English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 09/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
Letter to the Ephesians 05/22-32/:"Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church."

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 08-09/2024
Text and Video: Rise Up to Congratulate Dr. Geagea for Dropping the Terrorist Label from Hezbollah/Elias Bejjani/September 8, 2024
Netanyahu vows to change the situation in the north: Hezbollah is Iran's strongest arm in the region
Netanyahu asks army to 'prepare to change situation' in north
Senior Israeli official: Campaign in Lebanon is approaching
Macron May Hold October Meeting on Lebanon
Southern Front: Alarming Escalation After Israeli Strikes Killed Civil Defense Members
Hezbollah fires rockets, Israel strikes after attack kills Lebanon rescuers
Hezbollah announces targeting Israeli settlements in response to southern Lebanon attacks
Al-Rahi warns of bid to seize 'Christian posts', urges support for Quint efforts
Bishop Awda: What do the obstructionists gain from obstruction and what is the benefit of mortgaging the presidency to small interests or condemning others and being arrogant towards them and taunting them for belonging, number or deviation?
MP Khawaja to LBCI: Berri's initiative could lead to electing a president in 10 days
A Broader UN Resolution Than 1701 Is Required for a South Settlement/Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/September 08/2024
Contractual Public Sector Teachers Call for Special Cabinet Session
Retired Military Personnel Threaten to Block Cabinet Meeting
Lebanese Soldier Found Dead Near Beirut Port
Israel-Hezbollah conflict: All-out war remains unlikely despite tensions, expert says/Ahaked Sadeh/Jerusalem Post/September 08/2024
Hezbollah creating 'new norm' in Israel's North with escalating rocket barrages/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/September 08/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 08-09/2024
Israel carries out intense strikes in central Syria, killing 4, state media says
Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim
Egypt condemns killing of activist by Israeli forces in the West Bank
Pact for $4.5m signed to aid 4,400 stranded Gazans in West Bank
Saudi interior minister received by Egyptian president
Suspicion: Were false Hamas documents leaked to foreign press to influence public opinion?
Israelis surge into streets again in protest as the toll in Gaza grows
Shooting attack at the West Bank-Jordan border crossing kills 3 Israelis
Biden administration should call out Egypt for helping smuggle supplies to Hamas
Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel
Starmer says US ‘understands’ UK decision to partly suspend Israeli arms sales
Pope to bring in a ton of humanitarian aid to remote Papua New Guinea as he celebrates periphery
Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
Iran’s president to visit Iraq on first foreign trip
Venezuelan opposition figure arrives in Spain
Sudan Rejects UN Call for Independent Force to Protect Civilians
Yemen's Houthi rebels claim they shot down another US MQ-9 drone

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 08-09/2024
Africa’s debt fatigue could lead to global catastrophe/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 08, 2024
Philadelphi Corridor is the latest refuge of Netanyahu/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/September 08/2024
Sinwar’s useful idiots/Gadi Taub/ JNS/September 8, 2024
Former PFLP hostage reveals what 1970 hijacking really looked like/MOSHE RAAB/Jerusalem Post/SEPTEMBER 8, 2024 02:23
The Oslo Effect: The Weaponization of Hostages to do Hamas's Dirty Work for It/Melanie Phillips/Gatestone Institute/September 08, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 08-09/2024
Text and Video: Rise Up to Congratulate Dr. Geagea for Dropping the Terrorist Label from Hezbollah
Elias Bejjani/September 8, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134178/
We were not at all surprised when Dr. Samir Geagea refrained from labeling Hezbollah as a terrorist organization during his interview with the Saudi journalist Tariq Al-Hamid on September 5th of this month, conducted via the “Al-Arabiya FM” website. In the interview, Al-Hamid asked Geagea about his reason for silencing his supporters who were loudly chanting “Hezbollah is a terrorist” during the speech he delivered at the martyrs’ mass celebration last week in his Maarab Headquarter. This  pro Hezbollah stance is not new or unexpected from Dr. Geagea; due to the fact that it is consistent with his long-standing position, which he frequently expresses, as do all the representatives and leaders of his party, most notably MP Melhem Riachi. They consider Hezbollah to be a Lebanese entity, represented in parliament, and reflecting its Shiite base. They even recognize Hezbollah's role in the 2000 liberation of the south and regard its killed members as martyrs of Lebanon, on par with the martyrs of the Lebanese Forces Party.
Furthermore, Geagea's MPs and officials often, and foolishly, boast about Israel being an enemy, whether prompted or not. We question whether such non-Lebanese positions are driven by Dhimmitude, cleverness, complicity, esotericism, or genuine convictions?. The answer is simple: they are bundles of hypocrisy, self-deception, and deceit of others, because Hezbollah openly and proudly declares its Persian identity, its Iranian project, and its absolute allegiance in doctrine, thought, belief, funding, and armament to the mullahs of Iran. The sad and ironic aspect of these submissive approaches is that they are gratuitous; Hezbollah does not pay any attention to them, and instead, accuses, demonizes, and despises their proponents and all its opponents. Mr. Nasrallah has repeatedly and publicly stated that those who do not support his so-called “resistance” and wars are not human beings.
How can we expect the world to help us liberate our country from the occupation of the terrorist and Iranian Hezbollah when we are afraid to call it what it openly declares itself to be?
Here, we must draw Dr. Geagea’s attention, as well as others who are immersed in slanderous, esoteric, and surrenders positions, to the fact that many Arab and Western countries classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and have placed it on their terrorism lists. Do we expect these countries to help us while we continue to flatter Hezbollah and drop the terrorist label from it?
We ask, is he not a “terrorist” who assassinated Pascal Sleiman and Elias al-Hasrouni, among hundreds of others before and after them, invaded Ain al-Rummaneh, Beirut, and the Mountain, declared war on Israel, suspended the constitution, stole property, dismantled the state, and prostituted its institutions?  Hezbollah is a professional in manufacturing and exporting all things forbidden and prohibited, carries out terrorist operations in many countries, fights in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, blew up the port of Beirut, stole the money of the Lebanese—and the list goes on and on.
The writer is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Contact: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Netanyahu vows to change the situation in the north: Hezbollah is Iran's strongest arm in the region
LBCI/September 08/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Hezbollah is Iran's strongest arm in the region during his weekly cabinet meeting. He revealed that he had ordered the Israeli military and security forces to prepare for a shift in the current situation in northern Israel, indicating potential escalation. "We are working to ensure that Hamas does not regain control of Gaza," Netanyahu stated, emphasizing significant progress in weakening the group's military capabilities, according to the Israeli Maariv newspaper. He added that discussions are ongoing about the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, suggesting that once Hamas loses control over aid distribution, it will lose its grip on power. Netanyahu reiterated his claim that Hezbollah in Lebanon represents the most formidable extension of Iranian influence in the region. He stressed the need for Israel to change the status quo, particularly in the north, where tensions with Hezbollah have escalated. "We are committed to ensuring the safety of all northern residents and returning them to their homes," he added. In a previous statement released by his office, Netanyahu remarked that Israel is surrounded by what he called a "murderous ideology led by the Iranian axis of evil." Referring to the recent attack at the Allenby Bridge, in which a Jordanian truck driver killed three Israeli citizens, Netanyahu described it as a "difficult day" and accused the attacker of "cold-blooded murder." In his address, Netanyahu also warned of internal divisions within Israel, accusing Hamas of using psychological warfare to sow discord among Israeli citizens, particularly families of hostages. "Their goal is to divide us, to create internal and external political pressure, and to continue the war indefinitely," he said, pledging that Israel would not be defeated.

Netanyahu asks army to 'prepare to change situation' in north
Naharnet/September 08/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that he has instructed the army and security forces to prepare to change the situation on Lebanon’s border, where Israel has been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah since October 8 last year.
“Iran's strongest arm is Hezbollah in Lebanon. I have instructed the IDF (army) and all security forces to prepare to change this situation. There is no possibility that we will continue in the current situation, and we are obligated to safely return all the residents of the north to their homes,” Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet session, according to Israel’s Channel 12. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly vowed to act to return its citizens through war or diplomatic action. The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians. Israel and Hezbollah had on August 25 exchanged heavy fire that briefly raised fears of an all-out war. On that day, Israel said around 100 warplanes launched airstrikes targeting hundreds of rocket launchers across southern Lebanon to thwart an imminent Hezbollah attack. Hezbollah for its part said it launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israeli military and security bases, including at a key intelligence base in Tel Aviv’s suburbs. Hezbollah called the attack a response to the killing of one of its top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs in July. The August 25 exchange of fire did not set off a long-feared war, and the heavy firepower and lack of civilian casualties allowed both sides to claim a sort of victory and step back. But tensions remain high. Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies, each backed by Iran. Israel has responded with airstrikes. Israel has vowed to bring quiet to the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It says it prefers to resolve the issue diplomatically through U.S. and other mediators but will use force if necessary. Hezbollah officials have said the group does not seek a wider war but is prepared for one. Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting all parts of Israel. It has also developed an increasingly sophisticated fleet of drones and has been experimenting with precision-guided missiles. A full-scale war could force hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee, paralyze the Israeli economy and force the army, which is still engaged in Gaza, to fight on two fronts. Israel has vowed a crushing response to any major Hezbollah attack that would likely devastate Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and economy, which has been mired in crisis for years. Beirut's southern suburbs, and towns and villages across southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's main strongholds are located, would likely be flattened. An Israeli ground invasion to root out Hezbollah could drag on for years. The militant group is far more advanced and better-armed than Hamas in Gaza, which is still putting up a fight after 10 months of intense Israeli bombardment and ground maneuvers.

Senior Israeli official: Campaign in Lebanon is approaching
Naharnet/September 08/2024
A senior Israeli security official told Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday that "the campaign in Lebanon is getting closer, although the exact timing has not yet been determined." According to the security source, Israel faces two scenarios: “reaching a deal (with Hamas over a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange) or collapsing the negotiations and quickly entering a direct war against Hezbollah.”According to the senior official, the first scenario is “reaching a deal, a situation in which Israel will be able to choose its preferred timing for future action against Hezbollah targets.”“Within this scenario, there is hope that Hezbollah will refrain from firing during this period, which will allow the IDF (Israeli army) to complete its preparations in an optimal way and plan the next moves carefully. The clear advantage of this scenario is the possibility of operating under more favorable conditions for Israel,” the official said. “The second scenario is the collapse of the negotiations (with Hamas). In such a situation, it is expected that Hezbollah will continue firing at the northern settlements, which may force Israel to enter into action more quickly, under less favorable conditions for it,” the official added. The security source emphasized that the Israeli army is in “the final stages of completing preparations for the possible campaign.”“The comprehensive preparations include extensive ground preparations, alongside preparation for all possible types of attack. According to him, the army is ready for any scenario and completes preparations both on the ground and in the air. The extent of the preparations indicates the seriousness of the intentions on the part of Israel and the understanding that the next campaign could be complex and challenging,” Channel 12 said. The security source noted that Israel is responding to Hezbollah's fire and is hitting the organization "in an unpleasant way." However, he emphasized that despite the tactical “successes,” a significant strategic achievement has not yet been achieved.
The security source also emphasized that the damage caused to Hezbollah is “significant.”
“The raiding force of the Radwan force, the organization's elite unit, was damaged, and dramatic damage was caused to the infrastructure along the border. This damage to Hezbollah's operational capabilities may affect its ability to operate in the future,” the source said. “Furthermore, most of the Radwan force retreated beyond the Litani River, which indicates the significant impact of the IDF's operations on the deployment of Hezbollah's forces,” the source added. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly vowed to act to return its citizens through war or diplomatic action. The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians. Israel and Hezbollah had on August 25 exchanged heavy fire that briefly raised fears of an all-out war. On that day, Israel said around 100 warplanes launched airstrikes targeting hundreds of rocket launchers across southern Lebanon to thwart an imminent Hezbollah attack. Hezbollah for its part said it launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israeli military and security bases, including at a key intelligence base in Tel Aviv’s suburbs. Hezbollah called the attack a response to the killing of one of its top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs in July.
The August 25 exchange of fire did not set off a long-feared war, and the heavy firepower and lack of civilian casualties allowed both sides to claim a sort of victory and step back. But tensions remain high. Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies, each backed by Iran. Israel has responded with airstrikes. Israel has vowed to bring quiet to the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It says it prefers to resolve the issue diplomatically through U.S. and other mediators but will use force if necessary. Hezbollah officials have said the group does not seek a wider war but is prepared for one.

Macron May Hold October Meeting on Lebanon
This Is Beirut/September 08/2024
French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly planning to hold a meeting dedicated to Lebanon, on the margins of the Francophone summit hosted by France on October 4 and 5. According to French diplomatic sources quoted by Chahir Idriss for Houna Loubnan, the aim of this extraordinary meeting would be to urge the countries taking part in the summit to help Lebanon solve its own problems, notably an unprecedented economic crisis, a destructive war into which Hezbollah has dragged it on its southern border, and a presidential deadlock that is paralyzing its constitutional institutions. Despite its own internal crises, France remains concerned by the Lebanese issue, and is endeavoring through its ongoing contacts with Saudi Arabia and Iran, notably through the special presidential envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to convince Riyadh to resume a leading role in the country. According to the same source, Mr. Le Drian’s meeting with the Saudi royal court advisor in charge of the Lebanese dossier, Nizar Alaoula, on Thursday, did not produce any new ideas for resolving the presidential deadlock, but it remains important for building momentum, especially if an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza is reached. France, the sources highlighted, remains committed to the implementation of Resolution 1701 following the achievement of a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave and in southern Lebanon.

Southern Front: Alarming Escalation After Israeli Strikes Killed Civil Defense Members
AFP/September 08/2024
Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces traded cross-border attacks a day after the Lebanese Health Ministry reported three civil defense members killed in an Israeli attack. The Iran-backed group said that it bombarded the northern Israeli town of “Kiryat Shmona twice with a volley of Falaq rockets” early on Sunday “in response to the enemy attacks… and particularly the attack that killed civil defense members in the Lebanese village of Froun.” It also fired rockets at the Israeli community of Shamir, near Kiryat Shmona. At around 1:15 AM, the Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike targeting Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district with two missiles, and Yaroun. Maroun al-Ras was also subjected to an airstrike, causing a power outage in the cities of Bint Jbeil and Ainata. For its part, the Israeli army stated that “the Iron Dome intercepted rockets fired by Hezbollah at Kiryat Shmona.” The Israeli army radio announced that “Hezbollah targeted northern Israel last night with three waves of rockets, one of which hit a building in Kiryat Shmona.” It also noted that “Hezbollah launched about 100 rockets toward northern Israel over the past 24 hours.” Moreover, the Israeli military announced on Sunday morning that it had carried out a series of airstrikes on “Hezbollah military structures” and intercepted projectiles launched from Lebanon during the night. On Saturday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others were wounded, one of them critically, in an Israeli strike on Froun. The ministry said the attack targeted “a Lebanese civil defense team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes,” while the Israeli military said the strike “eliminated terrorists” from the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement in Froun. Lebanon’s civil defense agency said three of its employees were killed in “an Israeli strike that targeted a firefighting vehicle after they had finished a firefighting mission.” Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying in a statement that “this new aggression against Lebanon is a blatant violation of international laws… and human values.”
The Amal movement, Hezbollah’s ally, said two of its members were among the dead in Saturday’s strike. It said they were killed “while carrying out their humanitarian and national duty defending Lebanon and the south.”The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally. A statement from Lebanese Minister of Health Firass Abiad said that “due to the (Israeli) aggression,” 27 emergency personnel and health workers have been killed, and 94 others have been wounded since October. Two hospitals and 21 health centers have been “targeted,” while 32 fire or ambulance vehicles have been “put out of service or partially damaged,” the statement said, urging an end to the “repeated and deliberate targeting of health workers and civilians.”

Hezbollah fires rockets, Israel strikes after attack kills Lebanon rescuers
AFP/September 08, 2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces traded cross-border attacks, both sides said early Sunday, a day after the Lebanese health ministry reported three rescuers killed in an Israeli attack. The Iran-backed Lebanese movement has exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, with repeated escalations during 11 months of the cross-border violence. Hezbollah said it had bombarded the northern Israeli town of “Kiryat Shmona with a volley of Falaq rockets” early Sunday “in response to the enemy attacks... and particularly the attack” that killed the emergency workers in the Lebanese village of Froun. On Saturday, Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others wounded, one of them critically, in an Israeli strike on Froun.
The ministry said the attack had targeted “a Lebanese civil defense team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes,” while the Israeli military said it had “eliminated terrorists” from the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement in Froun. Lebanon’s civil defense agency said three of its employees were killed in “an Israeli strike that targeted a firefighting vehicle after they had finished a firefighting mission.” Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying in a statement that “this new aggression against Lebanon is a blatant violation of international laws... and human values.”Separately on Sunday, Hezbollah said that its fighters had also fired rockets at the Israeli community of Shamir, near Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah usually says it targets military positions in northern Israel, while Israel has said it targets Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters in south and east Lebanon. The Israeli military on Sunday morning announced it had carried out a series of air strikes on “Hezbollah military structures” and intercepted projectiles launched from Lebanon during the night.
Rescuers killed by Israeli fire
In Froun on Saturday, a military statement said Israeli forces “struck and eliminated” Amal members who “operated within a Hezbollah military structure.”Hezbollah ally the Amal movement said two of its members were among the dead in Saturday’s strike. It said they were killed “while carrying out their humanitarian and national duty defending Lebanon and the south.”The Lebanese health ministry statement condemned the “blatant Israeli attack that targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state.”It added that the attack was “the second of its kind against an emergency team in less than 12 hours.”Earlier Saturday, the ministry said two emergency personnel from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were wounded when “the Israeli enemy deliberately targeted” near a fire they were heading to extinguish in south Lebanon’s Qabrikha, causing their vehicle to swerve. Several militant groups operate health centers and emergency response operations in south Lebanon. Hezbollah had announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Saturday, including with Katyusha rockets and “explosives-laden drones,” some in a stated response to “Israeli enemy attacks” on south Lebanon. The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
A statement from Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said that “due to the (Israeli) aggression,” 27 emergency personnel and health workers have been killed and 94 others wounded since October. Two hospitals and 21 health centers have been “targeted,” while 32 fire or ambulance vehicles have been “put out of service or partially damaged,” the statement said, urging an end to the “repeated and deliberate targeting of health workers and civilians.”

Hezbollah announces targeting Israeli settlements in response to southern Lebanon attacks
LBCI/September 08/2024
Hezbollah announced it launched multiple rocket attacks on Israeli settlements in retaliation for recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon. In a series of statements, the group said it targeted Kiryat Shmona settlement with a barrage of Falaq rockets. Later, it confirmed a second round of rocket fire, using Katyusha rockets against Shamir settlement. A third statement revealed a second, intensified attack on Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah said the strikes were in response to “the enemy’s attacks on the steadfast southern villages and peaceful homes,” specifically citing the Israeli attack on Froun town. It added that the airstrikes had resulted in multiple casualties, including martyrs and injured members of the Civil Defense.

Al-Rahi warns of bid to seize 'Christian posts', urges support for Quint efforts
Naharnet/September 08/2024
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned of a perceived attempt to take over "Christian state posts," calling on the political parties to cooperate with the efforts of the five-nation group for Lebanon regarding the presidential election file. "The vacuum, which seems deliberate, is leaving major negative repercussions on the national level, topped by the irregularity of institutions, the administration's disintegration, the violation of laws and norms, and the targeting of Christian, especially Maronite, state posts, in preparation for taking them over, which has started to threaten the formula of partnership and equal powersharing in governance and administration," al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. "Everyone is awaiting the foreign initiatives, which we are grateful for, but these initiatives should not replace the will of the Lebanese and their representatives in parliament," the patriarch added. "It is lamentable and shameful for the election of a president to remain the captive of bets on foreign forces or on imaginary foreign junctures or developments, and some parliamentary blocs should not remain prisoners of their narrow and wrong bets," al-Rahi went on to say. He accordingly added that domestic efforts are needed in order to secure the success of foreign initiatives, "topped by the efforts of the five-nation committee for Lebanon."The Quintet "has resumed its efforts related to the presidential juncture this week and we wish them success through the cooperation of parliament," al-Rahi said. He added that parliament "remains the first and only side responsible for finalizing this juncture and putting an end to the incorrect, unfamiliar and rogue political situation in Lebanon."

Bishop Awda: What do the obstructionists gain from obstruction and what is the benefit of mortgaging the presidency to small interests or condemning others and being arrogant towards them and taunting them for belonging, number or deviation?
NNA/September 08/2024 (Translated from Arabic by Google site)
The Metropolitan of Beirut  for the Greek Orthodox, Elias Awda, presided over a mass at the Cathedral of Saint George in Beirut. After the Gospel, here is some of what was said in his sermon: "In today's Gospel, we heard a verse that expresses the essence of the entire Gospel and the preaching of the Lord Jesus in its entirety. With the birth of the Virgin, we begin our journey towards the Kingdom, and with our acceptance of the incarnation of the Son of God and our faith in Him, we declare our acceptance of the Kingdom. This is the hope and promise of eternal life that today's Gospel speaks of." He said: “If our Lord and Creator loved man to the point of redeeming him, and sacrificed his only son to save him, how can a man despise his fellow man, neglect him, wrong him or abuse him? And how can a ruler ignore the problems of citizens when he is the one who wanted to assume responsibility and has the power? Isn’t it appropriate for the ruler, the leader and every leader who has appointed himself to a position of responsibility to pay attention to the affairs of his brothers and work for their good and if necessary, redeem them? And to pay attention to the affairs of his country and work sincerely to make it a paradise for its inhabitants, redeeming time, not paying attention to pettiness and grudges. In Lebanese politics, time no longer has value and man is no longer the focus of life, but interest. They steal the lives and dreams of the Lebanese, waste their money, dismantle their administrations, weaken their institutions and obstruct entitlements for reasons they know. What do the obstructionists gain from obstruction? And what is the benefit of mortgaging the presidency to petty interests, or condemning others, looking down on them and taunting them for affiliation, number or deviation? “This harms the whole country and its people? Is there anything more beautiful than meeting around a noble cause? Is there anything more noble than the cause of the homeland and its interest?” He concluded: “We must remember that this earthly life is not our goal, and that we have a goal, which is to reign with God in Paradise, as the Virgin did with her faith, obedience, love, and abandonment of her ego for the good of humanity, and who stands before us as a living example and a role model for us to follow in order to win eternal life and the precious treasure that does not perish.”

MP Khawaja to LBCI: Berri's initiative could lead to electing a president in 10 days
LBCI/September 08/2024
MP Mohammad Khawaja stressed the urgent need for Lebanon to elect a president, stating that if Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's initiative is followed, the country could have a president within ten days. On LBCI's "Nharkom Said" TV show, Khawaja said Berri made two amendments to his initiative. Khawaja said the proposed dialogue was set for up to seven days but has now been shortened to a few days, and Berri has called for consecutive voting sessions until a president is elected. "To avoid a repeat of the stalemate seen during the previous 12 presidential election sessions, Speaker Berri wants to secure a moral commitment from parliamentary blocs not to withdraw from the sessions," Khawaja added. He acknowledged no new developments regarding the presidential file but emphasized, "We, as Lebanese, have the opportunity to elect a president made in Lebanon, by our own will."Furthermore, Khawaja addressed the ongoing discussions about electoral reform, noting that the Development and Liberation Bloc submitted a proposal six years ago to move Lebanon away from sectarianism gradually. The proposal would make Lebanon a single electoral district under proportional representation to modernize the political system. He highlighted that Berri has called for a review of the electoral law to amend electoral districts. Khawaja also stated that expatriates participated in the previous parliamentary elections and had a notable influence. Commenting on regional issues, Khawaja argued that Israel is incapable of waging a major war without US support.  He noted that the US is unlikely to support a large-scale conflict in the region due to its involvement in the Ukraine war and tensions in the South China Sea. He warned that the fall of the West Bank and the displacement of its residents would lead to the complete eradication of the Palestinian cause.

A Broader UN Resolution Than 1701 Is Required for a South Settlement
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/September 08/2024
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affaires Abdallah Bou Habib made a statement suggesting that Israel might not stop its military operations in southern Lebanon, even if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. In an interview with Al Jazeera English, the foreign minister based his remarks on statements from Israeli officials and messages conveyed to Lebanon by the United States, France and other countries. These messages consistently emphasized that Israel gave no guarantees that a ceasefire in Gaza would extend to southern Lebanon, as it is seeking a long-term solution that allows residents of its northern settlements to return to their homes and live in stability. In this context, Israel sent a letter to the UN Security Council, urging Lebanon to implement Resolution 1701. The Lebanese side responded with a letter affirming that implementation must occur from both sides, not just Lebanon. Reports suggest that Lebanon fears the war in its southern region could continue indefinitely, or at least as long as the conflict in Gaza persists. This places a significant burden on the Lebanese people, worsening the suffering of the southern population and further weakening the state, especially if the presidential elections remain deadlocked. In parallel, Lebanon is reportedly seeking a fair agreement with Israel to end military operations in southern Lebanon, regardless of the situation in Gaza. However, the specifics of such a deal remain unclear, as neither Hezbollah nor Israel has publicly shown readiness to take this step. While both sides seem to want it, Hezbollah faces the dilemma that agreeing to such a deal could be seen as retreating from its so-called “support front,” which might be perceived as a defeat. Meanwhile, Israel is hesitant to move forward without firm guarantees of the deal’s success. Despite the acknowledged challenges, the Americans remain committed to pursuing a breakthrough. Amos Hochstein, Senior Advisor to the US President, is prepared to act as soon as a ceasefire in Gaza is announced. His goal is to secure a resolution for southern Lebanon that would extend beyond 1701, especially if it involves new arrangements on both sides of the border. This may require a new resolution from the UN Security Council.

Contractual Public Sector Teachers Call for Special Cabinet Session
This Is Beirut/September 08/2024
The Committee of Contractual Teachers in the Public Sector has called for a Cabinet session dedicated to public education, specifically focused on the following points: increasing teachers’ salaries to be equivalent to those of professors at the Lebanese University, raising the wages of contract teachers, and funding school budgets at the national level. In a statement released on Sunday addressing the Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and the members of his government, the committee stated that they bear a “national responsibility to save the public education sector from collapse and to review the rights of students and teachers.” According to the contract teachers, this issue “should have been addressed months ago, not at the beginning of the school year.”

Retired Military Personnel Threaten to Block Cabinet Meeting
Lebanese Soldier Found Dead Near Beirut Port
This Is Beirut/September 08/2024
The Retired Military Personnel announced in a statement on Sunday that they will prevent the Council of Ministers from convening and from holding any governmental meetings unless the top item on its agenda is the reform of their salaries to ensure equality, in accordance with the law, for all categories of public sector employees and retirees. A Cabinet session is set to be held on Tuesday, September 10, at 9 AM at the Grand Serail. This action comes in light of “the suffering, hunger, poverty, and humiliation endured by retirees and military personnel, both in service and in retirement, and because we can no longer endure this suffering,” the statement said. In their address to the Prime Minister and ministers, the retirees stated that this action was decided to achieve justice and a dignified life. “We have been humiliated by the government’s policy of discriminatory treatment,” they said, calling on each minister to take a clear stance on this issue. “Their participation in government meetings that do not deal with this matter contributes to the destruction of the state and military institutions,” they added.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict: All-out war remains unlikely despite tensions, expert says
Ahaked Sadeh/Jerusalem Post/September 08/2024
The dynamic between Israel and Hezbollah was a delicate one in which both sides
The chances of an all-out confrontation with Hezbollah soon are below 50%, Middle East expert, professor Amatzia Baram told Maariv on Sunday. He added that both sides exercise significant restraint to avoid a full-scale war. Baram explained that the relationship between Israel and Hezbollah is delicate, with both parties escalating military operations cautiously and incrementally. Despite frequent tensions that might suggest an imminent conflict, Baram emphasized that neither side genuinely seeks war. “Hezbollah constantly expands its activities slightly, and we react similarly. Both sides are escalating, but also avoiding reaching a full confrontation.” Baram also addressed Iran’s influence on Hezbollah and noted that Tehran understands that the time for an all-out war has not arrived. “My assessment is that even Iran does not want the conflict to develop into an all-out war,” Baram explained.
He added that for [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei, Israel is “disintegrating from within,” “with demonstrations, division and hostilities within the country.” However, he also pointed out that Israel’s military capabilities and air force strength serve as a clear signal to Hezbollah that now is not the time to initiate a military operation. Hezbollah also understands the situation, Baram affirmed. “[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah understands very well what is happening here. He has Hebrew-speaking operatives who provide him with full information about what is happening. Both he and Iran see that relations with the US are getting worse, but not in a way sufficient to justify an all-out confrontation. Therefore, even though we are getting closer to a conflict, the chance of an all-out war in the coming months is less than 50%.”
“The government is not interested in entering into a war on two fronts, and the Americans are pressuring us not to escalate the situation into an all-out war,” he said. “This also stems from the internal political considerations of the US – elections are approaching, and the war in the Middle East may have negative consequences for Kamala Harris’s chances of being elected.”
Iran's understanding
On the other hand, Iran also has an understanding of the devastating consequences an all-out war may have. “Khamenei warns Nasrallah not to enter into a full conflict because it is clear that if this happens, Lebanon will be completely destroyed – the economic and industrial infrastructure will be severely damaged,” Baram affirmed. This comes as the IDF has expanded its operational freedom on the northern front, partly due to intense public pressure from residents of the North. “The Chief of Staff gives the local commanders more freedom of action, including a license to kill Hezbollah operatives,” said Baram. “The pressure on the government and the army on behalf of the residents of the area, who are under fire and have not been evacuated, is enormous. Therefore, the commanders are given a license to act more aggressively, but within the limits of the border.” According to Baram, Hezbollah faces significant limitations with regard to its intelligence capabilities and its military precision, leading to indiscriminate firing at civilian communities. “Hezbollah does not have the level of intelligence and precision that Israel has. Therefore, it acts against both military and civilian targets. He cited the example of the rocket barrage on Katzrin as evidence of Hezbollah’s inability to hit military targets accurately. Baram emphasized the need for a clear and determined Israeli response if Hezbollah continues to expand the scope of its attacks on settlements that have not been evacuated. “If they continue to attack communities that have not been evacuated, we must respond more forcefully” and send a diplomatic warning, Baram noted. If Israel does not do so, Hezbollah may expand its range of fire and “fire regularly” at places as far south as “Tiberias,” Baram stated.

Hezbollah creating 'new norm' in Israel's North with escalating rocket barrages - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/September 08/2024
The attack illustrates that Hezbollah is trying to up the threshold of its attacks and create a new kind of “norm” in the north, such that fifty or 100 rockets fired in a day may become a norm. Hezbollah launched more than fifty rockets on Sunday morning, targeting northern Israel. The rockets triggered sirens in communities near the northern border, including in Kiryat Shmona. The Iranian-backed terrorist group claimed the attacks were in response to what it said was a “massacre” in Froun in southern Lebanon, a village it said Israel had struck. The attacks followed reports from Lebanon of casualties in Froun. “The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said three emergency workers were killed in the attack as they tried to contain a fire in the town of Froun, Nabatieh district. It said the attack was the second time an ambulance team had been targeted within 12 hours and was a violation of international law,” CNN reported.
According to a Hezbollah statement, which was reported at Al-Ain media, the group used Falaq rockets in the attacks. These have become more common in Hezbollah’s arsenal during the war. It was a Falaq rocket that killed twelve kids and teens in Majdal Shams in July. This time, Hezbollah targeted Kiryat Shmona with the rockets, which have a heavy warhead but relatively short range. There are two types of Falaq rockets: the Falaq-1 and Falaq-2. The Falaq-1 is based on an Iranian design with a warhead of around 50kg, while the second version has a much larger warhead. They have a range of around 10km.
Hezbollah claimed that an IDF attack in the area of Froun and Ghandouriyeh in southern Lebanon had led to casualties among local civil defense personnel.“The Hezbollah attacks were launched against Israeli bases in response to the killing of three Lebanese relief workers,” Iranian state media reported.  “Hezbollah bombarded Kiryat Shmona with an intense barrage of rockets. It also bombarded the settlement of Shamir with barrages of Katyusha rockets at dawn,” the report at Al-Ain said.
Shamir is a community in the Hula Valley; Hezbollah only recently added to a “list” of sites it has been attacking in northern Israel. Unlike Kiryat Shmona, which was evacuated in October 2023, Shamir has not been evacuated.
Hezbollah also targeted Misgav Am, Manara, and Kfar Giladi in its attacks. A new norm
In recent days, Hezbollah has escalated attacks. This follows the major escalation in August when it fired hundreds of rockets at Israel. That attack was also a Hezbollah “retaliation” for the killing of a commander in Beirut. The killing of the commander, Fuad Shukr, was itself an IDF retaliation for the attack on Majdal Shams. In this war with Hezbollah, the group always pretends to be retaliating when it is the one escalating. Hezbollah’s attacks began early in the morning and continued through 5:30 a.m. Overall, around fifty rockets were fired. The attack illustrates that Hezbollah is trying to up the threshold of its attacks and create a new kind of “norm” in the north, such that fifty or 100 rockets fired in a day may become a norm. Hezbollah has reduced the number of drones it has been using in recent weeks. This is a shift in trend after it used a large number of drones from April through June. The group has also continued to shift its tactics, focusing on new areas that it has been bombarding with rockets. These are unguided rockets intended to terrorize civilians, even though Hezbollah often claims it is targeting military targets. The goal of Hezbollah is to try to increase the “pain” that Israel is feeling from these attacks without leading to a broader war. Hezbollah also knows that even if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, it will be hard for Israel to return the north to the pre-October 7 peace that largely prevailed since 2006.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 08-09/2024
Israel carries out intense strikes in central Syria, killing 4, state media says
Albert Aji/Sun, September 8, 2024
DAMASCUS (AP) — A series of Israeli strikes hit multiple areas in central Syria late Sunday, killing at least four people, wounding 13 and sparking fires, state media reported. Syria state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defenses “confronted an aggression that targeted several points in the central region," damaging a highway in Hama province and sparking fires that firefighting teams were battling to control early Monday. At least four dead and 13 wounded people arrived at the Masyaf National Hospital in western Hamas province, SANA said, citing hospital head Faysal Haydar. It was not immediately clear if they were civilians or militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported that one of the strikes targeted a scientific research center in Maysaf and other sites where “Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria.” Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups. Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas — an ally of Hezbollah — in Gaza.

Gaza war in its 12th month with truce hopes slim
AFP/September 08, 2024
The chances of a truce that would swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appeared slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children. The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12th month Saturday with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held there. The chances of a truce that would swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appeared slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war, which authorities in Gaza say has killed at least 40,939 people.According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children. Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Scores were released during a one-week truce in November. Israel’s announcement last Sunday that the bodies of six hostages including a US-Israeli citizen had been recovered shortly after being killed sparked grief and anger in Israel. Thousands of demonstrators rallied on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, demanding the government secure the release of hostages. They carried banners that read “The blood is on your hands” and “Who’s next.”International pressure to end the war was further underlined by Friday’s fatal shooting in the occupied West Bank of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the territory. Eygi’s family demanded an independent investigation into her death, saying her life “was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military.”The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi, 26, with a “shot in the head.”
Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” while the United States called her death “tragic” and pressed Israel to investigate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Israel as a “barbaric” state and urged Muslim nations to forge an “alliance” against Israel, saying: “It is an Islamic duty for us to stand against Israel’s state terror. It is a religious duty.”Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded by saying that Erdogan “continues to throw the Turkish people into the fire of hatred and violence for the sake of his Hamas friends.”
Around 490,000 people live in Israeli settlements — illegal under international law — in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 690 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israel says at least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, were killed during the same period in Palestinian attacks.
Eygi’s killing came on the day Israeli forces withdrew from a deadly 10-day raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, where AFP journalists reported residents returning home to widespread destruction. The pullout came with Israel at loggerheads with the United States over talks to forge a truce in the Gaza war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “90 percent is agreed” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a deal. Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”Hamas is demanding Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, saying the group agreed months ago to a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden. AFP reporters said air strikes and shelling rocked Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 17 people according to civil defense officials, the Palestinian Red Crescent and witnesses. Among those who died were a woman and a child in an air strike north of Gaza City, while four people were killed in another strike targeting a flat in Bureij camp. In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, the civil defense said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people killed at least three people and wounded more than 20. Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, also exchanged fire. Hezbollah had announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Saturday, while Israel’s military said it had intercepted missiles detected crossing from Lebanon and struck a Hezbollah launch site in the country’s south.
Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed and two others wounded in an Israeli attack on a civil defense team putting out fires in south Lebanon. Hezbollah later announced retaliatory rocket fire targeting a town in northern Israel “in response to the enemy attacks... and particularly the attack” that killed the emergency workers.

Egypt condemns killing of activist by Israeli forces in the West Bank
Gobran Mohammed/Arab News/September 08, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt condemned the killing of US-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces in the West Bank. Ahmed Abu Zeid, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the killing of Eygi, which occurred south of Nablus. In a statement issued by the ministry, Abu Zeid extended his condolences to the Turkish government and people and offered his sympathies to the family of the deceased. He said the death is a further example of the daily Israeli violations against Palestinian civilians and their supporters, adding to the various forms of violence and disregard for human rights they face in the occupied Palestinian territories. He also condemned the moral crisis faced by the international community due to the atrocities committed against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories over decades. Eygi, 26, was shot and killed on Friday in the village of Beita, near Nablus, during a nonviolent protest against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and escalating settler violence against Palestinian homes and landowners.

Pact for $4.5m signed to aid 4,400 stranded Gazans in West Bank
Reuters/September 08, 2024
CAIRO: The Qatar Red Crescent and the UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) signed an agreement on Sunday, with $4.5 million from a Qatari state development fund, to aid more than 4,400 stranded Palestinian workers and patients from Gaza in the West Bank.
“Cash assistance will represent vital support for those displaced who have not been able to return to the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Strip last October,” a statement from the Qatar’s state news agency said. “Thousands of Palestine refugees from Gaza remain trapped in the West Bank, trapped in this crisis situation, stranded from their loved ones and livelihoods,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said. Since Israel’s blockade of Gaza began in 2007, movement in and out of the Strip has been heavily restricted, forcing individuals to seek medical care, education, or jobs in the West Bank, while escalating violence often closes borders, trapping those in need of essential services.

Saudi interior minister received by Egyptian president
Arab News/September 08, 2024
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Interior Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on Sunday. During the meeting, relations between the Kingdom and Egypt and security cooperation between the two countries were reviewed. Prince Abdulaziz arrived in Egypt on Saturday evening.

Suspicion: Were false Hamas documents leaked to foreign press to influence public opinion?
Israel National News/September 08, 2024
The IDF opened an internal investigation over the weekend into documents that were found as loot in Gaza and were leaked to the foreign press after being manipulated and changed to push a narrative regarding the negotiations to release hostages in an attempt to influence public opinion. The original report regarding the documents was published in the British Jewish Chronicle and additional details were published on Friday by the Bild, Germany's largest newspaper. The two reports claimed to reveal secret internal Hamas documents, supposedly from Yahya Sinwar's computer. According to both reports, the documents reflect Sinwar's strategy, as Netanyahu claimed in an address and interviews last week, according to which the Hamas leader is trying to sow division in Israeli society, is not interested in reaching a deal, and intends on smuggling hostages out of Gaza through the Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt and then to Iran. Upon investigation, it was found that the document published by the Bild was not Sinwar's and did not come from his computer, but rather stemmed from a lecture by a mid-ranking figure in the terror organization. The IDF Spokesperson stated: "An examination over the weekend found that the document published by the Bild newspaper was found about five months ago. The document is an old document written as a suggestion by mid-ranking officials in Hamas and not by Sinwar. The information from the document joined similar documents that we had in the past, does not constitute new information, and after inquiry, its publication was not a mistake. The information on the matter was presented to the decision-makers several times, even before the above-mentioned document was found. The leak of the document is a severe infringement and it will be investigated by the authorized bodies."

Israelis surge into streets again in protest as the toll in Gaza grows
Associated Press/September 08, 2024
Huge numbers of Israelis again poured into the streets to protest the government's failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza, while hospital and local authorities said Israeli air raids in the territory killed more than a dozen people overnight into Saturday.
The new protest came a week after one of the largest demonstrations of the war following the discovery of another six dead hostages in Gaza, and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against pressure for a cease-fire deal and declared that "no one will preach to me." "I think even those who were maybe reluctant to go out, who are not used to protest, who are sad but prefer to be in private space within their sadness, understood our voice must join together to one huge scream: Bring the hostages with a deal. Do not risk their lives," said one protester in Tel Aviv, Efrat Machikawa, niece of hostage Gadi Moses.Israel has been under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a cease-fire deal, but Netanyahu insists on continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza's border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons. Egypt and Hamas deny it. Inside Gaza, health workers wrapped up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak. The drive, launched after the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system. The third phase of vaccinations will be in the north. Israel kept up its military offensive. In central Gaza's urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of nine people killed in two air raids. One hit a residential building, killing four people and wounding at least 10, while five people were killed in a strike on a house in western Nuseirat. Separately, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, central Gaza's main hospital, said a woman and her two children were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby urban refugee camp of Bureij. In northern Gaza, an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in the town of Jabaliya killed at least four people and wounded about two dozen others, according to Gaza's Civil Defense authority, which operates under the territory's Hamas-run government. Israel's military said it struck a Hamas command post embedded in a former school compound.
The war began when Hamas and other militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, allegedly killing around 1,200 people including civilians. Hamas is believed to still be holding more than 100 hostages. Israeli authorities estimate about a third are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry says more than 94,000 people have been wounded. Violence has also spiked in the occupied West Bank. A dayslong military operation in Jenin left dozens of dead. A day after an American protester was shot and killed in the West Bank, her family urged President Joe Biden to order an independent investigation, saying that "given the circumstances of (her) killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate." Their statement called the 26-year-old recent university graduate a "ray of sunshine" and an advocate for human dignity. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who also holds Turkish nationality, was shot in the head, two Palestinian doctors said. She had been demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Witnesses said she was shot during a moment of calm following earlier clashes. The White House has said it was "deeply disturbed" and called on Israel to investigate. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an "instigator of violent activity." More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967. Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have left more than 690 Palestinians dead since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, according to Palestinian health officials. In Gaza, Hamas has accused Israel of dragging out cease-fire negotiations by issuing new demands. Hamas has offered to release all hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants — broadly the terms called for under an outline for a deal put forward by Biden in July.

Shooting attack at the West Bank-Jordan border crossing kills 3 Israelis
AP/September 08, 2024
ALLENBY CROSSING, West Bank: Three Israelis were shot and killed Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said, in what appeared to be an attack linked to the 11-month-old war in Gaza. Israel's military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed him in a shootout. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said the three Israelis were all men in their 50s. Relatives identified the gunman as Maher al-Jazi, a retired Jordanian soldier from Athroh, a town in the impoverished area of Maan. Jordan is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra News Agency reported. The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza. The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and international tourists, as well as for cargo shipments. The crossing has seen few security incidents over the years, but in 2014 Israeli security guards shot and killed a Jordanian judge who they said had attacked them. Authorities in Israel and Jordan said the crossing was closed until further notice. Israel later announced the closure of both of its land crossings with Jordan, near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and linked it to Israel's larger conflict with Iran and allied militant groups, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has been a rise in Israeli settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Also on Sunday, loved ones mourned Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American-Turkish woman who was shot dead on Friday in the West Bank. She had been demonstrating against Israeli settlements there. The White House has said it was “deeply disturbed” and called on Israel to investigate, while her family seeks an independent investigation. Her body remained at a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus.
In Gaza, meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official in the Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. The Civil Defense said the strike targeted the home of its deputy director for northern Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and only targets militants. Another Israeli strike hit the Eid family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least two girls, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies and witnesses. First responders were looking for others under the rubble. Gaza's Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control over its airspace, coastline and most of its land crossings. Along with Egypt, it imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Biden administration should call out Egypt for helping smuggle supplies to Hamas
Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/September 08/2024
Senior Israeli officials are expected to ask AIPAC to demand the US also increase the pressure on Cairo to reach a cease-fire and hostage deal; 'The time has come for them to recognize Egyptian responsibility,' said an Israeli official, including Egypt's alleged role in arming Hamas and potential economic motives tied to Cairo's resistance to Israeli presence along Philadelphi Corridor. In the intricate corridors of Jerusalem's decision-making, a strategic shift is afoot – a move to amplify diplomatic pressure on the United States concerning Egypt's current resistance to Israeli presence along the Philadelphi Corridor. This week, a delegation from AIPAC, the formidable pro-Israel lobby within the U.S. Congress, arrives in Israel. Anticipated discussions with these power players aim to convey a pointed message to Congress: The U.S. administration should be urged to exert pressure not only on Hamas, but also on Egypt to broker a cease-fire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal. Israeli officials are expected to request that AIPAC members galvanize Congress into mounting significant pressure on Egypt, which stands accused of fueling and financing Hamas, with some of its senior figures reportedly benefiting financially.
"This is why the Egyptians are so adamant about the Philadelphi Corridor," an Israeli insider notes. "It's time for the U.S. to acknowledge Egypt's responsibility, rather than criticizing Qatar for humanitarian efforts that were conducted at the request and coordination of both the U.S. and Israel, managed by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the West Bank.For years, Israeli sources have claimed Egypt has turned a blind eye to the smuggling of arms and money from Egypt to Gaza through Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor. "There's a clear economic interest here for those closest to Sisi," an informed Israeli source reveals. Egyptian military officers have reportedly profited handsomely from this arms smuggling to Hamas – a deceit that compromises the conditions of the peace agreement. In Israel, the belief is that reaching an understanding with Egypt regarding the Philadelphi Corridor could facilitate a situation where Hamas is persuaded to accept these terms.

Allegations of double standards by politicians, media dominate reaction to American killed by Israel
RAY HANANIA/Arab News/September 08, 2024
CHICAGO: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot and killed on Friday in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus during a non-violent protest against the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements and escalating settler violence against Palestinian home and landowners. Social media discourse was dominated by expressions of outrage over what was described as a double standard in US media, which did not hesitate to blame Arabs and Muslims when pro-Israel Americans were killed but was reluctant to point a finger at Israelis when pro-Palestinian Americans were killed. Human rights attorney and author Qasim Rashid condemned American media’s double standard, writing on X: “Shame on these legacy media outlets. Not one is willing to state the fact that the Israeli military killed Aysenur Ezgi Eygi — a US citizen. Apparently, a magical bullet appeared out of thin air & killed her. This is how legacy media normalizes violence against people of color.”When several Israelis, including one with American dual citizenship, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were killed in Gaza last week, mainstream news media featured an avalanche of condemnation from American politicians. President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” over Polin’s death, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris invoked a Jewish prayer for the dead, saying, “May Hersh’s memory be a blessing.” Harris went on further to denounce Hamas as “an evil terrorist organization,” adding that “with these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.”In contrast, both Biden and Harris were personally silent regarding the killing of Eygi, allowing the release of a generic media statement attributed to the White House, which said it was “deeply disturbed” by her death. The White House called for Israel to investigate Eygi’s killing, a sentiment reiterated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who, during a press briefing in the Dominican Republic, expressed condolences to the victim’s family but said: “Let’s find out exactly what happened … and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing.”
Neither the White House nor Blinken, however, asked for an investigation into Polin’s death and immediately embraced Israel’s assertions that he was killed by Hamas. And while Blinken did not post any comments regarding Eygi’s killing on his official X account, he posted at length on Polin’s death, writing on social media: “Hersh Goldberg-Polin is an American hero who will be remembered for his kindness and selflessness. Our hearts break for Jon, Rachel, and their entire family, as well as the other families who found out today their loved ones won’t be coming home. May their memory be a blessing.”
US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller also spoke at length at a press briefing following news of Polin’s death but repeated Blinken’s statement saying the State Department is “urgently” gathering more information on Egyi’s death. After graduating from university, Eygi volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, which monitors and protests the expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements on non-Jewish-owned lands in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The ISM released a lengthy statement describing Eygi as “peacefully demonstrating alongside Palestinians” but criticized the hypocrisy of American politicians and news outlets’ response to her death.
“This is just another example of the decades of impunity granted to the Israeli government and army, bolstered by the support of the US and European governments, who are complicit in enabling genocide in Gaza. Palestinians have suffered far too long under the weight of colonization. We will continue to stand in solidarity and honor the martyrs until Palestine is free.”The New York Times came under particularly harsh criticism when it reported that Eygi had “joined the rally in Beita, where residents have been protesting for years — sometimes violently — against a settler outpost on lands claimed by the village.”
The outlet later updated the story to remove the phrase “sometimes violently” from the original story authored by Ephrat Livni, an Israeli-American writer. Family members and witnesses said Eygi had traveled to the West Bank to celebrate her graduation with relatives there when she observed a protest in Beita near Nablus against repeated acts of violence by Israelis and soldiers from a nearby settlement, which is being expanded onto Arab land. According to the Associated Press, two doctors on the scene said Eygi was shot in the head, killing her instantly. Israeli officials referred to Eygi as a “foreign national,” not referencing her citizenship as an American. She has dual citizenship and is of Turkish origin. Eygi’s parents published a statement on Instagram calling for an immediate investigation into their daughter’s killing, describing her as a “fiercely passionate human rights activist” and “staunch advocate of justice” who “felt a deep responsibility to serve others.” Eygi graduated from the University of Washington where she studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures. Her parents said in the statement: “She was active on campus and (in) student-led protests advocating for an end to violence against the people of Palestine. Aysenur felt compelled to travel to the West Bank to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians who continue to endure ongoing repression and violence.”They said Eygi “was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.”

Starmer says US ‘understands’ UK decision to partly suspend Israeli arms sales
Arab News/September 08/2024
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the US “understands” his government’s decision to partly suspend arms sales to Israel. His comments to the BBC followed reports that Washington had been angered by the move, according to The Independent. However, Starmer said that the Biden administration “understands the decision we have taken” and was forewarned about the suspension. The UK suspended about 30 of its 350 arms export licenses to Israel earlier this week after a review that warned of a “clear risk” of British weapons or parts being used by Israel to breach international humanitarian law in its war in Gaza. After the suspension was announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he described as a “shameful decision.” Starmer told the BBC: “We have been talking to the US. We have been talking to the US beforehand and afterward, and they’re very clear that they’ve got a different legal system, and they understand the decision that we’ve taken.
“So, that’s very clear.”
Starmer will make his second visit to the US next week. He is expected to meet President Joe Biden in Washington on Sept. 13 to discuss an “ever more pressing situation” in the Middle East and Ukraine. “What I want to have the opportunity for is a more strategic discussion about the next few months in relation to Ukraine and in relation to the Middle East,” he said.'

Pope to bring in a ton of humanitarian aid to remote Papua New Guinea as he celebrates periphery
AP/September 08, 2024
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea: Pope Francis honored the Catholic Church of the peripheries on Sunday as he celebrated Mass in Papua New Guinea before heading to a remote part of the South Pacific nation with a ton of humanitarian aid to deliver to the missionaries and faithful who live there.
An estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass. It began with dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performing to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar. In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them. “You who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”Francis was himself traveling to a distant land on Sunday, flying into remote Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s northwest coast, to meet with the small Catholic community there served by missionaries from his native Argentina. Francis was being transported by an Australian military aircraft and was bringing with him one ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. Eight suitcases of medicine and other necessities had been prepared by one of the Argentine missionaries, the Rev. Alejandro Diaz, during a recent trip to Rome and left with the Vatican to bring in on the cargo plane, the ANSA news agency reported. Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority. Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination. Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan, but was prevented from going because of his poor health. Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places. There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animizm and sorcery.
On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”“I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.” Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.

Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
AP/September 08, 2024
LONDON, Kentucky: Multiple people were shot Saturday along Interstate 75 in a rural area of southeastern Kentucky, authorities said. The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook that it was an “active shooter situation” and “numerous persons” were shot near the highway. In a video statement, London Mayor Randall Weddle said was told seven people were hurt, but not all of those were wounded by gunfire. Some of the victims were injured in a vehicle accident, he said. “There are no deceased at this time. No one was killed from this, thankfully, but we ask that you continue to pray,” Weddle said. Hospital officials at Saint Joseph London said in a statement that the facility was treating multiple patients, LEX 18 reported. The hospital added that the ones it received had minor injuries. The sheriff’s office also announced that a “Person of Interest” has been identified in connection with the shooting, saying he should be considered armed and dangerous and people should not approach him. The man’s name was given as Joseph A. Couch, a 32-year-old white male, and anyone with information about his location was urged to call the county 911 center. State lawmakers from Laurel County urged residents in the area to stay home as police continued to search for the shooter. “Without a doubt, this is an act of senseless violence that does not reflect the values of this community, our Commonwealth, or its people,” they said in a statement. A “heavy presence of police and fire personnel” was on the scene and “working diligently to address the situation,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department said in a statement. It advised motorists to avoid I-75 and US 25. The interstate was closed 9 miles (14 kilometers) north of London but later reopened, according to the sheriff’s office. “I am receiving initial reports from the Kentucky State Police and our Office of Homeland Security — together we are actively monitoring the situation and offering support in any way possible,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a post on the social platform X. “Please pray for everyone involved.”
“We will provide more details once they are available,” Beshear said. London is a a small city with a population of about 8,000 located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.

Iran’s president to visit Iraq on first foreign trip
AFP/September 08, 2024
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian will visit neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, state media reported Sunday, in what will be his first trip abroad since he took office in July. Pezeshkian will head a high-ranking Iranians delegation to Baghdad to meet senior Iraqi officials. The visit comes at the invitation of Iraq’s premier, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, the official IRNA news agency quoted Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadegh as saying. The two countries will sign memoranda of understanding on cooperation and security, Sadegh said, without elaborating.
He said the agreements were to have been signed during a planned visit to Iraq by Iran’s late president, Ebrahim Raisi. But Raisi was killed in May along with the then foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, when their helicopter crashed on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran. Since taking office, Pezeshkian has vowed to “prioritize” strengthening ties with the Islamic republic’s neighbors. Relations between Iran and Iraq, both Shiite-majority countries, have grown closer over the past two decades. Tehran is one of Iraq’s leading trade partners, and wields considerable political influence in Baghdad where its Iraqi allies dominate parliament and the current government. In March 2023 the two countries signed a security agreement covering their common border, months after Tehran struck Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq’s north. They have since agreed to disarm Iranian Kurdish rebel groups and remove them from border areas. Tehran accuses the groups of importing arms from Iraq and of fomenting 2022 protests that erupted after the death in custody of Iranian-Kurd woman Mahsa Amini. In January, Iran launched a deadly strike in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, saying it had targeted a site used by “spies of the Zionist regime (Mossad).”On Saturday, an exiled Iranian Kurdish group said one of its activists, Behzad Khosrawi, had been arrested in Iraq’s northern city of Sulaimaniyah and handed over to “Iranian intelligence.”Local Asayesh security forces said Khosrawi was arrested “because he did not have residency” in the Kurdish region, and denied he had any connection to “political activism.”

Venezuelan opposition figure arrives in Spain
AFP/September 08, 2024
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia arrived in Spain on Sunday after a month in hiding in the crisis-hit South American country, Madrid's foreign affairs ministry said. Gonzalez Urrutia, accompanied by his spouse, travelled on a Spanish military airplane, which landed around 4 pm (1400 GMT) at the Torrejon air base near Madrid, according to a statement.

Sudan Rejects UN Call for Independent Force to Protect Civilians
AFP/September 08, 2024
Sudan has rejected a call by UN experts for the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes by more than a year of war. The conflict since April last year, pitting the army against paramilitary forces, has killed tens of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The independent UN experts said Friday their fact-finding mission had uncovered “harrowing” violations by both sides, “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”. They called for “an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians” to be deployed “without delay”. The Sudanese foreign ministry, which is loyal to the army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement late Saturday that “the Sudanese government rejects in their entirety the recommendations of the UN mission.” It called the UN Human Rights Council, which created the fact-finding mission last year, “a political and illegal body”, and the panel’s recommendations “a flagrant violation of their mandate”. The UN experts said eight million civilians have been displaced and another two million people have fled to neighbouring countries. More than 25 million people — upwards of half the country’s population — face acute food shortages. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a visit to Sudan on Sunday, said: “The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict and respond to the suffering it is causing.”In Port Sudan, where government offices and the United Nations have relocated to due to the intense fighting in the capital Khartoum, Tedros called on the “world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”. The Sudanese foreign ministry statement accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, of “systematically targeting civilians and civilian institutions”. “The protection of civilians remains an absolute priority for the Sudanese government,” it said. The statement added that the UN Human Rights Council’s role should be “to support the national process, rather than seek to impose a different exterior mechanism”. It also rejected the experts’ call for an arms embargo.

Yemen's Houthi rebels claim they shot down another US MQ-9 drone
Jon Gambrell/The Associated Press/September 08/2024
Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed early Sunday they shot down another American-made MQ-9 drone flying over the country, marking potentially the latest downing of the multimillion-dollar surveillance aircraft. The U.S. responded with airstrikes over Houthi-controlled territory, the rebels said. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the Houthi claim. The rebels offered no pictures or video to support the claim as they have in the past, though such material can appear in propaganda footage days later. However, the Houthis have repeatedly downed General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones in the years since they seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014. Those attacks have exponentially increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and the Houthis launched their campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the claim in a prerecorded video message. He said the Houthis shot down the drone over Yemen's Marib province, a long-contested area home to key oil and gas fields that's been held by allies of a Saudi-led coalition battling the rebels since 2015. Saree offered no details on how the rebels down the aircraft. However, Iran has armed the rebels with a surface-to-air missile known as the 358 for years. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in seaborne shipments heading to Yemen despite a United Nations arms embargo. The Houthis “continue to perform their jihadist duties in victory for the oppressed Palestinian people and in defense of dear Yemen,” Saree said. Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over Yemen for years. After the claim, the Houthis' al-Masirah satellite news channel reported multiple U.S.-led airstrikes near the city of Ibb. The U.S. military did not immediately acknowledge the strikes, but the Americans have been striking Houthi targets intensely since January. The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well. The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. Those attacks include the barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea. Salvagers last week abandoned an initial effort to tow away the burning oil tanker, leaving the Sounion stranded and its 1 million barrels of oil at risk of spilling.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 08-09/2024
Africa’s debt fatigue could lead to global catastrophe
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 08, 2024
A looming debt crisis on the African continent is set to trigger a broader global economic catastrophe. An alarmingly swift accumulation of debt since the early 2010s has skyrocketed following recent global commodity price shocks, contributing to the untenable levels of debt we see today.
The continent, which is home to the fastest-growing population in the world, stands on the brink of an insolvency contagion that threatens to derail its fragile economies and reverberate through interconnected global markets.
To illustrate the scale of the problem, between 2012 and 2017, real gross domestic product growth in Africa plummeted, while fiscal deficits ballooned to an average of more than 5 percent of gross domestic product. Notably, more than two-thirds of sub-Saharan African nations saw public debt as a percentage of GDP soar by more than 10 percentage points.
The consequences of such fiscal strain are profound: erosion of investor confidence, destabilization of economies still treading water after the COVID-19 pandemic and impediments to long-term development initiatives.
The pandemic, in particular, exacerbated Africa’s debt challenges, pushing the average debt-to-GDP ratio above 70 percent. As nations rightly focused on the immediate health emergency and stimulus expenditures, financing needs rose sharply, surpassing GDP thresholds in many cases. Not only did this lead to additional debt spikes, it dramatically strained public budgets, with more than 20 African countries spending more to service accumulating debts and some diverting an eye-watering 30 percent of public revenues to pay external debtors.
Another factor contributing significantly to the current crisis is the changing structure of Africa’s debt. During the early 2000s, debt was primarily owed to Paris Club members (an informal grouping of creditor nations that aims to find workable solutions to payment problems faced by debtor nations) and multilateral institutions. By 2020, this had changed, with private creditors holding more than 40 percent of African debt.
Additionally, China emerged as a dominant lender, advancing approximately $160 billion to African countries between 2000 and 2020. This changing creditor profile leaves African nations more vulnerable to economic shocks, given that more recent debts came with shorter maturity periods, thereby increasing refinancing risks.
As a result, many countries are facing debt repayment bottlenecks between 2024 and 2028, most likely under much tighter financial conditions and aggravated by external and continental crises.
With debt reaching such unsustainable levels, it came as no surprise when, as early as 2016, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank began warning of potential defaults. These institutions, and other key stakeholders, highlighted the potential harmful effects of runaway debt on social programs and social safety nets, including the impoverishment of desperate populations and destabilization of already fragile governments. Of course, the warnings fell on deaf ears, leaving African countries to face an uncertain future.
However, the effects of Africa’s debt fatigue extend far beyond its borders, with significant implications for global economic stability. Diminished investor confidence in African economies could lead to reduced foreign direct investment and halt key development projects, as well as critical climate change interventions. Such a situation would result in greater poverty and increased youth unemployment, which are risk factors for prolonged social unrest.
To ameliorate Africa’s debt woes, a shift toward more transparent lending practices and sustainable financing models is imperative. Shockingly, China’s substantial lending and its recent pivot toward a strategy that aims to ensure higher returns with fewer complications indicate a move away from risk-laden African debt. The shift marks a significant departure from Beijing’s previous strategy, which involved pouring about $120 billion of government-backed loans into Africa through its Belt and Road Initiative over the past decade. This initiative sought to build vital infrastructure, such as hydropower plants, roads and rail lines, across the continent — critical pillars that are often ignored in Africa’s growth “story” as ruling elites pursue quick fixes and funnel limited funds into their patronage networks.
These investments initially facilitated considerable development and secured China’s influence over Africa’s abundant natural resources. However, the honeymoon period of easy money seems to be over, as evidenced by stalled projects such as Kenya’s $3.8 billion railway. This incomplete venture is symbolic of a broader issue: Many Chinese-financed projects have failed to yield the expected economic benefits, leading to allegations of debt traps and corruption.
China’s pivot is primarily driven by its own economic slowdown and growing scrutiny of its lending practices. Loans to Africa almost ceased during the pandemic, declining from a high of $28 billion in 2016 to $4.6 billion last year.
Instead of channeling funds through state-run policy banks, Beijing now increasingly favors profit-generating projects operated through public-private partnerships. Ventures of this kind, such as a $20 billion iron ore mine in Guinea and a $5 billion oil pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania, reflect a new approach that aims to generate better returns while deflecting accountability. Consequently, African nations, long accustomed to China’s largesse, now face the dual challenges of securing funding under less favorable terms while managing burgeoning debt distress.
To say that the magnitude of Africa’s debt crisis is alarming is an understatement. Zambia, for example, defaulted on its loans in 2020, prompting scrutiny of China’s financing tactics. Angola, the largest African recipient of Chinese loans, owes approximately $17 billion, which is more than a third of its total external debt. The debt-to-GDP ratios of countries heavily involved in Belt and Road Initiative projects have surged, exacerbating their financial instability.
While some projects, such as the $2 billion Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station in Zambia, have shown signs of success, they are exceptions rather than the rule. Convoluted debt structures and opaque lending conditions often leave African economies teetering on the brink of fiscal collapse, resulting in an unsustainable status quo.
To ameliorate Africa’s debt woes, a shift toward more transparent lending practices and sustainable financing models is imperative. This is easier said than done, however. Public-private partnerships, while potentially profitable, are fraught with their own challenges, including regulatory hurdles and governance issues. African nations must balance the urgent need for infrastructure development with the fiscal discipline required to avoid debt distress. As China recalibrates its approach, a fundamental question remains: Will the continent’s beleaguered economies be more inclined to risk defaulting, rather than undergo politically costly austerity measures or uneasy reforms that might spawn more crises than they can hope to solve?
The answer to this will ultimately chart the course of Africa’s economic future and its place in the global financial ecosystem. In the meantime, a curious chessboard appears to be rearranging itself. The US and Gulf nations have intensified their focus on Africa. They have offered economic packages, military assistance and trade agreements, but their efforts remain piecemeal. They are simply insufficient to compensate for the shift in Chinese aid toward profit-driven loans that have forced African countries to confront shrinking policy options and either align with new partners, adopt stringent reforms or continue down a precarious path of mounting debt. With about $2 trillion in public debt on the continent, an increase of nearly 200 percent since 2010, the urgent need for decisive and collective action on the issue simply cannot be overstated.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. X: @HafedAlGhwell

Philadelphi Corridor is the latest refuge of Netanyahu
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/September 08/2024
The discovery last week of the bodies of six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in Rafah sent shock waves throughout Israeli society, resulting in a spontaneous outpouring of public grief and anger of a kind that has not been seen there for a long time.
Although these innocent lives were taken in cold blood by their Hamas captors, much of the anger was directed at the Israeli government, and specifically at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for abandoning the hostages and leaving them to languish in the hands of their killers for nearly a year.
For the first time since the war began, protesters returned to streets in many towns and cities, united in their demand that the government agree a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would allow the remaining hostages to return home.
For decades, Netanyahu has manipulated the Israeli people, or at least enough of them, to become the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history. He has done this through lies and deceit, by sowing fear and by driving a wedge between different segments of society. His aims with all of this have been to perpetuate his time in the most powerful job in the country, to gradually facilitate his own hedonistic lifestyle and, in recent years, to unjustly influence and stall his corruption trial, which threatens to end his political career and might even land him in jail. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, he has been prepared to sacrifice the very democratic principles and mechanisms on which his country was established. He formed his current coalition government to support his aims, and since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas he has demonstrated his clear disregard not only for the lives of Palestinians, but also for those of his own people.
Among Israelis, the ones who are suffering the most as a result of this morally bankrupt, narcissistic leader who lacks empathy for any other human beings, are the hostages and their families and friends.
In their heroic battle to raise public awareness and support for efforts to bring the hostages home, and convince decision-makers that the chances of their loved ones returning alive dwindle with each passing day, these families are confronted by a prime minister who prefers to keep his political coalition intact rather than save the lives of the hostages. Most of them are Israeli citizens who, under his watch, were snatched from their beds, from safe rooms in their homes, or while celebrating life at the Nova party music event. In Netanyahu’s eyes, everyone else is at fault for this dire situation — but it is he who bears the ultimate responsibility and who must stop obstructing a ceasefire deal that would allow the hostages, of whom 35 of the original 101 are already confirmed dead, to return home. Of course, even before the awful news of the murders of the six hostages emerged, it was acknowledged by most Israelis, never mind the international community, that in Netanyahu’s mind the release of the hostages was not a top priority, or even a priority at all. The Israeli media reported that during a Cabinet security meeting several days before the bodies of the hostages were found, there was an argument between Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s strategy in Gaza that ended with Gallant fuming and telling his boss: “The prime minister can make all the decisions, and he can also decide to kill all of the hostages.”
This might sound harsh but it was an expression of his frustration in response to a request by Netanyahu that the Cabinet pass a resolution stipulating that Israeli forces would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land along the border between Egypt and Gaza, for at least the duration of a six-week truce as part of a proposed ceasefire agreement’s humanitarian stage.
Only Gallant had the courage to oppose this; and this former military general is not exactly known as a “dove-ish” element in government. However, he is aware that such a move is likely to seal the fate of the remaining hostages.
For Netanyahu, the release of the hostages is not a top priority, or even a priority at all.
What is clear to Gallant — as it is to the current chief of the general staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, and to his predecessors-turned-politicians, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot — is that Netanyahu’s decision is not derived from a considered and informed strategic examination of the security needs of Israel, but from his fear of losing the support of the ultranationalist-messianic members of his own government.
The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, summed this up rather succinctly and accurately when he said: “The issue of the (Philadelphi) Corridor is not Netanyahu’s concern, but rather the Ben-Gvir-Smotrich Corridor.” He was referring to the prime minister’s far-right coalition partners Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.
During a hastily arranged press conference — a rare occurrence these days and while still refusing to take many questions from journalists — Netanyahu, with his usual pomposity, demagoguery and brandishing his preferred prop, a map, made a poor job of arguing that ensuring the Philadelphi Corridor is under Israeli control had always been his position.
There is ample evidence to contradict this, not least in the pages of his own book, “Bibi: My Story.” But setting that aside, he has been prime minister for most of the past 18 years, so what prevented him during all that time from taking control of the corridor? If this is so important to efforts to cut off the supply of weapons and other resources to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, why was it not a high priority from the very start of the war?
The answer, of course, is that Netanyahu defines his war objectives according to his own domestic political needs, and mainly to keep his far-right coalition partners on board.
In Washington, President Joe Biden summed up his thoughts on Netanyahu’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire in one word when asked by a journalist whether the Israeli prime minister was doing enough to reach an agreement. Biden simply said: “No.”
The reason why so many Israelis are once again protesting, why the leading Histadrut trade union called a one-day strike across the country, why schools were closed and even staff at major airports went on strike for a few hours, is because they share Biden’s view. And more than any pressure from outside the country, it is domestic pressure in Israel that stands the better chance of forcing Netanyahu to change his mind.
After all, the issue of the hostages goes to the very heart of the Israeli and Jewish ethos, which dictates an obligation to make every human effort possible to bring about the release of those who are in captivity. It is one of the strongest sentiments, widely shared among Israeli society and the country’s military. There is a strong tradition in Israel that places great value on mutual responsibility for one another, and to the principle of never abandoning an injured soldier on the battlefield or a hostage in captivity. This was a leitmotif even before the founding of the state of Israel.
Among Netanyahu’s many other sins, by cynically leaving the wounded, the frail, and the tortured to rot in the tunnels under Gaza he is also ripping Israeli society apart. He should not be allowed to.
• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

Sinwar’s useful idiots
Gadi Taub/ JNS/September 8, 2024
This is not how they thought it would work. The Israeli anti-government protesters' attempt to harness the tragedy of the six hostages for their permanent political project has backfired.
When Hamas’s barbaric execution of six Israeli hostages was announced on the news, it sent immediate shock waves throughout Israel. It evoked the deepest of Jewish traumas—that of helplessness. After the shock came the rage. But the targets of that rage were not the same for everyone. The Israeli X feed was neatly divided. The right-wing feed was outraged at Hamas. The left-wing feed was outraged at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I browsed left-wing tweets throughout that first day and astonishingly, the overwhelming majority did not even contain the word “Hamas.” If you had only those tweets to go by, you might have reached the conclusion that Netanyahu murdered the hostages and that Hamas had nothing to do with it.
Here’s a tiny sample:
“Sorry Hersh,” tweeted Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson. “Sorry that we failed to convince the narcissistic psychopath that leads us that your life is worth something.”
A guy named Yossi Zabari tweeted, “Every citizen in the world needs to recite [these] words this morning: Netanyahu is a murderer.”
“The government of destruction … has decided to pass a death sentence on the hostages,” wrote Knesset member Yair Golan, the current head of the Labor Party’s new incarnation (now known as the Democrats).
Opposition head Yair Lapid tweeted, “Instead of doing everything to bring them back home Netanyahu is doing everything to remain in power.”
Here’s one of a handful that did mention Hamas, albeit in passing. This is the former head of the Labor Party, Shelly Yachimovich:
“Hersh, Eden, Uri, Carmel, Almog and Alex were murdered by Hamas, but the blood is on Netanyahu’s hands. He erased all the sacred values that made the Zionist enterprise worthwhile and just. We are trapped in the clutches of a heartless distorted man, who lives in his own skull without a lobe of empathy [sic], despising the lives of others. They could have been here. May their memory be blessed.”
And so it went, on and on.
Right-leaning tweets were very different. Apart from directing their anger at Hamas, posters made many suggestions on how to hold it accountable, how to retaliate and how to deter Hamas from ever raising a hand on a hostage again. Suggestion ranged from the impossible to the sensible to the mild.
One X user said Israel should start executing scores of terrorists held in its jails, and especially those that Hamas wants to free in a ceasefire deal. Others said it was high time that Israel enact capital punishment for terrorists. Still others said that no “humanitarian aid” should enter Gaza until the hostages are in our hands. This last idea felt especially poignant since one of the murdered hostages, 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, was starved by Hamas. Her body weighed 79 pounds when it was found.
There were some X users with creative ideas. Law professor Eugene Kontorovich suggested to the Biden administration a formula to get the hostages back and end the war very quickly: “For every day Hamas does not give up the hostages, America will recognize 100 square dunams [roughly 25 acres] of Gaza as a permanent Israeli buffer zone. For every murdered hostage, 1,000 square dunams [250 acres],” he wrote, adding that the war “would be over in days.”
The idea was picked up by Ben Shapiro in his show on The Daily Wire, but to no one’s surprise not by the Biden administration. Nor by Israel’s left-wing feed.
Why not? The left feed has been insisting that the hostage issue ought to be at the top of our agenda, overriding all other issues. And so it begs the question—why are these same people so consistently uninterested in any idea designed to pressure Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to give the hostages up? Why, if the safe return of the hostages is their all-consuming concern, are they not searching for ways to deter Hamas from hurting hostages again?
The answer is, I think, obvious: The hostages are an excuse. The protestors’ real interest is toppling Netanyahu’s coalition, which is why that is all their tweets talk about. And what is more chilling, they continue their war on the coalition even when it is clearly at the expense of the hostages, as many of them no doubt understand. One must be very naïve not to see that demonstrating for concessions from our own government in response to the execution of hostages only tells Sinwar that this atrocious strategy is working. Why would that cold-blooded terrorist not do it again and wait for the protesters to do his work form him? To those still unable to see that the demonstrators and their accomplices in the press are Sinwar’s useful idiots, fulfilling his plan to pit us against each other and weaken our position, Netanyahu’s Sept. 2 press conference offered some help. Netanyahu presented a translation of an Arabic, hand-written note found in a tunnel earlier in the war. The note laid out Hamas’s strategy to manipulate Israelis into fighting each other instead of uniting against Hamas.
The note contained these bullet points:
Increase the dissemination of pictures and videos of the hostages because of the psychological pressure they create.
Do everything to increase the psychological pressure on [Defense Minister] Gallant.
Continue the line [of argument] that Netanyahu is responsible for what has happened.
Sabotage the narrative that a ground operation serves the returning of the hostages.
Every Israeli watching the premier’s presentation must have had the same thought: Aren’t Hamas and the “Never-Bibi” demonstrators literally working from the same operating manual? Aren’t the demonstrators playing the part Sinwar has written for them?
All this has become even more obvious now that a detailed document on Hamas’s strategic planning has surfaced in the German Bild newspaper. The plan specifies that blame for the failure of any deal should be shifted to Israel, and that Hamas should “continue to exert psychological pressure through the hostages’ families—so as to increase through them the public pressure on the enemy government.”
The mainstream media, itself a major player in the Never-Bibi info op, was not eager to emphasize the way the demonstrators are following Sinwar’s playbook. Predictably, the usual suspects rushed to blame Netanyahu for everything, as they always do. Prominent columnists such as Haaretz‘s Yossi Verter, Maariv‘s Ben Caspit, Yedioth Ahronoth‘s Nadav Eyal, Channel 12‘s Amnon Abramowitz and Channel 13‘s Raviv Druker unfurled the party line: it’s all on Netanyahu. Netanyahu has deliberately thrown in new demands (this time it was the Philadelphi Corridor, we were told) because staying in power is more important to him than saving the hostages.
Since this is what the Israeli media keeps repeating in both Hebrew and English, much of the foreign press assumes it’s true, and that Israelis generally believe it to be true.
But, alas, that’s wrong on both counts. Netanyahu could not have saved the hostages by giving up the Philadelphi Corridor even if he was so inclined. The corridor was never the only bone of contention. Giving it up (which Israel should not do) would not have brought about a deal.
As Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy for negotiations, recently reiterated, Hamas’s demands for a deal have not changed. They are tantamount to an Israeli surrender:
1. A permanent ceasefire.
2. A complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from all of the Gaza Strip, including the security parameter along the border, the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor (which cuts the north of the strip from the south just below Gaza city).
3. Rebuilding the whole of Gaza.
4. An exchange of 50 terrorists for every female IDF soldier and 30 for every civilian in the first stage, then 500 terrorists for every male soldier in the second.
These terms will eliminate all Israel’s gains in this war and ensure that Hamas remains in power, able to rebuild its military capabilities with Iran’s help, and its front-line cadres fresh from Israel’s jails (where courtesy of our Supreme Court they get a well-balanced diet, diverse and certain to include enough fresh fruit). No prime minister of Israel can accept these terms because Israel’s public won’t.
The media has been trumpeting polls saying most Israelis support a hostage deal. This is a crucial part of the narrative. But then, these polls do not specify what deal, or else present a deal that would never be accepted by Hamas. Of course, most Israelis want some deal—but not the one Hamas is offering.
One Telegram channel owner got tired of the media’s game. That person is, most probably, a former intelligence officer. He calls his channel, tongue in cheek, Abu Ali Express. But he is a serious professional and a reliable source of news from the Arab world, one many in Israel rely on. Over 400,000 Hebrew speakers subscribe to this channel. Abu Ali decided to run an opinion poll of his own. He first presented the Hamas terms for a deal, then asked his followers if they would have accepted it. 51,000 users responded in the space of two hours. Eighty-one percent said they would not accept such a deal, 10% said they would, 9% said they don’t know. Granted, this is not a representative sample, nor a proper survey. Still, it is indicative of something. And it gives you an idea about how the mainstream media is misleading you.
This public mood was also demonstrated by the collapse of last week’s (illegal) attempt at a general strike. The Histadrut (the umbrella organization of Israeli labor unions) declared it—under pressure from demonstration organizers insisting they are the sole legitimate representatives of the families of hostages—only to fold it all at 2 p.m. the next day following a labor court ruling. The Never-Bibi activists found they don’t really have enough troops.
Still, in the immediate aftermath of the shocking news of the executions the protests drew more people than usual. Predictably, the media inflated the numbers. And then, mistaking the press coverage for reality, the Biden administration seems to have felt that perhaps the wave of anger that will topple Netanyahu has finally arrived. The president therefore chipped in, reversing earlier statements that put the blame on Hamas. He did it with a single word. Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to conclude a hostage deal, the president simply said “no.” But that too had little impact.
It now seems that the protesters’ attempt to harness the tragedy of the six hostages for their permanent political project may have just backfired. More people now see them more clearly as Sinwar’s useful idiots.
But the wrong turn the permanent anti-Netanyahu protesters took long preceded these recent events. It began soon after the war broke out. From the start, their arguments, focused as they were on Netanyahu’s responsibility for Oct. 7, were not only controversial but also in the wrong conversation. For most Israelis, the question now is not who is responsible for the disaster, but who can lead us to victory. And the answer to that question cannot possibly be a Chamberlain in the guise of Benny Gantz, Yoav Gallant or Yair Lapid, all of whom are willing to cave in to Hamas’s demands and leave it on its feet at the end of this war.
Netanyahu owes his recovery in the polls to one thing above all. He never wavered on this one issue: The Gaza campaign must end with the clear defeat of Hamas. Nothing less. In this, he represents the majority in Israel. And it is that majority that has—and will—sustain him so long as he stays on this course.
**Gadi Taub is a senior lecturer at Hebrew University’s Federmann School of Public Policy.
https://www.jns.org/sinwars-useful-idiots/

Former PFLP hostage reveals what 1970 hijacking really looked like - opinion
MOSHE RAAB/Jerusalem Post/SEPTEMBER 8, 2024 02:23
A chilling personal account of the 1970 plane hijacking to Jordan resurfaces memories in light of the October 7 attacks.
The events of October 7 brought back the terror, nightmares, and fear that I experienced as a 14-year-old in 1970.
I grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. I was interested only in what the Baltimore Orioles, my favorite baseball team, did the night before and whether Brooks Robinson made any great plays or had any clutch hits. In the summer of 1970, my parents, my four siblings, and I made our first trip to Israel. My father, the principal of a Jewish day school, returned home early, and the rest of us flew home on September 6, Labor Day weekend.
I was taken off the plane with my mother to stand by while the “friendly” terrorists rummaged through our luggage and confiscating anything that had any connection to Israel – like the watch I received from my parents for my bar mitzvah, because the dial had Hebrew letters.
I remember when our “friendly” captors paraded PFLP members, including George Habash, down the aisle of our plane, displaying us like we were caged in the zoo. And I particularly remember that they brought their children to point, laugh, and spit at us. I wonder how many of these innocent “friendly” children became terrorist themselves? Or their children or grandchildren?
Special “thanks” to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which came and was able to secure the release of the non-Jewish women and children, who were sent to a hotel in Amman. The rest of the women and children, recalling the selection process that took place during the Holocaust, were forced to reboard the hot plane. We never saw the ICRC again.
Upon our release, we were being transported by Jordanian Army van to Amman. I still recoil at the fear I had while we were being pelted by rocks by the “friendly” locals, men, women, and children, who yelled the bloodcurdling “Itbah al-Yahud” (slaughter the Jews).
When we were flown to Nicosia, Cyprus, the next day, we were greeted by an official from the local US Consulate. He lectured us as to the cause of the hijacking. Apparently, I was to blame for the suffering of the Palestinian children. I could not tell which children he was referring to; those who pointed, laughed, and spit at us on the plane? Or those who threw rocks at us, trying to murder us? Besides, what did this 14-year-old boy from Trenton, New Jersey, whose primary interest was baseball, have to do with that?
By contrast, the released Israeli hostages were greeted by the Israeli ambassador and were handed flowers. It was then that I realized that my future was not as the scapegoat in the US, but as part of the Israeli family.
For those who are interested in why we were all eventually released without physical harm, King Hussein decided that Jordan was not a Palestinian country but an independent Jordan. He declared war on the PFLP and Yasser Arafat. He did not provide humanitarian aid, water, or electricity. He did not give them warning of pending attacks or create safe zones. He demanded the release of all the hostages and unconditional surrender, which included including leaving Jordan. And that is precisely what he got. The king was not condemned, criticized, or told how to manage his response. There has not been a recurrence of this type of terrorism in Jordan since.
Perhaps allowing Israel to use the same tactics as King Hussein will prevent future rounds of attacks and hostage-taking so that there will be no more suffering for the current hostages and their families, past and present.
**The writer, a PhD, is a software consultant, based in Ma’aleh Adumim. He was hijacked on a TWA flight, with his mother and four siblings, to the Jordanian desert by the PFLP in September 1970. He came on aliyah with his wife, Rebecca, and their four children in 1997. His children and grandchildren are proof that Am Yisrael Chai.

The Oslo Effect: The Weaponization of Hostages to do Hamas's Dirty Work for It
Melanie Phillips/Gatestone Institute/September 08, 2024
The demonstrators [in Israel] are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power.
Of course, everyone desperately wants the hostages brought back home. But the idea that the ceasefire deal would achieve this is sheer fantasy.
Only a few of the hostages would be released in the first phase. Hamas would then use the ceasefire to regroup and rearm, spinning out the continuing negotiation farce to keep the rest of the hostages trapped and thus retain control of the Gaza Strip.
It would only ever release all the hostages (if at all) with Israel's total surrender. That's what those calling for an immediate ceasefire deal are actually promoting.
The only way to save the hostages is through military pressure. That's one reason why it's imperative for Israel to retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, the area of Gaza that borders Egypt. The importance of this corridor cannot be exaggerated. Israel's capture of it has uncovered deep below its surface an extensive infrastructure of giant tunnels into Egypt — thus revealing the principal route through which Hamas imported its rockets, weapons and ammunition. [Emphasis added]
Hamas needs to control the Philadelphi corridor in order to resupply itself. Without that, it will be finished. That's why it's insisting that there will be no deal while Israel remains in control. The vast majority of the military and security officials who belong to the authoritative Israel Defense and Security Forum are adamant that Israel must not cede control of the corridor. The forum's chairman, Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, said last week that tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of Hamas Nukhbah terrorists were waiting inside the Egyptian Sinai to go into Gaza through Philadelphi.
Even if Israel made only a short retreat, these troops and equipment could be brought in within a week. Egypt had made billions of dollars from the smuggling trade into Gaza and wants to continue.
Moreover, said Avivi, only 30 out of more than 100 hostages were slated to be released in the first phase of the deal — and Hamas reportedly planned to take the rest of them through the Philadelphi tunnels to Sinai and then to Iran.
In a security cabinet row, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly called Philadelphi "an unnecessary constraint that we've placed on ourselves." Gadi Eizenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said it wasn't strategically important. Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel could return to the corridor if it deemed it necessary once the hostages were home.
Other arguments have included getting Egypt to safeguard Philadelphi against Hamas and using electronic sensors to monitor it.
This is all utterly delusional. For two decades, Egypt was complicit in the construction and use of the Philadelphi tunnels; entrusting it with Israel's security would be to put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Israeli reliance on electronic sensors was one of the reasons the October 7 pogrom happened.
Despite the thousands of people in the streets, most Israelis get this. In one opinion poll, 79% agreed that Israel needed to control Philadelphi permanently to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. When asked more emotively whether Israel should control Philadelphi "even at the expense of a hostage deal," more respondents said it should than those who balked at preventing a hostage deal.
Gantz, Eizenkot and Gallant are part of a military and security establishment whose morally and intellectually bankrupt "conception" brought about the Oct. 7 catastrophe in the first place.
...America itself bears a significant measure of responsibility for the hostages' fate.
The Biden administration forced Israel to proceed in Gaza far more slowly than the IDF judged necessary to defeat Hamas and thus save the hostages. Worse, for three months, the administration stopped Israel from entering Rafah — below which the six hostages were murdered this month. If Israel had been free to proceed at its own pace, those six captives and many others might have been saved.
Whatever happens to Netanyahu, the left will almost certainly discover that, for the second time, it has made a terrible strategic error.
The first such error was the 1993 Oslo Accord, which gave the Palestinians political power and status — with the Americans even training their security forces — on the assumption that they intended to live in peace alongside Israel.
[T]hese same types of people have been doing the work of Hamas for it by promoting Israel's surrender....
The demonstrators in Israel are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power.
The enormous demonstrations in Israel against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, might be giving people outside the country the impression that the Israeli public is generally against him because of his conduct of the war and that his days in office are therefore numbered.
What's more likely is that the Israeli left is in the process of destroying itself once and for all. Israelis are being increasingly maddened by grief and horror over the unconscionable fate of the hostages trapped in the hellholes of Gaza. This month's cold-blooded murder of six of these captives by Hamas savages has tipped many Israelis over the edge.
The demonstrators' demand for an immediate ceasefire deal to release the hostages is not only ludicrous to the point of near derangement, but also poses a direct threat to Israel's security and indeed existence — precisely the outcome that Hamas intends through its diabolical manipulation of the hostages' plight.
The demonstrators are backed by assorted military and intelligence types in a treasonous attempt to lever Netanyahu out of office by creating division and demoralization while Israel is fighting for its life. Their core claim is that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and condemning the hostages to death solely to appease extremists in his coalition and thus remain in power. What Netanyahu's opponents fail to grasp is that, even if the prime minister is as opportunist as he is portrayed, his conduct of the war has overwhelming public backing. The majority of Israelis insist that Hamas be defeated once and for all. After the October 7 terrorist attacks and atrocities in southern Jewish communities, they demanded that Israel should never again be content with repeatedly inflicting "serious blows" on Hamas only for it to resume its murder offensives within a few months.
Of course, everyone desperately wants the hostages brought back home. But the idea that the ceasefire deal would achieve this is sheer fantasy.
Only a few of the hostages would be released in the first phase. Hamas would then use the ceasefire to regroup and rearm, spinning out the continuing negotiation farce to keep the rest of the hostages trapped and thus retain control of the Gaza Strip.
It would only ever release all the hostages (if at all) with Israel's total surrender. That's what those calling for an immediate ceasefire deal are actually promoting.
The only way to save the hostages is through military pressure. That's one reason why it's imperative for Israel to retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, the area of Gaza that borders Egypt.
The importance of this corridor cannot be exaggerated. Israel's capture of it has uncovered deep below its surface an extensive infrastructure of giant tunnels into Egypt — thus revealing the principal route through which Hamas imported its rockets, weapons and ammunition. Hamas needs to control the Philadelphi corridor in order to resupply itself. Without that, it will be finished. That's why it's insisting that there will be no deal while Israel remains in control.
The vast majority of the military and security officials who belong to the authoritative Israel Defense and Security Forum are adamant that Israel must not cede control of the corridor. The forum's chairman, Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, said last week that tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of Hamas Nukhbah terrorists were waiting inside the Egyptian Sinai to go into Gaza through Philadelphi.
Even if Israel made only a short retreat, these troops and equipment could be brought in within a week. Egypt had made billions of dollars from the smuggling trade into Gaza and wants to continue.
Moreover, said Avivi, only 30 out of more than 100 hostages were slated to be released in the first phase of the deal — and Hamas reportedly planned to take the rest of them through the Philadelphi tunnels to Sinai and then to Iran.
Yet the corridor has suddenly become a weapon to be used against Netanyahu, who is accused of inflating its importance in order to scupper a ceasefire deal and hostage return.
In a security cabinet row, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly called Philadelphi "an unnecessary constraint that we've placed on ourselves." Gadi Eizenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said it wasn't strategically important. Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel could return to the corridor if it deemed it necessary once the hostages were home.
Other arguments have included getting Egypt to safeguard Philadelphi against Hamas and using electronic sensors to monitor it.
This is all utterly delusional. For two decades, Egypt was complicit in the construction and use of the Philadelphi tunnels; entrusting it with Israel's security would be to put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Israeli reliance on electronic sensors was one of the reasons the October 7 pogrom happened.
As for the IDF returning to the corridor after it pulled out, the same argument was used by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the 2005 disengagement from Gaza when he pulled Israel out of Philadelphi — the issue over which Netanyahu resigned from that government. Just as international pressure meant the IDF never went back in despite the subsequent rocket barrages from Gaza, so a future return to the Philadelphi corridor after a withdrawal now would be a total non-starter.
Despite the thousands of people in the streets, most Israelis get this. In one opinion poll, 79% agreed that Israel needed to control Philadelphi permanently to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. When asked more emotively whether Israel should control Philadelphi "even at the expense of a hostage deal," more respondents said it should than those who balked at preventing a hostage deal.
Gantz, Eizenkot and Gallant are part of a military and security establishment whose morally and intellectually bankrupt "conception" brought about the Oct. 7 catastrophe in the first place. Netanyahu, too, was part of that same establishment and in due course must be held to account for the heavy responsibility he bears.
However, those who aren't blinded by a pathological hatred of Netanyahu can see that he is holding off intense American pressure to pull out of Philadelphi, just as they can also see that America itself bears a significant measure of responsibility for the hostages' fate.
The Biden administration forced Israel to proceed in Gaza far more slowly than the IDF judged necessary to defeat Hamas and thus save the hostages. Worse, for three months, the administration stopped Israel from entering Rafah — below which the six hostages were murdered this month. If Israel had been free to proceed at its own pace, those six captives and many others might have been saved.
Whatever happens to Netanyahu, the left will almost certainly discover that, for the second time, it has made a terrible strategic error.
The first such error was the 1993 Oslo Accord, which gave the Palestinians political power and status — with the Americans even training their security forces — on the assumption that they intended to live in peace alongside Israel.
This was a victory of fantasy over reality. The eventual result was more than 1,000 Israelis murdered in the five-year intifada from 2000 to 2005, and an enduring culture of indoctrination and incitement that today has turned Judea and Samaria into another genocidal front for Iran.
The catastrophic Oslo "conception" caused the Israeli elites to ignore the clear evidence of Islamic holy war by the Palestinians and to believe that Israel could keep a lid on potential trouble. They believed that their enemy was not genocidal Palestinianism. It was Netanyahu.
That's also why they spent most of last year fighting judicial reform. And the same people are now sickeningly weaponizing the hostages for the same goal — to remove Netanyahu from power. You don't have to be a Netanyahu fan to be revolted, frightened and enraged.
The effect of the Oslo nightmare was to wipe out the Israeli left's chances of gaining political power. The public's revulsion and anger that these same types of people have been doing the work of Hamas for it by promoting Israel's surrender means that this terrible betrayal won't be forgotten or forgiven. It will be the Oslo effect on steroids.
Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for The Times of London, her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, The Legacy, in 2018. To access her work, go to: melaniephillips.substack.com.
Reprinted by kind permission of JNS.
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