consultations or dialogue sessions in Parliament, despite the Lebanese opposition's decision to boycott the dialogue. Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper had reported Monday that the Quintet has returned the Lebanese presidential file to the spotlight through a Saudi-French coordination and a series of meetings aimed at "convincing the parties to go to dialogue". Al-Akhbar said Le Drian will soon meet with Royal Court adviser Nizar al-Aloula in Riyadh in the presence of Saudi and French Ambassadors to Lebanon Walid Bukhari and Hervé Magro. The Saudi-French meeting will be held this week in Riyad, Annahar newspaper quoted circles close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri as saying, while Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper said the meeting will discuss ways to reconcile viewpoints between the Lebanese parties, especially Berri and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Three wounded in Israeli strike and gunfire in Markaba, Khiam
Naharnet/September 03, 2024
Three people were injured Tuesday in Israeli attacks on south Lebanon, the Health Ministry said. Two people were injured in a strike on the border village of Markaba and a civilian was injured by Israeli gun fire in al-Khiam.Israeli warplanes also raided Tuesday the al-Rihan mountain and the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, while artillery shelled al-Khiam. Warplanes had raided overnight the outskirts of Zebqine, Yater and Tayrharfa while the Israeli army shelled villages along the border with flare bombs. Israeli soldiers fired at dawn at Ras al-Naqoura and al-Labbouneh with heavy machine guns and later in the day, Hezbollah targeted the Jerdah post and surveillance equipment and soldiers in the al-Raheb and al-Assi posts in northern Israel. Hezbollah also targeted Tuesday posts in the occupied Kfarshouba Heights and Shebaa Farms. On Monday, an Israeli strike killed two people in a car in the southern coastal town of Naqoura, including a contract worker for the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission near the border. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident. It has been exchanging fire near-daily with Hezbollah since clashes along the border began last October. Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border on Oct. 8, a day after the outbreak of the war in Gaza sparked by the deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel. Hezbollah maintains that it will stop firing once a cease-fire agreement is reached to end Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Tensions in recent months have boiled, sparking global fear of the exchanges spiraling into all-out war. U.N. and international governments for months have urged an end to the fighting. Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a draw. Since Oct. 8, almost 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including more than 100 civilians and noncombatants. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.

Former Lebanese central bank chief detained in corruption probe
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/September 03, 2024
BEIRUT: Former Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of embezzlement. It comes as Lebanon awaits a decision by the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force, or MENA FATF, concerning the country’s anti-money laundering and counterterror financing systems. Salameh was detained by order of the public prosecutor, Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar, and will soon face investigation.
He was questioned for three hours about the alleged embezzlement and laundering of more than $110 million through Optimum Invest, a Lebanese brokerage firm. The company had close ties to the central bank from 2015-2018, during Salameh’s governorship.
Al-Hajjar said: “The judicial step taken against Salameh is preventive detention, effective for four days, after which he will be referred by the Beirut Court of Appeal to the investigating judge, who will question him and make an appropriate judicial decision, which could include an arrest warrant.”A security source told Arab News that Salameh “attended the interrogation session at the Justice Palace in Beirut without being accompanied by his lawyer.” It was the first time that Salameh has appeared before the judiciary since the end of his term in July 2023. In the three years from 2015-2018, Lebanon’s central bank traded public treasury bonds with Optimum, making quick profits on a fast turnaround. The strategy resulted in profits of up to $8 billion, though the identities of the beneficiaries remain unclear.Salameh faces charges in Lebanon of crimes including money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He previously denied all charges during earlier interrogations. A search and investigation warrant has been issued against him, preventing him from traveling.
Dozens of guards took part in the operation to transfer Salameh from the courthouse to the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces for his detention. Prime Minister Najib Mikati described the arrest as a “judicial decision,” adding: “We will not intervene. The judiciary is fulfilling its duty, and we are all under the rule of law.”Justice Minister Henry Khoury said: “The judiciary has acted, and we respect its decision.”The grace period provided by the MENA FATF at the behest of the central bank of Lebanon is expected to end in the coming weeks, after which Lebanon will be placed on the gray list.
Throughout the grace period, Lebanon’s government has failed to implement any of its promised reforms, and the parliament has yet to pass essential laws and regulations to protect the country’s financial system from abuse.
Recently, a formal economic source said: “Lebanon is running out of time to implement the necessary initial reforms to avoid being placed on the FATF’s gray list. The classification is imminent, and efforts by relevant officials in the Lebanese government are underway to engage with international financial entities in hopes of securing additional time for Lebanon to undertake the required reforms, thereby preventing the negative repercussions on the Lebanese economy that would result from such a classification.”
The source added: “The possibility of granting additional time to Lebanon is quite feasible, given that the country has been experiencing a genuine state of war for almost a year. Furthermore, the relevant international financial entities will take this matter into consideration.”A delegation from the central bank including judges, security officers, legal experts and specialists is scheduled to attend a meeting of the FATF group in Brussels. The purpose of the meeting is to inform the Lebanese side about the progress of financial reforms. According to media reports, the acting governor of the central bank of Lebanon, Wassim Mansouri, will travel to London to engage with correspondent banks and inform them of the situation in Lebanon and the measures being implemented by the government.
Lebanon is struggling to complete judicial rulings on people accused of money laundering, and law enforcement is failing to address financial crime in the country.
This situation is particularly concerning given the remarkable expansion of the country’s cash economy, which is estimated by the World Bank to be worth almost $10 billion, representing about 50 percent of gross domestic product. If Lebanon is placed on the gray list, its banking industry faces isolation from the global economic system, and its financial operations will be subject to fresh international scrutiny. The oversight will be authorized to scrutinize all money transfers exiting Lebanon, including examining sources, purposes and the legitimacy of funds. The Lebanese government and central bank will also be subject to the same conditions.

Justice Minister Henri Khoury on Riad Salameh's arrest: Judiciary has spoken, we respect its decision
LBCI/September 03, 2024
Justice Minister Henri Khoury on Riad Salameh's arrest: Judiciary has spoken, we respect its decision. In response to the recent arrest of former Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Lebanon's caretaker Minister of Justice, Henri Khoury, emphasized the importance of respecting judicial decisions. Speaking on the matter, Khoury stated, "The judiciary has spoken, and we respect its decision."

Former Central Bank Governor Salameh accused of $110 million financial crimes: Two judicial sources
Reuters/September 03, 2024
Former Lebanese Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has been accused of acquiring over $110 million through a series of financial crimes. According to two judicial sources, these allegations involve Optimum Invest.

Riad Salameh detained in Lebanon over embezzlement charges
Associated Press/September 03, 2024
Lebanon's controversial former central bank governor Riad Salameh was detained Tuesday after being questioned in several corruption cases, according to three judicial officials.Salameh served a 30-year term as central bank governor beginning in 1993. Though he was widely celebrated for his role in Lebanon's economic recovery after a 15-year civil war, Salameh left his post last year under a cloud, with several European countries probing his alleged financial crimes. He was blamed by many in Lebanon of being responsible for the country's financial crisis since late 2019. Salameh has repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He insists that his wealth comes from inherited properties, investments and his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Salameh was questioned Tuesday by the top public prosecutor, Judge Jamal Hajjar, for over three hours, according to the three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with the media. Salameh was interrogated over several financial matters, including a case in which he allegedly hired a company called Optimum to manipulate financial statements and conceal Lebanon's hemorrhaging financial losses. The officials said that Lebanon's Internal Security Forces transferred Salameh to a more secure prison but did not disclose further details. He is expected to remain in custody while he is interrogated. Salameh has been among the officials most blamed for policies that led to the country's economic crisis, which has decimated the value of the Lebanese pound by around 90% against the U.S. dollar and sparked triple-digit inflation. The U.S., the UK and Canada have sanctioned Salameh and his close associates, and France issued an international arrest warrant against him, though Lebanon does not extradite citizens. France, Germany, and Luxembourg also are investigating Salameh and close associates over alleged illicit enrichment and the laundering of $330 million. Salameh has criticized the European investigation and said it was part of a media and political campaign make him a scapegoat. Lebanon has not appointed a new central bank governor, but a vice governor, Wassim Mansouri, has been named acting governor. The crisis-hit country has also been without a president for almost two years and is run by a caretaker Cabinet with limited functions.

FPM lauds Geagea's stance on 'dialogue, coexistence, unity'
Naharnet/September 03, 2024
The Free Patriotic Movement says it has “positively received the advanced stance expressed by Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea (on Sunday), especially as to the resistance (Hezbollah) and its martyrs and the issues of dialogue, coexistence and Lebanon’s unity.”This stance matches “the FPM’s openness-characterized stances,” the FPM’s media department said in a statement. Noting that Geagea has “admitted that the election of a president is the key for resolving crises,” the FPM called on the FPM leader to “respond to the call for consultations in parliament” that has been voiced by Speaker Nabih Berri. “The LF can show flexibility regarding minor formalities that should not be an obstacle in the face of the importance of finalizing the election of a National Pact-conforming president for Lebanon, which is the only chance to halt the state’s disintegration and the country’s collapse,” the FPM added.

Berri says his initiative can pave way for speedy presidential election
Naharnet/September 03, 2024
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that his presidential initiative can “pave the way for presidential elections as soon as possible,” hoping the five-nation group’s expected efforts will lead to “positivities.”“Let’s sit around a consultations table today, not tomorrow, to agree on what can secure Lebanon’s interest,” Berri added, in remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper published Tuesday. “This interest lies first in the election of a president, and accordingly the ball is in the court of the various parties, to respond positively and reverse obstruction,” the Speaker said. Berri also hoped the anticipated endeavor of the quintet “will lead to positivities that would speed up the finalization of the presidential file.”Berri had on Saturday reiterated his call for “dialogue or consultations for several days followed by successive (electoral) rounds,” noting that the parties would agree that none of them would strip the electoral session of its quorum. The five-nation group for Lebanon has meanwhile returned the presidential file to the spotlight through a series of meetings aimed at “convincing the parties to go to dialogue,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. “The behind-the-scenes talks were led by the ambassadors of Egypt and France, Alaa Moussa and Hervé Magro,” al-Akhbar added. The visitors of Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari meanwhile said that there is Saudi-French coordination to “revive the presidential file.” “French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian will soon visit Riyadh to meet with Royal Court adviser Nizar al-Aloula in the presence of Bukhari and Magro,” the newspaper quoted the visitors as saying. Bukhari had visited Berri on Saturday, prior to departing Beirut, to put the Speaker “in the picture of the outcome of the diplomatic efforts,” al-Akhbar said.

Lufthansa to resume flights to Tel Aviv Thursday, flights to Beirut remain suspended
Associated Press/September 03, 2024
German airline Lufthansa will resume flights to Tel Aviv in Israel later this week. The company announced Tuesday that it would offer flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport starting on Thursday. Flights to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, will remain suspended until Sept. 30 for all airlines in the Lufthansa Group, which also includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. Flights to Amman in Jordan and Erbil in Iraq resumed on Aug. 27.Lufthansa had canceled its connections at the beginning of last month due to rising tensions in the region.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 03-04/2024
Netanyahu says ‘shameful’ of UK to halt some arms export licenses to Israel
Arab News/September 03, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the British government made a “shameful decision” when it suspended some arms export licenses to Israel. Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday that the government had suspended 30 of 350 arms export licenses with Israel due to a risk the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. The decision, which came a day after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza, was quickly denounced by a number of Israeli ministers.
“This shameful decision will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens,” Netanyahu said in a social media post. “Hamas is still holding over 100 hostages, including 5 British citizens. Instead of standing with Israel, a fellow democracy defending itself against barbarism, Britain’s misguided decision will only embolden Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “With or without British arms, Israel will win this war and secure our common future.”Soon after Britain’s Labour Party won an election in July, Lammy said he would update a review on arms sales to ally Israel to ensure these complied with international law. British exports amount to less than 1 percent of the total arms Israel receives, and the minister said the suspension would not have a material impact on Israel’s security and Britain continued to support its right to self-defense. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders are being investigated for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in southern Israel which killed 1,200 people, by Israeli tallies. The Israeli response in Gaza has killed more than 40,700 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. Lammy said Monday’s decision was not a judgment on whether Israel had breached international law or not. Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed allegations of war crimes.

Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 33 Palestinians but pauses allow third day of polio vaccinations
Reuters/September 03, 2024
CAIRO: Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians across Gaza in the past 24 hours as they battled Hamas-led militants, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, but brief pauses in fighting allowed medics to conduct a third day of polio vaccinations for children. Among those killed were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said. Others were killed in separate air strikes across the territory, it said. The Israeli military said it killed eight Palestinian gunmen, including a senior Hamas commander who took part in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, at a command center near the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. A statement said Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia had taken command of a “massacre of civilians carried out by Hamas terrorists” in Israel’s Netiv HaAsara community near the Gaza border. There was no response from Hamas.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were battling Israeli forces in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, and also in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south. Nevertheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Tuesday, day three of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10. The campaign, which was hastened by the discovery of the first polio case in a Gazan baby last month, relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave. Diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire and release foreign and Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel have stalled, however. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of Gaza, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal to end the fighting and return hostages. Hamas, which wants an agreement to end the war and see Israeli forces out of all of the Gaza Strip, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent a deal. Netanyahu says war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
POLIO CAMPAIGN
The United Nations, in collaboration with the local health authorities, embarked on the third day of a complex campaign to vaccinate around 640,000 children in Gaza. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva that it had vaccinated more than 161,000 children under 10 in the central area in the first two days of its campaign, compared with a projection of around 150,000. “Up until now things are going well,” he said. “These humanitarian pauses, up until now they work. We still have 10 days to go.” He said that some children in southern Gaza were thought to be outside the agreed zone for the pauses and that negotiations continued in order to reach them. Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of the health system and the destruction of most Gaza hospitals. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, which the Islamist group denies. The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, when its fighters killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 40,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said on Monday.

Israel presses West Bank raids that Palestinians say killed 27
AFP/September 03, 2024
JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Israeli forces were operating Tuesday in the northern West Bank, nearly a week into military raids in the occupied territory that the Palestinian health ministry said killed at least 27. An Israeli air strike overnight that the military said targeted militants in Tulkarem killed a 15-year-old Palestinian, said a hospital source in the city. In total, “there are 30 martyrs and about 130 wounded in the West Bank since Wednesday,” when the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement. The toll includes three deaths in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank, in incidents unrelated to the raids in the north. On the seventh day of Israel’s major “counter-terrorism” operation in the northern West Bank, the focus remained in the Jenin area, where according to the Palestinian health ministry at least 18 have been killed since Wednesday.
The military on Monday said its forces had killed 14 militants in Jenin and apprehended “25 terrorists.”In a separate incident, a 16-year-old girl was killed by the Israeli army in the town of Kfar Dan, in the Jenin governorate, the health ministry said Tuesday, without specifying whether she was part of the 18 killed in the area. An AFP correspondent said the streets were empty and shops were closed in Jenin on Tuesday, with Israeli armored vehicles and army bulldozers as well as ambulances among the few vehicles on the roads. The correspondent said paved streets had been overturned by Israeli bulldozers in several areas, which the army says is a way to detonate explosive devices hidden under roads. The Jenin city council said that 70 percent of roads and streets have been destroyed since the start of the raid. Bashir Matahen, a municipality spokesperson, said about 20 kilometers of water, sewage, communication and electricity lines were destroyed, including 80 percent of the city’s water pipes.
The municipality lacked the funds to carry out all the necessary repairs, he told AFP.
Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp — where army bulldozers also destroyed infrastructure — have long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The military carries out regular incursions into Palestinian population centers, but such operations are rarely conducted simultaneously as in the northern West Bank in recent days. In Tulkarem, near Jenin, the Israeli military said on Monday night that its aircraft struck a Palestinian militant cell “that shot at security forces during the counter-terrorism operation.”A medical source at the Tulkarem government hospital told AFP on Tuesday that a 15-year-old teenager was killed in the strike that also wounded his father and four others.The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled several shrapnel injuries in Tulkarem, including one of its paramedics. On Tuesday Israeli military vehicles including bulldozers were seen on the streets of Tulkarem, where roads have also been damaged or destroyed, said an AFP journalist. One man, holding a Palestinian flag, was standing defiantly in front of the bulldozers. Further south, Israeli forces entered the Birzeit University campus near Ramallah before dawn on Tuesday, confiscating property from the student council, the institution said in a statement. Violence in the Palestinian territory has surged since Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 637 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the UN figures from last week. At least 23 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.

Illegal Israeli outposts surge in West Bank: BBC analysis
Arab News/September 03, 2024
LONDON: The number of Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank has surged in recent years, new analysis by the BBC has found.There are now at least 196 outposts in the Palestinian territory, including farms, housing units and groups of caravans, with 29 established in the last year alone. Despite being illegal under both Israeli and international law, outposts have been established using funding from organizations with close ties to the Israeli government. Palestinians living near the outposts have suffered violent harassment and intimidation from settler communities, many of which employ armed militias with impunity. The murky boundaries of the outposts often mean that their inhabitants come into contact with, and threaten, local Palestinians. Ayesha Shtayyeh, a Palestinian grandmother, said she was held at gunpoint last October and told to leave the home that her family had owned for 50 years. The settler who threatened her is believed to be Moshe Sharvit, who was sanctioned by the UK and US. By using outposts, settlers are able to appropriate Palestinian land at a more rapid pace, the BBC found. Analysis by the British broadcaster used data from Israeli anti-settlement groups and the Palestinian Authority, finding that almost half (89) of the 196 outposts had been established since 2019. Azi Mizrahi, a former Israel Defense Forces commander in the area, admitted that outpost-building makes violence more likely. “Whenever you put outposts illegally in the area, it brings tensions with the Palestinians … living in the same area,” he said. Unlike settlements, outposts lack official Israeli planning approval, but authorities still turn a blind eye to them. The UN’s top court in July ruled that Israel should end all settlement-building and withdraw settlers from the Occupied Territories.
Two organizations with close ties to the Israeli government were found by the BBC to have financed the establishment of new West Bank outposts. The ties between the World Zionist Organization, Amana and the government reveal the deliberate nature of Israel’s land grabs in the West Bank. The WZO, established more than a century ago, employs a “settlement division” that is financed entirely by Israeli public funding. That division handles contracts and land allocations in the Occupied Territories, and has granted settlers the freedom to build new outposts on appropriated land. Amana, a key settler organization, loaned settlers hundreds of thousands of shekels to build new outposts in the West Bank.
Both organizations used farming or grazing land categories as cover to support secret outpost-building, the BBC found. Amana CEO Ze’ev Hever was secretly recorded in 2021 as saying: “In the last three years … one operation we have expanded is the herding farm (outposts). Today, the area (they control) is almost twice the size of built settlements.”Another tactic employed by the government is to retroactively classify outposts as legal. Last year, authorities began legalizing 10 outposts and granted at least six others full legal status. Moayad Shaaban, the chief of the PA’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said: “It reaches a point where Palestinians don’t have anything anymore. They can’t eat, they can’t graze, can’t get water.”The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that settler violence in the West Bank has reached “unprecedented levels.”OCHA recorded more than 1,100 settler attacks against Palestinians in the past 10 months alone. Those attacks led to the deaths of 10 Palestinians and injuries to 230.

Gaza hostage deal: US, Qatar and Egypt to put non-negotiable offer on table
Jerusalem Post/September 03/2024
US President Joe Biden held talks with his top team at the White House on Monday about a deal, though it was Labor Day weekend in America. Israel is braced to receive a non-negotiable Gaza hostage deal on the table from mediating countries Qatar, Egypt and the United States. “I think that what will happen in the end” is that “there will be a kind of take it or leave” deal which US President Joe Biden would put forward “together with the Egyptians and the Qataris,” Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday morning. “Then we will have to take a decision” because “it won’t be negotiable again,” he said. Edelstein speculated that his latest draft could more likely be authored by Qatar and Egypt and might include terms less favorable to Israel, when compared to the bridging proposal the US had put on the table in August. “We are now pretty much on the same page with the Americans. “I think that there will be a Qatari, Egyptian proposal that will be put on the table together with Biden, or coordinated with Biden. “We are now pretty much on the same page with the Americans” with regard to the terms of the deal, Edelstein said.
“I'm not sure [this next proposal] will be as okay as the American proposal [was] for us,” he said, in referencing the latest draft of the deal, which at its core had actually begun with a text authored by Israel. Edelstein spoke in the aftermath of the return to Israel of six hostages executed by Hamas over the week and as talks for a deal which the US had once described as the “final game,” conversations had failed to immediately produce a final agreement. Edelstein acknowledged that “We have to get out of the situation where we are stuck and do something. I'm not getting into specific details of why, what, or how, but I think that it's not helpful to be stuck for such a long time.”Mossad Chief David Barnea, who has been one of the key figures in the Israeli negotiating team, was in Doha on Monday and spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani about a deal for the return of the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza, of which 66 are esteemed to be alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a public press conference on Monday night after the six executed hostages had been buried. He underscored that he would be flexible on many of the deal's terms but would not agree to withdraw IDF forces from a critical buffer zone known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
Biden holding talks on a deal
Biden held talks with his top team at the White House on Monday about a deal, even though it was Labor Day weekend in the US. Among the six dead was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who held dual Israeli-American citizenship. Biden has wanted Hamas that it will pay a price for the death of the hostages and told reporters before the White House meeting that Netanyahu had not done enough to finalize a deal. Biden said he remained hopeful that a deal was possible and that he was working with Qatar and Egypt on a proposal to give to Israel and Hamas. "We're in the middle of negotiations,” he told reporters, but he clarified that these talks were not with Netanyahu. "We're still in negotiations -- not with him [Netanyahu], but with my colleagues from Qatar and from Egypt."

Pressure piles on Israel's Netanyahu over Gaza
Agence France Presse/September 03/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting international and domestic pressure after the killing in Gaza of six captives, with U.S. President Joe Biden saying he is not doing enough to secure the release of hostages. Britain said Monday it would suspend some arms exports to Israel, citing a "clear risk" they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he was "deeply disheartened" by London's decision, while the premier said he sought forgiveness for failing to save the latest hostages killed. "Hamas will pay a very heavy price for this," he said during a televised press conference as he rejected making any "concessions" in Gaza ceasefire talks. Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said remaining hostages would return "inside coffins" if Israel maintains its military pressure on Gaza. A statement said "new instructions" had been given to militants guarding the captives on what to do if Israeli troops approached. In Washington, Biden met U.S. negotiators working alongside Qatar and Egypt to try to secure a truce deal that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Asked by reporters if he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages, Biden replied: "No."
'Devastation and outrage'
Netanyahu said Monday Israel must retain control of the key Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border -- a significant sticking point in negotiations. "Hamas has to make the concessions," said Netanyahu, whose critics have accused him of prolonging the war to stay in power. Israelis were gripped by grief and fury after the military said Sunday the bodies of six hostages, all captured alive during Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, were recovered from southern Gaza. A strike announced by the Histadrut trade union seeking a hostage deal brought parts of Israel to a standstill Monday, although some cities were largely unaffected. "This is our last chance! Deal now!" protesters chanted as thousands marched Monday through the streets of Tel Aviv. "Our hearts are burning" and "Enough with this blood government" read signs held by demonstrators as they pushed for a deal to free the remaining 97 hostages, including 33 the military says are dead. Outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem home, protester Karem Saar said "it's his responsibility to get his citizens out" of Gaza. "Hamas are the ones that pulled the trigger but the fact that they're still there is on Netanyahu," she told AFP. Of 251 hostages seized on October 7, just eight have been rescued alive by Israeli forces, although scores were released during a one-week truce in November -- the only one so far.
Gaza polio campaign
With Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of the 2.4 million residents forced to flee, often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions, disease has spread. After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a vaccination drive got underway Sunday with localized "humanitarian pauses" to the fighting. However, an AFP journalist reported troops blowing up homes in Gaza City and warplanes hitting a house to the east overnight into Tuesday. The territory's civil defense agency said Israel carried out a deadly strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Khan Younis, as well as bombarding central Gaza.
Around 160,000 children received a first polio vaccine dose on Sunday and Monday in central Gaza, the territory's health ministry said. Palestinian mother Basma al-Batsh told AFP on Sunday she was "very happy" the vaccination drive was happening. "I want to protect my children because I was afraid that they would be affected and become disabled," she said. Israel's war on Gaza has so far killed at least 40,786 people in Gaza. Most of the dead are women and children.
West Bank raids
Since the war erupted violence has surged in Israel's border area with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli military launched a large-scale offensive on Wednesday. Imad Naim Abu Al-Hayat, a Jenin resident, said his barbershop was destroyed by the Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967. "They want to destroy the country so that people get tired of the (Palestinian) resistance, but we will not get tired of the resistance," he told AFP beside a pile of rubble. Further south in Tulkarem, an Israeli airstrike targeted an "armed terrorist cell" late Monday which the military said had shot at security forces. Separately, a medical source at Tulkarem's governmental hospital said Israeli forces killed a boy by shooting him in the head. The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said Monday at least 26 Palestinians have been killed in the northern West Bank since Wednesday. Three Israeli police officers were also killed in a shooting Sunday in the southern West Bank, an area where three Palestinians have also been killed in recent days according to the territory's health ministry. In Lebanon, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south killed two people Monday.

Gaza hostage deal includes IDF withdrawal from Philadelphi - White House says
Jerusalem Post/September 03/2024
Kirby spoke just one day after Netanyahu held a press conference to stress that he had no plans to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor. The Gaza hostages deal has included an IDF withdrawal from sections of the Philadelphi Corridor, US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday as he pushed back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel would refuse to take such a step. “The deal says that they [Israel] have to remove the IDF from all densely populated areas in Phase One [of the deal]. That includes densely populated areas that are around or are adjacent to the Philadelphia corridor, where it intersects with those densely populated areas,” Kirby said. “That is what the proposal says; that is the proposal that was put forth at the end of May,” he said, as he referred to the May 31 three-phase framework deal that US President Joe Biden unveiled. That same requirement is also in the bridging proposal that the US put forward in August, he said. Kirby spoke just one day after Netanyahu held a press conference to stress that he had no plans to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel has agreed to both the May 31 proposal and the bridging proposal. But Israel has sought to clarify the details of the IDF withdrawal from populated areas in Phase One of the deal and within that discussion, it has explained since the Corridor is not a populated area, the IDF would remain there in Phase One. The Security Cabinet voted 8-1 on Thursday to back Netanyahu’s position that the IDF must remain in the Philadelphi Corridor.
Hamas's demands
Hamas has insisted that it would only agree to a deal in which Israel withdraws from the Corridor at the start of Phase One. Security officials have said that Israel can safely withdraw from Philadelphi during that phase to allow for hostages to be released and deal with the question of a permanent withdrawal later. The deal is structured such that questions such as control of the Philadelphi, a permanent ceasefire, and the complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza would be discussed during Phase One, concurrent with the release of hostages during a six-week period. Those talks could extend beyond phase one but would be concluded during Phase Two. KAN News cited an Israeli official who said that Netanyahu had agreed to withdraw from Philadelphi during Phase Two of the deal, even though those details are expected to be debated. The issue has been Phase One of the deal and the temporary withdrawal from Philadelphi, while Hamas is still active in Gaza. The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that the security cabinet has not been asked to debate Phase Two of the deal. The Corridor is a critical security buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza. Hamas for years had smuggled weapons into Gaza under that Corridor. Israel fears that unless the IDF controls that Corridor, Hamas could continue to smuggle weapons and rearm.

Netanyahu vs. Gantz: Debate over security focus and Iranian threat - analysis
YONAH JEREMY BOB/Jerusalem Post/September 03/2024
Netanyahu focused on the Philadelphi Corridor, but Gantz and Eisenkot criticized him for ignoring the broader Iranian threat and global support. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to reduce Israel’s strategic security issues to the Philadelphi Corridor and lashed out at the defense establishment as blind leftists for saying that withdrawing from the Corridor was worth it to cut a hostage deal with Hamas. He stood in front of a large map zoning in on that small part of Gaza. On Tuesday, former IDF chiefs, war cabinet ministers, and now top opposition figures Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot stuck back and refocused the nation’s attention on the much larger threat of Iran and its region of proxies. They stood in front of a large map of the Islamic Republic and the entire Middle East. Gantz and Eisenkot brushed off Netanyahu’s claim that withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor would be an existential threat to Israeli security, calling it a complex operational issue but not strategic. They accused Netanyahu of being distracted and stuck in the Gaza quagmire, leading him to miss the growing Iranian nuclear and conventional threats, which were once his own central message.
Former IDF chiefs accuse Netanyahu of deception
The former IDF chiefs said Netanyahu was lying about fully pursuing a hostage deal and about presenting himself as being tough about using the military. Rather, they said that Netanyahu had acted in cunning ways behind the scenes to frustrate a hostage deal over a large time period while pretending publicly to try to cut such a deal. In addition, they contradicted Netanyahu’s claim that Israel would never be able to return to the corridor if it withdrew. In contrast, they said that this was just Netanyahu again showing his own personal fears of using force, just as they said he had been afraid to invade Gaza in October and Khan Yunis afterward. Whereas Netanyahu said that any solution for stopping Hamas smuggling was inadequate without boots on the ground, as proven by Hamas’ massive smuggling from 2005-2024, they said that the IDF now has technological solutions that it lacked in the past. Further, they said that Netanyahu had harmed relations with Egypt by blocking a hostage deal and ceasefire, with Cairo’s cooperation needed to stop smuggling in any scenario. Most importantly, they said that Netanyahu’s refusal to compromise to get the hostages home and to agree to the ceasefire supported by the US and most of Israel’s allies is losing Jerusalem support globally in ways that are much more dangerous than threats posed by Hamas at Philadelphi. They said that Israel needed US and allied support to handle the Iranian nuclear and conventional proxies threat. Overall, the two tried to remind the Israeli public that defense expertise has meaning and is not worthless naivete.

Gantz: If Netanyahu is too weak to stand up to international pressure, he should go home
Jerusalem Post/September 03/2024
Gantz attacked Netanyahu for failing to progress the war fast enough and then delaying the peace process for his own political interests.Benny Gantz, head of National Unity, and MK Gadi Eisenkot gave a speech on Tuesday night, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which they attacked Netanyahu's progress and conduct during the war. Gantz attacked Netanyahu for failing to progress the war fast enough and then delaying the peace process for his own political interests. He called the return of the hostages an issue of morality and then took direct aim at Netanyahu for lying to the public about his willingness to bring the hostages back. "At the beginning of the war, when we asked to extend the military pressure to Khan Yunis and then to Rafah, Netanyahu hesitated and held back." Hard truths. Gantz told some hard truths, saying, "The hostages must be returned even at a very heavy price. Gaza must be closed from the south so that October 7 never happens again. Returning to the Philadelphi corridor will be necessary. The campaign must move North. Israel must create an anti-Iranian regional alliance.""Watch towers on the Philadelphi corridor would turn into troops into ducks in a row.""If he is not strong enough to withstand the international pressure, let him put the keys down and go home."

White House says hostage deaths highlight urgent need for ceasefire in Gaza
Reuters/September 03/2024
The White House said on Tuesday that the killing of the six hostages, whose bodies were recovered by Israeli forces on Sunday, underscores the urgent need to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining captives.

IAEA chief discusses Ukraine, Russia nuclear plants with Zelenskyy, says situation fragile
Reuters/September 03/2024
IAEA chief discusses Ukraine, Russia nuclear plants with Zelenskyy, says situation fragile
UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi, who is due to visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine on Wednesday, said the situation there was "very fragile" and the risk of a disaster remained. Rossi spoke at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian nuclear and energy officials. They also discussed the state of affairs at the Kursk nuclear plant in Russia, which Ukrainian troops are close to.

Iran's Supreme Court backs death penalty for Guard volunteer over 2022 protest killing, lawyer says
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/September 3, 2024
Iran's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence imposed on a member of the all-volunteer wing of the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who stormed a house during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and killed a 60-year-old man, a lawyer said Tuesday. The sentence imposed on the Basij member marks a rare moment for Iran to hold accountable its security forces, who waged a bloody, monthslong crackdown on all dissent over Amini's death. More than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 were detained. Since then, Iran has put to death multiple protesters who were detained in the crackdown and accused of killing security forces, after closed-door trials criticized by activists abroad. Lawyer Payam Derafshan, who represented a protester detained in 2022, told The Associated Press that the Supreme Court reached its verdict on Aug. 26 over the killing of Mohammad Jamehbozorg, a carpet seller in the city of Karaj. The convicted Basij member and others stormed Jamehbozorg's home in Karaj, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the capital, Tehran, looking for demonstrators taking part in the Amini protests, including his son. The Basij member, identified only by initials, shot Jamehbozorg in the head, killing him. Two other Guard members also received prison sentences. Iran’s government and state media did not report the ruling. nAmini, 22, died after being arrested by Iran's morality police over allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, or headscarf. In March, a U.N. fact-finding mission said Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini's death and concluded that Tehran committed “crimes against humanity” through its actions in suppressing the protests. There has been another case of a security force member receiving the death penalty over a killing in the Amini protests. In 2023, a military court sentenced Col. Jafar Javanmardi, the police chief of northern port city of Bandar Anzali, for killing a young man while not observing the country's laws related for using live ammo. The Supreme Court is still reviewing Javanmardi’s initial death sentence. Cases involving security forces accused of brutality have been a particular focus of Iran's new reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian. Last week, Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the death of a man in custody after activists alleged he had been tortured to death by police officers.

Six dead after Iranian ship capsizes in Kuwaiti waters: Iranian media
AFP/September 03, 2024
TEHRAN: Six crew members have died after an Iranian merchant ship capsized in Kuwaiti waters, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Tuesday. "The Arabakhtar I ship, whose six crew members were of Indian and Iranian nationality, sank on Sunday," Nasser Passandeh, head of Iran's port and maritime navigation authority, was quoted by IRNA as saying. The report did not say what caused the Sunday incident, and an Iranian official said search operations were still ongoing to locate three of the victims' bodies. Three bodies had been retrieved in a joint effort between Iran and Kuwait, Passandeh said.

Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea targeted by Houthis
AP/September 03, 2024
DUBAI: Salvagers abandoned an effort to tow away a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea targeted by Yemen’s Houthis as it “was not safe to proceed,” a European Union naval mission said Tuesday. The announcement by the EU’s Operation Aspides leaves the Sounion stranded in the Red Sea, threatening to spill its 1 million barrels of oil. “The private companies responsible for the salvage operation have concluded that the conditions were not met to conduct the towing operation and that it was not safe to proceed,” the EU mission said, without immediately elaborating. “Alternative solutions are now being explored by the private companies.” The EU mission did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the announcement. The safety issue could be from the fire still burning aboard the vessel — NASA fire satellites detected a blaze in the area the Sounion was anchored on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there’s the threat of attacks by the Houthis, who on Monday targeted two other oil tankers traveling through the Red Sea. The Houthis have suggested they’ll allow a salvage operation to take place, but critics say the militia has used the threat of an environmental disaster previously involving another oil tanker off Yemen to extract concessions from the international community. The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged tanker on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of Operation Aspides rescued the Sounion’s crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti. Last week, the Houthis released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the militia has done before in their campaign.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant 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 US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well. The Houthis 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.

Turkiye arrests alleged Mossad financial operative
ANKARA: Turkiye arrested a Kosovan national accused of managing the financial network of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency in the country, the Turkish intelligence organization said on Tuesday. Liridon Rexhepi was detained in Istanbul on Aug. 30, suspected of transferring funds to Mossad personnel operating in Turkiye, the Turkish intelligence agency MIT said. Turkiye, which has denounced Israel for its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, has this year detained more than 20 people suspected of having ties to Mossad. Rexhepi had been under surveillance since his entry into Turkiye on Aug. 25, the MIT statement said. He is alleged to have facilitated financial transfers from eastern European countries, primarily Kosovo, to Mossad agents in Turkiye. The statement said the funds transferred by Rexhepi were reportedly used for intelligence gathering in Syria, conducting psychological operations against Palestinians, and coordinating drone-related operations. Rexhepi used money transfer services to move funds into Turkiye. Once in the country, the funds were distributed to field operatives who, in turn, channelled some of the money to assets in Syria, often utilising cryptocurrency for these transactions, the sources said.

Syria blast kills senior commander in Kurdish security forces: monitor
AFP/September 03, 2024
BEIRUT: A war monitor said a senior commander from the security forces in northeast Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration was killed on Tuesday in a blast near a prison in Hasakah province. “A commander in the Kurdish security forces was killed and another person was wounded” in an explosion near the prison in Umm Farsan on the outskirts of the city of Qamishli “at the same time as a Turkish drone was flying in the area,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The commander in the Asayish security forces had played “a prominent role in leading military operations against the Daesh group in Raqqa province,” a former bastion of the jihadists in Syria, said the Britain-based Observatory. A local Kurdish news agency reported “the sound of an explosion... resulting from the targeting of a car” in the area. The incident came a day after Syria’s Kurdish authorities in Hasakah province released 50 Syrian prisoners accused of belonging to Daesh as part of a general amnesty deal, an official had told AFP. The Kurds have established a semi-autonomous administration spanning swathes of the north and northeast. The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces spearheaded the battle that dislodged Daesh group militants from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019. Turkiye sees the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a “terrorist” group. The Turkish army, which has troops and proxies in northern Syria, regularly carries out strikes in Kurdish-held areas. Turkiye controls two large strips of territory along the border after expelling Kurdish forces in successive campaigns.

Saudi vessel Amjad was not targeted in Red Sea, shipping firm Bahri says
Reuters/September 03, 2024
DUBAI: Saudi shipping firm Bahri said on Tuesday its tanker Amjad was in the Red Sea on Monday near another tanker that came under attack but was not itself targeted and sustained no damage or injuries to its crew. “We unequivocally affirm that AMJAD was not targeted and sustained no injuries or damage. The vessel remains fully operational and is proceeding to her planned destination without interruption,” the company said in a statement. “Bahri has promptly informed all relevant authorities and remains in continuous communication with our crew as we vigilantly monitor the situation,” it added.
The US Central Command said Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked two crude oil tankers - the Saudi-flagged Amjad and the Panama-flagged Blue Lagoon I - in the Red Sea on Monday with two ballistic missiles and a one-way attack uncrewed aerial system, hitting both vessels. The Houthis late on Monday claimed responsibility for targeting the Blue Lagoon with multiple missiles and drones but did not make any mention of the Saudi tanker.

El-Sisi’s visit signals strategic shift in Turkiye-Egypt relations
MENEKSE TOKYAY/Arab News/September 03, 2024
ANKARA: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will visit Turkiye on Sept. 4, marking a significant milestone in the thawing of relations between the two countries after years of hostilities. The visit follows Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s recent trip to Cairo, where he met El-Sisi and his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty to lay the groundwork for the upcoming visit. The agenda is expected to include key issues such as Gaza.
This visit continues the recent momentum in the Ankara-Cairo relationship, initiated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Egypt in February — the first since 2012 — as both countries aim to elevate their ties to the level of “strategic cooperation.”
The diplomatic breakthrough led to an exchange of ambassadors in July 2023, and the two sides are expected to sign several agreements in sectors such as energy and tourism, alongside the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Cooperation Council. El-Sisi’s visit is part of Turkiye’s broader diplomatic outreach, launched in 2020, to repair relations with former regional adversaries — a strategy aimed at ending Turkiye’s regional isolation and attracting critical investment. However, restoring ties with Egypt has been one of Ankara’s most challenging diplomatic endeavors because it required Ankara to realign its relations with the Muslim Brotherhood by restricting the movement’s activities in Turkiye, closing its Istanbul-based TV stations that broadcast critical coverage of El-Sisi and by deporting some of its members. Dr. Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, thinks that the upcoming visit marks the culmination of a long and tumultuous diplomatic process between Turkiye and Egypt that gained significant momentum after the visit by Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister at the time, to Turkiye in the wake of the earthquake disaster in February 2023.
“Relations between the two countries had soured over Turkiye’s support for the pro-Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi, which was overthrown in 2013. Following the Arab Spring in 2010, Turkiye shifted toward an ideology-driven foreign policy, hoping to position itself as a regional leader by supporting pro-Muslim Brotherhood movements,” she told Arab News. However, for Nasi, this approach strained relations with Egypt and several Gulf countries, which viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as a significant threat to their stability. “Over the years, Turkiye and Egypt found themselves on opposing sides of various regional issues, including disputes over gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean and political conflicts in Libya,” she said.
“When Egypt signed a maritime deal with Greece that same year, it did not go unnoticed by Ankara that the deal respected Turkiye’s maritime claims. Although Turkiye continues to support the Tripoli-based government in Libya, its recent announcement to reopen the consulate in Benghazi suggests a potential shift in its Libyan policy. With escalating tensions in Libya over control of the central bank and oil resources, the issue will surely be a topic of discussion in the leaders’ upcoming meeting.”Nasi thinks that El-Sisi’s visit will also have some repercussions over the two countries’ humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
“Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Egypt has become increasingly important for Turkiye,” she said. “As Turkiye’s relations with Israel have significantly deteriorated, Egypt has emerged as a critical gateway for delivering aid to Gaza. Until today, Turkiye has sent seven ships carrying humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza via Egypt’s Al Arish port.”
As both countries have a shared concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and support the Palestinians’ right to an independent state, Nasi thinks that Ankara’s support for Hamas — which is considered the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — remains a major point of divergence. “It seems that Turkiye and Egypt have reached an understanding to ‘agree to disagree,’ provided that Egypt would prevent the infiltration of Hamas affiliates across its borders, keep Hamas at bay and under control,” she said.
The two countries are also working to increase bilateral trade to $15 billion annually in the next five years from, about $6 billion at present. Potential avenues of cooperation in the fields of liquefied natural gas and nuclear energy as well as expansion of the existing free trade agreement and resuming of the freight shipping between the Turkish port of Mersin and Alexandria in Egypt are also on the table. The timing of the visit is also significant, experts note. “By projecting an image of solidarity over their shared commitment to the Palestinian cause, Turkiye seeks to compensate for its exclusion from the ongoing diplomatic negotiations. From Ankara’s perspective, this diplomatic engagement aims to strengthen ties with Egypt and reaffirm Turkiye’s role in regional politics,” Nasi said. According to Pinar Akpinar, assistant professor at the department of international affairs and Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, Turkiye’s rapprochement process with Egypt should not be viewed in isolation from its broader regional policy. “Simultaneously, Turkiye has also been engaging in rapprochement with Syria, where it has proposed four conditions for peace. Turkiye plays a significant role in promoting regional stability amid rising tensions in the Middle East,” she told Arab News. “Turkiye is keenly aware that the possibility of an all-out war looms on the horizon, making stability a crucial objective to prevent such an outcome,” Akpinar added. “Furthermore, both Turkiye and Egypt have been instrumental in Gaza, particularly in humanitarian efforts and the ongoing mediation process led by Qatar. They can establish a joint mediation committee, organize a regional peace summit, create a joint reconstruction fund and develop renewable energy systems in Gaza. They are already active but can work in a more coordinated fashion. Together, Turkiye, Egypt and Qatar have emerged as key actors in fostering regional stability,” she said.

At least 81 killed in Nigeria in suspected Boko Haram attack
AFP/September 03/2024
At least 81 people died, and several were missing after an attack by suspected Boko Haram jihadists in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe State, local officials told AFP on Tuesday. "Around 150 suspected Boko Haram terrorists armed with rifles and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) attacked Mafa ward on more than 50 motorcycles around 1600 hours on Sunday," said Abdulkarim Dungus, a Yobe state police spokesman. "They killed many people and burnt many shops and houses. We are yet to ascertain the actual number of those killed in the attack."Bulama Jalaluddeen, a local official, added: "From these figures, it has been established that at least 81 people were killed in the attack."

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 03-04/2024
Israel: Ceasefire Deal Will Prevent Hostages from Coming Home, Anti-Government Protests Only Embolden Hamas
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./September 03/2024
Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators' demands, including an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has the Israeli public pressuring their government to allow Hamas to "live to fight another day": to rearm, regroup and continue attacking Israelis – as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed.
Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group's demands.... It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.
Hamas's primary goal is to remain in power and return to the pre-October 7 era, when it built a large terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows it will not be able to accomplish its aims without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an official end of the war.
That is why Hamas is insisting that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel's presence there obstructs Hamas's efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels, as it has been doing for the past two decades.
Hamas is reportedly demanding US and international guarantees that Israel will not target the terror group anytime in the future. Until then, Hamas will continue to hold on to many of the hostages as an "insurance policy."
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, will not release all the hostages at once. He will continue to physically surround himself with many of them to ensure that Israel does not kill him. Sinwar does not care how many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip perish, as long as he is permitted to stay alive.
Even if Hamas were to initially release 10 or 20 hostages as part of any agreement, who could ensure that the remaining captives would be released? Are we supposed to take Hamas's word for it? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris would be able to force Hamas to comply with the terms of any agreement?
Hamas is only interested in a deal that would keep it in power and make Israel lose the war. Hamas does not feel under pressure, at all, to reach any deal. Why should it? If US President Joe Biden were serious about reaching a deal, all he has to do is phone the leader of Qatar and tell him, as he allegedly told Netanyahu a few weeks ago, to "stop bullshitting me!"
The hostages-ceasefire negotiations have broken down because of insufficient pressure from the Biden administration on Hamas's patrons in Qatar. The failure of the negotiations should be attributed to Qatar's lack of action against the Hamas leaders who are living in luxury in Doha. Qatar is not doing anything because it is not under any serious pressure from the Biden administration. Has the Biden administration considered using the threat of withdrawing the US Central Command from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base from to pressure the Gulf state's rulers into convincing their friends in Hamas to free all the hostages?
After murdering six Israeli hostages last week, Hamas leaders are undoubtedly rubbing their hands with delight as startled and distraught Israelis take to the streets to demand an immediate hostage-ceasefire deal with the Islamist terror group. Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators' demands.
The aim of the execution of six Israeli hostages by the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was to shock the Israeli public and incite it to rebel against the Israeli government. The goal of the executions, which reportedly took place in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip last week, was also to convey to the Biden administration the need to increase pressure on Israel to accede to most of Hamas's demands in exchange for the release of the captives the terrorist group is holding in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders are undoubtedly rubbing their hands with delight as startled and distraught Israelis take to the streets to demand an immediate hostage-ceasefire deal with the Islamist terror group. Since the discovery of the bodies of the hostages (one of them, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was a US citizen) last weekend, tens of thousands of people have been protesting in various parts of Israel. They are demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government accept any deal with Hamas that would see the remaining 101 hostages – dead and alive – reunited with their families.
Israel's biggest union, the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in Israel), joined the anti-government protesters by announcing a nationwide strike as part of the pressure to force Netanyahu to accept any deal that would secure the release of the hostages. These are exactly the scenes Hamas is happy to see: demonstrators blocking main highways and clashing with the police.
The latest anti-government protests in Israel, triggered by the murder of the six hostages, are being extensively covered and celebrated by Hamas-affiliated media outlets. The protesters are being referred to by Hamas and its supporters as "Jewish settlers," although they live inside Israel, not in West Bank settlements.
Hamas, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, views all Jews living on land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as "settlers." For Hamas and many Palestinians, there is no difference between a Jew living in Tel Aviv and a Jew living in a settlement in the West Bank: every Jew is a "settler."
Hamas, in addition, does not distinguish between a right-wing and left-wing Jew. Some of the thousands of Israelis murdered, wounded and kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel were known for their advocacy for coexistence with Arabs, providing employment for Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, and fostering genuine connections. One of the hostages, 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, is, together with his wife Yocheved, a peace activist. Before his abduction, he regularly transported Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment in hospitals across Israel.
Vivian Silver, 74, an Israeli-Canadian peace activist from Kibbutz Be'eri near the border with the Gaza Strip, was murdered by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attack. Silver's movement, Women Wage Peace, was established in 2014 to pressure the Israeli government to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Hamas will not compromise or soften its stance to enable a deal because of the demonstrations. Hamas leaders, who are closely observing the protests, are likely to harden their stance in the hope that the Israeli government will give in to the demonstrators' demands, including an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has the Israeli public pressuring their government to allow Hamas to "live to fight another day": to rearm, regroup and continue attacking Israelis – as Hamas official Ghazi Hamad vowed:
Hamad: "The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, third, and fourth..."
News anchor: "Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?"
Hamad: "Yes, of course."
Sadly, by focusing all their ire on the Israeli government, the protesters are, ironically, playing into the hands of Hamas and undermining efforts to reach a deal.
Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group's demands. The Hamas leaders see the ongoing tensions between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government as an encouraging development. It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.
Hamas's primary goal is to remain in power and return to the pre-October 7 era, when it built a large terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows it will not be able to accomplish its aims without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an official end of the war.
That is why Hamas is insisting that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel's presence there obstructs Hamas's efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels, as it has been doing for the past two decades.
Hamas is reportedly demanding US and international guarantees that Israel will not target the terror group anytime in the future. Until then, Hamas will continue to hold on to many of the hostages as an "insurance policy."
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, will not release all the hostages at once. He will continue to physically surround himself with many of them to ensure that Israel does not kill him. Sinwar does not care how many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip perish, as long as he is permitted to stay alive.
Even if Hamas were to initially release 10 or 20 hostages as part of any agreement, who could ensure that the remaining captives would be released? Are we supposed to take Hamas's word for it? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris would be able to force Hamas to comply with the terms of any agreement?
Hamas is only interested in a deal that would keep it in power and make Israel lose the war. Hamas does not feel under pressure, at all, to reach any deal. Why should it? If US President Joe Biden were serious about reaching a deal, all he has to do is phone the leader of Qatar and tell him, as he allegedly told Netanyahu a few weeks ago, to "stop bullshitting me!"
The hostages-ceasefire negotiations have broken down because of insufficient pressure from the Biden administration on Hamas's patrons in Qatar. The failure of the negotiations should be attributed to Qatar's lack of action against the Hamas leaders who are living in luxury in Doha. Qatar is not doing anything because it is not under any serious pressure from the Biden administration. Has the Biden administration considered using the threat of withdrawing the US Central Command from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base from to pressure the Gulf state's rulers into convincing their friends in Hamas to free all the hostages?
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20917/israel-protests-embolden-hamas

The ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank may be inevitable
Chris Doyle//Arab News/September 03, 2024
Palestinians are openly speaking about the “Gazafication” of the West Bank. To put that into perspective, this would mean the near-total destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure and the forced displacement of 90 percent of the population, without even considering the casualties involved.
Is this the next sorry chapter for Palestine? The pre-Oct. 7 West Bank situation was appalling enough. Settler violence was at a record high, as was settlement construction. The global human rights community was nearly unanimous in accusing Israel of operating systematic discrimination in the West Bank — the crime of apartheid. Some 750,000 settlers have exclusive privileged rights under Israeli civil law, whereas Palestinians endure martial law and imprisonment in detention centers, where evidence shows they are regularly abused and tortured. Yet, as Israeli forces last week launched the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, one wonders how far this could go. Some of the tactics will be eerily familiar to Gazans. Airstrikes for starters. The targeting of hospitals, clinics and medical infrastructure for another. The way in which Israel has monopolized the water infrastructure also echoes the process in Gaza.
The harsh reality is that Israel has the means, motive and opportunity. All the infrastructure is there: the wall, the mounds, the checkpoints and the systems of control
Israel has crushed the Palestinian population in Gaza and made the enclave effectively uninhabitable. Palestinian communities in the West Bank may face this same process.
The West Bank could well morph into the caged system of Gaza, even challenging it for the unwanted title of the world’s largest prison camp. All the infrastructure is there: the wall, the mounds, the checkpoints and the systems of control. Israel’s declared intent is there too. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for years for the annexation of Area C. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised 1 million new settlers in the West Bank just two months ago. Emptying the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills of Palestinian communities is a process that will now be jet-propelled.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz was hardly reassuring when he posted on X: “We must address this (terror) threat by all necessary means, including, in some cases of intense combat, allowing the population to temporarily (evacuate) from one neighborhood to another within the refugee camp to prevent civilian harm and to enable the dismantling of terror infrastructures established there.”EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell responded: “It is still more worrisome the call from the minister for foreign affairs of Israel to displace people from the West Bank, doing more or less the same thing that they did with the people in Gaza. This is completely unacceptable.”Katz tweeted back: “I oppose the displacement of any population from their homes.” Some comment given the monumental displacement of Palestinians his government has overseen. If it can get away with genocide in Gaza, what else can Israel do? That is what many on the Israeli right are asking
Iran will be the excuse. Israeli ministers have been falling over themselves to say that Iran has opened up an eastern front in the West Bank. This is all a little too convenient, predictable and lacking in evidence. In terms of the Palestinian leadership, this Israeli coalition is likely to start treating the Palestinian Authority just like Hamas unless it acts as the occupier’s poodle. Senior ministers want to see the PA eradicated, just as they do Hamas.
Yet it could be argued that Gaza is about to get the West Bank treatment as well. Settlers are queuing up for Gaza real estate to colonize, even planting trees to symbolically claim the land. Israel has apparently segmented the enclave into three, as it was pre-2005, and that could be just the start. Settlements in Gaza would also see the reintroduction of the same regime of apartheid as in the West Bank; two laws for two peoples, with superior rights for Israeli Jews at every level.
None of this means that there is a clear-cut Israeli government plan. The coalition is too incoherent for that. But there are a series of commonly held ambitions that, amid the current horrors, could be opportunistically realized. These include the retaking of Gaza, with a degree of ethnic cleansing, aims which have already been pretty much achieved. It could mean further major land transfers to Israel in the West Bank, leading to the annexation of Area C at least, with major Palestinian displacement into already overcrowded cities. And it could mean the crushing of all forms of Palestinian leadership and governance structures. The cherry on the cake would be the final smashing of the status quo agreements on the holy places in Jerusalem, leading — in the most alarming scenario — to a synagogue on Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as promised by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
It is naked Israeli opportunism on steroids, facilitated by US complicity and the ineptitude of the rest of the international community. If it can get away with genocide in Gaza, what else can Israel do? That is what many on the Israeli right are asking. But it is also brought about by the gouging out of the Israeli political center and left and the utter failure of the existing Palestinian leaderships.
None of these scenarios are inevitable. Yet, with every passing week of unhalted, unbridled Israeli atrocities, the unthinkable becomes thinkable, even inevitable.
**Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech

How Gaza war could affect Jordan’s legislative elections
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/September 03, 2024
Jordan will hold parliamentary elections on Sept. 10 to elect a new lower house of parliament. The four-year term of the now-dissolved chamber, elected in 2020, expires in November. The upcoming polls will be held under a revamped elections law adopted at the recommendation of a political modernization committee formed by King Abdullah in 2021. The new law has designated 41 seats of the 130-seat lower house to political parties, a first since Jordan relaunched its parliamentary system in 1990.
Successive governments have been tweaking election laws since the mid-1990s with one goal in mind: weakening Islamists’ grassroots support and limiting their candidates' chances of gaining more seats in the house. But these experiments have resulted in mixed, often unexpected, results. The controversial single-vote system has undercut the chances of Islamist candidates. Still, it has also boosted the presence and influence of up-and-coming tribal contenders while alienating urban voters, especially from the middle class.
The cumulative result was the election of loyalist and service-oriented lawmakers, leaving the Islamists as the only credible opposition bloc under the dome. Passive legislatures were seen as having little or no oversight over governments, which was reflected in low approval ratings among Jordanians and even lower voter turnout — 29 percent in 2020.
The new election law seeks to strengthen political party representation over the coming decade so that future governments will be formed by a coalition of elected parties. Under the Jordanian Constitution, the King appoints the prime minister and approves the naming of Cabinet ministers. An appointed government must win a vote of confidence by lower house deputies. The new election law seeks to strengthen political party representation over the coming decade
Despite more than 40 political parties being registered in 2020, they claimed only 12 seats.
But the upcoming elections will be taking place under extraordinary circumstances. The war on Gaza has electrified the national mood, especially among the Jordanian youth. Since last October, Jordanians have been taking to the streets to protest Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Most protests have been organized by the Islamist base and leftist parties.While the government has tolerated the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas nationwide protests, it clamped down on activists who became critical of the official Jordanian position in relation to ties with Israel. The country has been deeply polarized over Jordan’s interception of Iranian missiles and drones that violated the kingdom’s airspace after being launched at Israel in April. There are about 5 million eligible voters, but past elections have seen a steady decline in voter turnout, especially in demographically and economically mixed urban areas. In 2020, the capital, Amman, a city of about 2.2 million, registered only 12 percent voter participation. It is not clear how the war in Gaza will affect voter mindset this time, especially among the youth.
The new electoral law was supposed to give newly formed centrist and loyalist parties, headed by former bureaucrats and retired leading army figures, a push to take most of the 41 seats allocated to political parties and district-allocated seats. Under the new law, restructuring electoral districts was meant to broaden popular participation, especially in the urban districts that have seen lower voter turnout for demographic reasons. But the war in Gaza and the stagnant economic situation have taken the wind out of the sails of what promised to be a new and ambitious electoral experiment. With more than 35 registered political parties, only a handful can cross the threshold of 7 percent of the votes required to sit in the lower house.
Of those parties, 28 will be contesting the elections through a single national list and multiple local district lists. The crowded party and district lists, with about 1,000 candidates, will fragment the votes. Critics say that no more than 100,000 Jordanians hold party membership, thus giving parties an unfair quota in the upcoming legislature. Moreover, they point out that potential voters are primarily indifferent to party slogans and programs that are banal and overtly nonpolitical.
Attention will naturally focus on the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Attention will naturally focus on the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. The courts have annulled the movement’s registration as a charity, but it continues to function nonetheless. In the last legislative elections of 2020, it won only eight seats. However, under the new electoral system, its prospects remain unknown, especially in light of its strong support of Hamas in Gaza.
While most parties and lists have opted to post thousands of posters bearing photos of candidates across the kingdom’s streets and squares as their primary messaging to the voters, the Islamic Action Front has gone a step further by launching populist and emotional appeals on social media platforms. Its underlying political messages have centered on the looming threat of Israel to Jordan and the support of armed resistance in Palestine, with emphasis on conservative Muslim family values. It is clear that the party is hoping to mobilize conservative Jordanians, including young voters who have become politicized over the war on Gaza.
The party’s national and local lists include East Bankers, Jordanians with Palestinian roots, Christians, Chechens and Circassians. In the local districts, the Islamic Action Front is fielding activists, especially those involved in the once-influential but now defunct Jordanian Teachers’ Syndicate.
In contrast, other parties seek to boost their chances at the polls by using tribal alliances in order to lure voters, especially in rural districts. The biggest challenge facing the political environment will be making the slow transition from tribal allegiances to party affiliation. It is unlikely that such a shift will begin with this electoral cycle.
The war in Gaza and economic conditions will factor in mobilizing voters in these upcoming elections. But while it is evident that the middle class of affluent West Amman is displaying signs of apathy, there is the possibility that some disgruntled secular voters may back the Islamists as a protest vote to point out their frustration with the dormant political status quo and the worsening economic conditions.
Interestingly, Jordan has a history of vibrant and representative elected political parties, especially in the 1940s and 1950s. The last parliamentary government in the kingdom was in 1956, a coalition of parties that included socialist, communist, Baathist and independent ministers. Political parties were banned in 1957 due to tumultuous geopolitical events.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010

Netanyahu wants a fait accompli in the West Bank ... What are we doing about it?
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat./September 03, 2024
The closed rooms where the region’s crises are negotiated have been brimming with both announced and secret meetings. With them has emerged a flurry of news reports in the media and endless rumors and positions on social media platforms.
All of this is happening while decisions on the fate of the Arab region are made abroad.
Even if we actually wanted to take adequate positions in response to the crime of redrawing maps with blood, it is clear that the Arabs do not have the capability, the international community does not have the will and the Americans have no intention of dealing with this crime.
On the other hand, I am no longer confident that the “crisis” we hear Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “suffering” from is real. Nor am I confident about the so-called confusion of the Iranian leadership, which seems to have abandoned the idea of removing Israel within seven minutes. Rather, what recent days have shown makes one wish that Israel was indeed suffering from a crisis and that Iran was confused.
It seems that all the world’s concerns are timed and synchronized to the schedule of the American elections
In the past few days, Netanyahu’s government has begun the second phase of its semi-explicit plan to exterminate the Palestinians as a people, root them out of their land and do away with their cause by attacking Tulkarm and Jenin. Of course, the same old pretext is always available: “terrorist” cells affiliated with Iran have been established around the two cities, especially in their camps. Meanwhile, nothing in the US takes precedence over November’s presidential election.
Not only that, but it seems that all the world’s concerns are timed and synchronized to the schedule of the American elections.
Even the major global powers, which have a greater capacity to change things than us Arabs, foremost among them Russia and China, are watching to see which way the winds will blow in the race to the White House between two candidates and parties that differ radically on almost every issue ... except total support for Israel.
After Tel Aviv, Moscow may have the strongest influence — albeit indirectly — on this electoral battle, especially in light of the contrast between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ views on the greatest global threat to American unipolarity.
Trump has, on several occasions, downplayed the threat posed by Russia — even after Ukraine. He has also hinted at his “personal” ability to deal with Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, he and the Republican leadership have taken a tough stance on the Chinese threat first and the Iranian threat second. Moreover, several international political figures have emphasized, for some time, Putin’s support for far-right policies in most Western democracies, which he is betting on to create internal disruptions.
His opponent, Harris, the Democratic candidate, as well as being the partner and heir to Democratic policies by virtue of being Joe Biden’s vice president for the past four years, has been somewhat gray in her views. Analysts broadly agree that Biden’s presidency has essentially been a continuation of Barack Obama’s term, during which Biden served as vice president for eight years.
Thus, Harris does not have any particular personal feelings about the ambitions of either Russia or China. Nonetheless, Obama’s reading of the Middle East’s political map may have become an institutional Democratic Party approach to the region. Both the Iranian and Israeli governments are well aware of this.
Today, Netanyahu is escalating in order to kill several birds with one stone. First, he is furthering an expansionist messianic project under the pretext of needing the support of the unhinged extremists in his government. Second, he is trying to draw Tehran into a battle that it will either lose on the ground or that will destroy its political credibility. Third, he is dragging the Democrats into a regional war against Iran, which he believes the American public is in no mood for, thereby heightening the chances of a Trump victory.
On the Palestinian side, the latest situation does not seem to have led to more rational and realistic assessments
As for Tehran, it wants to avoid such a war, which would expose the tenuous nature of its commitment to the Arab political organization that it has created, invested in and used. It also has no interest in taking a leap into the unknown and facilitating a Trump victory. Indeed, past experiences have shown the former president to be far more amenable to the proposals of the Israeli extreme right than the Obama-Biden school.
Meanwhile, the Israeli war machine is rushing to impose a fait accompli in the West Bank, after having destroyed Gaza and displaced its people. It is likely betting on a Republican victory in November that would free its hand completely. On the Palestinian side, bitter experiences and the latest situation currently unfolding in Gaza do not seem to have led to more rational and realistic assessments and priorities, foremost among them the need to unify stances and stop gambling on the basis of false assumptions.
Unfortunately, some Palestinian factions, both inside and outside the Occupied Territories, particularly in Europe and North America, continue to make such bets, which could potentially squander much of the warranted broad sympathy for the Palestinian cause across the globe.
Here, I conclude by touching on a sensitive and painful subject.
Over the past few decades, we have seen mistakes, even sins, by Palestinian leaders and even some segments of the Palestinian public. These sins were catastrophic. However, the most calamitous of these mistakes remains to hold the Palestinian people and their cause responsible for these sins, especially using these mistakes as a pretext for reveling in their pain, demonizing them and leaving them to face their butchers alone.
The immediate threat, today, is faced by the Palestinians. Tomorrow, it will not be limited to them. Beware of treating them as the proverbial white bull that was devoured first.
*Eyad Abu Shakra is managing editor of Asharq Al-Awsat. X: @eyad1949

As Iran threatens Israel, the danger of Tehran's long-vaunted missile program remains in question
Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates/ September 03/2024
As Iran threatens to attack Israel over the assassination of a Hamas leader in the Iranian capital, its long-vaunted missile program offers one of the few ways for Tehran to strike back directly, but questions loom over just how much of a danger it poses. The program was behind Iran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel in April, when Iran became the first nation to launch such a barrage since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lobbed Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
But few of the Iranian projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a U.S.-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed while in flight. Even those that reached Israel appeared to miss their marks. Now a new report by experts shared exclusively with The Associated Press suggests one of Tehran's most advanced missiles is far less accurate than previously thought.
The April assault showed "some ability to strike Israel,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who worked on the analysis. But "if I were supreme leader, I would probably be a little disappointed.”
If Iranian missiles are not able to hit targets precisely “that recasts their role,” Lair added. “They’re no longer as valuable for conducting conventional military operations. They may be more valuable simply as terror weapons.”
As an example, he recalled the harassing missile fire seen on cities in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when Iran could fire a variety of missiles at a large city and hope some got through. Iran has repeatedly said it will retaliate for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh. Israel is widely suspected of carrying out the assassination, though it has not claimed it. The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tacitly acknowledged the country's failure to strike anything of importance in Israel. “Debates by the other party about how many missiles were fired, how many of them hit the target and how many didn’t, these are of secondary importance,” Khamenei said. “The main issue is the emergence of the Iranian nation” and the Iranian military "in an important international arena. This is what matters.”
A fusillade of missiles and drones
Retaliation had been expected for days after a suspected Israeli strike on April 1 hit an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria, killing two Iranian generals and five officers, as well as a member of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. Footage aired on state television showed that Iran's April 13 assault began with Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami speaking by telephone with Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard’s aerospace division.
“Start the ‘True Promise’ operation against Zionist regime’s bases,” he ordered. As the missiles headed skyward, people across Iran stopped what they were doing and pointed their mobile phones at the launch noise from their cars and the balconies of their homes. Videos analyzed by the AP showed multiple launch sites, including on the outskirts of Arak, Hamadan, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Tabriz and Tehran. Grainy footage later released through pro-Iranian military social media accounts showed missiles thundering off truck-based mobile launchers. Iran’s bomb-carrying Shahed drones, widely used by Russia in its war on Ukraine, leaped off metal stands, their engines whirring like lawnmowers through the night sky. Some were launched by pickup trucks racing down runways.
The triangle-shaped drones went first, taking hours to reach their targets. Then came the Paveh cruise missiles, taking a shorter time, and finally the Emad, Ghadr and Kheibar Shekan ballistic missiles, which needed only minutes, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. Drones and missiles also came from Yemen, likely fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
Israeli officials estimated that Iran launched 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles. In Jordan, an AP journalist filmed what appeared to be a ballistic missile being intercepted above the Earth’s atmosphere, likely by an Israeli Arrow 3 missile, with the blast radiating out like a circle. The U.S., the United Kingdom, France and Jordan all shot down incoming fire. The Americans claimed to have downed 80 bomb-carrying drones and at least six ballistic missiles. Israeli missile defenses were also activated, though their initial claim of intercepting 99% of the projectiles appeared to be an exaggeration.
The attack “was very clearly not something symbolic and not something trying to avoid damage,” said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Iran. It was “a major attempt to overcome Israeli defenses.” U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, told the AP they assessed that 50% of the Iranian missiles failed at launch or crashed before reaching their target.
In the aftermath, analysts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies examined the strike on the Nevatim Air Base some 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Jerusalem in the Negev Desert. The center's experts long have studied Iran and its ballistic missile program. The base came into immediate focus after the suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria. Iran's ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, claimed that the strike was conducted by Israeli F-35Is, which are based at Nevatim.
The air base also figured into Iranian military propaganda. Iranian state television aired footage in February of a Revolutionary Guard test that targeted a mock-up resembling F-35I hangars at Nevatim. Ballistic missiles, including some of the kinds used in the April attack on Israel, destroyed the mock-up. In the attack, at least four Iranian missiles struck Nevatim, as seen in satellite images and footage released by the Israeli military.
The only debris found in the area — collected from the Dead Sea — suggests Iran used Emad missiles to target Nevatim, the analysts said. The liquid-fueled Emad, or “pillar” in Farsi, is a variant of Iran's Shahab-3 missile built from a North Korean design with a reported range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). That indicates the Emads were likely fired from the Shiraz area, which is within the estimated limits of the missile's likely capabilities, the analysts said.
Based on Iran's focus on the F-35I, the James Martin analysts assumed the likely target point for the Iranian fire would be a cluster of aircraft hangars. The position also serves as a near-central point within the Nevatim base itself.
That offers “a much more valuable target" than just "poking holes in the runway,” Lair said. But none of the Iranian missiles directly hit those hangars. Assuming Iran targeted the hangars, the James Martin analysts measured the distance between the hangars and the impact zones of the missiles. That gave an average of about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) for the “circular error probable” — a measurement used by experts to determine a weapon's accuracy based on the radius of a circle that encompasses 50% of where the missiles landed. That's far worse than a 500-meter (1,640-foot) error circle first estimated by experts for the Emad. After a U.N. weapons ban on Iran ended in 2020, Iran separately advertised the Emad to potential international buyers as having a 50-meter (164-foot) circle — a figure that is in line with top missile specifications for systems deployed elsewhere, said Hinz, the IISS missile expert.
The results from April's attack were nowhere near that precise.
"This means the Emad is much less accurate than previous estimates indicated," Lair said. “This indicates the Iranians are a generation behind where previous assessments thought they were in accuracy."The poor performance may be attributable to electronic warfare measures designed to confuse the missile’s guidance system, as well as potential sabotage, poor missile design and the distances involved in the attack.
What's next
In the past, Iranian threats to retaliate against Israel generally took the form of either attacks by Iranian-backed forces in the Mideast or assaults aimed at Israeli targets elsewhere, such as embassies or tourists aboard. Geography limits the options for a direct Iranian military attack. Iran shares no border with Israel, and the two countries are some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) apart at the shortest distance. Iran’s air force has an aging fleet led by F-14 Tomcats and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets from the Cold War, but they would be no match for Israel's F-35Is and its air defenses. That means Iran again would need to rely on missiles and long-range drones. It could also enlist help from allied militias such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels to overwhelm Israel's defenses. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire on Aug. 25.
Always present in the background is the risk that Tehran could develop a nuclear weapon, a threat that Iranian officials have repeated in recent months. While Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, Western intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Tehran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003.
U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report in July that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.” However, building a weapon and miniaturizing it to put on a ballistic missile could take years.
“Iran has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the region and continues to emphasize improving the accuracy, lethality and reliability of these systems,” the report from the director of national intelligence said. “Iran probably is incorporating lessons learned" from the April attack.
*Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
*The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

 Iran’s diplomatic dilemma: The case for strengthening ties with Riyadh
Imran Khalid, opinion contributor/The Hill/September 03/2024
The new cabinet’s formation in Iran has left reformists disillusioned, signaling a likely stagnation in domestic political dynamics under President Masoud Pezeshkian in the months ahead. However, some analysts are expecting a moderate foreign policy in the coming days. Despite a relatively conservative cabinet formation, the more moderate factions within Iran’s political spectrum are encouraging Iran’s newly elected president to prioritize Riyadh for his initial official foreign visit. Their rationale is straightforward: Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic skills have been successful in alleviating tensions.
This moment presents a unique opportunity for Iran to adjust its relationships. The significance of these appeals is heightened by the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 coinciding with Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony. This incident has increased concerns, making the idea of mediation even more appealing.
While the concept of Saudi Arabia assuming a mediating role in Iran’s relations isn’t novel, it is gaining traction as the U.S. presidential election approaches with the uncertainty surrounding a Donald Trump win. Proponents of this strategy suggest that Riyadh’s close relationship with Washington could facilitate the easing of sanctions on Tehran or secure exemptions for Saudi businesses to engage with Iran.
This suggestion isn’t entirely new. Even before the recent escalation, the influential figures in Iran had discussed the idea of Saudi Arabia stepping in as a mediator to help mend Tehran’s strained relationships with the global community. The recent assassination has only intensified these discussions, underscoring the pressing need to seek a resolution to Iran’s isolation. Saudi Arabia’s potential collaboration with Washington could play a role in this scenario.
By utilizing Riyadh’s sway, Tehran could potentially secure assistance, whether through sanctions or special provisions that permit economic interactions without facing U.S. repercussions. Such a step could not only boost Iran’s economy but also pave the way for better ties with its Arab counterparts like Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. In a region that’s on the brink of instability this diplomatic move may offer Iran the needed support it seeks.
In the aftermath of the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Saudi Arabia has taken some positive steps to preserve the fragile progress in its relationship with Tehran. These efforts, rooted in the China-sponsored agreement that Raisi helped forge, signal Riyadh’s commitment to continuing the delicate trust-building process.
Saudi Arabia’s gestures of goodwill began with its participation in the mourning ceremonies for Raisi. This was further reinforced by the attendance of a Saudi delegation at the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, where Prince Mansour bin Mutaib delivered a letter from King Salman, emphasizing continuity in diplomatic engagement. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s post-inauguration call to Pezeshkian to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments added another layer to this unfolding diplomatic narrative.
The pricking question now is whether these outreach efforts are simply tactical maneuvers or reflect a deeper shift within Iran’s pragmatic factions. A reassessment of Tehran’s foreign policy, particularly towards Saudi Arabia, could open avenues for leveraging Riyadh’s ongoing development and reform initiatives. Such a shift might not only ease Iran’s international isolation but also relieve internal pressures, marking a pivotal moment in regional diplomacy.
The recent appeals for discussions may reveal concerns within Iran, especially among those worried that hardliners, and could impede the new government’s initiatives. Having connections to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, these hardliners are ready to challenge moderates striving to demonstrate Iran’s ability to handle both external challenges. The decreased voter turnout in elections highlights the declining popularity of the regime, further complicating the moderates’ goals.
Throughout the years, Tehran has been vocal in its criticism of the United States while also being mindful of who holds the presidency. This awareness dates back to the Carter-Reagan election in 1980. It remains an aspect of Iran’s regional strategy today. As Tehran contemplates how to respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, it is evident that they are thinking about how their actions could affect the U.S. election. It seems that Iran is subtly aligning itself with Vice President Kamala Harris.
The leadership in Tehran knows that a strong retaliation could have consequences, especially if it leads to increased tensions with Israel. Such a move could harm Harris’s chances by suggesting a failure to handle the situation effectively impacting both security and the economy. At the time Tehran is keeping an eye on how the Democratic Party manages its relationship with Israel, it understands that any misstep could strain U.S.-Iranian relations further. With each decision they make, Tehran is carefully considering how it might influence America’s landscape.
Israel’s strategy appears to be capitalizing on Iran’s cautious approach, as Tehran rethinks its retaliation to avoid a direct escalation. Israel, recognizing this moment of Iranian restraint, is pushing forward with its own agenda, undeterred by external pressures, including those from the United States. The leaders in Jerusalem understand that this period of restraint may not last long, especially considering changes in political dynamics after the upcoming election.
Both sides are displaying patience, indicating a game where each step is evaluated for its potential impact on broader conflict risks. Israel’s determination to proceed despite calls for restraint from the community shows its belief that now is the time to strengthen its position. The situation carries risks as Israel acknowledges that its current influence could diminish if Tehran escalates or if political shifts occur post-election. This delicate balance between power and caution may shape Middle Eastern geopolitics in the future as both Israel and Iran seek to maximize their advantages.
Tehran’s true intentions will become evident through its actions in the region, especially when it comes to handling the stalled reconciliation. Saudi Arabia seeking stability would likely appreciate a visit from Iran’s president. However, this support is contingent upon Tehran’s dedication to enhancing relationships, resolving disputes and bolstering connections with neighboring countries.
Iran must make a shift in its strategies to achieve these goals. Without progress in addressing the challenges in Yemen and Iraq, a fresh chapter in relations will remain out of reach. The region watches closely, aware that genuine progress can only be achieved if Iran moves beyond rhetoric and demonstrates a real willingness to serve broader regional interests. The stakes are high, and the path forward demands more than just diplomatic overtures; it requires concrete actions that signal a break from past behaviors.
*Imran Khalid is a physician and has a master’s degree in international relations.
*Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Massive Fire Consumes Coptic Christian Diocese in Egypt
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/September 03/2024
https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2024/09/02/massive-fire-consumes-coptic-christian-diocese-in-egypt/
On Saturday night, August 31, 2024, a massive fire “broke out” in the Coptic Diocese of Beni Suef in Egypt, consuming all of the five-story Christian building’s contents—reception halls, offices, libraries, precious books, furniture, and computers—as well as more than 300 wooden benches belonging to the adjacent Church of the Virgin Mary, which were located in the diocese courtyard at the time.
At least ten people, including a clergyman and several staffers, were injured and hospitalized. Diocese spokesmen who were present said that it was only due to “Divine Providence” that a large number of children present in the building, which houses three children’s schools, were saved.
It took approximately five hours for firefighters to quench the blaze. Although initial reports stated that a full forensic investigation as to the cause of the fire would be underway, a security source was quick to announce that the fire was caused by “faulty electrical wires.”
This would be a reasonable conclusion if not for two inconvenient facts: First, Muslim arson attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt are very commonplace. According to researcher Magdi Khalil, “close to one thousand churches have been attacked or torched by mobs in the last five decades [since the 1970s] in Egypt.” Second, although Muslim hostility for churches has not abated or been “reformed,” in recent years, whenever Coptic churches and other Christian buildings burn, these fires are always presented as unfortunate byproducts of “faulty wires” and other “natural” causes.
There are many examples of this (here, here, here, here). In one month alone, August 2022, a full 11 churches “caught fire.” In one of these fires, 41 Christian worshippers, including many children, were killed in the conflagration.
Either the “radicals” have—possibly with “inside” help, including from sympathizers within state security—become more sophisticated and clandestine in their attacks on churches (one surveillance camera caught a votary candle suddenly and randomly exploding and creating a fire); or else Coptic Christians have, for some inexplicable reason, become the most careless and fire-prone people in the world, even though, in reality, they are much more careful with their churches than most Christians, precisely because their churches are so few and widely suppressed and under attack in Egypt.
Moreover, if it is true that faulty wires and other electrical problems are behind this upsurge in church fires, why are “accidental” fires in mosques—which outnumber churches in Egypt by a ratio of 40 to 1—completely unheard of? Are the wires and electrical circuits of Egypt also “radical” and biased against churches?The bottom line is this: up until a few years ago, it was very common to hear of several Coptic churches being torched every year by rioting Muslims in Egypt; in the last few years, however, there have been virtually no such open attacks on churches—even as the same amount of churches continue to burn every year. Is this sheer “coincidence” or business as usual—though under a new cover?