English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 05/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Your rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you
Letter of James 05/01-06/:”Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 04-05/2024
The Danger, Sin, and Foolishness of Worshiping and Idolizing Politicians and Leaders
Elias Bejjani/September 02, 2024
Report: Hochstein will not return to Lebanon before Gaza ceasefire
Israeli airstrikes target multiple villages in southern Lebanon: NNA
Lebanon Health Ministry Says Woman Dead in Israeli Strikes
HRW Accuses Lebanon, Cyprus of Deporting Refugees Back to Syria
Lebanon’s Salameh to Remain in Detention until Hearing Is Scheduled, Sources Say
Salameh remanded in custody, Ghada Aoun asks to question him
Riad Salameh Under Investigation for Alleged Embezzlement of $40 Million from Central Bank
Presidential Election: French Efforts to Promote FL Acceptance of Dialogue Proposal
Maronite Bishops: To abide by the Constitution and hasten to elect a new President of the State, away from political debates and strange and useless efforts
Hezbollah launches largest rocket attack on Israel's North since last month
South Lebanon: OCHA Reports 112,000 Internally Displaced
Two Injured in Israeli Airstrike on Khiam
Southern Lebanon: One Killed and Two Injured in Qabrikha Strike
“Optimum Invest” Case: File Sent to Beirut’s First Investigative Judge
Bank Loans Are Back…
Let Hassan Nasrallah Know That The Defiant Kesrouan will remain a thorn in the side of Iran and its resistance shills./Writer & Director, Youssef El Khoury/September 04/2024
“Palestine Never Existed!” Arab Warns the World about the Palestinian cause
Parliamentary Committees: Operating Guidelines and Political Context

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2024
Four killed, nine injured in shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia
2 students, 2 teachers killed in shooting at Georgia high school, 14-year-old suspect in custody: Officials
Israel's Netanyahu demands open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt
Israel’s Netanyahu Says Will Not Leave Gaza Border Corridor until It Is Secure
Netanyahu Rival Gantz Criticizes Stance on Philadelphi, Urges Hostage Deal
German foreign minister heads to Middle East in Gaza truce push
US and Israel hold 'secret meeting' to discuss preventing war with Hezbollah: Axios
Polio Vaccines Give Gaza Families All Too Brief Respite from War
US files criminal charges against Hamas leadership, including Sinwar
Israel could leave Philadelphi Corridor as part of permanent ceasefire - Netanyahu
What Is the Philadelphi Corridor, and Why Does It Matter?
Palestinians in Gaza Grapple With Prospect of Israeli Presence Postwar
Palestinian girl killed in West Bank was looking out the window, her father says
What to know about Israel’s major weeklong raid in the West Bank city of Jenin
Turkey, Egypt forge common stance on Gaza, pledge to cooperate on trade, energy
Egypt's president makes his first visit to Turkey as relations thaw
Boko Haram militants on motorcycles attacked a Nigerian village, killing over 100, residents say

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 03-04/2024
Is Qatar an ally or an enemy in the fight against terror finance? /Natalie Ecanow, opinion contributor/The Hill/September 04/2024
EU Should Condemn Iran, Not Israel, for West Bank Violence/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2024
Iran wants to keep everyone occupied with its infantile games to buy time/Salem Alketbi/Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
Israel must deny Hamas its objectives to truly win the war and change mindsets /PESACH WOLICKI//Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
Article On Saudi News Portal: Hamas' Operatives Hide Among The Civilian Population; They Are Cowards Who Do Not Value The Lives Of The Gazans/Kamil Salman/ Elaph/MEMRI/September 4, 2024
“Whichever Way One Goes About It, One Always Does It Wrong”/David Sahyoun/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Oslo Accords: Deliberately Obstructed Three Decades Later/Rami Rayess/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Martyrs are Exploited to Score Political Points in America Too/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Hamas… When Is It Time For Politics/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 04-05/2024
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.

Report: Hochstein will not return to Lebanon before Gaza ceasefire
Naharnet/September 04/2024
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will not return to Lebanon before a Gaza ceasefire is reached, pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper said. The daily said Wednesday it has learned from sources that Hochstein told those he met in Lebanon during his last visit in June that he will not return before a Gaza agreement is reached. A report, published earlier this week in al-Liwaa newspaper, had claimed that Hochstein will likely visit the region this month to reach a final agreement on the United Nations Council Resolution 1701. The sources told al-Akhbar that the resistance had insisted on not separating the fronts and maintained that it will only stop its clashes with the Israeli army once a cease-fire agreement is reached in Gaza. "The resistance insisted that it will not discuss security arrangements before the end of the Israeli aggression on Gaza," the sources said.

Israeli airstrikes target multiple villages in southern Lebanon: NNA
LBCI/September 04/2024
The National News Agency (NNA) reported on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes targeting the outskirts of several villages and valleys in the western sector, including Majdal Zoun, Jebbayn, Wadi Hassan, Wadi Zebqine, Aaziyyeh, east and south of Tyre. Additionally, Israeli aircraft conducted airstrikes on the Salhani area on the outskirts of the town of Ramyeh, using several missiles.

Lebanon Health Ministry Says Woman Dead in Israeli Strikes
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed a woman and wounded five other people in the country's south on Wednesday, nearly 11 months since hostilities broke out between Israel and Hezbollah. Iran-backed Hezbollah has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip. "Israeli enemy artillery fire targeting the locality of Qabrikha killed a woman and wounded two other people, including a 12-year-old," the ministry said in a statement. Three other people were wounded in an Israeli strike targeting the border locality of Hula, the ministry said. The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its air force had struck the Qabrikha region which Hezbollah had used to fire rockets at Israel during the past few days. The military also said 65 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, and that it intercepted several of them, while others fell into open fields and started fires.Hezbollah said it launched several attacks on Wednesday, including Katyusha rocket salvos on a barracks and artillery positions in two separate areas in Israel's north.The cross-border violence since October has killed some 610 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 135 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, including in the occupied Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

HRW Accuses Lebanon, Cyprus of Deporting Refugees Back to Syria
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Lebanon's army and the authorities in nearby Cyprus of working together to keep refugees out of Europe and deporting them to war-torn Syria. Lebanon's army has intercepted Syrian refugees trying to leave by boat, "pulled them back, and summarily expelled them to Syria", the rights watchdog said in a statement launching a report. "In tandem", Cypriot security forces including the coastguard "have sent Syrians whose boats reached Cyprus back to Lebanon, without regard to their refugee status or risk of being expelled to Syria", it said. Many of those sent back to Lebanon by Cyprus were immediately expelled to Syria by the Lebanese army," it added. Contacted by AFP, the Lebanese army declined to respond, while the government of Cyprus was unavailable for comment. Lebanon, which has been mired in a crushing economic crisis since late 2019, says it hosts some two million Syrians, the world's highest number of refugees per capita, with more than 774,000 registered with the United Nations. The eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, and has long been a route for refugees seeking a better life in Europe. In May, the European Union approved $1 billion in aid for Lebanon to help stem irregular migration to the bloc. HRW's Nadia Hardman said in the statement that Lebanon was violating "the fundamental prohibition on returning a refugee to face persecution, while the European Union helps pay the bills"."Cyprus also violates this prohibition by pushing refugees back to Lebanon where they risk being sent to danger in Syria," she added. Cyprus Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou told HRW that "in 2020, Cyprus and Lebanon re-endorsed their mutual agreement" on migrants attempting sea crossings from Lebanon. "There were several cases, when boats were intercepted and sent back to Lebanon for further management, in respect of our agreement," he said, according to the group's report. Lebanon's General Security agency told HRW that any "expulsion or deportation" of Syrians or other migrants by Cyprus that it was involved with "was subject to international human rights law standards". HRW said the Lebanese army had not responded to requests for comment on its findings, and the force told AFP it declined to comment. Syria's war erupted in 2011 after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests, and has killed more than half a million people and displaced around half of the pre-war population. In May, Cyprus said it was among at least eight EU members who want so-called safe zones declared in parts of Syria. Rights groups have repeatedly warned that Syria is unsafe for refugee returns.

Lebanon’s Salameh to Remain in Detention until Hearing Is Scheduled, Sources Say
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Former Lebanese central bank chief Riad Salameh, who was arrested on Tuesday over alleged financial crimes, will remain in detention at least until a hearing is scheduled, likely next week, two judicial sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
After the hearing, the presiding judge can decide whether to keep Salameh in detention, the sources said, adding that no decision had yet been taken. One of them said the judge was expected to schedule a hearing for early next week. Reuters could not immediately reach a lawyer for Salameh. Salameh, 73, was the bank governor for 30 years but his final years were marred by the collapse of Lebanon's financial system along with charges of financial crimes, including illicit enrichment through public funds, by authorities in Lebanon and several Western countries. The state-owned National News Agency said prosecutor Ali Ibrahim, to whom the case was referred by public prosecutor Jamal al-Hajjar on Wednesday, charged Salameh with "embezzlement, theft of public funds, forgery, and illicit enrichment", before referring the case to investigating judge Bilal Halawi, who will set the date for the hearing. bTwo judicial sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Salameh had been held on charges of accruing more than $110 million via financial crimes involving Optimum Invest, a Lebanese firm that offers income brokerage services. The authorities have not published the charges against him. Neither Salameh nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. Salameh has previously denied all accusations of financial crimes. Tuesday's charges are separate from previous charges of financial crimes linked to Forry Associates, a company controlled by Salameh's brother, Raja. The brothers - who deny any wrongdoing - were accused of using Forry to divert $330 million in public funds through commissions.

Salameh remanded in custody, Ghada Aoun asks to question him
Associated Press/September 04/2024
State Prosecutor Judge Jamal al-Hajjar on Wednesday referred the file of detained former Central Bank governor Riad Salameh to Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim, who charged Salameh and referred him in custody to Beirut First Examining Magistrate Bilal Halawi. Sources told al-Jadeed television that Halawi will either issue an arrest warrant or decide to release Salameh on bail, with the scenario of arrest being the “more likely.”A judicial source meanwhile told Al-Arabiya TV that Salameh will remain in custody until his trial session next week. Three judicial officials meanwhile told The Associated Press that Ibrahim charged Salameh with the embezzlement of $42 million. During his hours-long interrogation on Monday, Salameh was asked about a key case in which a company was allegedly hired to manipulate statements and conceal Lebanon’s hemorrhaging finances. According to two other judicial officials, Salameh appeared to have brought in the company, called Optimum, to help facilitate embezzling money from the Central Bank through other accounts, eventually reaching his own. The financial intelligence unit of the Central Bank presented bank statements and financial documents to the public prosecution, added the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The Central Bank told the AP that it had no comment.
Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun meanwhile hailed Salameh’s arrest as a “historic event,” but that it “must be completed so that the Lebanese people believe that the process of combating corruption has really started in Lebanon.”“Mount Lebanon’s prosecution had issued dozens of subpoenas against Riad Salameh in the file of the $9 billion loans, but unfortunately they remained without enforcement by security agencies until this date. Hasn’t the time come to enforce them, Mr. State Prosecutor, and what prevents bringing him to Baabda for interrogation in this file, since he is in custody now?” Aoun wondered. “There is also the file of the $100 million file mentioned on Page 95 of the Alvarez (& Marsal) report … and the file of the $8 billion, which is the amount of commissions in the Optimum file,” the judge added. “If there are security reasons, I am willing to head to where he is detained now to interrogate him. I hope that there are good intentions and I hope justice will triumph,” Aoun went on to say. Salameh ended his 30-year term as Central Bank governor a year ago under a cloud, with several European countries probing allegations of financial crimes. Many in Lebanon blame him for the crippling financial crisis that has gripped the country since late 2019.
He was appointed in 1993 and initially celebrated for his role in steering Lebanon's economic recovery after a 15-year civil war, and for keeping the economy on an even keel during long spells of political gridlock and turmoil. Salameh has for years 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. The embattled Salameh is also in the midst of several other cases against him, both locally and internationally. France, Germany, and Luxembourg are also 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. Meanwhile, the U.S., the U.K, and Canada have sanctioned Salameh and his close associates, and France issued an international arrest warrant for him, though Lebanon does not hand over its own citizens for extradition. 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.

Riad Salameh Under Investigation for Alleged Embezzlement of $40 Million from Central Bank
LBCI/September 04/2024
The suspicion being pursued against former Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, centers on allegations of embezzling public funds. For this reason, the Public Prosecutor referred the case to the Financial Prosecutor, Ali Ibrahim, who indicted Salameh on this charge and sent him into custody before the First Investigative Judge in Beirut, Bilal Halawi. Halawi will begin reviewing the case on Thursday, and if completed, he may schedule an interrogation session with Salameh for Friday. If not, the session will be held at the start of next week. Judicial sources indicated that the amount suspected of being embezzled from the consultancy account through the Optimum Invest firm reaches $40 million out of a total of $110 million in this account, according to the Alvarez and Marsal report. Today, Riad Salameh faces a series of legal actions both domestically and internationally. Notably, one major case involves Optimum Invest, which led to his arrest. Another significant case is related to the Forry Associates file, which remains pending in court due to lawsuits filed by Salameh’s lawyers.

Presidential Election: French Efforts to Promote FL Acceptance of Dialogue Proposal
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Recent discussions have highlighted a renewed push by the Quintet – consisting of the United States, Saudi Arabia, France, Qatar and Egypt – to break the deadlock in the Lebanese presidential election. If confirmed, this initiative would currently be carried out on two levels: Saudi and French. Particular attention has been drawn to the meetings held by Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari, especially with Speaker Nabih Berri. Bukhari then traveled to Saudi Arabia for what was described as a family visit, and will resume his consultations upon his return to Beirut.
At the same time, France is actively trying to find a solution to the stalemate over the presidential election. This is reportedly on the agenda of a meeting between President Emmanuel Macron’s special envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and Nizar al-Alula, the advisor to the Royal Saudi Cabinet in charge of the Lebanese dossier. Le Drian, currently in Saudi Arabia in his capacity as Director of the French Development Agency in AlUla, will hold the meeting on Thursday. According to reports, France has asked Saudi Arabia to intervene, in particular with the Lebanese Forces (LF), to persuade them to accept the dialogue on the presidential election proposed by Speaker Berri. Paris believes that, for the time being, this is the only way to unblock the presidential stalemate. The French authorities view the LF as the last major group opposing Berri’s initiative, and a shift in their stance is considered vital for resolving the presidential vacancy at Baabda Palace. In response, sources from the LF stated that they have no new updates on the presidential file and have not been informed of any French attempt to pressure them. They emphasized that even if such an effort exists, it is unlikely to succeed. The LF remain steadfast, with party leader Samir Geagea repeatedly asserting that presidential elections must take place in Parliament, and that any dialogue should occur only after the ballot, and not before. In this same context, sources familiar with the Quintet Committee’s efforts indicate that it is not seeking to impose choices on the Lebanese parties regarding the presidential deadline. Rather, its goal is to expedite the election of a president without delving into the minutiae of any initiatives, consultations or dialogues. Its primary focus is ensuring that Parliament meets in open, consecutive sessions to elect a president who, in conjunction with an effective government, can resolve Lebanon’s crises, restore its stability, and maintain its international and Arab relationships. According to these sources, the election of a president has become an imperative necessity for Lebanon. Only a legitimate president can represent the country in regional negotiations and ensure that Lebanon is not involved in regional conflicts or used as a battleground for settling scores.
It is crucial that this president safeguard the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese, and avoid dragging the country into regional turbulence.

Maronite Bishops: To abide by the Constitution and hasten to elect a new President of the State, away from political debates and strange and useless efforts
NNA/Dimane/September 4, 2024
The Maronite Bishops renewed their call to the Parliament, the presidency, blocs and independents, to abide by the content of the Constitution, and hasten to elect a President of the State, away from political debates and strange and useless efforts.
The Maronite Bishops held their monthly meeting at the Patriarchal Summer Residence in Dimane, headed by Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi and with the participation of the General Presidents of the Maronite Monasteries. They discussed ecclesiastical and national affairs.
At the end of the meeting, they issued a statement, read by the Patriarchal Vicar General, Bishop Antoine Awkar, in which:
1- The Fathers renew their call to the Parliament, the presidency, blocs and independents, to abide by the content of the Lebanese Constitution regarding the presidential entitlement, and to hasten to elect a new President of the State, away from Political debates and strange efforts that are of no use except for further deterioration of the general situation amidst the absence of the required governance to manage the country.
2- The fathers express their pain and human and fraternal sympathy for what is happening to their people in large areas of the South and the Bekaa, as well as in Gaza and the West Bank, from killing and destruction of their homes and livelihoods, and they appeal to international bodies and influential countries to do what is necessary to stop this unjust war, as there is no alternative to fair dialogue to establish peace and the good of humanity in Lebanon and the region.
3- The fathers condemn the issue of raising population statistics and the green census in Lebanon with the aim of bringing about changes in the system and partnership in governance, in order to preserve Lebanon's identity as a country of consensus and coexistence and to protect the charter that was the basis of Lebanon's establishment and independence.
4 - At the beginning of the new school year, and in light of the pressing economic conditions, parents stress the need to approach the entitlement to determine school and university fees in an atmosphere of transparent and responsible dialogue between the components of the educational family, away from tense provocative speeches, in order to preserve education from disturbances and disruption.
5 - Parents listened to a presentation by the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Engineer Louis Lahoud, on the reality of agriculture in Lebanon, and on agricultural projects and marketing of agricultural, plant and animal production, and food and kitchen products in Lebanon and abroad. They stressed the importance of agriculture in achieving food security, and on cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture to keep farms in rural areas, increase investment in agricultural lands, limit their sale, and encourage their children to spread out to encourage foreign markets to consume Lebanese products, agricultural industries, and wine in local and foreign markets, as this contributes to supporting the national economy.
6 - Parents call on their sons and daughters to prepare for the celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with prayer and charity, asking God for strength to bear their crosses with faith and patience, and to grant Lebanon and the world security and peace.

Hezbollah launches largest rocket attack on Israel's North since last month
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
No injuries were reported following the barrage, in which some 60 rockets were fired, according to the reports. Hezbollah on Wednesday launched its largest attack on the North since August 25, launching around 65 rockets according to the IDF and with 48 rocket sirens going off shortly after noon. It took around 90 minutes for the IDF to clarify the number of rockets fired, but it was already clear that compared to the average of less than 20 rocket sirens per day over the last week, the Lebanese terror group had re-upped its threat level against Israel. There have also been direct hits in Kiryat Shmona, hits in other places, and fires caused by hits in fields. Some of the additional areas which were targeted included Malchia, Ramot Naftali, and Beit Hillel. The IDF said that it had shot down some of the rockets, but failed to shoot down others. The military did not explain why it missed certain rockets, though given the context, the sudden large volume after a relatively quiet period may have partially taken the air defense apparatus by surprise. Prior to August 25, Hezbollah had at times launched 100 or even 200 rockets in a day against Israel's North and frequently was launching dozens per day. On August 25, it was about to fire several hundred in one day, possibly close to around 1,000, including firing deeper into Israel's center, but the IDF launched a preemptive strike, destroying thousands of the terror group's rockets. Still, Hezbollah managed to launch between 250-350 aerial threats, its largest assault on Israel of the current war. Since then, Hezbollah aerial threats some days have been in the single digits and have rarely gotten as high as 30. In that sense, it was clear on Wednesday that Hezbollah had re-crossed a threshold of challenging Israel with more rocket attacks after a period of time in which it had seemed deterred by the August 25 IDF preemptive strike. Despite the IDF's very successful air strikes from a tactical perspective, Hezbollah is still believed to have around 140,000 of its pre-war 150,000 intact (Israel has destroyed or Hezbollah has likely fired off more than 10,000 threats at this point), meaning the vast majority of its formidable arsenal. The IDF said it was counterattacking somewhat stronger than it has in recent days, though the military has continued to hit Hezbollah throughout the period since August 25, even on days when the Lebanese terror group itself was attacking less. Further, it said its response so far was limited to southern Lebanon. The counterattack was against Kunin and Kabariha, the sources of the rocket fire, according to the IDF. Midday, the IDF added in an update that Hezbollah fired one additional rocket at Shtula in the north around 1:40 p.m. According to the IDF, the rocket landed in an open field without causing injuries.
Political debate
Within Israel, the political debate has heated up over how long the IDF can put off giving Hezbollah an ultimatum for restoring quiet and security on the border to allow Israel's 60,000 evacuated northern residents to return to their homes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wanted this question to remain open-ended even at the cost of the northern residents remaining evacuated for several more months so that he can hope to keep military power and pressure focused on Hamas in the South. Netanyahu's main opposition figure, National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, had already demanded in early June that Netanyahu give Hezbollah an ultimatum of September 1 so that northern residents' students would be able to return to their homes in time for the start of the school year. On Wednesday, he continued to criticize Netanyahu for "continued hesitations" in giving Hezbollah an ultimatum and keeping the northern residents in the line of fire.

South Lebanon: OCHA Reports 112,000 Internally Displaced
This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued its latest update on the escalation of hostilities in South Lebanon, as of August 23, 2024. The statement highlighted that tensions in southern Lebanon had reached a critical level over the three weeks prior to the report, with escalating hostilities posing severe risks to civilians. The situation along the Blue Line remains volatile, with nearly 150,000 people residing within 10 km of the border, facing daily shelling and airstrikes, the report added. To date, at least 133 civilians have been killed since hostilities escalated in October 2023.
111,940 Internally Displaced People (IDP)
The OCHA reported that displacement has increased by nearly 10% since August 8, with 111,940 people now internally displaced and seeking refuge across Lebanon, 94% of whom are from Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun and Tyre districts. According to the report, some 78% of the IDPs are living with host families, while 19% are renting houses. Another 2% have relocated to secondary residences, and around 1% are housed in 15 collective shelters. Of the 78% in host settings, 28,064 are co-living with non-internally displaced families, while 59,112 reside separately.

Two Injured in Israeli Airstrike on Khiam
This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Israeli planes bombed Aita al-Shaab on Wednesday morning and have been flying at low altitude over Lebanese airspace in the area since dawn. Overnight Tuesday, despite a cautious calm prevailing in the region, Israeli military aircraft and drones launched a series of raids on towns and villages in the border area, including Khiam, Aita al-Shaab and the region between Yater and Zebqine. Two people were wounded following the attack on the village of Khiam and were transported to Marjayoun hospital. Israel also carried out strikes against the village of Sawaneh, on the outskirts of Kfarchouba, where a fire broke out. In addition, artillery bombardment targeted the eastern area of the Shebaa region.

Southern Lebanon: One Killed and Two Injured in Qabrikha Strike
This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
After a few hours of relative calm on the southern front, an Israeli strike on a residential area in the town of Qabrikha on Wednesday evening killed a woman and injured two people, according to information from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Earlier in the day, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids targeting the outskirts of the villages of Bani Hayan, Qabrikha, Kounin, Ainata, and Hula. Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed to have targeted a gathering of soldiers at the Zar’it barracks (the headquarters of the Western Brigade’s battalion), the positions of Rweissat al-Alam and Samaqa in the Kfarchouba hills, and the Hanita position.

“Optimum Invest” Case: File Sent to Beirut’s First Investigative Judge
This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
The preliminary investigation into the “Optimum Invest” case has been concluded. The Public Prosecution at the Court of Cassation closed the file and transferred it to the Financial Prosecutor’s Office, which has initiated proceedings against the former governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, who is being held in preventive detention in connection with this case. The file was then sent to the interim first investigative judge of Beirut, Bilal Halawi. He is expected to begin questioning Salameh next week. It is worth noting that the acting Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar, decided on Tuesday to keep the former governor in custody after a three-hour hearing at the Palace of Justice. Hajjar explained that this is a “four-day preventive detention, after which Salameh will be referred to the investigative judge who will question him and take the appropriate judicial decision regarding his case.” He added that “this could include an enforceable arrest warrant.”After the hearing, the former governor was transferred by dozens of Internal Security Forces (ISF) members to the detention center located at the ISF headquarters in Achrafieh. This is the first time Salameh has appeared before the judiciary since the end of his term on July 31, 2023. The Lebanese brokerage firm, established in 2004, is suspected of overcharging Lebanese banks by borrowing funds from the Banque du Liban (BDL) to purchase Lebanese treasury bills and then buying them back at inflated prices, enabling the central bank to make profits estimated at several billion dollars.

Bank Loans Are Back…
Liliane Mokbel/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Bank loans are back, but the criteria for accessing them are stricter in terms of candidate eligibility, loan purpose, amount, and repayment period. Contrary to popular belief, these loans are not available due to fresh deposits in foreign currencies. Such deposits are tightly protected and regulated by a series of circulars issued by the Lebanese Central Bank (BDL). The funds allocated for loans are derived from the capital accumulated by several major local banks after selling their foreign assets. These funds are what remain after meeting the new liquidity ratios set by BDL.
Short-term Loans
Some financial institutions primarily offer short-term loans, mainly to businesses. These loans are specifically designed for manufacturers to purchase raw materials and for traders to import food products and vehicles. Recipients of these loans must be long-standing clients of the bank with fresh dollar accounts. As for loans to private clients, another bank source interviewed by This is Beirut specifies that they are granted for a maximum period of two years, excluding real estate loans. Only a few personal loans are approved for clients with a transparent and reliable banking history, along with car loans in fresh dollars.
Liquidity Ratios
Fresh dollar deposits from bank clients are safeguarded, as credit institutions are not allowed to use them for financing loans. Since the onset of the 2019 financial crisis, BDL has mandated, through Circular 150, that each bank must deposit the equivalent of 100% of fresh funds received after April 9, 2020, whether transferred from abroad or in cash. The funds must be deposited into a free account with the Central Bank or its correspondent bank abroad. According to this circular, fresh deposits received after this date must remain available to their holders, who can use or withdraw them partially or in full at their discretion. Another liquidity requirement that banks have had to comply with since the start of the 2019 crisis is outlined in Circular 154, dated August 27, 2020. This regulation stipulates that credit institutions must hold mandatory reserves in fresh dollars with their foreign correspondents, equivalent to at least 3% of the total value of their deposits before the implementation of this measure.

Let Hassan Nasrallah Know That The Defiant Kesrouan will remain a thorn in the side of Iran and its resistance shills.
Writer & Director, Youssef El Khoury/September 04/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134057/
Let Hassan Nasrallah and his resistance associates understand that the road to Jerusalem is in a south easterly direction, while the road to Kesrouan is to the north. Jerusalem is visibly closer for him to liberate than is the defiant Kesrouan which will remain a thorn in the side of Iran and the resistance club.
Hezbollah’s approach to governing does not accept equality in citizenship, for it organizationally adopts a pyramid at the top of which is the Moussawi Sayyids, then the Husseini Sayyids, then the Jurisprudents, followed by the common Shiite people then the remaining Muslims of this world, and we, the Christians, those tolerated “Dhimmis”, are at the very bottom. By the same token, this article makes a distinction between the various Shiites and is not addressed against the honorable Lebanese Sayyids and Jurisprudents. Neither is it against the people of the Shiite community whom I respect. Rather, it is against the Sayyids (Lords) of the resistance in the Iranian rejectionist camp and their jurisprudents followers and their mouthpieces that continue to pollute the intellectual debate in Lebanon.
They lie, they lie and then lie some more, and more dangerous than their lying is the fact that they believe their own lies and imagine that their speech is the truth. They thus fall victim to feeble idiotic principles that hold ground only in the realm of the salacious and the burlesque.
This is the case of their Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah: While Jerusalem has been Judaized, his illusory lies such as “Jerusalem is ours”, “We shall pray in Jerusalem”, and “On the road to Jerusalem”, have been utterly sterile.
This is the case of their slanderer par-excellence Mufti, Ahmad Kabalan: “The coexistence formula is finished”, “Topple the constitution and the regime”, “No voice is above that of the resistance”, “we will turn Israel 70 years back”. He imagines borders, transfers people and manufactures scarecrows, just as he is a usurper of the post he occupies, his “unofficial” appointment having not been published in the Official Gazette for the past 17 years! Still, he gets paid a salary by the same Lebanese State he wants toppled, he is corrupt while preaching virtue, and the judiciary has done nothing to indict him of high treason.
Their historians of modern contemporary history seem to selectively “know” whatever they wish to know, especially if it serves their project of “Islamizing Lebanon” and annex it to Khomeini’s realm. They, of course, ignore everything else. They constantly remind us of Tal Zaatar and make up stories about massacres that occurred there. They exaggerate what happened in Sabra -Shatila following the assassination of President Bashir Gemayel. They blame the Christians for internecine battles and assassinations before the unification of the Christian fighters in 1980, and falsely accuse them of killing or kidnapping thousands of Lebanese!!
Meanwhile, they do not mention the massacres perpetrated by the Palestinians and their leftist allies against the Christians in Damour, Shekka, Ayshieh, and Ashash, and they deliberately ignore the wars the Shiites themselves waged against the Palestinian camps, the internecine wars between the Shiite sisters Amal and Hezbollah, and the human losses they sustained as a result.
They mention the election of Bashir Gemayel under the Israeli “occupation”, but it somehow escapes them that without the Shiite then-Speaker of parliament Kamel Al-Assaad, parliament would not have assembled to elect Bashir. And without the twelve Shiite MPs, there would not have been a quorum. They portray Bashir ascending to the presidency atop an Israeli tank, but forget that the nation’s representatives abided by the constitutional deadlines and elected a President of the Republic under three foreign occupations.
As for their historians of the less than recent periods, they feel free to describe Lebanon as a Shiite country from north to south, without any sense of ridicule at the quantum of lies and distortions they proffer. They went so far as shed light on some documents and correspondences that (occasionally) referred to Lebanon as the “Land of Serhal”, or the “Sirhan District”, or to Byblos and Batroun as the “Metuali Country” or “Hamadi Country”.
Assuming there is some truth to the occasional names attributed to these regions, why raise them now at this precise moment? And what could be gained from that? Is it, again, Hassan Nasrallah’s fantasy to “recover” Muslim lands in Kesrouan and Byblos? Is he implying that, since these regions had long forgotten names other than their current ones, it is permissible for him to claim them now?
Hasn’t Hassan heard that Constantinople, for example, has become Istanbul and nothing has changed? Or that Kristiania has become Oslo, and life in Norway continues without problems? And the change of the name of the French capital from Lutèce to Paris did not prevent it from becoming the most celebrated city around the world? Just as New York was once known as New Amsterdam?
We do not know if Hassan is an ignorant or a feeble falsifier of history when he claims that “Kesrouan and Byblos are Muslim regions conquered by the Christians whom the Byzantines brought to be a thorn in the side of the Muslims”! We do not know if some Christians, and some of their spiritual and secular leaders, were simple-minded or hirelings to propagate such a lie that is very easy to disprove!
The Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman) was a Christian state that rose on the ruins of paganism in 395 AD. Its territory stretched from southwestern Europe to North Africa and well into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. This means that the Byzantine Christians lived in Kesrouan and Byblos some two hundred years before the advent of Islam. Pagan archaeological ruins that were converted to Christian sites testify to this period. For example, the monastery of Our Lady of Qib’il in Ghinyeh in Kesrouan, the church of Saint George “the Blue” in Yanouh, in Byblos District, and the shrine of Saint George “Al-Batiyeh” in Jounieh, and the archeological church in Faqra.
In the first half of the seventh century, in the aftermath of Khalid bin Walid’s victory at the battle of Yarmuk (636 AD), the Byzantines were dislodged from Roman Syria and Palestine, then from Jerusalem, to make way for the Muslim conquest. It is a known fact that the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem handed the city over after a long and arduous siege.
Therefore, Sayyid Hassan, it is the Muslims who conquered Christian lands and not the other way around, and let us put to rest this charlatanism that you use to justify your forced and fraudulent seizure of Christian possessions in Lassa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the State’s public lands in Mount Lebanon, as you lay the ground for your hypothetical Islamization of the region.
Shiite traitors and stupid Christians build upon their Sayyid’s fabrications, which can only lead to confusion and the sowing of hatred whose object is the “intellectual Shiitization” of the Christians of Lebanon, first in Kesrouan and Byblos, then across all of Lebanon.
As of late, a decrepit senile “Orientalizing” woman by the name of Bushra Khalil told us tales from fabricated history in support of Hassan Nasrallah’s lies. With her pirouetting intellect and her botoxed lips, and with her meager knowledge, she said, “All of Lebanon was Shiite”, adding that the Shiite state of Bani Ammar extended from Tripoli to Nahr El-Kalb, while the Shiite Fatimid State controlled the rest from Nahr El-Kalb to Egypt. She went on to say that after the Mamluks attacked the Shiites in Kesrouan and Byblos the Maronites exploited the opportunity to seize the territory!!!
We ask the prancing orientalist, “If indeed all of Lebanon was Shiite, which Shiites are you talking about?” The Ismailis? The Druze? The Alawites? Or the Jaafiris (twelvers) to whom you belong, you and your Sayyid Nasrallah?
If you are suggesting that you ruled Lebanon as Jaafaris, you are simply hallucinating because there is not one shred of documented evidence that Bani Ammar had converted to Jaafaris as they ruled Tripoli because they were Maghrebi Ismailis to begin with. The Fatimids too are Ismailis and not Jaafaris, which means that the Shiites of Lebanon never ruled Lebanon during that period of history. In addition, Kesrouan’s borders extended all the way to the Beirut River, and its southern district (now known as the Matn) belonged to the Druze Abillamah lords. So, you have some gall to claim the lands of Kesrouan and Byblos!!
Moreover, the three Mamluk campaigns against Kesrouan decimated the Maronites and the Shiites for reasons whose details are too many to fit here. But Patriarch Douaihi and Ibn Qalaei, and in particular the Maronite Bishop Tadros, a contemporaneous of the period, do confirm those events. Tadros says, “Not a church or fort was spared destruction, except Mar Challita Church.” He described the leaders of the rebels as belonging to the famous Abillamah Druze family. Many other historians, like Abul-Fidaa and Qalqashandi and others, do corroborate the preceding.
As for the Shiites whom you claim were the target of these campaigns, and thus suggesting they were against you, it is not known what Shiites were living in Kesrouan! Ibn Tamima, whose fatwa ordered the extermination of the Kesrouanis, directed his campaigns against those he called “the rejectionists” who in fact are the Nassiri Alawites, the Ismailis, the Qaramita, the Druze and all the esoteric cryptic sects, including the Jaafari sect.
Hence, if we cumulate all these facts, taking into account the extension of Kesrouan all the way to the Beirut River, and that the region was inhabited by more than one Shiite party, we conclude that the Jaafaris (to which Lebanon’s Shiites today belong) were numerically a very limited sect and had no roots in Kesrouan and Byblos, and the only right they have in this land is to leave it for better pastures if they do not like their Maronite neighbors.
I still have one quizzical question: How is it that, when the Maronites returned to Kesrouan after their expulsion by the Mamluks, they found the Jaafari Shiites living there in their stead, which forced them to buy their lands and their religious sites from them? One well-known example of this fact is the Lady of Louaizi Church in Hrajel.
Were the Jaafari Shiites in collusion with the Mamluks against Kesrouan?
No matter. But Hassan Nasrallah and his resistance associates should by now have learned that the road to Jerusalem goes southeast, while the road to Kesrouan goes north, and that Jerusalem and its liberation should be closer to him in distance than is the defiant Kesrouan that will remain a thorn in the side of Iran and its resistance shills.
#العاصية

“Palestine Never Existed!” Arab Warns the World about the Palestinian cause
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx5Bao4K4Zc
Courageous Lebanese filmmaker and writer Youssef El-Khoury said Lebanon destroyed for a "fake cause," because there has never been a Palestinian entity. Yishai reacts to this powerful statement by a man standing up for his people and his land - the legendary beautiful Lebanon.
Original footage from an August 8, 2024, interview with "Lebanon On" provided with permission by MEMRI: https://www.memri.org/tv/lebanese-fil...
More from MEMRI below:
https://www.memri.org

Parliamentary Committees: Operating Guidelines and Political Context
Natasha Metni Torbey/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Scheduled for October 22, the upcoming elections of parliamentary committees — typically a routine affair — will this year be a focal point of political maneuvering amid rising tensions within the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM). For the FPM, the stakes are high, as the elections will decide whether key figures — Ibrahim Kanaan (Chair of Finance and Budget Parliamentary Commission), Simon Abi Ramia (Chair of the Youth and Sports Committee), and Alain Aoun (Secretary-General of the Parliament Cabinet) — will remain in their positions. This outcome will crucially affect the party’s ability to influence legislative decisions, particularly those related to economic reforms and governance. Will Bassil succeed in replacing his critics, or will they secure support from other parliamentary blocs?
It is crucial to note that Kanaan, Abi Ramia, and Aoun are among a long list of former members (often pillars) of the FPM who have distanced themselves from the party due to exacerbating internal divisions since 2015. This year, Bassil, son-in-law of party founder, former President Michel Aoun, has taken over as leader. Since then, the FPM has faced continuous internal strife, resulting in numerous resignations and expulsions. These include Ziad Abs, Naim Aoun, Antoine Nasrallah, and Paul Abi Haidar (all expelled in 2016), Chamel Roukoz (who left in 2019), Michel de Chadarévian (who resigned in 2020), Ziad Assouad and Mario Aoun (excluded in 2022), Hikmat Dib (who resigned in 2022), Elias Bou Saab and Alain Aoun (expelled in 2024), and Simon Abi Ramia (who left in 2024). Ibrahim Kanaan was the last to withdraw on August 28.
Reflecting the political alliances within Parliament, the composition of parliamentary committees is expected to be shaped by “pre-arranged agreements.” But what impact will this have on the electoral process?
Elections of Parliamentary Committees
Each October, MPs gather at Place de l’Étoile to open the ordinary parliamentary session. According to Article 19 of the internal regulations (IR) of the House, this session begins on the first Tuesday after October 15. This year, the election of parliamentary committee members will take place on October 22, conducted by secret ballot and requiring an absolute majority of the votes cast. In the case of a tie, the oldest candidate will be awarded the seat.
The committees are required to convene within three days of their election, at the latest, upon the summons of the House Speaker and under his chairmanship. During this meeting, each committee elects a chair and a rapporteur by secret ballot. The election of the chair requires the committee to be assembled with an absolute majority of its members.
The Speaker of the House appoints a secretary from the parliamentary staff to take the minutes of the meetings.
Each standing committee may elect a subcommittee from its members to address specific dossiers. The subcommittee is then required to submit a report on its findings to the standing committee.
There are 16 standing committees, with each one comprising either 9, 12, or 17 members, based on its significance. The parliamentary committees are as follows:
Finance and Budget Committee: 17 members
Administration and Justice Committee: 17 members
Foreign Affairs Committee: 17 members
Public Works, Transport, Energy, and Water Committee: 17 members
Education Committee: 12 members
Health, Labor, and Social Affairs Committee: 12 members
National Defense, Interior, and Municipalities Committee: 17 members
Displaced Persons Committee: 12 members
Agriculture and Tourism Committee: 12 members
Environment Committee: 12 members
National Economy, Commerce, Industry, and Planning Committee: 12 members
Media and Telecommunications Committee: 12 members
Youth and Sports Committee: 12 members
Human Rights Committee: 12 members
Women and Children Committee: 12 members
Information Technology Committee: 9 members
Committees’ Activities
Each committee meets at the call of its chair. If the latter is unavailable, the rapporteur will convene the meeting at the request of the chair or the House Speaker. The committee’s secretary then informs members of the meeting date, established in advance by the chair, and the session agenda. Attendance at committee meetings is mandatory. A member who misses three consecutive meetings without a legitimate excuse, as specified in Article 61 of the Parliament’s internal regulations, is considered to have resigned.
Parliamentary committees are integral to the legislative process. Before a bill is brought to the plenary session, it is typically reviewed by the relevant committee. Committee members analyze the bill submitted by the government, propose amendments, and provide recommendations. This review must be completed and reports submitted within a maximum of one month from the date of receipt of the bills. For urgent bills, the deadline is two weeks. Committees are also responsible for overseeing government actions, a vital function for ensuring transparency and accountability in public authorities.
This role is far from merely technical; it enables various parliamentary blocs to influence decisions on the country’s governance. While the allocation of committee positions is expected to be fiercely contested in October, the FPM might, according to some sources, seek to block the committee elections if it fails to remove its critics. If the quorum is not reached, the terms of the current members and chairs will be extended for another year. Will the committee elections fall into gridlock?

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2024
Four killed, nine injured in shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
A shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia left four dead and nine injured. The area was secured after an hour. Four people were killed and an additional nine were injured in a shooting on Wednesday at a high school in Georgia, in an area outside Atlanta, the New York Post reported. At around 17:30 IDT, multiple law enforcement agencies were sent to the Apalachee High School in Winder following reports of an active shooting incident. After approximately an hour, law enforcement was able to fully secure the area and allow students to leave the school. Before the security forces were able to arrest the suspect, two people were killed, and four were injured, with at least two seen taken by helicopter for further treatment, the New York Post noted, citing FOX5. Safety measures following the shooting. “I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said. “We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation," Kemp added. “The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office says this is for the safety of everyone right now. Please do not visit your child’s school at this time. We cannot release students during a lockdown,” the school district said in a statement. “We will let you know as soon as BCSO says it is all clear for dismissal.”

2 students, 2 teachers killed in shooting at Georgia high school, 14-year-old suspect in custody: Officials
EMILY SHAPIRO/ABC News/September 4, 2024
Georgia officials name suspect in Apalachee school shootingScroll back up to restore default view. Two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Another nine victims were taken to hospitals with injuries, the GBI said. The suspect -- 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student at Apalachee High School -- was encountered by officers within minutes, and he immediately surrendered and was taken into custody, the GBI said. He will be charged with murder and he will be tried as an adult, the GBI said. It's not clear if any of the victims were targeted, authorities said.
Students and parents speak out
Senior Sergio Caldera, 17, said he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots. "My teacher goes and opens the door to see what's going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there's an active shooter," Caldera told ABC News.He said his teacher locked the door and the students ran to the back of the room. Caldera said they heard screams from outside as they "huddled up." At some point, Caldera said someone pounded on his classroom door and shouted "open up!" multiple times. When the knocking stopped, Caldera said he heard more gunshots and screams. He said his class later evacuated to the football field. Kyson Stancion said he was in class when he heard gunshots and "heard police scream, telling somebody, 'There's a shooting going on, get down, get back in the classroom.'"
"I was scared because I've never been in a school shooting," he told ABC News. "Everybody was crying. My teacher tried to keep everybody safe," he added. Dad Jonathan Mills said he experienced an "emotional roller coaster" as he and his wife rushed to the school and waited to get ahold of their son, Jayden.It was "exhilarating" and "overwhelming" to reach Jayden, a junior, and learn he was OK, Mills told ABC News. Mills, a police officer, said, "Growing up in this area, you don’t expect things like that to happen." "I have three children. All three of them go to this cluster of schools, and you never think about that," he said. Winder is about 45 miles outside of Atlanta. Barrow County Schools will be closed through the end of the week, the superintendent said. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the shooting "pure evil."
Leaders react
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the shooting, according to the White House. "Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed," Biden said in a statement. "Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal." The president highlighted his work to combat gun violence, including signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law and launching the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. But he stressed that more must be done. "After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say 'enough is enough' and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation," Biden said. "We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers. These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart."Harris said at a campaign event in New Hampshire, "Our hearts are with all the students, the teachers and their families." "This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies," she said. "We have to end this epidemic of gun violence.""This is one of the many issues that's at stake in this election," Harris said. "Let us finally pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks and red flag laws," she said. "It is a false choice to say you are either in favor of the Second Amendment, or you want to take everyone's guns away. I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country." Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he is "heartbroken." "This is a day every parent dreads, and Georgians everywhere will hug their children tighter this evening because of this painful event," he said in a statement. "We continue to work closely with local, state, and federal partners to make any and all resources available to help this community on this incredibly difficult day and in the days to come." In Atlanta, authorities will "bolster patrols" around schools on Wednesday "out of an abundance of caution," Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement. "My prayers are with the high school students, staff and families affected by the senseless act of violence," Dickens said.

Israel's Netanyahu demands open-ended control of Gaza's border with Egypt
Josef Federman/JERUSALEM (AP)/September 4, 2024
The Associated Press
— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel must keep open-ended control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, digging in on his stance on an issue that has threatened to derail cease-fire efforts. Netanyahu’s comments came as the United States is developing a new proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release, hoping to break a long deadlock and bring an end to the nearly 11-month-old war. The question of Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor –- a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt, seized by troops in May –- has become a central obstacle in the talks. Hamas has demanded an eventual full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the multi-phase truce deal. Egypt, a mediator in the talks along with the U.S. and Qatar, has also demanded a concrete timeline for Israeli troops to leave the Philadelphi corridor. And on Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates, which established formal ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords, also criticized the Israeli stance. Speaking to foreign journalists, Netanyahu repeated his stance that Israel must maintain its hold on the border to prevent Hamas from rearming by smuggling weapons into Gaza. He said it was a vital part of the war goal of ensuring Hamas cannot repeat its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “Gaza must be demilitarized, and this can only happen if the Philadelphi corridor remains under firm control,” he said, claiming Israeli troops had discovered dozens of tunnels under the border. He said Israel would only consider withdrawing from the corridor when presented with an alternative force to police it. “Bring me anyone who will actually show us … that they can actually prevent the recurrence” of smuggling, he said. “I don’t see that happening right now. And until that happens, we’re there.” Families of remaining hostages have stepped up their demands that he agree to a deal after Hamas killed six hostages last week as Israeli troops appeared to be moving to rescue them. In angry public statements, hostage families have accused Netanyahu of blocking a deal and potentially sacrificing their loved ones’ lives for the sake of holding the border strip. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days, calling for a deal and saying time is running out to bring home the hostages alive.Netanyahu pushed back against the pressure, saying his stance was necessary to “ensure Hamas doesn’t pose a threat to Israel.”“I can understand the torment of families,” he said. “But the responsibility of leaders is not merely to share the sentiment, the emotion, but also to exercise judgment.” Asked by journalists for a timeline on ending the war, he refused to give one. “How long can we do this? As long as it takes to achieve this victory. And I think we’re getting a lot closer,” he said. Netanyahu repeatedly insisted holding the border would also pressure Hamas to release hostages. At one point, he erroneously claimed the invasion of Rafah in May forced Hamas’ first release of hostages – which took place months earlier in November under a weeklong ceasefire deal. He then said the deal was “the result of our invasion, the military pressure we put on them.”

Israel’s Netanyahu Says Will Not Leave Gaza Border Corridor until It Is Secure
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Israel will not withdraw its troops from the border area between southern Gaza and Egypt until there is a guarantee that it can never be used as a lifeline for the Hamas movement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "Until that happens, we're there," he told a news conference in Jerusalem. The issue of the Philadelphi corridor has been a major sticking point in efforts to secure a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Some 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza. Netanyahu's stance on the negotiations, which have been continuing for weeks while showing little sign of a breakthrough, has frustrated allies, including the United States, and widened a rift with his own defense minister, Yoav Gallant. Benny Gantz, a former general and chief of staff who had been part of Netanyahu's war cabinet until he quit in June, said Iran, not the so-called Philadelphi corridor, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, was Israel's main existential threat. Israel does not need to keep troops in the southern Gazan border area for security reasons and should not be used as a reason to prevent a deal to bring back remaining hostages from the Gaza Strip, he said on Tuesday. In a news conference in response to comments on Monday by Netanyahu, who held firm in his belief that Israel needed troops in Philadelphi, Gantz said that while the corridor was important to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian militants from smuggling weapons into Gaza, soldiers would be "sitting ducks" and won't stop tunnels. Responding to Gantz, Netanyahu said in a statement that since Gantz and his party left the government, Israel has eliminated key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and seized the Philadelphi corridor, "the lifeline by which Hamas arms itself". "Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of the hostages would do well not to interfere," he said.

Netanyahu Rival Gantz Criticizes Stance on Philadelphi, Urges Hostage Deal
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Israel does not need to keep troops in the southern Gazan border area for security reasons and should not be used as a reason to prevent a deal to bring back remaining hostages from the Gaza Strip, a longtime military veteran said on Tuesday. Benny Gantz, a former general and chief of staff who had been part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet until he quit in June, said Iran, not the so-called Philadelphi corridor, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, was Israel's main existential threat. In a news conference in response to comments on Monday by Netanyahu, who held firm in his belief that Israel needed troops in Philadelphi, Gantz said that while the corridor was important to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian militants from smuggling weapons into Gaza, soldiers would be "sitting ducks" and won't stop tunnels. He also rebutted Netanyahu's assertion that if Israel were to pull out from Philadelphi, international pressure would make it difficult to return. "We will be able to return to Philadelphi if and when we are required," Gantz said, also calling for new elections. "If Netanyahu does not understand that after October 7 everything has changed ... and if he is not strong enough to withstand the international pressure to return to Philadelphi, let him put down the keys and go home."The issue of the Philadelphi corridor has been a major sticking point in efforts to secure a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Some 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Netanyahu's stance on the negotiations, which have been continuing for weeks while showing little sign of a breakthrough, has frustrated allies, including the United States, and widened a rift with his own defense minister, Yoav Gallant. "The story is not Philadelphi but the lack of making truly strategic decisions," said Gantz. He added there was a plan in place to block underground Hamas tunnels with a barrier but that Netanyahu has not promoted this politically. While Gantz, head of a centrist party that is seen as the largest threat to head a new government, was speaking as thousands of Israelis protested for a third straight day in Tel Aviv in support of a deal to bring back the hostages. "We need to bring about a deal - either in stages or in one stage," said Gantz, a former defense minister, who also said Israel needed to mount an attack on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to stop daily rocket fire and allow displaced citizens of the north to return home. Responding to Gantz, Netanyahu said in a statement that since Gantz and his party left the government, Israel has eliminated key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and seized the Philadelphi corridor, "the lifeline by which Hamas arms itself". "Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of the hostages would do well not to interfere," he said.

German foreign minister heads to Middle East in Gaza truce push
Agence France Presse/September 04/2024
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday set off for a diplomatic tour of the Middle East as efforts continue towards a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war.Pressure has mounted on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal to end the fighting, days after Israel's military recovered six killed hostages from a Gaza tunnel.Baerbock said the "nightmare" of the conflict must end and called for all efforts needed "towards a humanitarian ceasefire that will lead to the release of the hostages and put an end to the deaths".A ceasefire plan proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May "must now finally be adopted", Baerbock said. The trip will be Baerbock's ninth to Israel and her 11th to the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war. Baerbock set off first for Saudi Arabia, where she was due to meet Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said. The ministers will discuss "the dramatic situation in the region" and "the ongoing attacks by the radical Islamist Houthi militia from Yemen on international shipping", Deschauer said. Baerbock will then head to Jordan and meet her counterpart Ayman Safadi to discuss "in particular the issue of coordinating humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza". She will then travel to Israel and meet Foreign Minister Israel Katz before heading to the occupied West Bank, the site of recent heavy clashes. There she will meet Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammed Mustafa to discuss "how an imminent escalation of violence in the West Bank can be prevented". "Nothing will be gained if a new, young generation becomes radicalized because they have to watch the destruction on their doorstep," Baerbock said. "The Palestinians have a right to live in security and dignity."

US and Israel hold 'secret meeting' to discuss preventing war with Hezbollah: Axios
LBCI/September 04/2024
Axios cited on Wednesday four officials who affirmed that senior officials from the US and Israel "held a low-profile virtual meeting on Tuesday to discuss how to ease tensions with Lebanon and prevent an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah." The meeting, which was not announced by the White House or the Israeli government, "was initiated by the Biden administration to take the pulse on the Israeli side and coordinate their policies about the situation in Lebanon," reported the American news website, based on what the officials said.

Polio Vaccines Give Gaza Families All Too Brief Respite from War
Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Anxious parents lining up with their children for a polio vaccine in central Gaza were counting down the hours until a pause in fighting ends in the area on Wednesday, threatening more death and destruction in the 11-month-old war.
As health officials administered the doses, Gazan mother Huda Sheikh Ali wondered what good the polio vaccination campaign could do when her children would soon face more Israeli air strikes and shelling. "There is no protection for them, in just a short few hours the ceasefire will end and we will return to seeing children bombed and killed. There is no protection from these things," she said. "We managed to take a breather for a few hours, for our child ... imagine what it would be like with a permanent ceasefire. The children are dying every single day and they are giving us some vaccines for polio?" The campaign was prompted by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in the Gaza Strip for 25 years. Israel and Hamas agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination program. No violations have been reported. But a permanent end to the war is not in sight. Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel have faltered. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed more than 40,861 Palestinians and injured 94,398, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry reported at the end of July that 10,627 children had been killed. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes and many families have moved repeatedly up and down the Gaza Strip in search of safe shelter. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday it was making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine, but called for a permanent ceasefire to ease humanitarian suffering.UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza, around 187,000 children had received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the territory in the second stage. Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of Gaza's health system and the destruction of most of its hospitals during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, something the group denies. Hadeel Darbiyeh, who brought her infant daughter for the polio vaccination, said she shared the pessimism of other parents in Gaza. "Instead of bringing the vaccines, bring us a solution to stop the war," she said. "Bring us a solution for the oppressed people who have all been forced to flee their homes and into tents."

US files criminal charges against Hamas leadership, including Sinwar
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
The US has charged several Hamas leaders for the October 7 attacks, with the DOJ accusing top officials of terrorism, and marking America's first criminal step in holding Hamas accountable. The United States announced criminal charges on Tuesday against Hamas' top leadership, including the terror group's chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel. "As outlined in our complaint, those defendants -- armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah -- have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, Reuters reported. The statement was posted on the Department of Justice's X/Twitter account. "During the attack, Hamas terrorists murdered civilians who tried to flee and those who sought refuge in bomb shelters," Garland said. "They weaponized sexual violence against women."In his statement, Garland confirmed that the murder of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with every other American Hamas has killed since October 7, is being investigated as acts of terrorism. Three of those being charged have already been eliminated by Israel (Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, and Ismail Haniyeh); Baraka is based in Beirut, and Mashaal is in Doha/Ankara. The indictment filed against Hamas leaders is 38 pages long and includes seven charges in total. The indictment described, among other things, that "at least 43 American citizens were among those murdered - and at least 10 Americans are missing, or kidnapped." It also details the events of the October 7 massacre, as well as the Nova part massacre, and the terrorists' invasion of Be’eri, Nir Oz, and other communities along the Gaza envelope. In a report by CNN, this indictment has been deemed the first criminal step by the Justice Department to hold people accountable for the attack in Israel.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin
The announcement comes just days after the murder of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza, which led President Joe Biden and other top US officials to hold Hamas leaders accountable. “We’ll weigh other actions as appropriate,” CNN wrote, citing a senior administration official who declined to elaborate further. Biden said over the weekend that Goldberg-Polin’s death was “as tragic as it is reprehensible.” “Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” Biden said.

Israel could leave Philadelphi Corridor as part of permanent ceasefire - Netanyahu
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
Netanyahu told the foreign media that if Israel were to leave before the start of Phase One, international pressure would prevent it from returning. Israel could agree to leave the Philadelphi Corridor within the parameters of a permanent ceasefire such as would be discussed in Phase Two of the hostage deal, but not in Phase One, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the foreign media in a special press briefing in Jerusalem Wednesday night. “We also agreed to begin discussions about a permanent ceasefire,” he said as he referenced a conversation that would take place during Phase One of the three-phase deal US President Joe Biden unrivaled on May 31. “The conditions that we shall have for a permanent ceasefire must include a situation where the Philadelphi corridor cannot be perforated,” Netanyahu stated. It’s unlikely, he said, that a realistic security plan exists that would prevent the smuggling of weapons under that critical buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza. “Bring me, anyone who will actually show us, not on paper, not in words, not in a slide, but on the ground, day after day after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent the recurrence of” weapons smuggling, he stated.If such a plan exists, he said, “We're open to considering it. But I don't see that happening... and until that happens, we're there,” with the IDF protecting the Philadelphi Corridor. Certainly, he noted, Israel has no intention of leaving the Philadelphi Corridor during Phase One of the deal which would last for six weeks. He made his case to the foreign media repeating many arguments he had presented on Tuesday when he gave a briefing to the Israeli media in Hebrew.
Netanyahu defends holding Philadelphi Corridor
Netanyahu relied on maps of the region and of Gaza, as well as photographs of the tunnels Hamas had built under the Philadelphi Corridor by which to smuggle arms from Egypt to Gaza. He also put a copy on the screen of a page of Hamas instructions in Arabic on how to carry out a propaganda campaign against Israel, including blaming Netanyahu for the absence of a deal. He noted that the discussion going on now, referred to Phase One of the three-part deal. Hamas has insisted that Israel must withdraw from that corridor prior to the start of Phase One. The May 31 framework agreement that both Israeli and Hamas backed, did not mention the Philadelphi, but it did require the IDF to leave populated areas of Gaza in Phase One. It’s a step that Israel has agreed to. The Philadelphi Corridor is not considered a populated area, but it does intersect with some populated areas. The issue of the Philadelphi, which the IDF seized only in May, came up in the negotiations around the details of how to implement the deal, which would see some 18-32 hostages retired in Phase One and the remainder of the live hostages brought back in Phase Two. Netanyahu told the foreign media that if Israel were to leave prior to the start of Phase One, international pressure would prevent it from returning. “When we want to come back [to Philadelphi] we’ll pay an exorbitant price in many fields,” including the loss of soldiers' lives in retaking the Corridor, Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem, speaking to them in English. “We're in now, we leave we won't [be able to] come back. You know it. Everybody here knows it. Everybody in here knows what pressure will be bought on us so that we don't come back, what price we'll have to pay if we do want to come back, it's just not going to happen,” Netanyahu stated. He rejected accusations that he has stood firm on Philadelphi for political reasons, fearing a deal would cause him to lose coalition partners and force his government to collapse. Netanyahu stressed that he long believed the Philadelphi Corridor was a significant strategic asset and had opposed the IDF pullout from that buffer zone during the 2005 Disengagement.
Vows to prevent future attacks
He spoke with reporters in the aftermath of the Hamas execution last weekend of six of the hostages, four of whom had likely been slated for release in Phase One of the deal. CNN said it had spoken to released hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith is still held in Gaza. “She told me that she believes that you are sentencing her husband Keith to die by prioritizing the Philadelphia Corridor over. She has this question for you, is Keith going to come home alive or dead?”Netanyahu, who apologized at the press conference as well as in his Hebrew briefing on Tuesday for failing to return the six captives, said, “I'll do everything to make sure that Keith and all the other hostages come back.” He stressed, however, that “if we relieve the pressure [on Hamas], if we get out of the Philadelphi Corridor, we're not going to get the hostages back,” he said. It set in motion the worst-case scenario in which the hostages would not return and Hamas could rearm and execute another October 7-style attack, Netanyahu said. It was his responsibility, Netanyahu said, to ensure that this would not happen. “I can understand the torment of family... They’re undergoing an agony that it's hard to fathom, and I understand that. But the responsibility of leaders is not merely to share the sentiment, the emotion, but also to exercise judgment, the correct judgment, to make sure that these horrors do not happen again. I believe that our strategy is the best way to achieve both goals, both freeing the hostages and ensuring that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again,” he said. The pressure to make the deal, he said, should be directed at Hamas, not at Israel.

What Is the Philadelphi Corridor, and Why Does It Matter?
Matthew Mpoke Bigg/The New York Times Company/September 4, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed to maintain an Israeli military presence in a narrow strip of the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt, one of the main sticking points in the talks over a cease-fire deal in the war. Netanyahu has called the area, known in Israel as the Philadelphi Corridor, a “lifeline” for Hamas’ smuggling operations. Control of the corridor has emerged as a primary bone of contention in the cease-fire talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Hamas has said it will not accept any deal that does not require a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Here’s a look at the importance of the border area:
What is the corridor?
It is land about 100 yards wide that runs roughly 8 miles from Israel’s border to the Mediterranean. The new border, which divided the city of Rafah, was set up under the Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979. To the northeast is Gaza, while Egypt lies to the southwest. Egyptian border guards have been policing the land under an agreement with Israel made in 2005 when Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza. The Israelis used the code name Philadelphi for the area, while Egyptian officials call it Salah Al Din. Why does the corridor matter to Israel? Senior Israeli officials had set control of the strip as a military objective during the war in Gaza that began in October 2023. Hamas had dug tunnels beneath the strip — some wide enough for trucks, according to military experts — and used them to smuggle weapons and personnel into Gaza territory from Egypt. Israel invaded southern Gaza in May and soon afterward said its troops were positioned along the entirety of the corridor. “This is the way they can get in and out without asking the Israelis,” said Ahron Bregman, a political scientist and expert in Middle East security issues at King’s College in London, and a former Israeli military officer. If the tunnels remain open, he said in an interview this spring, it will be easier for Hamas to rebuild its military capacity after the war.
What does Egypt say about the corridor?
Egypt’s position on the corridor has been clear: It has consistently said that the long-standing “security agreements and protocols” it and Israel have signed to govern the area commit Israel to keeping troops away from it. For decades before the war, Egypt stationed guards along its side of the Gaza border. It reinforced those forces after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault on Israel that set off the current fighting in Gaza. Egypt has warned Israel to avoid doing anything that might force Palestinians across the border or threaten a landmark peace agreement signed by the two countries in 1979. While Egypt has opened its borders to refugees in other regional conflicts, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi fears that if Palestinian civilians crossed the border to escape the war they could destabilize the country and become a drag on its economy. The government also sees Hamas as an adversary and does not want to give it a foothold in Egypt. Hamas began as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that was closely linked to the government that el-Sissi overthrew in 2013. His government has suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood since taking power.
Why does the corridor matter to Palestinians?
Egypt is the only country other than Israel that borders Gaza, so Israel’s control of the corridor is likely to be viewed by Palestinians as a sign of increasing isolation. The cross-border tunnels used by Hamas have also been a conduit for Egyptian and Palestinian merchants to bring food and other goods into Gaza. Israeli control of the strip will likely halt that underground trade. Hamas has said it opposes any Israeli presence in the border strip and instead wants a complete Israeli withdrawal from the whole of Gaza.
How is the corridor affecting Israel-Hamas peace talks?
Netanyahu in public has adopted an uncompromising stance on the corridor, insisting Israeli forces will stay there to prevent Hamas smuggling weapons and personnel. In a news conference Monday, he said, “Being present in the Philadelphi corridor” is a strategic, diplomatic issue, and added: “We need to reinforce the fact that we’re there.” That appears to be a change from an earlier cease-fire proposal that Israel had supported in May, which suggested that the military would pull out of the border zone. In late July, according to New York Times reporting, Israel provided new information to mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States that Israel only intended to reduce its forces in the area. On Monday, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the corridor was the primary obstacle in the talks. “Without withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor, there will be no agreement,” Hayya, Hamas’ lead negotiator, told pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in August that the United States would “not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel,” an apparent reference to an Israeli withdrawal that would include from the border strip.

Palestinians in Gaza Grapple With Prospect of Israeli Presence Postwar
Bilal Shbair/DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip/The New York Times/September 4, 2024
Cease-fire talks in the Gaza Strip have stalled again, in part over Israel’s demand to retain a military presence in the territory, which Hamas and Egypt oppose. But the view among some Palestinians in Gaza on that point is less clear-cut. Their lives have been devastated after almost a year of war and they say they find the idea of Israeli soldiers staying on — and of the checkpoints becoming permanent — disturbing. But if that helps bring an end to the war, it is a price they are willing to pay. Other Gaza residents expressed serious misgivings about allowing an Israeli military presence in Gaza, and some opposed it outright.
“Of course I do not accept the presence of checkpoints on our return to the north,” said Mohammad Qadoura, 40, who was displaced from his home in Gaza City. “But if this would lead to the end of the war, I would reluctantly agree.”Abdul Aziz Said, 33, a social worker from central Gaza, said that if an Israeli presence in the territory was “what it takes to end this war, I would totally agree.” He added, “I want this war to come to an end now and at any cost.” Israel has said that the presence of its soldiers in Gaza after a permanent cease-fire is necessary to prevent Hamas from regrouping and weapons from being smuggled across the territory. In particular, Israel wants some Israeli troops to patrol part of the Egypt-Gaza border because it believes Egypt has not done enough to prevent Hamas from smuggling arms. And Israel believes that having Israeli troops within Gaza would aim to prevent Hamas fighters from going back en masse to regroup in the northern part of the enclave. The latest high-level effort to reach a cease-fire agreement in Gaza ended on Aug. 25, with Israel and Hamas, the group that governs the enclave, remaining far apart on several critical issues. One of those, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, is whether Israeli forces will remain on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, and if so, how many. This has emerged as a crucial issue. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel considers an Israeli military presence in the area, which Israel calls the Philadelphi Corridor and Egypt calls Salah Al Din, vital to preventing Hamas from rearming after the war or rebuilding tunnels to Egypt. Hamas rejects a continued Israeli presence in the area and is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Egypt says that keeping Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor would raise national security concerns and be unacceptable to the Egyptian public.
Additionally, Israeli forces have built a security road, which they call the Netzarim corridor, that cuts across Gaza from east to west. Israeli officials have said they want troops to keep patrolling that road, through which Palestinians must travel between the north and south of Gaza. While the negotiators haggle over the terms of a cease-fire, nine Palestinians in Gaza said in interviews with The New York Times in recent days that they were mainly concerned about getting home safely after multiple displacements and months of relentless bombardment. Israel operates a number of checkpoints across Gaza that are often mobile and temporary. Many Palestinians say they fear that the checkpoints will become permanent or expand if a cease-fire deal is reached that includes the Israeli demands. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes after repeated Israeli evacuation orders and moved from the north to the south since the war began. For many, returning home could mean confronting Israeli troops and passing through the Netzarim corridor, where they could be subjected to searches, interrogations and arrest. Even though growing numbers of Palestinians appear to fault Hamas for its role in starting the war and helping to bring death and destruction upon them, they blame Israel first and foremost. Mohamed al-Sek, 44, a teacher and father of four from Gaza City who was displaced to central Gaza, said he was not concerned about passing through Israeli checkpoints or being searched. He said that only those affiliated with Hamas should be worried. “My priority is to return to my home in Gaza City and restore my old life,” al-Sek said. But Salah Gharbia, 57, who crossed a checkpoint across the Netzarim corridor while evacuating to central Gaza from Gaza City with his seven daughters without too much trouble a few months ago, said he was worried that other families with young sons could have a more difficult time at checkpoints “even if they are not Hamas.”
The continued presence of Israeli checkpoints in Gaza would just create “more obstacles and suffocating procedures for Palestinians,” he said. But not all Palestinians were able to stomach the idea of Israel’s presence after the war ends. “Arrests and oppression will continue,” Faten Alyan, 40, a housewife from northern Gaza, said of having Israeli troops and checkpoints in Gaza after the war. “The brutality of the occupation will confront us in a humiliating way.”Nedaa Adel, 27, a therapist from Gaza City who was displaced to central Gaza, said she worried that Israeli troops could arrest her husband at checkpoints because she said he worked for the Hamas government but was not a militant.“I want this war to end now, but not with this condition,” Adel said. Najlaa al-Ghalayiny, 44, a social activist from Gaza City who now lives in a tent in an area Israel has designated a humanitarian zone after multiple displacements, said it would be difficult for Palestinians to accept the regular sight of Israeli soldiers near their homes. A prolonged Israeli presence in Gaza “might be the first step of reoccupying” it, she added, referring to the years before Israel withdrew its decades-long military presence on the ground from Gaza in 2005. Fadel al-Tatar, 47, said he believed that Israel wanted to “place its authority on Gaza,” in a similar way to what it had done in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli checkpoints and settlements are widespread. “I am afraid of having more checkpoints in the future that will divide the Gaza Strip into pieces,” he said.
Still, al-Tatar said that if a cease-fire deal was reached, he would go back to his home in the north “without caring about the procedures the army can place.”
He said that many others would also do the same, “leaving behind their makeshift tents and painful memories.”

Palestinian girl killed in West Bank was looking out the window, her father says
Ali Sawafta/JENIN, West Bank (Reuters)/September 4, 2024
A 16-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin this week was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as she looked out of the window of her home, her father said on Wednesday. The Israeli military has said it is looking into reports of the death of Lujain Osama Musleh on Tuesday, during a major operation in different areas of the West Bank involving hundreds of soldiers and armoured vehicles. Osama Musleh said troops had surrounded the house next door to his when his daughter was shot through the forehead after opening the curtain to look outside.
"She didn't go to the roof, she didn't hurl a stone, and she wasn't carrying a weapon," he said. "She is 16 years old. The only thing she did is look from the window and the soldier saw her and shot her. One bullet that targeted her forehead." More than 30 Palestinians have been killed and dozens of arrests have been made during the operation, which began a week ago in different areas of the West Bank. Most have been claimed as members of armed Palestinian groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad or Fatah but some, like Lujain, have been uninvolved civilians. The Israeli military said it launched the operation, its biggest in the West Bank for months, to thwart Iranian-backed militant groups preparing attacks on Israeli civilians. Over the past week, troops have fought gunbattles with Palestinian fighters, damaging houses and other buildings and tearing up large stretches of roadway in what it says is a hunt for improvised explosive devices.
SHORTAGES OF FOOD, WATER
Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, said Israeli troops had made 12 major incursions into Jenin since the start of the Gaza war almost a year ago. "This is the most severe, the most painful and oppressive," he told Reuters. He said the operation, now in its eighth day, was causing major hardship to people in the city and the adjacent refugee camp, a densely populated area housing thousands of people whose families left their homes or were driven out during the 1948 Middle East war. Privately organised aid trucks from other areas of the West Bank had helped alleviate some shortages of food and water and products such as baby formula but "arbitrary" controls were impeding deliveries in many areas. "The situation of people in the besieged areas in particular is very difficult," he said. About 4,000-5,000 people had been ordered from their homes in the refugee area and the eastern part of Jenin city and were being put up in temporary accommodation arranged by the Palestinian Authority, he said. In Tulkarm, another flashpoint city in the West Bank, the military said soldiers killed two armed fighters during an exchange of fire, finding an M-16 automatic rifle beside the men. In addition, soldiers located an explosive device in a baby stroller as well as an explosives laboratory. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in raids and more than 680 - fighters and civilians - have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the war in Gaza began nearly 11 months ago, according to Palestinian health ministry figures. At the same time, dozens of Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.

What to know about Israel’s major weeklong raid in the West Bank city of Jenin
Jack Jeffery And Julia Frankel/The Associated Press/September 4, 2024
For more than a week, hundreds of Israeli forces have carried out the deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began. Their focus has been the Jenin refugee camp — a bastion of Palestinian militancy that has grown more fervent since the Hamas attack on Israel that launched the war. The fighting in Jenin accounts for 18 of the 33 Palestinians health officials say have been killed, most of whom the military says have been militants. Israel says its soldiers are dug in for battle with Hamas and other groups, meaning the death toll is likely to rise. Israeli military officials say the operation targeting militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp is necessary to curb recent attacks against Israeli civilians they say have become more sophisticated and deadly. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the operation. The Jenin raid has been devastating for Palestinian civilians, too. Water and electric service have been cut, families have been confined to their homes and ambulances evacuating the wounded have been slowed on their way to nearby hospitals, as Israeli soldiers search for militants.
Here’s what we know about the raid on Jenin:
A troubled city in the West Bank
Jenin has long been a flashpoint in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was originally established to house Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. But over time the refugee camp morphed into a crowded, urban neighborhood that — like the rest of the West Bank — has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. In 2002, during the height of the second intifada, or uprising, Israeli forces flattened large sections of the impoverished city. The gunfighting that ensued killed 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers, according to the United Nations. In recent years, the Palestinian Authority, which administers urban pockets of the West Bank, has had a diminishing influence in Jenin. It is seen by many Jenin residents as a subcontractor of the occupation because it coordinates with Israel on security matters. On occasion, the authority's forces have clashed and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants. The militant groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas operate freely across Jenin, and fight together in Gaza, too. Jenin's streets are regularly lined with posters depicting slain fighters as martyrs to the Palestinian struggle, while young men carrying walkie-talkies patrol the alleys. Since war broke out on Oct. 7, Israeli forces have stepped up their raids on Jenin, often launching drone strikes on targets there. But until the most recent raid, most had only lasted several hours, or at most a few days. Also since Oct. 7, there has been a surge of violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, and an increase in the construction of settlements in the occupied territory. More than 680 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October, most by Israeli troops and some by settlers, according to local health officials. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a query seeking the number of Israelis killed in the West Bank over the same period.
A longer Israeli raid, not a new strategy
In Jenin, armored vehicles have blocked entrances and exits, and bulldozers have plowed roads. Soldiers set up positions inside abandoned buildings, searched homes and traded fire with militants. Israeli forces surrounded hospitals, stopping ambulances carrying in waves of wounded to check if they were sheltering militants. Israeli aims in Jenin are more modest than in Gaza, where it publicly pledged to wipe out Hamas’ military capabilities in the enclave for good through a months-long campaign. In the West Bank, Israel is not aiming to entirely wipe out the militant activity concentrated in several of the territory’s refugee camp’s, said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military restrictions. Instead, the raids are intended to thwart pending attacks on Israeli civilians — such as an attempted bombing in Tel Aviv claimed by Hamas in August and a shooting of an Israeli civilian in the Palestinian town of Qalqilya in June. The military official said the operation across the West Bank involves fewer soldiers than a major raid on the Jenin camp before the war that killed 12. But he could not say when the raid would end. Some analysts are skeptical the latest raid in Jenin would have any dramatic long-term impact, in terms of making Israel less vulnerable to West Bank militancy. “The current escalation relies on intense efforts of Hamas and Iran and deep weakness of the PA — which are not going to be changed," said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli army intelligence officer who is now an analyst of Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University. "Another operation is a matter of time.”Ambulances inspected and hospitals surrounded. Jenin’s residents have described scenes of destruction. They said some Israeli soldiers are moving from house to house, while others are digging up roads with armored bulldozers.
When asked, the army said its troops are clearing militant command centers scattered across the city and uprooting explosive devices buried underneath streets. “They cut off the water, they cut off the electricity, they cut off the internet. We are ready to live by candlelight,” said Jenin resident Mohannad Hajj Hussein. Oroba al-Shalabi said she fled her family home in the heart of Jenin last Saturday after being briefly detained by Israeli forces and separated from her male relatives. "They (the Israeli soldiers ) locked us in a room at the beginning, and when we went out (of the room) the men were tied to the floor,” she said. Soon after she was allowed to leave, but without her male family members. The Israeli military official said there is no curfew in Jenin and that the army is allowing civilians to leave different areas of the city if they wish. But many districts of the city remain near impossible to access, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, whose ambulances must coordinate with Israeli authorities before they can be dispatched. Over the past week, she said the humanitarian organization has received hundreds of calls from residents in Jenin asking for food, medications and baby formula.
“People are trapped now in Jenin refugee camp.....we’re still getting dozens of calls,” she said.

Turkey, Egypt forge common stance on Gaza, pledge to cooperate on trade, energy
(AFP)/September 4, 2024
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt's leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and greater deliveries of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, while signing cooperation agreements on trade and energy. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt’s leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said they wanted to deepen their cooperation as they met in Ankara Wednesday to seal their mended ties. “We will strengthen our cooperation in all areas,” said Erdogan, who visited Sisi in Cairo in mid-February when the two leaders said they had turned over a “new leaf” in their ties.
Ankara and Cairo had cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then defence minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to “anyone” like Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.But relations have warmed over the past two years as their interests aligned on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. On Wednesday, the two leaders signed 17 cooperation agreements, according to the Turkish presidency.

Egypt's president makes his first visit to Turkey as relations thaw
Suzan Fraser/ANKARA, Turkey (AP)/September 04/2024
The presidents of Turkey and Egypt on Wednesday found common ground on the war in Gaza as they continued to mend long-strained relations, emphasizing the need for a permanent cease-fire and guaranteed delivery of humanitarian aid. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke during the Egyptian leader's first official visit to Ankara after years of tensions between the regional powers. “Turkey and Egypt have a common stance on the Palestinian issue," Erdogan said after he and el-Sissi oversaw the signing of cooperation agreements. “The end of the genocide that has been going on for 11 months, the establishment of a permanent cease-fire as soon as possible, and the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid continue to be our priorities.” In February, Erdogan made his first visit to Egypt in more than a decade after the countries agreed to repair ties and reappointed ambassadors. He said the countries wanted to boost bilateral trade to $15 billion in the coming years. Relations between Egypt and Turkey, a long-time backer of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, soured a decade ago after the Egyptian military ousted President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Brotherhood, amid mass protests against his divisive rule. Egypt also outlawed the group as a terrorist organization. In recent years, Ankara has stopped its criticism of el-Sissi’s government, aiming to improve strained relations with Egypt and other Arab nations while seeking investments during an economic downturn. In November 2022, Erdogan and el-Sissi were photographed shaking hands at the World Cup in Qatar. The Egyptian foreign minister then traveled to Turkey in 2023 to show solidarity after a deadly earthquake struck parts of southern Turkey and Syria.
This is el-Sissi’s first visit to Turkey since he was elected president in 2014, a year after he led the military’s overthrow of Morsi. “We should work together to prevent humanitarian crises, especially by addressing regional issues together," el-Sissi said. “We should work more intensively, especially with our brothers in Gaza and Palestine. In this context, both Turkey and Egypt emphasized that an urgent cease-fire should be established as soon as possible.”Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel's military actions, accused Israel's government of “condemning” the people of Gaza to hunger and thirst.
"Israel and its supporters are responsible for every innocent person who dies from hunger, thirst or lack of medicine,” he said. He also told reporters that Turkey wanted to cooperate with Egypt on natural gas and nuclear energy. Erdogan welcomed el-Sissi at the steps of his airplane at the airport in Ankara, a gesture he rarely makes. El-Sissi said on Facebook that his trip to Turkey and Erdogan’s February visit to Cairo “mirror the joint will to start a new era of friendship and cooperation between Egypt and Turkey.”Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, has been working for months to try and broker a cease-fire and the return of the remaining more than 100 hostages held by the Palestinian militant Hamas group. The negotiations have stalled following new Israeli demands. Egypt opposes any Israeli presence along the Gaza side of its border, claiming it would threaten the decades-old peace treaty between the countries, a cornerstone of regional stability. Hamas had asked to have Turkey added as a guarantor in the cease-fire talks, but the proposal was not accepted. The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. The overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 40,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Boko Haram militants on motorcycles attacked a Nigerian village, killing over 100, residents say
Haruna Umar/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP)/September 04, 2024
At least 100 villagers were killed in northeastern Nigeria when suspected Boko Haram Islamic extremists opened fire on a market, on worshippers and in people's homes, residents said Wednesday, the latest killings in Africa's longest struggle with militancy.
More than 50 extremists on motorcycles rode into the Tarmuwa council area of Yobe state on Sunday evening and began firing before setting buildings ablaze, according to Yobe police spokesperson Dungus Abdulkarim. The police blamed the attack on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. Boko Haram has since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million, as well as a humanitarian crisis with millions of people in dire need of foreign aid. At least 1,500 people have so far been killed in the region this year in attacks by armed groups, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED. Yobe Deputy Gov. Idi Barde Gubana gave a much lower death toll of 34 from Sunday's attack. Contradictory statistics are a common trend in the security crisis, with the death toll from survivors’ count often higher than the official figure. The 34 dead cited by the deputy governor were the ones buried in a single village, said Zanna Umar, a community leader, who said they have so far confirmed 102 villagers killed in the attack. Most of the others were either buried before officials arrived, or their bodies were taken to other places for burial.“We are still working to search for more because many people are still missing,” said Umar.
Sunday’s attack is one of the deadliest in the last year in Yobe. The state is less frequently attacked than neighboring Borno, the epicenter of the war with Boko Haram. Local media reported that the extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in reprisal for villagers informing security operatives about their activities. A number of Boko Haram members were killed as a result of the information passed on by villagers, the militants were quoted as saying. Reprisals are rampant in the northeast and villagers sometimes “pay the price” after military operations, said Confidence MacHarry with SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based security firm. “This is the first time our community has faced such a devastating attack,” said Buba Adamu, a local chief, his voice mixed with grief and fear. “We never imagined something like this could happen here.”“There are some places (in the region) totally out of the control of the Nigerian army and villagers often live in fear of reprisals,” MacHarry said. In such places, he added, Nigerian security forces only go there for operations but do not have enough manpower to remain on the ground. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was elected last year on a pledge to end the conflict with Boko Haram, condemned the attack in a statement that tried to assure villagers of justice but was silent about security measures.Security analysts have faulted Tinubu’s security policies, saying he has not taken any bold steps so far to resolve the killings and that the problems he inherited, such as inadequate resources and manpower, remain.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 04-05/2024
Is Qatar an ally or an enemy in the fight against terror finance?
Natalie Ecanow, opinion contributor/The Hill/September 04/2024
Eleven days after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned a terror financier named Muhammad Nasrallah. According to Treasury, Nasrallah has “close ties to the Iranian regime” and “was involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas.”
Nasrallah, based in Qatar, was operating there for years before Hamas struck. In 2017, the U.S. and Qatar had formally pledged to combat terror finance together. So the longtime presence of a major, Iran-linked Hamas financier on Qatari soil raises serious questions about how much change the U.S.-Qatar memorandum of understanding has yielded. With the Middle East teetering on the brink of a regional war, Washington needs to assess the agreement’s impact.
Qatar remains one of the leading state-sponsors of Hamas. Doha hosts Hamas’s political office, harbors senior Hamas leaders and showers the Hamas-run government in Gaza with hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The U.S. and Israel implicitly signed off on this arrangement, with the expectation that the Qatari funds would stabilize Gaza and that Doha would provide Hamas sanctuary but crack down on home-grown terror finance activity. Evidently, those assumptions were misplaced.
While financial crime can crop up anywhere, there is reason to believe that Qatar remains an oasis for terror finance.
Last year, the Financial Action Task Force — an international money laundering and terror finance watchdog — found that Qatar “has not demonstrated that it is effectively identifying, investigating, or prosecuting” terror financing cases. Qatar’s overall terror finance conviction rate is just 28 percent, which the task force notes is especially low, given the emirate’s risk profile and the Qatari “criminal system’s response to other financial crimes.” Indeed, Qatar hasn’t convicted a single terror financier since 2018.
The Treasury Department seems aware that Doha has a lot more work to do in terms of combatting terror finance.
In February, Undersecretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson noted “the importance of addressing terrorist financing vulnerabilities” in Qatar and other countries in the region in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. Whether Qatar has made necessary progress combatting terror finance is a question worth asking; the full text of the 2017 U.S.-Qatar memorandum was never made public, so it’s hard to know what benchmarks Doha pledged to meet and in what timeframe. Here’s what we do know: the memorandum came one month after nearly every country in the Gulf Cooperation Council severed ties with Qatar, accusing the emirate of “funding” and “adopting” extremist groups, among other offenses. Weeks earlier, then-President Trump had announced in Riyadh the creation of the U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council Terrorist Financing Targeting Center — a multilateral initiative to disrupt terror financing networks.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson applauded the Qataris “for being the first to respond to President Trump’s challenge at the Riyadh Summit to stop the funding of terrorism.” He pledged that, together, Washington and Doha would “do more to keep the region and our homeland safe.” Along with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Tillerson said the agreement “specifies the steps each country will take to stop terrorism financing globally, and sets a timeline for its implementation.”
The Qataris appeared ready to crack down on terror finance. In March 2018, for example, Doha placed more than two dozen people and entities on a terrorism blacklist, including two Qatari nationals whom the blockading Arab countries had previously identified as financiers of the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria. The next year, Qatar issued a new law to enhance its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing efforts.
Doha also teamed up with Washington in 2021 to sanction eight targets connected to a “major Hezbollah financial network based in the Arabian Peninsula” that remained active in Qatar through at least 2019. One of those targets was a Qatar-based property management company owned by a financier named Sulaiman al-Banai. According to the U.S. Treasury, al-Banai was “was a primary manager” of his relative and fellow Hezbollah funder’s “business and financial activity in Qatar and abroad.” Greater congressional oversight of the 2017 U.S.-Qatar terror finance memorandum is clearly needed. Specifically, lawmakers should request that the U.S. Government Accountability Office review Qatar’s progress combatting terror finance and report back on the implementation and enforcement of the 2017 agreement as a way of providing an outside, impartial assessment.
Qatar cannot remain a lax environment for funders of terror and at the same time serve as a regional mediator and close ally of the United States. When it comes to terror finance, Qatar has not yet been exonerated.
**Natalie Ecanow is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research institute in Washington, focusing on national security and foreign policy.
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4854960-us-qatar-terror-finance/

EU Should Condemn Iran, Not Israel, for West Bank Violence
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2024
[T]he fact that the EU's foreign policy chief [Josep Borrell] has even suggested imposing punitive measures against Israel, a country smaller than the state of New Jersey, when it is involved in a desperate fight defending itself against the world's largest sponsor of state terrorism, Iran, and its proxy terrorist groups -- Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iraqi militias, as well as Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- on at least seven fronts, shows a woeful lack of understanding of the conflict.
Borrell's constant articulation of anti-Israeli views also raises questions about his suitability to continue holding such an important position in the EU. Earlier this year, he launched a blistering attack against the "Israeli occupation authorities" for imposing punitive measures against an openly genocidal Palestinian Authority (PA).
Even so, Borrell's stance reflects the deep anti-Israel sentiment that exists within the EU bureaucracy... After Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis, rather than receiving support for her gesture of solidarity by visiting Israel, during which [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen went to the Kfar Aza kibbutz (where at least 52 of 700 residents were murdered), she faced a barrage of criticism from EU insiders, with 800 EU staffers writing an official letter of complaint criticising her "uncontrolled" support of Israel.
[UN Secretary-General Antonio] Guterres's willingness to focus his criticism on Israel, and not the Iranian-backed terrorists, is yet another example of the UN's institutional anti-Israel bias. If the UN has any genuine interest in taking a balanced approach to the violence in the West Bank, then, instead of focusing its criticism exclusively on Israel, it would call on Iran to cease backing the network of terrorist groups it backs in the region, whose main goal is the destruction of Israel on the way to destroying the United States -- the main representative of the West.
The failure of international bodies such as the EU and the UN to demonstrate any pretence of balance when intervening on vital international security issues such as the Iranian-sponsored conflicts taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon not only makes a mockery of their claim to be independent arbiters on the issue. It also runs the risk of making them utterly irrelevant, to the extent that they suffer the same fate as the League of Nations in the 1930s, whose inability to confront fascism condemned it to abject failure.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's constant articulation of anti-Israeli views also raises questions about his suitability to continue holding such an important position in the EU. Earlier this year, he launched a blistering attack against the "Israeli occupation authorities" for imposing punitive measures against an openly genocidal Palestinian Authority (PA), while standing next to PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa. Pictured: Mustafa (L) and Borrell at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium on May 26, 2024.
The European Union's dangerous bias on the Gaza conflict, where it constantly backs Iranian-backed terrorist groups at the expense of a democracy, Israel, has been exposed yet again by the latest anti-Israel stance adopted by Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign minister.
In a move calculated to further strain the EU's already problematic relationship with Israel, Borrell has announced that he has asked the bloc's members to consider imposing sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers for "hate messages" against Palestinians, messages that he claimed broke international law.
Borrell did not name either of the ministers specifically. But it was obvious who he was referring to given that, in recent weeks, he has publicly criticised Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich for statements Borrell has described as "sinister" and "an incitement to war crimes".
While Borrell said EU foreign ministers had held an initial discussion about his proposal during a meeting in Brussels, he conceded that his initiative was unlikely to succeed as the imposition of sanctions against Israel would require unanimity among all 27-member states, and many EU nations, such as Italy, were strongly opposed to the measure.
"The ministers will decide. It's up to them, as always. But the process has been launched," Borrell told reporters. He said he had proposed that the Israeli ministers be sanctioned for violations of human rights. EU sanctions generally mean a ban on travel to the bloc and a freeze on assets held in the EU.
Even so, the fact that the EU's foreign policy chief has even suggested imposing punitive measures against Israel, a country smaller than the state of New Jersey, when it is involved in a desperate fight defending itself against the world's largest sponsor of state terrorism, Iran, and its proxy terrorist groups -- Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iraqi militias, as well as Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- on at least seven fronts, shows a woeful lack of understanding of the conflict.
Europe is just as much in danger as Israel, should Iran move to a nuclear weapons breakout, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced is only "one or two weeks" away.
The latest example of the continuing anti-Jewish racism exhibited by many European leaders is also bound to further strain relations between Israel and the EU at a time when the Israelis are in serious need of Western support.
Borrell's move has already prompted an angry response from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who accused Borrell of targeting him with false claims that he had called for Palestinians to be displaced from the West Bank. "I oppose the displacement of any population from their homes," he said.
Borrell's constant articulation of anti-Israeli views also raises questions about his suitability to continue holding such an important position in the EU. Earlier this year, he launched a blistering attack against the "Israeli occupation authorities" for imposing punitive measures against an openly genocidal Palestinian Authority (PA).
Speaking next to PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, Borrell listed the challenges facing the Ramallah-based PA government, including "a dangerous socio-economic crisis, impact on the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, closures imposed in the West Bank, and other punitive actions such as the announcement of the Israeli occupation authorities to cut all tax revenues that belong to you."
One explanation for Borrell's virulent anti-Israel approach is that his home country, Spain, is taking the lead in the latest push for a Palestinian state – which would, at present, predictably, be a terrorist one. It is a step so far not backed by most other EU countries.
Even so, Borrell's stance reflects the deep anti-Israel sentiment that exists within the EU bureaucracy, which was dramatically exposed after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks to demonstrate her support for the Israeli people.
After Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis, rather than receiving support for her gesture of solidarity by visiting Israel, during which von der Leyen went to the Kfar Aza kibbutz (where at least 52 of 700 residents were murdered), she faced a barrage of criticism from EU insiders, with 800 EU staffers writing an official letter of complaint criticising her "uncontrolled" support of Israel.
The signatories of the letter said they "hardly recognise the values of the EU", claiming there was a "seeming indifference demonstrated over the past few days by our institution towards the ongoing massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in disregard for human rights and international humanitarian law".
It is not only just the EU that is demonstrating a wilful anti-Israel bias in its response to the latest upsurge in violence between Israel and Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorists.
After the Israel Defence Force (IDF) mounted a series of raids to tackle terrorists in the West Bank, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the operation as "deeply concerning".
"I strongly condemn the loss of lives, including of children, and I call for an immediate cessation of these operations," he said. He urged Israeli forces to "exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable".
Guterres's intervention came after the IDF confirmed that its special forces had killed Muhammad Jabber, also known as Abu Shujaa, in the city of Tulkarm after he had taken refuge in a mosque. Jabber was a leading commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation, which, like Hamas, has links to Iran's so-called "axis of resistance," a euphemism for its long-term policy of "Death to Israel." Four others, who were said to be "hiding inside a mosque" with Jabber, were also killed.
The IDF said that Jabber, who was the head of Islamic Jihad's network in Nur Shams, was involved in carrying out "numerous terror attacks, including a shooting attack in which an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, was murdered in June." Jabber was also involved in the planning of additional terror attacks.
Guterres's willingness to focus his criticism on Israel, and not the Iranian-backed terrorists, is yet another example of the UN's institutional anti-Israel bias. If the UN has any genuine interest in taking a balanced approach to the violence in the West Bank, then, instead of focusing its criticism exclusively on Israel, it would call on Iran to cease backing the network of terrorist groups it backs in the region, whose main goal is the destruction of Israel on the way to destroying the United States -- the main representative of the West.
As Danny Danon, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, commented in response to Guterres's remarks, Iran is "actively working to smuggle sophisticate explosive devices" into the West Bank "intended for use in suicide bombings in the heart of Israeli cities". Danon said Israel would not sit idly by and "wait for scenes of buses and cafes exploding in city centres".
He added: "The IDF's operations in Judea and Samaria [in the West Bank] have a clear goal: preventing Iranian terror-by-proxy that would harm Israeli civilians."
The failure of international bodies such as the EU and the UN to demonstrate any pretence of balance when intervening on vital international security issues such as the Iranian-sponsored conflicts taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon not only makes a mockery of their claim to be independent arbiters on the issue. It also runs the risk of making them utterly irrelevant, to the extent that they suffer the same fate as the League of Nations in the 1930s, whose inability to confront fascism condemned it to abject failure.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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/20915/eu-should-condemn-iran-not-israel

Iran wants to keep everyone occupied with its infantile games to buy time - opinion
Salem Alketbi/Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
Iran has never once used its great influence and ability to create chaos in the service of pressuring for peace. The word “peace” has never been uttered by any of its leaders.
The world has been preoccupied for some time with the timing of the Iranian regime’s promised harsh response to the assassination, in the heart of Tehran, of Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh. However, the Islamic Republic, not intending to follow through, is less concerned. Instead, it is indulging in its favorite hobby of heating regional tensions, pushing the world to the brink, and creating a time gap through which it can negotiate to achieve its strategic goals. These goals are, in Iran’s view, more important than avenging a Palestinian mercenary like Haniyeh or other mercenaries who have fallen victim to their embrace of Iran.
No expert truly believes that the US and Israel are seriously occupied with monitoring Iranian preparations for retaliation. All preparations are merely precautionary measures. The truth is well known among intelligence agencies, which satisfy Iranian vanity by exaggerating the regime’s strength and expressing fear and concern about their reaction – exactly what Tehran wants. In my opinion, it is likely that all these behind-the-scenes and public communications and dialogues between Iran and leaders and officials from various regional and Western countries regarding de-escalation have provided the regime with a way to save face. These allow it to gradually back down from its threats of revenge and, instead, link this “retaliation” to the results of talks on a ceasefire in Gaza. Iran has thus moved from separating its position on responding to the Haniyeh assassination from the situation in Gaza to directly linking the two issues. It has found a solution in this approach, through which it aims to achieve several strategic goals.
The most prominent of these aims is to find the justification to retreat, as usual, from its hollow threats against Israel. In this case, the Islamic Republic is claiming that it is prioritizing the interests of Palestinians and sparing their blood. The second, and more dangerous, goal is attempting to complete the hijacking of the Palestinian cause and exploit it for its own benefit, recognizing the imminent end of Hamas’s role – at least militarily.
The Iranian regime fully realizes that the military end of Hamas means the end of Iran’s role in discussing the Palestinian issue. Therefore, it is trying, by all means, to maintain this role through political bargaining, to preserve what remains of its investments in funding and arming Palestinian factions, not, as it claims, to preserve the Palestinian people. It seeks to emerge as one of the players in this central Middle Eastern issue and believes that, by desisting from responding to Haniyeh’s assassination if a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza, it saves face. However, the revealing truth is that Iran is once again attempting to politically hijack the cause, usurp the roles of others, and claim that it holds the keys to resolving an issue in which it has only pushed for violence and bloodshed from the beginning.
Iran doesn't want peace
Iran has never once used its great influence and ability to create chaos in the service of pressuring for peace. The word “peace” has never been uttered by any of its leaders.
IT IS time for everyone in our region to wake up from the illusion of Iranian power and finally understand the extent of its game of manipulation. Iran’s only truth is that the fate of the regime is more important than the lives of mercenaries and terrorists such as Haniyeh, Nasrallah, Soleimani, and many others on the long list of useful regime tools that it manipulates day and night. If Iran truly wanted a ceasefire in Gaza, it could have offered to stop its allies’ attacks in exchange for calming the situation and yet, throughout the nearly 10 months of war so far, it did nothing of the sort.
Now, it had decided to announce that it will not strike Israel if negotiations proceed toward a settlement (as if these negotiations were the first round and as if it had suddenly discovered that it holds an important card to create pressure on behalf of the Palestinians), while, just days ago, it was fanning the flames of war and inciting its proxies to escalate on all fronts.
Iran and Lebanon
AS USUAL, Iran prefers to sacrifice Lebanon and its people, inciting Hezbollah to continue the process of attrition against Israel with limited operations that fall short of a full-scale war. As usual, the regime is attempting to keep everyone occupied with its infantile games to buy time – and it knows exactly what it is doing. However, the Islamic Republic does not realize that everyone is aware of its ridiculous and faded paper tiger strength and that its talk and illusions of power no longer fool anyone in our region. As for those still waiting for the Iranian response, they would do well to remember the incident of the killing of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, 25 years ago. The Afghan Taliban killed 10 diplomats inside the Iranian consulate on August 8, 1998. Many thought then that Iran would invade Afghanistan in response, after threatening to do so. But the reality is that to this day, Iran continues to condemn this incident and demand that the Afghan movement investigate it; while also making deals with the Taliban. This revealing incident is a model that embodies the Iranian regime’s pattern of thinking – and claiming otherwise is an illusion that resides only in the minds of its promoters.
We know well that, in politics, there are no permanent enemies or friends, only permanent interests. But it is imperative to stop the machine of falsehood and deception and practice real politics according to national interests, instead of these duplicitous games.
Meanwhile, the rules of the game in the Middle East remain unchanged, and the illusions of power, revolution, and resistance to the “Great Satan,” (the United States) promoted by the Iranian regime and others have no place in reality. These facts must be dealt with in the search for realistic solutions to the crises and conflicts in our region – instead of waiting for answers that will never come, no matter how long we wait.
**The writer is a UAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-817611

Israel must deny Hamas its objectives to truly win the war and change mindsets - opinion
PESACH WOLICKI//Jerusalem Post/September 04/2024
To win the war and change enemy mindsets, Israel must deny Hamas its objectives, considering their goals in the conflict.
A few weeks ago, in these pages, I argued that without achieving an unequivocal victory, one that the enemy cannot deny, there is no real hope that Gaza’s radicalized population will rethink its genocidal ideology.
This is the lesson learned from the allied victories over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, two genocidal regimes that had captured the minds of their populations. That both nations quickly became peaceful and civilized was a direct result of their undeniable defeat.
With this in mind, Israeli leaders should carefully analyze how our adversaries characterize the nature and objectives of this conflict. If we define the goals of the war solely through the lens of our own security needs, while disregarding the way Hamas and its followers articulate their objectives, we run the risk that “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat,” articulated by legendary Chinese general, strategist, and philosopher Sun Tzu (born circa 544 BCE).
We could easily think we have achieved victory, while our enemies beg to differ. Since the outbreak of this war, Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated that the “day after” plan must include a path to a Palestinian state. Setting aside how unrealistic this is in the current political climate, the call for a two-state solution as the response to this war would be the embodiment of the outcome Sun Tzu warned of.
Block Hamas's war aims
If the goal of Hamas is to achieve its national aspirations, the advance of these in the wake of this war would mean that October 7 had been a success. This is especially true since the July 23 agreement between Hamas and Fatah “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity. Per this agreement, according to the factions themselves, there is no longer any distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). For our victory to succeed in changing the mindset of our enemies, we must listen to them. We must know how they define the objectives of this war, and we must make sure that these are denied them, whether they are critical to our own war aims, or not.
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’s name for the October 7 attacks, initially appears an odd choice. Al-Aqsa, the Muslim name for the Temple Mount, seems disconnected from Gaza. Notably, the Temple Mount remains under Jordanian Wakf control, effectively a Muslim sovereign enclave within Israel. Yet, for Hamas and its supporters, the war with Israel is a war for the Temple Mount. In their own words, the October 7 attacks were a response to “the Israeli Judaization plans for the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, its temporal and spatial division attempts, and the intensification of the Israeli settlers’ incursions into the holy mosque.”
WITH THIS in mind, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s recent call to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount is worth taking seriously. The ensuing uproar to this pronouncement was predictable. US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller denounced Ben-Gvir, stating, “The United States reaffirms our commitment to the preservation of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites and will continue to oppose unilateral steps that are counterproductive to achieving peace and stability and undermine Israel’s security.” Miller added that building a synagogue on the Temple Mount “would demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem.” Miller’s words are reminiscent of warnings about US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. We were told that such a move would undermine regional stability and endanger Israel. The opposite was true. The embassy move was followed by the Abraham Accords, bringing peace between Israel and several Muslim nations. Apparently, asserting Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem leads to peace, not instability.
The status quo of which Miller speaks gives control of the site to the Jordanian Wakf and restricts Jewish prayer at the site of the Jewish Temple.
Supporters of this situation are in favor of restricting the basic human rights of Jews to worship at a Jewish holy site in the name of appeasing the enemies of Israel. And it is exactly this status quo that ought to be changed in response to October 7. Not because of Israel’s primary objectives in this war, but because of Hamas’s. Israel must send a clear message to Hamas supporters in Gaza and elsewhere that their genocidal attack on the people of Israel was an abject failure. A synagogue on the Temple Mount, or even a change in the status quo, enabling organized public worship by Jews there, would demonstrate to Hamas and its allies that they have been defeated.
To win this war in a manner that will actually lead to a change in how our enemies think and act, we must heed Sun Tzu. We must know our enemies’ war aims, not just our own.
**The writer is executive director of Israel365Action.com and host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.

Article On Saudi News Portal: Hamas' Operatives Hide Among The Civilian Population; They Are Cowards Who Do Not Value The Lives Of The Gazans
Kamil Salman/ Elaph/MEMRI/September 4, 2024
In an article titled "Fighting from Behind Civilians" on the Saudi news portal Elaph, Kurdish writer Kamil Salman criticized Hamas' operatives for hiding behind the civilian population in Gaza and thereby placing hundreds of thousands of people in mortal danger, a practice he called both foolish and cowardly. He added that Hamas' fighters are manipulated by foreign elements and do not recognize the value of human life.[1]
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[2]
"The Palestinian combatant who fights his Israeli enemy is a brave fighter defending his right to his land. However, his courage loses credibility when he hides behind unarmed civilians. By doing so, this fighter presents the civilians with two options, both of which are grim: they must either guide the Israeli army to the Palestinian fighter’s hiding place – an act of betrayal that this great nation could not conceivably commit – or else remain silent despite knowing the fighter’s location, and pay the price for this. This is a catastrophe, because the Israeli enemy will treat the civilians as enemies who are harboring and collaborating with the armed combatants it is fighting, and therefore destroy the civilians’ homes, evict them and sometimes kill them.
"This scenario has repeatedly played out in Gaza, and it is now [also] occurring in the West Bank and in South Lebanon. When will the Palestinian fighter learn the lesson and distance himself from civilians, realizing that it is concentrations of innocent civilians that will be harmed? Is this [practice of] hiding [among civilians] a sign of military wisdom, or of growing stupidity? Is it courage or cowardice?
"O brave fighter, if you are fighting for your homeland, know that the homeland is not just the sand on the ground but also the lives and the honor of those unarmed, innocent people. Harming their honor and endangering their lives is tantamount to polluting the homeland. [So choose] one of two options: either perfect your courage by confronting your enemy face to face, and thus prevent the danger from reaching your family, your loved ones, your neighbors and those dear to you, or else put down your weapon. There are many ways to confront someone stronger than you, and wise people know them – but insisting on exposing civilians to danger is [just] recklessness and ignorance.
"Are 100,000 Gazans dead and wounded not enough for you? Are you hoping that your enemy will leave you alone if you hide behind civilians? Your enemy has been clear and explicit. It has repeatedly said that, if you hide behind civilians, the civilians will not be safe from harm – and it has repeatedly acted on this. Have you understood your enemy, or do you need more experience and more innocent victims in order to realize what your enemy is like?
"Oh jihad fighter, the method of hiding behind civilians is effective only when the civilians in question are the family members, loved ones or associates of the enemy army, not your own family members. Don't delude yourself that you did the right thing when you hid behind hundreds of thousands of people and [thus] saved your own life but placed their lives in danger. That is a dirty game that an honorable fighter should not engage in.
"They [i.e., Hamas] say they are doing this to blacken the name of the Israeli enemy and [demonstrate] its barbarity to the world. Ok, now that you have blackened the name of your Israeli enemy, what has this philosophy done for you? What has it done for the Palestinian people? You beg the humanitarian [aid] organizations to help children, pregnant women, the elderly and the sick. Yet the countries of the world witness your tragedies and do not even verbally condemn your enemy. On the contrary, most of them support Israel with money, weapons and propaganda. So perhaps you are blackening the enemy's name only in your own eyes?
"You remember very well all the Israeli civilians that were killed and captured on October 7, [2023], who are enough to blacken your name for decades to come. That was [a real act of] of blackening [someone's name]! That is how the wise and the strong play [the game]. And if you are neither strong nor wise, leave it to those who have gained 70 years of experience. The PLO leaders fought the enemy before you with patriotism and loyalty for many decades, until they turned to wise diplomacy as a way to regain their rights. They know more than you about the Palestinian cause and its sorrows, and they never betrayed their cause or accepted the patronage of others, as you are doing today.
"The Arab leaders who waged three large-scale wars with Israel never betrayed the Palestinian cause. On the contrary, they owned it and were zealously committed to it, but they realized the power, the might and the cunning of their enemy and worked to safeguard the honor of their peoples by shifting to diplomacy [as a way to advance] this cause. But you [jihad fighters] are just teenagers who are manipulated by foreign hands and do not understand the meaning of [preserving] the dignity of innocent, unarmed people. You will realize it when it is too late."
[1] It should be noted that, in a November 2023 article on Elaph, Salman held Hamas responsible for the bloodshed in Gaza and accused it of serving Iran's interests. He also wrote that Hamas' kidnapping of the Israeli hostages, especially the women and children, was an act of terror that harmed the Palestinian cause and could not be condoned by the international community. See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10955 - Kurdish Writer: Hamas' Abduction Of Civilians Was An Act Of Terror That Harmed The Palestinian Cause – November 13, 2023.
[2] Elaph.com, Septepber 1, 2024.

“Whichever Way One Goes About It, One Always Does It Wrong”
David Sahyoun/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
Every week, we invite you to explore a striking theme from a great psychoanalyst to reveal its depth and richness. These lapidary, often provocative formulas open up new perspectives on the intricacies of the human psyche. By deciphering these quotes with rigor and pedagogy, we invite you on a fascinating journey to the heart of psychoanalytic thought to better understand our desires, anxieties and relationships with others. Ready to dive into the deep waters of the unconscious?
This quote is from S. Freud’s Introduction to Psychoanalysis. It succinctly encapsulates the complexity of the human condition.
Regarding Freud, there is a well-known anecdote related to this quote: a lady comes to meet the Viennese psychoanalyst and asks him, “Tell me, Herr Professor, how can I be a perfect mother?” To which Freud replies, “Whatever you do, Madam, you will never succeed!”
By asserting that we “always do it wrong,” the inventor of psychoanalysis highlights our unconscious tendency to endlessly replay the same scenarios, particularly in our relationships. We have a tendency to unknowingly reproduce situations that echo unresolved childhood conflicts, even if they caused us suffering. This is evident, for example, in the narrator of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, who distresses Albertine with his obsessive jealousy, reactivating the torment of his relationship with his mother. Whatever we do, we fall into the same emotional dead ends, especially in our romantic relationships.
We now understand how, in these relationships, we are all inhabited by a fundamental ambivalence, torn between movements of love and hate, which make them profoundly disconcerting, despite what we consider to be our “good intentions.” It is this unconscious “love-hate” (J. Lacan) that drives us to hurt our loved ones despite ourselves, as theorized particularly well by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein after Freud, when she emphasized the early presence of primary aggression in infants, which is a source of guilt that persists into adulthood and hinders relationships with others. This unconscious guilt lives within all of us and can develop into an unconscious need for self-punishment, leading to failure and sabotage, as if we are compelled to repay an obscure debt. This can be observed in the heroine of Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia, Justine, whose suffering drives her to sabotage her own wedding on the day of the ceremony.
Freud’s aphorism also suggests the existence of a fundamental “failure” in human communication. As Jacques Lacan further explored after him, language inevitably creates misunderstanding between people. Words never convey exactly what we want them to, and meaning always partially escapes us, making every exchange an adventure. Deep down, we never truly understand each other, which is why it often feels like we “always do it wrong” when communicating with others.
Freud’s formula also resonates with his definition of education as an “impossible profession,” highlighting the inherent difficulty of the educational act: despite the best intentions one may believe they have, the parent or educator is always confronted with the failure of their attempts. Despite claims of “good” intentions, adults will always get it wrong with children, as they unconsciously pass on their own unresolved traumas, and these will tend to repeat themselves from generation to generation, unless they confront their own childhood suffering and make a conscious effort to avoid perpetuating it. Until this work is done, they seem doomed to always more or less get it wrong with their offspring, hence Freud’s pessimism.
This is, moreover, the tragedy of the “black pedagogy” denounced by psychoanalyst Alice Miller. In her book For Your Own Good, published in 1980, she shows how traditional methods of repressive education, based on punishment and humiliation, are rooted in the idea that the child is naturally bad, capricious, and stubborn, and that these predispositions must be broken. Parents then resort to violent methods, justifying them with the expression “but it’s for your own good!”, driven by a grave misunderstanding of the child’s psyche. In reality, they are unconsciously reproducing the patterns in which they themselves were raised.
Pediatrician Anne Tursz had this to say: For Your Own Good unfortunately remains highly relevant in France. Although corporal punishment is likely less common, public opinion is clearly not opposed to it, as it overwhelmingly rejects the enactment of a law prohibiting it, a law adopted by most European countries. Not only is there no real boundary between “abuse” and “ordinary educational violence,” but the persistence of forms of repressive pedagogy raises a much broader question: that of the poor status of children in France, a country where they are not considered subjects of rights.”
Arthur Rimbaud’s mother loved her son, but she was a harsh educator, emotionally undemonstrative and very devout, concerned with providing a normative education. Rimbaud would carry great suffering from this. He expressed his feelings in a poem that begins:
“And the Mother, closing the book of duty,
Walked away satisfied and very proud, without seeing,
In the blue eyes and under the prominent brow
The soul of her child given over to repulsion.”
This quote from Freud has the primary merit of reminding us, with the force of his thought and clinical experience, of the painful flaw that constitutes us as subjects. Behind its apparent pessimism, it is ultimately a reminder of the humility that must animate us in the face of the enigma we are to ourselves and to others, just as they are to us, whether they are children or adults.

Oslo Accords: Deliberately Obstructed Three Decades Later
Rami Rayess/This Is Beirut/Sptember 04/2024
The prolonged Israeli war against the Gaza Strip, now extending beyond ten months, has thrust into the forefront the fate of the 1993 agreement signed at the White House and endorsed by then US President Bill Clinton. The Oslo Accords were signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) President Yasser Arafat. They are referred to as the Oslo Accords, after the city where the secret negotiations took place. These discussions ran parallel to the official and public talks conducted under the framework of the Madrid Conference in 1991.
In practice, the Oslo Accords have progressively lost their significance. Furthermore, the agreement failed to resolve several core issues of the conflict, such as the future status of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, borders, water resources, and the independent Palestinian State.
Although the Oslo Accords are often seen as falling short of even minimal expectations—and indeed, they do—the agreement was not fully embraced by Israel, which failed to implement many of its provisions, despite the modesty of some, which do not constitute a challenge to Israel’s “fundamental” political and security concerns. Moreover, the Israeli society was not ready for “peace,” as demonstrated by the assassination of the Prime Minister who signed the agreement by a Jewish extremist in a Tel Aviv square.
Today, Israeli society remains largely unreceptive to peace, especially with the rise of far-right factions advocating for a Jewish synagogue within Al-Aqsa Mosque—a provocation deeply offensive to Muslims, both Palestinian and Arab, and even non-Muslims who hold the mosque in high religious and symbolic regard. Even amidst the country’s longest-ever war, the majority of Israelis continue to support their government or at least refrain from pushing to overthrow it. Public demonstrations, when they occur, primarily call for the release of detainees rather than an end to the war. Additionally, the few voices advocating for “peace” have largely faded from the Israeli political landscape.
The Oslo Accords’ outcome has been reduced to security matters, involving cooperation between the Palestinian National Authority and Israeli security and intelligence agencies. The political process has stalled entirely, with Israel neither accepting nor demonstrating any willingness to adhere to the agreement’s terms. Furthermore, Israel continues its systematic settlement expansion in the West Bank, where approximately 800,000 settlers now reside.
Israel has not withdrawn from the West Bank. Instead, it has recently intensified its assault on the northern regions, demolishing roads, homes, neighborhoods, and streets as though waging total war.
Israel has not only disavowed the Oslo Accords, which its Prime Minister signed in 1993, but has also ignored the Arab Peace Initiative, proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah bin Abdelaziz (later King Abdallah) and unanimously endorsed at the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut. The initiative offered peace and full normalization of relations with Arab countries in return for Israel’s compliance with UN resolutions and its withdrawal to the 1967 borders.
Israel clearly views the concept of peace as incompatible with its Zionist project and doubts that any agreement can guarantee its security. Consequently, it undermines all peace initiatives and obstructs current efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel relies on a persistent adversary to control its society by perpetuating the notion of a constant threat, while the central issue of the conflict—the occupation itself—remains consistently overlooked.

Martyrs are Exploited to Score Political Points in America Too
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
The political storm around Donald Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery should be understood in the context of the crude political spite we see during presidential election season. Democrats, along with liberal media outlets, have been up in arms over a photo op that Trump took alongside his supporters facing the graves of soldiers who fell during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which he is seen smiling and giving a thumbs-up. The incident has ignited a fierce debate about patriotism, respect, and the place of national symbols in American political life.
There is a deep reverence for Arlington Cemetery in America’s narrative of its national identity, and it is regarded as a quasi-sacred symbol that should be above politics and political divisions. However, this conception of the cemetery leaps over the deep ties of its establishment to American political history, its Civil War, and the reconciliations that followed the war. Nothing attests to this link better than the fact that the cemetery was built, during the Civil War, on land that had been confiscated from Confederate General Robert E. Lee so that it could be used as a burial site to honor Unionist soldiers and officers. That is, its establishment was a political manifesto of the highest order. The cemetery soon took on broader significance, becoming a major symbol of American soldiers’ sacrifices in war as the United States’ national identity and its values evolved. Arlington eventually welcomed soldiers of African descent and women who had died during their military service, after having long excluded them and other groups.
The fact is that the criticism directed at Trump, the orchestrated uproar over his visit, exemplifies a form of selective outrage that politicians maliciously and hypocritically exploit. It is part of a character assassination campaign- something both sides engage in. In 2010, Republicans sharply criticized former President Barack Obama for not attending a Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery, a custom in Washington, and they questioned his commitment to the country and his respect for the armed forces.
To take another angle, some of the hyperbolic reactions to Trump’s behavior during his visit to Arlington can be seen as part of an effort to stifle discussions about the decisions and policies of the Biden administration that led to the deaths of these soldiers- during the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan- in the first place. Trump wanted his visit to serve as a reminder of the Biden administration’s failure and how it entangled the military in combat operations that could have been avoided. His opponents, however, sought to divert attention away from this issue by playing on notions of respect, patriotism, and populist narratives.
Trump can claim that the best way to show respect for fallen soldiers is to speak out about the reasons they died without equivocation, rather than indulging in “virtue signaling” and focusing on his behavior, no matter how inappropriate and reprehensible it may be. It is not right, under the pretext of national unity and safeguarding shared value through martyrs’ sacrifices, to conjure up distorted and selective versions of history, especially regarding the soundness of decisions in war and peace.
Those who launched this campaign against Trump, however, are undoubtedly aware of the special place that national symbols, particularly national cemeteries, occupy in the hearts of the public, as well as how critical they are for political narratives.
In 1985, the late US President Ronald Reagan was severely criticized following his visit to the Bitburg cemetery in what was then West Germany. A number of German soldiers who had fought in World War II, including soldiers from the Nazi Waffen SS, were buried there. Reagan's visit was part of his effort to reinforce US-German relations. Still, his critics saw it as an insult to the memory of American soldiers who had fought in the war, while Jewish figures saw it as disrespectful to victims of the Holocaust.
It is no exaggeration to say that, from their graves, martyrs shape the dynamics of public affairs in almost all societies, especially when their memory becomes fuel for the collective national and political imagination, a stage for the game of identity, and a tool for reinforcing or undermining political legitimacy.
In fact, while Arlington Cemetery, like other national cemeteries, is more than just a burial, exploiting it for political purposes is neither new nor confined to a single party. The link between Trump’s visit and his other shows of patriotism, as well as his political goals and populist rhetoric, is evident. However, the hyperbolic reactions to it have also politicized respect for fallen soldiers and leveraged this issue for political gain.
This controversy highlights how the most sacred aspects of public life are always vulnerable to politicization during times of deep polarization, as we are currently seeing in the US. Policies of mourning and memory, in this sense, amount to a complex political ritual through which societies shape their collective memory, national identity, and national narratives. This process entails decisions about who is remembered and how they are honored, while the historical context of remembrance plays a role in reflecting the structures of political authority and power relations at a particular moment.

Hamas… When Is It Time For Politics
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04/2024
Since the war in Gaza began eleven months ago, all the parties concerned (the warring factions, mediators, or the countries seeking to stop the war) have been engaged in confrontations, waging struggles, and facing criticism. However, they are negotiating and "playing politics," but the same cannot be said for the Hamas movement, regardless of Khaled Meshaal or Ismail Haniyeh’s attempts (before he was assassinated in Tehran) at "playing politics".
One could argue that Hamas hasn't played politics due to the devastating war, and because Sinwar is in the trenches.
That is true. However, the war has reached the stage of destroying all of Gaza, its people, and the Palestinian cause. More dangerously, it has reached a point where maps are being redrawn, not just changed, as I had warned in a previous article at the onset of the crisis.
When I mention "playing politics," there are numerous examples and lessons to learn from. For instance, we see the American president and the Israeli prime minister sparring in the media, but they are playing politics, even during the worst moments.
The same applies to Iran and Hezbollah. Although they are pushing matters to the brink, or are being pushed there by Israel, they are still playing politics, as happened after Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
This also happened following Israel’s assassination of Iranian leaders in Syria and the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. To this day, Iran has yet to retaliate to his assassination. Instead, it is negotiating both secretly and openly. Most recently, the Supreme Leader allowed his government to hold negotiations with Washington on Iran’s nuclear program.
The same applies to Hezbollah, which has been on the receiving end of Israeli strikes almost daily, and has seen many of its leaders assassinated, whether in the heart of the southern suburbs of Beirut or in Syria. Despite all of Hassan Nasrallah's statements, he is "playing politics" for fear of an all-out war with Israel. Meanwhile, two parties in the region are unwilling and unable to "play politics:" the Houthis and Hamas. The Houthis are a different story, but Hamas is squandering the last opportunities to salvage whatever can be salvaged of the Palestinian cause as a whole.
It is true that Netanyahu is pushing matters to the brink because he has control on the ground. He has his military machine and wants to change the reality of the cause; rather, he wants to take us back to the pre-Oslo era, or worse. He seeks to extend his political life and will not genuinely compromise before the American presidential elections. All of this is true, but Hamas now has the opportunity to "play politics" and embarrass Netanyahu, both domestically and internationally, by cooperating with the Palestinian Authority. They could announce that the PA is responsible for Gaza and its administration, and authorize it to negotiate with Israel regarding the prisoners. Some might say this is impossible, that neither Iran nor Israel would accept this, and that the international community is not ready for it, especially not Washington. That all might be true, but it would also mean that Hamas has decided to "play politics," embarrass Netanyahu and everyone else, and maintain what remains of the Palestinian cause.
As the saying goes, if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Hamas should seriously consider supporting President Mahmoud Abbas's request to enter Gaza and preventing Netanyahu from imposing the rules of the day after.
We must remember that there can be no war without politics; otherwise, it becomes futile violence.