English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 24/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of
power had been done, because they did not repent
Matthew 11/20-24/:”Then Jesus began to reproach the cities in
which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent.
‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in
you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes.But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be
exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of
power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the
land of Sodom than for you.’”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on September 23-24/2024
Text & Video: Urgent Call to Neutralize the Iranian Mullah Regime Before
It’s Too Late/Elias Bejjani/September 23/2024
Lebanon says Israeli airstrikes kill at least 492, Israel warns Lebanese to
evacuate
Lebanon Sees Deadliest Day of Conflict since 2006 as Israeli Strikes Kill 492
Netanyahu Says Israel is Changing Security Balance on Northern Border
Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that destroyed buildings
Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety and shelter
US is sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel
and Hezbollah
Intense Israeli Airstrikes in the South, Bekaa and Hermel
Lebanese Officials Receive Threats Amid Alleged Israeli Communications
Interference
Nearly a full-fledged war in Lebanon, EU's Borrell says
Israel vs. Hezbollah: Supremacy’s Weight/Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/September
23, 2024
BDL Gold Reserves See $9.83 Billion Accounting Surge/Liliane Mokbel/This Is
Beirut/September 23, 2024
Iran's Revolutionary Guard bans communication devices after Hezbollah pager
explosions
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on September 23-24/2024
Top UN officials on Gaza: 'These atrocities must end'
Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Bureau In West Bank/Max Goldbart
Israel strikes Gaza as heavy rain worsens misery of displaced Palestinians/Nidal
al-
Iran president warns of 'irreversible' consequences of wider regional war
Iran ready for nuclear talks at UN ‘if other parties willing’, foreign minister
says
Iran Warns Israel of 'Dangerous Consequences' of Lebanon Strikes
Zelenskiy says Ukraine closer to end of war with Russia
Kremlin says it will study Zelenskiy's 'victory plan' if details are released
officially
Analysis-Ukraine's Zelenskiy heads to US with 'victory plan' at perilous moment
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits Scranton Army Ammunition Plant
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on September 23-24/2024
Ambivalence and the Impending Wars/Charles Chartoun/This Is Beirut/September
23/2024
Is Mary a ‘Bridge’ between Islam and Christianity?/Raymond Ibrahim/The
Stream/September 23/2024
Zion: A Place Worth Defending/Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute/September 23,
2024
The Road Away From Damascus/Michael Young/Diwan/September 23, 2024
Humanity’s stark choice: Coexistence or carnage/BARIA ALAMUDDIN/Arab
News/September 23, 2024
The War of the Absent General/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/September 23/2024
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on September 23-24/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: Urgent Call to Neutralize
the Iranian Mullah Regime Before It’s Too Late
Elias Bejjani/September 23/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/09/134766/
The Iranian mullahs’ regime stands as the head of the snake, a regime that,
unless decisively overthrown, will continue to be the central force of
instability in the Middle East. Under its leadership, with Hezbollah and its
vast network of terrorist arms, Iran foments division, incites conflicts, and
destabilizes Arab nations while exploiting the Palestinian cause and maintaining
a relentless hostility toward Israel.
The urgency of this threat cannot be overstated. The regime in Tehran, under the
guise of its so-called “jihadist revolution,” is working tirelessly to expand
its influence, with the ultimate goal of regional hegemony under the pretext of
reviving the Persian Empire. And now, Iran stands perilously close to acquiring
the world’s most devastating weapon: the atomic bomb.
In a critical analysis published recently by The Jerusalem Post, Israeli
policymakers, academics, and Western strategists have raised alarm bells about
the immediate and dangerous ramifications of allowing Iran to develop nuclear
weapons. This isn’t a distant hypothetical; it is an imminent crisis. Years of
debate within Israel and Western circles have highlighted two starkly different
perspectives on how to handle the Iranian threat.
On one side, some fear that any preemptive strike on Iran could ignite a
catastrophic global conflict, possibly even leading to Israel’s destruction.
This viewpoint, however, underestimates the catastrophic consequences of
inaction. The other, more pragmatic and visionary view—shared by many high-level
officials and supported by moderate Arab allies—argues that the only way to
prevent regional and global disaster is to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities
as swiftly and forcefully as possible. This faction believes that the survival
of Israel, the stability of the Arab world, and indeed, global security, depend
on a full-scale effort to dismantle the Iranian regime’s nuclear program.
Waiting for Iran to achieve nuclear capability would be a fatal miscalculation.
Once armed with a nuclear arsenal, Iran will not only solidify its stranglehold
over the Middle East but will also wield unprecedented leverage over the West.
Such power would embolden its terrorist proxies, particularly Hezbollah, and
ensure decades of unchecked Iranian aggression across the globe. The
consequences would be devastating, not just for Israel but for Arab nations that
have long suffered under Iranian interference.
The only viable solution is a coordinated military and diplomatic effort, led by
the United States, Israel, and moderate Arab nations, to strike the Iranian
regime at its core. This would involve not only destroying Iran’s nuclear
infrastructure but also empowering the Iranian people in their ongoing struggle
against the theocratic tyranny that has oppressed them for over four decades.
The Iranian people have demonstrated their thirst for freedom and democracy, and
the West must stand firmly with them.
The fall of the mullahs' regime would not only remove the immediate nuclear
threat but also dismantle the network of terror that Iran has carefully
cultivated. Hezbollah, already weakened by its entanglements in Syria, would
lose its primary benefactor, rendering the group vulnerable and ultimately,
powerless. Furthermore, the collapse of the mullah regime would restore the
chance for regional peace, allowing Arab nations to rebuild and pursue
prosperity without constant interference from Tehran.
In conclusion, the world is at a critical juncture. The decision to act against
the Iranian regime must be made now, before the window of opportunity closes.
Failure to do so will result in an irreversible shift in the balance of power in
the Middle East, with disastrous consequences for global security. The Iranian
people deserve better, the region demands stability, and the world cannot afford
to allow a nuclear Iran to become a reality. It is time to strike before it is
too late.
Lebanon says Israeli airstrikes kill at least 492, Israel
warns Lebanese to evacuate
REUTERS/September 23, 2024
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Israel launched airstrikes against more than a thousand
Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing 492 people and sending tens of thousands
fleeing for safety in Lebanon’s deadliest day in decades, according to
authorities. After some of the heaviest cross-border exchanges of fire since
hostilities flared in October, Israel warned people in Lebanon to evacuate areas
where it said the armed movement was storing weapons. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu sent a short video statement addressed to the Lebanese
people. “Israel’s war is not with you, it’s with Hezbollah. For too long
Hezbollah has been using you as human shields,” he said. Nasser Yassin, the
Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters 89 temporary
shelters in schools and other facilities had been activated, with capacity for
more than 26,000 people as civilians fled “Israeli atrocities.”
HIGHLIGHTS
• Israel says it has struck about 1,300 Hezbollah targets
• Lebanese residents receive calls to move away from Hezbollah posts
• Hezbollah says it fired rockets at Israeli military posts
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel
is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has
been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, also backed by Iran.
Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, east and north.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed, including 24
children and 42 women, and 1,645 wounded. One Lebanese official said it was
Lebanon’s highest daily death toll from violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday marked a “significant peak” in
the nearly year-long conflict. “On this day we have taken out of order tens of
thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a
period of 20 years since the second Lebanon War is in fact being destroyed by
the IDF,” he said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.
MORE AIRSTRIKES EXPECTED
On Monday evening Israel launched a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs aimed at
senior Hezbollah leader Ali Karaki, the head of the southern front. Hezbollah
later said he was safe and had moved to a secure location. About 60,000 people
have been evacuated from northern Israel because of cross-border fighting
between Israel and Hezbollah. Gallant said the campaign would continue until the
residents had returned to their homes. Hezbollah for its part has vowed to fight
until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck about
1,300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. There were many secondary blasts when
munitions stored inside buildings exploded, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a
statement. He said Israeli strikes hit long-range cruise missiles, heavyweight
rockets, short-range rockets and explosive drones. In response to the strikes,
Hezbollah said it launched dozens of missiles at a military base in northern
Israel. Sirens warning of Hezbollah rocket fire sounded across northern Israel,
including in the port city of Haifa, and in the northern part of the occupied
West Bank, the military said.
More attacks were expected in Lebanon.
Hagari said Hezbollah put weaponry “inside Lebanese villages and civilian homes,
and intended to fire them toward civilians in Israel while endangering the
Lebanese civilian population.”Hezbollah has not commented on the assertion that
it has hidden weapons in houses, which Reuters could not independently verify,
but it has said it does not place military infrastructure near civilians.
STRIKES PUT MORE PRESSURE ON HEZBOLLAH
The strikes have redoubled the pressure on Hezbollah, which last week suffered
heavy losses when thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members
exploded. The operation was widely blamed on Israel, which has not confirmed nor
denied responsibility.
In New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel wanted to drag the
Middle East into a full-blown war by provoking Iran to join the Israel-Hezbollah
conflict. “It is Israel that seeks to create this all-out conflict,” he told
journalists after his arrival in New York to attend the UN General Assembly,
saying the consequences of such instability would be irreversible. The fighting
has raised fears that the US, Israel’s close ally, and Iran will be sucked into
a wider war. Imad Kreidieh, head of Lebanese telecoms company Ogero, said more
than 80,000 automated calls asking people to evacuate their areas had been
detected on the network. Lebanese information minister Ziad Makary said his
ministry had received an Israeli call with an order to evacuate its building,
but that it would not comply. “This is a psychological war,” Makary told
Reuters. Suffering from a financial meltdown, Lebanon can ill afford another war
like the one that erupted in 2006, when Israel pounded it during a month-long
conflict with Hezbollah. “If Hezbollah carries out a major operation, Israel
will respond and destroy more than this,” said state employee Joseph Ghafary in
the Beirut district of Sassine. “We can’t bear it.”Mohammed Sibai, a shopowner
in the Beirut neighborhood of Hamra, said he saw the escalation as “the
beginning of the war.”“If they want war, what can we do?” he said. “We cannot do
anything.”
Lebanon Sees Deadliest Day of Conflict since 2006 as
Israeli Strikes Kill 492
Asharq Al Awsat/September 23/2024
Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more
than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage
since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in
southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign
against Hezbollah, The AP reported. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and
the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars
heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006. Lebanon's health
ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women,
and wounded 1,645 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling
from a deadly attack on communication devices last week. In a recorded message,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed
Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”Israel's
military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the army will do “whatever is
necessary” to push Hezbollah from Lebanon’s border with Israel. Hagari claimed
Monday’s widespread airstrikes had inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah. But he
would not give a timeline for the ongoing operation and said Israel was prepared
to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon if needed. Earlier Monday evening, the
Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not
give details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three missiles
hit southern Beirut's Beir al-Abed neighborhood. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said
six people were wounded. Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the earlier
strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered
schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing
shelters for the displaced. Some strikes hit residential areas in the south and
the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos, more than
80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border north of Beirut. Monday's death toll
far surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds
of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least
218 people and wounding more than 6,000. The Lebanese Health Ministry asked
hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone
non-urgent surgeries to treat people wounded by “Israel’s expanding aggression
on Lebanon.”On Monday, residents received text messages reading: “If you are in
a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until
further notice,” Lebanese media reported. Lebanon's information minister, Ziad
Makary, said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people
to leave the building. “This comes in the framework of the psychological war
implemented by the enemy,” Makary said, and urged people “not to give the matter
more attention than it deserves.”
Communities on both sides of the border have largely emptied because of the
near-daily exchanges of fire.
Netanyahu Says Israel is Changing Security Balance on
Northern Border
Asharq Al Awsat/September 23/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel faced
"complicated days" as it stepped up strikes against Hezbollah in southern
Lebanon and he called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded. "I
promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the
north - that is exactly what we are doing," he said in a message issued
following a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv. Israeli
strikes on Monday killed more than 180 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage since
the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in
southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air
campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main
highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading
toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting. More than 700 other
people were wounded in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country
still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week. The
government ordered schools and universities to close Tuesday across most of the
country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south. The
military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley
along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established
presence in the valley, and it is where the group was founded in 1982 with the
help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging
residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons,
including in the valley. The evacuation warnings were the first of their kind in
nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly
heavy exchange of fire on Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets,
missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed
a top commander and dozens of fighters. There was no sign of an immediate exodus
from the villages of southern Lebanon, and the warning left open the possibility
that some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing
that they are risk. Lebanese media reported that residents received text
messages urging them to move away from any building where Hezbollah stores arms
until further notice.
“If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the
village until further notice,” the Arabic message reads, according to Lebanese
media. Lebanon's information minister, Ziad Makary, said in a statement that his
office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the
building. “This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by
the enemy,” Makary said, and urged people “not to give the matter more attention
than it deserves.”It was not immediately clear how many people would be affected
by the Israeli orders. Communities on both sides of the border have largely
emptied out because of the near-daily exchanges of fire.
Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that
destroyed buildings
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/September 23, 2024
BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 356 people, including children, in
Lebanon on Monday, the Health Ministry said, in what is by far the deadliest
cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on Oct. 7.Monday’s
confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army entered a new phase of
violence, disregarding all red lines. The Litani River no longer served as a
boundary to Israeli expansion northward. According to the Lebanese Health
Ministry’s health emergency center, the initial toll from more than 350 Israeli
airstrikes on southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region was 356 dead and 1,246
wounded, including children, women, and paramedics. The battle, which Hezbollah
calls the “open-ended battle of reckoning,” has ignited Lebanon from the south
to the east, with the Israeli army launching a series of wide-ranging air
attacks early in the morning. Dozens of warplanes simultaneously targeted
residential homes, the squares of populated towns, valleys, and forests. The
Israeli military claimed that Hezbollah “uses civilian homes and private
civilian facilities as hideouts to launch rockets,” similar to the war scenario
in the Gaza Strip.Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that “Hezbollah
is hiding guided missiles inside civilian homes.” Meanwhile, an advisor to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted: “Hezbollah used Iranian drones
against Israel.”Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Hezbollah’s
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had turned the people of Lebanon into
“hostages, placing rockets and weapons inside their homes and towns to threaten
Israel’s home front.” He said the people of Lebanon should evacuate “any house
that has become a site for the service of the Hezbollah organization to avoid
harm.”Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that the ongoing Israeli
“aggression against Lebanon constitutes a genocide in every sense of the word,
as well as a destructive plan aimed at annihilating villages and towns and
eradicating all green spaces.”He reiterated his appeal to “decision-making
countries to exert pressure on Israel to cease its aggression, implement UN
Security Council resolution 2735, and resolve the Palestinian issue based on the
adoption of the two-state solution and a just and comprehensive peace.”He said:
“We reaffirm our full commitment to resolution 1701 and, as a government, we are
working to halt the renewed Israeli war while striving to avoid, as much as
possible, falling into the unknown.”Mikati spoke as the Israeli army launched on
Monday morning a series of large-scale attacks from Lebanon’s south to east.
The army vowed to target sites deep in the Bekaa Valley in the afternoon.
Dozens of towns in the border region and in the area of Tyre were targeted by
airstrikes. The Israeli army hit a home housing seven people in the town of
Barich in the Tyre district, killing five people, including children. It also
targeted the Nabatieh area, western Bekaa (specifically Machghara, Sohmor, and
Yohmor), as well as the Jezzine area and Deir Al-Zahrani, all the way to
Maghdoucheh and Ghaziyeh on the outskirts of Sidon. The echoes of Israeli
airstrikes on northern Bekaa resonated throughout the region.
People spoke of “highly destructive Israeli missiles.”Loud explosions shook the
Hermel highlands near the Syrian border. A strike on these highlands killed one
person and injured six others, two of whom are in intensive care.Injured
children were separated from their families upon being transferred to hospitals,
prompting appeals for anyone with information about their relatives to come
forward.Women who were in their homes were buried under the rubble. Calls were
made through social media for nurses to report to hospitals that had exceeded
their capacity to assist in providing care to those in need. The Ministry of
Health has requested that “all hospitals in the southern provinces, as well as
in Nabatieh and Baalbek-Hermel, suspend all non-urgent procedures to allocate
resources for the treatment of casualties resulting from the ongoing Israeli
aggression against Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that some airstrikes penetrated as deep as 125 km into
Lebanese territory. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the air force
“attacked the northern Lebanon Valley area, about 130 km from Israel’s northern
border.”The Israeli army accompanied its aggression with recorded voice messages
to Lebanese cell phones in various areas, especially the south and Bekaa,
extending to Beirut and Akkar in the north. The messages urged people to
evacuate homes near Hezbollah centers. The telecom company Ogero reported that
Lebanon received “about 80,000 suspected Israeli call attempts.”The messages
instructed people to “evacuate areas where Hezbollah weapons or infrastructure
are located within at least 1,000 meters, or head to the local school and not
return until further notice.”The warning was echoed by a similar statement from
the Israeli army’s spokesperson, addressing “villages in the Bekaa region.”The
airstrikes and phone threats had an immediate effect, as schools halted
operations and urged parents to pick up their children. Many families quickly
fled from southern areas, which until recently were considered safe, heading
deeper into Lebanon.
The entrance to Sidon, leading to Beirut, was jammed with thousands of cars
carrying families and their belongings. Displaced people have moved from the
south to the predominantly Christian and Druze areas of Mount Lebanon, as well
as to Beirut, which has a Sunni majority.
Additionally, some displaced persons have arrived in Akkar, located in the far
north of Lebanon, where efforts have been made to provide them with housing. The
spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, claimed that the military
targeted “only the buildings that contain weapons belonging to Hezbollah.” He
addressed the residents of Lebanese villages, asking them to evacuate the homes
where Hezbollah had concealed weapons immediately.
He said Hezbollah “is deceiving you and sacrificing you. While Hezbollah claims
that you are part of its community and its supporters, it appears that its
missiles and drones are more valuable and significant to it than you are.”
Reports on Monday indicated that an Israeli missile fell in a barren area in the
Jbeil district in northern Lebanon, predominantly inhabited by Christians, with
a Shiite presence. The Lebanese army investigated the incident, and security
sources suggested that the missile might have landed accidentally in the area.
UNIFIL, the UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, asked all its civilian employees
to leave with their families to safe areas north of the Litani River. In
response to the Israeli attack, Hezbollah said it “bombed the reserve
headquarters of the Israeli army’s northern corps, the Galilee Division Reserve
Base, and its stores of logistics at Ami’ad Base as well as Rafael’s
military-industrial complexes in Zevulun area, north of Haifa, with dozens of
missiles.” Sirens sounded in Margaliot in the Upper Galilee, as reported by
Israeli media.
Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety and
shelter
Fadi Tawil And Mohammad Zaatari/BEIRUT (AP)/September 23, 2024
Thousands of families from southern Lebanon packed cars and minivans with
suitcases, mattresses, blankets and carpets and jammed the highway heading north
toward Beirut on Monday to flee the deadliest Israeli bombardment since 2006.
Some 100,000 people living near the border had already been displaced since
October, when the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces began
exchanging near-daily fire against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. As the
fighting intensifies, the number of evacuees is expected to rise. In Beirut and
beyond, schools were quickly repurposed to receive the newly displaced as
volunteers scrambled to gather water, medicine and mattresses. In the coastal
city of Sidon, people seeking shelter streamed into schools that had no
mattresses to sleep on yet. Many waited on sidewalks outside.Ramzieh Dawi had
arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of
Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby. “These
are the only things I brought,” she said, gesturing at the three tote bags she
carried. Fatima Chehab, who came with her three daughters from the area of
Nabatieh, said her family had been displaced twice in quick succession.
“We first fled to stay with my brother in a nearby area, and then they bombed
three places next to his house,” she said. Some people waited for hours in
gridlocked traffic to get to what they hoped would be safety. The Israeli
military warned residents in eastern and southern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of a
widening air campaign against what it said were Hezbollah weapons sites. Some
356 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday, officials said, and more than 1,240
people were wounded — a staggering toll for a country still reeling from a
deadly attack on communication devices last week. That attack was widely blamed
on Israel, which has not confirmed or denied responsibility. Israeli officials
have said they are ramping up pressure against Hezbollah in an attempt to force
it to stop firing rockets into northern Israel so that tens of thousands of
displaced Israelis can return home. Hezbollah has said it will only stop when
there is a cease-fire in Gaza. At a public high school in the capital’s Ras al-Nabaa
neighborhood, a few dozen men, women and children were milling around as
volunteers registered them. Yahya Abu Ali, who fled with his family from the
village of Doueir in Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, struck a defiant tone.
“Don’t think that an airplane or a missile will defeat us, or that a wounded
person or a martyr on the ground will weaken us,” he said. “On the contrary, it
gives us strength, determination, and resilience.”But Abu Ali also admitted that
he was worried about his four siblings and their families who remained behind in
southern Lebanon. “God willing, I hope they will make it out,” he said. Minar
al-Natour, a volunteer at the school, said the team on the ground was still in
“early stages” of preparations to host the larger numbers expected to arrive.
“We’re securing medicine, water, and of course all the essential supplies,” she
said. In Beirut’s Aisha Bakkar neighborhood — where some residents had received
messages instructing them to evacuate — shop owner Mazen al-Hakeem said most had
not heeded the call. “There is no fear but there is anticipation,” he said.
“People are filling their tanks with fuel, storing food and groceries. They are
taking their precautions.”Imran Riza, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for
Lebanon, said in a statement the international body had allocated $24 million in
emergency funding for people affected by the fighting. With its economy in
shambles and Beirut still recovering from a massive port explosion in 2020,
Lebanon is “grappling with multiple crises, which have overwhelmed the country’s
capacity to cope,” Riza said. “As the escalation of hostilities in south Lebanon
drags on longer than we had hoped, it has led to further displacement and
deepened the already critical needs,” Riza said.
US is sending more troops to the Middle East as violence
rises between Israel and Hezbollah
Tara Copp And Lolita C. Baldor/WASHINGTON (AP) /September 23,
2024
The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in
response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in
Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said
Monday. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many
more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. now
has about 40,000 troops in the region. On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry
S. Truman, two Navy destroyers and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia,
headed to the Sixth Fleet area in Europe on a regularly scheduled deployment.
The ships' departure opens up the possibility that the U.S. could keep both the
Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Arabian
Gulf, in the region in case more violence breaks out. “In light of increased
tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a
small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces
that are already in the region," Ryder said. "But for operational security
reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”The new deployments
come after significant strikes by Israeli forces against targets inside Lebanon
that have killed hundreds and as Israel is preparing to conduct further
operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned Lebanese
civilians in a videotaped message to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening
air campaign. He spoke as Israeli warplanes struck alleged Hezbollah targets in
southern and eastern Lebanon. The U.S. has “concrete ideas” for restoring calm
along the Israel-Lebanon border that it will present to allies and partners this
week on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world
leaders, a senior State Department official said Monday. The official, who spoke
to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic
efforts, said the U.S. and numerous other countries were eager to present an
“off-ramp” for both Israel and Hezbollah to reduce tensions and prevent an
all-out war.
The official would not detail what the “concrete ideas” are because he said they
had yet to be presented to allies and partners for what he termed a “stress
test” for their likelihood of success. The State Department is warning Americans
to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.
“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and
Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the U.S.
Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still
remain available,” the State Department cautioned Saturday. Ryder would not say
if the additional forces might support the evacuation of American citizens if
needed. U.S. officials said a decision is expected soon, possibly this week, on
whether the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier will stay in the Middle East or
continue to the Asia-Pacific. Having two carrier strike groups in the Middle
East at the same time has been relatively rare in recent years. But as violence
has spiked between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iranian-backed militant
groups, the Biden administration has ordered the Navy to have the carriers and
their warships overlap for several weeks on a couple occasions. It will take the
Truman aircraft carrier about two weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean and get into
the Mediterranean Sea. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
troop movements. There is already a Marine amphibious ready group in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea, with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, which is
expected to be able to assist in an evacuation if needed. Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin held back-to-back calls with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
over the weekend as he pressed for a cease-fire and a reduction of tensions in
the region, Ryder said. “Given the tensions, given the escalation, as I
highlighted, there is the potential for a wider regional conflict. I don’t think
we’re there yet, but it’s a dangerous situation,” Ryder said. The American
presence in the Middle East is designed both to help defend Israel and protect
U.S. and allied personnel and assets. Navy warships are scattered across the
region, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Oman, and both Air
Force and Navy fighter jets are strategically based at several locations to be
better prepared to respond to any attacks.
Intense Israeli Airstrikes in the South, Bekaa and Hermel
This Is Beirut/September 23, 2024
Israeli warplanes launched over 100 airstrikes within half an hour on Monday
morning, targeting numerous towns in southern Lebanon. However, the most intense
raids occurred in the Bekaa region in the east, including areas near Baalbeck
and the outskirts of Hermel.
According to the National News Agency (NNA), the strikes in the east resulted in
the death of a shepherd, identified as a civilian, and left two members of his
family wounded, along with four others. The Ministry of Public Health’s Public
Health Emergency Operations Center issued a statement announcing that Israeli
raids on Jurud al-Hermel killed one person and injured six, including two in
intensive care. The ministry also stated that a raid on the town of Aitaroun led
to the injury of eleven people, including one in intensive care, six who
required hospitalization and four who were treated in the emergency room. A
Hezbollah source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told AFP that the
strikes in the Bekaa Valley targeted the area from east to west.
Israeli Warnings
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari advised civilians in
Lebanese villages located near buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for
military purposes—such as weapon storage—to evacuate immediately for their
safety. Hagari stated at a media briefing that Israel’s military would conduct
“more extensive and precise strikes against terror targets that are widely
embedded throughout Lebanon,” citing indications that Hezbollah was preparing to
launch attacks toward Israeli territory. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
took to social media on Monday to share that he had a conversation with US
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. According to Gallant, the two men discussed
Hezbollah threats and Austin was briefed on the Israeli army’s efforts to hinder
Hezbollah’s capacity to target Israeli civilians. As for Avichay Adrae, Israeli
military Arabic spokesperson, he also warned that Israeli airstrikes will begin
imminently asking residents of the South to “evacuate the houses where Hezbollah
is hiding weapons immediately.”
On the Ground
In an unusual turn of events, a rocket landed in Al-Wardiyat near the town of
Ehmej in the Jbeil mountainous area, but no human casualties were reported as it
fell in a rocky and uninhabited location. The Israeli airstrikes inflicted
significant damage to properties and crops, notably impacting banana and citrus
orchards in the Qulaylah, Mansouri and Ain Abu Abdullah plains in Tyre.
Furthermore, nearby shops, particularly those situated along the road to the
town of Abbasiyah, also suffered damage as a result of the attacks. According to
Al Arabiya, text messages were sent to Lebanese phones urging residents to stay
away from Hezbollah weapons. Reuters reports that some residents in south
Lebanon have been receiving calls from what appears to be a Lebanese number
warning them to move at least 1,000 meters from any Hezbollah position.
Lebanese Officials Receive Threats Amid Alleged Israeli Communications
Interference
This Is Beirut/September 23, 2024
The office of the caretaker Minister of Culture, Judge Mohammad Mortada,
received a call on Monday from a person speaking in formal Arabic, warning of
the need to evacuate the office as it was being targeted.
Additionally, the office of the caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makary,
also received a voice threat from an automated message, calling for the
immediate evacuation of the ministry building. Makary then issued a statement
affirming that a significant number of citizens in Beirut and surrounding areas
received random standardized phone messages via the landline network, urging
them to evacuate their current location. The Ministry of Information was one of
the recipients of this message. “This is yet another violation of Lebanon’s
sovereignty,” Makary commented, stressing that such actions only escalate
tensions in the region.
In the same context, Director General of Ogero, Imad Kreidieh, strongly denied
allegations that Israel successfully hacked into the country’s landline network
in the south.
In an interview with Al-Nashra on Monday, Kreidieh clarified that the landline
network system in Lebanon blocks all communications from Israel. But Israel
“circumvents the communications systems by using the international phone code of
a friendly country.”Because Israel and Lebanon are technically at war, Lebanon
forbids communications with Israel and Lebanese landlines cannot receive calls
from Israeli ones. “If any communication comes through non-Israeli international
codes, it is not a breach of the system, but rather a circumvention of
international protocols,” he stated. “Fortunately, our servers are old and
difficult to penetrate,” he added, reassuring the public that any suspicious
calls should be reported to authorities for proper investigation. Despite these
denials, multiple reports claim that Israel has contacted residents in the Tyre
district via landline, warning them to stay away from Hezbollah sites as Israeli
forces prepare to escalate their strikes.
Nearly a full-fledged war in Lebanon, EU's Borrell says
Reuters/September 23, 2024
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The escalation between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah is
almost a full-fledged war, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on
Monday. "This situation is extremely dangerous and worrying. I can say that we
are almost in a full-fledged war," Josep Borrell told reporters. "If this is not
a war situation, I don't know what you would call it," he said, citing the
increasing number of civilian casualties and the intensity of military strikes.
Borrell said efforts to reduce tensions were ongoing, but Europe's worst fears
about a spillover were becoming a reality. He said civilians were paying a high
price and all diplomatic efforts were needed to prevent a full-blown war. "Here
in New York is the moment to do that. Everybody has to put all their capacity to
stop this path to war," he said.
Israel vs. Hezbollah: Supremacy’s Weight
Michel Touma/This Is Beirut/September 23, 2024
Following the humiliating defeat of the Arab armies in the Six-Day War of June
1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser attributed the losses of Egypt,
Jordan and Syria to Israel’s air supremacy. Since then, over the course of more
than half a century, this air supremacy has grown exponentially, while Arab
military capabilities have steadily eroded at a similar pace. Consequently,
Israel has attained total and uncontested control over the region’s
airspace—occasionally in collaboration with its Western allies—as evidenced by
the ongoing, large-scale airstrikes targeting Hezbollah positions in southern
Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.
At this stage, Israeli air superiority is further strengthened by highly
sophisticated technologies, including spy satellites, artificial intelligence
(AI) and increasingly advanced drones. This results in an impressive capacity
for Israel to collect, analyze and exploit military data and intelligence.
In response to this absolute air supremacy and the widening technological gap
with Israel, Hezbollah—and the broader Iranian camp—boasts a substantial arsenal
of missiles and drones, along with a grassroots mobilization, rooted in the cult
of martyrdom. While this provides a significant capability for “harm” and
notable destruction, it falls short of the ultimate objective: establishing a
“deterrent force” and creating a more balanced power dynamic with the Hebrew
State in anticipation of a major confrontation with the adversary. This is
precisely where it’s most painful, as the so-called “obstructionist” camp
currently lacks the means to bridge—even partially—the technological divide that
separates it from Israel.
Confronted with such a reality, Lebanese public opinion has every right to
demand accountability from Hezbollah’s leadership by questioning the
appropriateness of its (unilateral) initiative to reactivate the southern
Lebanon front in an objectively unfavorable context at local, regional and
international levels. The goal of “liberation” is nothing but an illusion. The
objective set on October 8—to alleviate military pressure on Hamas—has proven to
be merely a smokescreen to justify a fundamentally irrational military
initiative that does not genuinely concern Lebanon.
All are aware… Hezbollah’s political project, its vision and its calculations
are fundamentally transnational. For the party’s leadership, Lebanon is merely a
pawn on the larger Iranian chessboard. By reactivating the southern front,
Hezbollah’s sole aim was to serve the geostrategic interests of the mullah’s
regime. In fact, it was compelled to do so, in line with the party’s doctrine
developed in the mid-1980s under the guidance of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC).
Hezbollah effectively holds all of Lebanon hostage to strengthen Tehran’s
position in its confrontation with the Western camp. However, emerging signs
suggest that the Iranian regime may be open to pursuing a comprehensive
agreement with Washington, potentially by sacrificing some of its local allies,
including Hezbollah. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently stated explicitly that
a “tactical political or military retreat in the face of the enemy is entirely
feasible.” Meanwhile, the newly elected Iranian president has called for “good
relations” with the United States, even asserting that “Americans are our
brothers.”
This raises important questions for the staunch supporters of the
“obstructionist” axis, who may need to come to terms with the idea that in the
grand game of nations, State Reason operates on “reasons whereof reason knows
nothing.” In this grand game, secondary players can sometimes find themselves
with no room…
BDL Gold Reserves See $9.83 Billion Accounting Surge
Liliane Mokbel/This Is Beirut/September 23, 2024
The surge in gold prices has substantially benefited the Banque du Liban (BDL),
resulting in a considerable increase in the value of its gold reserves. An
auditing firm, appointed by BDL’s commissioner for Foreign Affairs with the
coordination of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), conducted an inventory on
November 24, 2022, which revealed that these reserves consist of 9,222,000 gold
bars.
The value of the gold held by BDL rose from $13.57 billion in mid-December 2019
to approximately $23.4 billion by the end of August 2024. As a result, the
central bank has reported an accounting profit of $9.83 billion during the
crisis years, driven solely by the rise in global gold prices.
Financial Adjustment
The increase in the value of BDL’s gold reserves could theoretically enhance its
solvency and improve its balance sheet, but it will not address the ongoing
liquidity crisis. In principle, neither BDL nor the Lebanese government can
access these reserves without a specific law permitting it, which would require
repealing the protective law enacted in 1986.
Moreover, it is important to note that only two-thirds of BDL’s gold reserves
are stored in its vaults in Lebanon, while the remaining one-third is held at
the Federal Reserve in the United States.
In the same context, although Lebanon may theoretically access these reserves,
any withdrawal or transfer is subject to complex diplomatic and financial
procedures, especially in light of international sanctions, legal restrictions
or economic pressures imposed by the US and other Western powers.
Ounce Reaches $2,647
Just minutes after the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced on September 18, 2024, a
more significant-than-expected interest rate cut of 0.5 percentage points to
4.75-5%—greater than the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 0.25% reduction—gold
prices jumped by 1.3%, reaching $2,600 per ounce. By Sunday, only four days
later, gold was trading at $2,647 per ounce. Since the beginning of 2024, gold
has demonstrated impressive growth, rising over 25%, building on a more than 13%
increase in 2023.
A Causal Link
As the Fed begins a gradual cycle of interest rate cuts in the coming months to
avert a “hard landing” for the US economy, a rise in global gold prices is
expected. This inverse relationship between interest rates and gold stems from
the diminished “opportunity yield” of interest-bearing assets (like bonds),
making gold more attractive to investors.
It’s important to note that the Fed operates under a dual mandate, focused on
price stability and full employment. After successfully addressing inflation in
the previous phase (which concluded on September 18), it is now turning its
attention to the labor market, signaling the onset of a “monetary easing” phase.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard bans communication devices after Hezbollah pager
explosions
(Reuters)/September 23, 2024
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has banned the use of pagers and
other communication devices after the deadly attacks last week targeting its
ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, security officials said. One official said a
large-scale operation is underway by the IRGC to inspect all devices, not just
communication equipment. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has
ordered all members to stop using any type of communication devices after
thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon
blew up in deadly attacks last week, two senior Iranian security officials told
Reuters.
One of the security officials said a large-scale operation is underway by the
IRGC to inspect all devices, not just communication equipment. He said most of
these devices were either homemade or imported from China and Russia. Iran was
concerned about infiltration by Israeli agents, including Iranians on Israel’s
payroll and a thorough investigation of personnel has already begun, targeting
mid and high-ranking members of the IRGC, added the official, who declined to be
identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “This includes scrutiny of
their bank accounts both in Iran and abroad, as well as their travel history and
that of their families,” the security official said.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on September 23-24/2024
Top UN officials on Gaza: 'These atrocities must end'
Michelle Nichols/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)/September 23, 2024
Leading United Nations officials demanded on Monday "an end to the appalling
human suffering and humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip, nearly a year
into the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. "These atrocities
must end," they said in a statement signed by the heads of U.N. agencies that
include UNICEF and the World Food Programme along with other aid groups as world
leaders gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly.
"Humanitarians must have safe and unimpeded access to those in need," the
statement said. "We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and
ongoing violence." The U.N. has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into
Gaza during the war and distributing it amid "total lawlessness" in the besieged
Palestinian enclave. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds
of them U.N. staff, have been killed. "The risk of famine persists with all 2.1
million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as
humanitarian access remains restricted," the U.N. officials said. "Healthcare
has been decimated. More than 500 attacks on healthcare have been recorded in
Gaza." Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom said on Monday they would team up to develop
a declaration for the protection of humanitarian personnel and invite all
countries to sign. "2024 is on track to be the deadliest year on record for aid
workers," Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
"Australia felt this deeply with the IDF's strike against World Central Kitchen
vehicles in April, which killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues,"
she said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. "Gaza is the deadliest place
on earth to be an aid worker," she said. Israel's military has apologised and
dismissed two senior commanders involved in the WCK strikes. Three other
commanders were formally reprimanded. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said the strikes were unintended and tragic. The war in the Palestinian enclave
began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities,
killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run
Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's military has leveled
swathes of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people
from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than
41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities who do not
distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. The Israeli military says it
takes steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and that at least a third of
the Palestinian fatalities are militants. It accuses Hamas of using Palestinian
civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.
Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Bureau In West Bank
Max Goldbart/Deadline/September 23, 2024
Israel has shut down a foreign news outlet in the contested West Bank region for
the first time.
As fighting with Hezbollah worsens, reports said that Israel yesterday raided Al
Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and ordered the satellite office to be
shut for 45 days.
According to the Associated Press, the Israeli military has acknowledged
conducting the raid, alleging without providing evidence that the newsroom is
“being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the
channel’s broadcasts endanger … security and public order.”
Al Jazeera says it has continued operating in the West Bank and also in the Gaza
strip while broadcasting live from nearby Jordan. In a statement, the
Qatar-backed news outlet said it will “not be intimidated or deterred by efforts
to silence its coverage.”The move is the latest media crackdown as the first
anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel approaches. In May, Israeli
police raided Al Jazeera’s broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing
equipment, preventing broadcasts and blocking websites. Fighting against Lebanon
has ramped up in recent days since covert blasts on pagers and walkie-talkies
killed a number of people and injured thousands. Israel has not taken
responsibility but is being blamed by Hezbollah. The pair have been exchanging
rocket fire over the weekend after Hezbollah vowed retaliation. Simultaneously,
prospects for a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas appear to have
dimmed.
Israel strikes Gaza as heavy rain worsens misery of displaced Palestinians
Nidal al-Mughrabi/Reuters/September 23, 2024
CAIRO (Reuters) - Two strikes by Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians,
including four children, in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, medics said, as
heavy rains flooded displaced residents' tent encampments. The assault on Gaza,
now nearly a year long, carried on even as international attention turned to the
conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel between Hezbollah militants and Israel.
Palestinian health officials said at least five Palestinians were killed at a
school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip's eight
historic refugee camps. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command
center embedded inside a compound that previously served as a school. Later on
Monday, an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Deir Al-Balah, where a
million people have taken shelter, killed a woman and four children, medics
said. There was no immediate Israeli army comment on the incident.
Hamas' armed wing said on Monday its fighters managed to lure a convoy of
Israeli vehicles into "a well-prepared ambush" on the supply line of the Israeli
forces east of Rafah city, and attacked them with anti-tank rockets and
already-planted explosive devices. There was no immediate comment from the
Israeli military.
MORE MISERY
Heavy rains overnight piled more problems onto Gaza's displaced as downpours
flooded tents, washed some of them away, and forced families out of their sleep.
Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug
trenches to drain water away from their tents. The price of new tents and
plastic sheeting to prevent leaks shot up. Ahmed Al-Burai, 30, said people made
their tents of used sacks of flour, worn-out clothes, and nylon bags. As soon as
it rained the water and wind blew many tents away and flooded others.
"Everything is drowned, the blankets, the food, and the people in just a few
hours of rain," Burai told Reuters over the phone from Al-Mawasi, a
humanitarian-designated area in the southern Gaza Strip. "Most of the displaced
can't afford the new prices of tents and plastic sheeting. Just two days ago the
price of plastic sheeting stood at 100 to 200 shekels ($27 to $54) and today it
has risen to 700 and 800 shekels ($189 to $216) because of the greed of
merchants," Burai said.
More shelters and supplies to help people cope with the coming winter were
needed, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said. "As autumn begins,
plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the
cold," the relief agency posted on X.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million have been displaced in nearly a year of warfare as
Israeli air and artillery strikes have reduced much of the Palestinian enclave
to rubble. More than 41,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli
assault, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The war, the deadliest bout in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was
triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people
and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Iran president warns of 'irreversible' consequences of
wider regional war
Don Durfee and Parisa Hafezi/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)/September 23, 2024
Israel wants to drag the Middle East into a full-blown war by provoking Iran to
join the nearly year-old conflict between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah in
Lebanon, Iran's president said on Monday, warning of its "irreversible"
consequences. Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking to a group of journalists after his
arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, said: "We do
not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences
would be irreversible" "We want to live in peace, we don't want war," he added.
"It is Israel that seeks to create this all-out conflict."Pezeshkian, a
relatively moderate politician who was elected in July promising a pragmatic
foreign policy, accused the international community of silence in the face of
what he called "Israel's genocide" in Gaza. Pezeshkian's call to resolve the
Middle East conflict through dialogue came after Israel unleashed an intense
wave of air strikes against Hezbollah on Monday, making it the deadliest day in
Lebanon in nearly a year of conflict between Israel and Tehran-backed group. "We
will defend any group that is defending its rights and itself," Pezeshkian said,
when asked whether Iran will enter the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. He
did not elaborate. The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, also
in New York, described the situation as nearly a full-fledged war. He urged
world leaders to do all they could to stop it, adding: "Here in New York is the
moment to do that." Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from towns
and villages on both sides of the border by near-daily exchanges of fire between
Israeli forces and Hezbollah. Israel has said it prefers a diplomatic solution
that would have Hezbollah moved farther back from the border. However,
Hezbollah, which also says it wants to avoid all-out conflict, says that only an
end to the war in Gaza will stop the fighting. Gaza ceasefire efforts are
deadlocked after months of faltering talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the
United States.Iran's regional policy is set by the elite Revolutionary Guards,
who answer only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's top
authority. Pezeshkian has repeatedly affirmed Iran's anti-Israel stance and its
support for resistance movements across the region since taking office last
month. Asked if Iran would retaliate for the assassination of Palestinian
militant group Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil in late July, Pezeshkian
said "We will respond at the appropriate time and place, in an appropriate
manner". Haniyeh's killing, which both Tehran and Hamas have blamed on Israel,
has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-foe Israel in a
region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.
Iran's powerful Guards and Khamenei have vowed "severe" revenge for Haniyeh's
killing, which happened while he visited Tehran. So far, Tehran has held back
from direct retaliation against Israel, which has neither confirmed or denied
its involvement. Three senior Iranian officials told Reuters in August Tehran
has been involved in intense dialogue with Western countries and the United
States to calibrate retaliation against Israel for Haniyeh's assassination.
Pezeshkian said "we were told that within a week there will be a ceasefire
agreement" between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas, "but that week has never come
and instead Israel has kept expanding its attacks."
Iran ready for nuclear talks at UN ‘if other parties
willing’, foreign minister says
REUTERS/September 23, 2024
TEHRAN: Iran is ready to start nuclear negotiations on the sidelines of the UN
General Assembly in New York if “other parties are willing,” Foreign Minister
Abbas Araqchi said on Monday in a video published on his Telegram channel.The
US, under then-President Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear accord
signed in 2015 by Iran and six world powers under which Tehran curbed its
disputed nuclear program in return for a lifting of international
sanctions.Indirect talks between Washington and Tehran to revive the deal have
stalled. Iran is still formally part of the deal but has scaled back commitments
to honor it due to US sanctions reimposed on the Islamic Republic. “I will stay
in New York for a few more days than the president and will have more meetings
with various foreign ministers. We will focus our efforts on starting a new
round of talks regarding the nuclear pact,” Araqchi said.
He added that messages have been exchanged via Switzerland and a “general
declaration of readiness” issued, but cautioned that “current international
conditions make the resumption of talks more complicated and difficult than
before.”Araqchi said he would not meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
“I do not believe it would be expedient to hold such a dialogue. There were such
meetings before but there is currently no suitable ground for that. We are still
a long way from holding direct talks.” Since the renewal of US sanctions during
the Trump administration, Tehran has refused to directly negotiate with
Washington and worked mainly through European or Arab intermediaries. Iranian
leaders want to see an easing of US sanctions that have significantly harmed its
economy. But Iran’s relations with the West have worsened since the
Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct.
7, and as Tehran has increased its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. US
President Joe Biden’s administration has said the United States is not ready to
resume nuclear talks with Iran.
Iran Warns Israel of 'Dangerous Consequences' of Lebanon
Strikes
Asharq Al Awsat/September 23/2024
Iran's foreign ministry warned Israel on Monday of "dangerous consequences"
following deadly strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. Foreign ministry
spokesman Nasser Kanani called the Israeli strikes "insane", and warned of "the
dangerous consequences of the Zionists' new adventure".Israel on Monday launched
a wave of airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon,
killing at least 182 people including children, according to Lebanon's health
ministry.The attacks mark the largest escalation of violence between Hezbollah
and Israel since the war in the Gaza Strip erupted on October 7. Kanani said
Israel's "crimes" in Palestinian territories and their "expansion to Lebanon are
a clear example of a serious threat to regional and international peace". He
strongly criticized US support for Israel called upon the United Nations
Security Council "to take immediate action to stop these crimes".For his part,
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday accused Israel of seeking a wider
conflict, which he said would not benefit anyone, as he insisted Tehran was not
destabilizing the region. "We know more than anyone else that if a larger war
were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the
world. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict," he told a
roundtable with journalists as he attended the UN General Assembly in New York.
Zelenskiy says Ukraine closer to end of war with Russia
Kanishka Singh and Costas Pitas/Reuters/September 23, 2024
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country is "closer to the end
of the war" with Russia, according to excerpts of an interview with ABC News
released on Monday. "I think that we are closer to the peace than we think," he
was quoted as saying. "We are closer to the end of the war." In the interview,
he urged Washington and other partners to continue supporting Ukraine. The
full-scale Russia invasion of Ukraine, which began in Feb. 2022 as what Moscow
called a "special operation", has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of
people, uprooted millions more and devastated Ukrainian towns and cities. The
Ukrainian leader said that only from a "strong position" can Ukraine push
Russian President Vladimir Putin "to stop the war." Zelenskiy arrived in the
United States on Sunday to attend sessions at the U.N. General Assembly and
urged his partners to help achieve "a shared victory for a truly just peace."
Washington and its allies have provided a multi-billion dollar assistance
program to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began while also imposing several
rounds of sanctions against Moscow. Putin says peace talks can begin only if
Kyiv abandons swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine to Russia and drops its
NATO membership ambitions. Zelenskiy has called repeatedly for a withdrawal of
all Russian troops, and the restoration of Ukraine's post-Soviet borders. Kyiv
began a cross-border attack on Aug. 6 into Russia's western Kursk region.
Ukraine says the action intended partly to prevent Russian forces in the area
from launching their own incursion across the border into Ukraine. Zelenskiy
told ABC News Putin was afraid of the Kursk operation. "He's afraid very much,"
he said. "Why? Because his people saw that he can't defend - that he can't
defend all his territory." Ukraine and the West say Russia is waging an
imperial-style war. Putin cast the Ukraine invasion as a defensive move against
a hostile and aggressive West.
Kremlin says it will study Zelenskiy's 'victory plan' if
details are released officially
Reuters/September 23, 2024
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday it would study what Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has billed as his "victory plan" to end the war
with Russia as and when official information on it was released. Zelenskiy is
due to present the plan to U.S. President Joe Biden this week and his two
potential successors, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, during a trip to the
United States which will see Zelenskiy address the U.N. General Assembly on
Tuesday. The plan, details of which Zelenskiy has so far publicly held back,
appears to be a big push from Zelenskiy to try to persuade Washington and other
allies to provide further and deeper aid to his country in an effort to force
Moscow to end the conflict on terms acceptable to Kyiv. Ukrainian officials have
suggested that Russia could eventually be invited to a summit to discuss a
resolution to the conflict under the new plan. Asked about Zelenskiy's
initiative, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We believe that one
should not analyse media reports. If information about it appears in official
sources we will of course scrutinise it. There is a lot of contradictory and
unreliable information on it out there, so we are very cautious about this."
Analysis-Ukraine's Zelenskiy heads to US with 'victory
plan' at perilous moment
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits Scranton Army Ammunition Plant
By Tom Balmforth/September 23, 2024
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy travels to the United States to set out a "victory
plan" to his closest ally this week, in an urgent attempt to influence White
House policy on Ukraine's war with Russia no matter who wins the U.S. elections
in November. The Ukrainian leader has said he wants to present the plan to
President Joe Biden and his two potential successors, Kamala Harris and Donald
Trump, during the trip, which will see Zelenskiy addressing the U.N. General
Assembly on Tuesday. Zelenskiy has said that if the plan is backed by the West,
it will have a broad impact on Moscow, including a psychological one that could
help compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war diplomatically. "The
Victory Plan envisages quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners - from
now until the end of December," Zelenskiy told reporters on Friday. He added
that the plan would act as a "bridge" to a second Ukraine-led summit on peace
that Kyiv wants to hold and invite Russia to later this year. There is no
alternative to peace, Zelenskiy has said, "no freezing of the war or any other
manipulations that would simply postpone Russian aggression to another stage".
Yet the two sides remain far apart. Zelenskiy wants Ukraine inside NATO and the
European Union and Russia driven from all Ukrainian territory, though he says
the latter aim can be achieved diplomatically. Putin says peace talks can only
begin if Kyiv abandons swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine to Russia and
drops its NATO membership plan.
Zelenskiy's trip comes at a perilous juncture for Ukraine. A Trump victory in
the Nov. 5 presidential election could prompt a reset of Washington's policy on
Ukraine, which relies heavily on U.S. military and financial support. During a
TV debate, Trump refused to say if he wanted Ukraine to defeat Russia and said
he would try to end the war before taking office if he wins. Harris accused
Trump of seeking Kyiv's swift and unconditional capitulation. As the election
nears, Kyiv has put on a show of strength, rapidly seizing land in a high-risk
Aug. 6 incursion into Russia's Kursk region, touting new weapons including a
"drone missile" and ballistic weapon and launching major drone strikes. One
attack caused a massive blast at an ammo dump in Russia's Tver region last
Wednesday. Russia has ramped up drone and missile attacks, taken receipt of
Iranian ballistic missiles, according to the West, ordered an increase in the
size of its army, moved to change its nuclear doctrine and stepped up its
eastern offensive.
'BIDEN'S DECISION'
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said Biden is eager to discuss
Zelenskiy's "comprehensive strategy for success in this war" against Russia.
Zelenskiy said his plan consists of a small number of points and that "all these
points depend on Biden's decision, not Putin's". On Friday, the leader said the
steps involved establishing Ukraine's place in the world's "security
architecture", battlefield decisions including the Kursk operation, bolstering
Ukraine's armoury and supporting the economy. Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian
military analyst, said Zelenskiy might press for longer-term assurances of aid
into 2025 and seek some kind of declaration of post-Biden continuity in support.
"This will be a very important moment. Perhaps in some ways, in a political and
military-political sense, it will be a pivotal moment," he said. Zelenskiy is
almost certain to repeat his call on Biden to authorise long-range strikes into
Russia, a move Moscow has said would make NATO members direct participants in
the war and elicit a response. Ukraine wants to strike military installations up
to 300 km (186 miles) inside Russia, such as airfields that host attack
helicopters and warplanes used to fire glide bombs. Washington has said it does
not see the easing of those restrictions as a battlefield game-changer. Russia,
which occupies 18% of Ukrainian territory, has been on the offensive since last
October and in August chalked up its fastest sustained recent month of advances.
Ukraine's toehold in Russia's Kursk region could serve as a bargaining chip at
talks or as an insurance policy against any outside push to freeze the war along
current lines. But Kyiv would have to hold the territory amid serious manpower
challenges against a much larger foe. Meanwhile, Russia has been making progress
towards the transport hub of Pokrovsk. Its capture could wreak havoc with
Ukrainian logistics and open up new lines of attack. Kovalenko said Russia
likely wanted to capture Pokrovsk by the year-end.
"That would allow them... to strengthen pressure on the information front to
catalyse thoughts of peace negotiations, naturally on their terms," he said.
CHALLENGES
Ukraine hopes to advance a blueprint for peace at a second international summit
later this year and says Russia will be invited at the request of other
participants. The first one in Switzerland pointedly shunned Moscow in June and
was skipped by China and chunks of the Global South.
Zelenskiy says his summit initiative is the only viable peace format and this
month slammed as "destructive" a Chinese-Brazilian proposal that calls for
"de-escalating the situation" and the resumption of direct dialogue without
requiring Russia to pull back. Ukraine faces its toughest winter of the 2-1/2
year war yet after Russian strikes damaged a huge chunk of energy producing
capacity. The government also faces mounting economic challenges, and plans its
first wartime tax hikes to cover a funding gap of about $12.2 billion for its
army this year. Opinion polls paint a mixed picture. Some 32% of Ukrainians were
open, as of May 2024, to certain territorial concessions to end the war, up from
10% in May 2022, said Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of Kyiv-based
pollster KIIS. But most of them envisioned an arrangement that would postpone
the liberation of territory rather than abandon it for good, he added. The key
demand for any peace deal is the need for firm security guarantees such as NATO
membership, he said. "Despite negative trends, Ukrainians are still optimistic
enough and believe for a better future - and hope this future will be in the
European Union and with finally adequate security guarantees."
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on September 23-24/2024
Ambivalence and the Impending Wars
Charles Chartoun/This Is Beirut/September 23/2024
The United States mediation seems ineffective, and the war is bogging down.
Radicalization is continuing on both sides, and the chances of working
arrangements are receding by the day. Hamas is not interested in the projected
trade-off, and the Israelis, despite their fractured political landscape, are
unwilling to consider any political and military concession to Hamas. However
critical the hostage issue, the Israelis are faced with a dual dilemma: the
moral dilemma of liberating their hostages and the political dilemma of
compromising their national security. The negotiation scenario is based on false
predicates that overlook the notional and political incompatibilities raised by
the hostage issue, the restoring of the status quo ante, and the reinstatement
of the same security dilemmas that triggered the war on October 2023.
The terms of the exchange are too paradoxical to be validated by the Israelis:
the Israeli withdrawal versus the liberation of hostages and the maintenance of
future uncertainties over the future governance of Gaza. When faced with such
aporia, the negotiation plot should be revised and the order of priorities
entirely reconsidered. Hamas is claiming victory since it has not yet been
annihilated and is totally dismissive of the dire humanitarian costs and the
disastrous fallout of a prolonged war. Israel’s hands are tied by its hostages
and national security mandates, at a time when the Iranians are reactivating
their war plan based on the “unified battlefields,” nuclear militarization, and
the state of generalized stasis and proliferating civil strife in the Middle
East. One wonders how long this political and security murkiness scenario can
survive when the truce playbook is on standby, while war dynamics are in full
gear.
The procrastination strategy followed by Hamas is part of a broader political
and strategic plot whereby the Iranian regime plays the card of regional
destabilization, as lately showcased in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Irak,
Jordan and Yemen, which have, each in its own right, engaged in the war in Gaza.
The questioning of the existing geopolitics and civil peace in these countries
indicates a reluctance to deal in good faith with the US. In parallel, the
Israeli nationalist right is taken over by the extremist fringes, who are not
inclined to negotiations. We have to remind ourselves that the continuation of
this war is costly, highly destructive, differentially impacting its different
sides.
The fractured and highly manipulated Palestinian scenery is unable to unite
around the tactical truce objectives, let alone the prospects of an overall
peace process, which helps sides extricate themselves from their multiple
dependencies. Whereas Israeli differences revolve around issues of political
expediency related to the hostages’ liberation, while unanimously endorsing
their shared perception of national security problems. The mediators have a hard
time disentangling the issues and setting new scenarios for Israeli military
disengagement, while Hamas is claiming back its control over Gaza. In other
words, we are in a full-war dynamic, which portends a total war extending
throughout the Near East.
The situation in Southeast Lebanon and Northeast Syria is a replica of the same
war dynamics projected by the Iranian military script. Israel is not in a
position to condone the Iranian politics of subversion without incurring major
security risks. The full incapacitation of Lebanese sovereignty, the
overwhelming control of state institutions, the total subservience towards the
Iranian regime, and the instrumentalization of Lebanese strategic leverage
(territories, public resources, international status, military capabilities,
organized criminality, Palestinian camps, etc.) sum up the challenges posed to
Israeli security. The very fact that Lebanon is unable to enforce its
sovereignty mandates, safeguard minimal civil concord, and ultimately contain
the Iranian subversion politics makes it vulnerable to the ravaging dynamics of
an evolving war.
The pager explosions and the spate of assassinations targeting the military
leadership (Fouad Shokr, Ibrahim Aqil,and the staff of the elite troop of
al-Radwan) are quite illustrative of the shadow war that Israel has launched
against Iran and its proxies throughout the Middle East. The latest statement of
Hassan Nasrallah is quite unnerving, since it betrays intentional political
blindness, a lack of critical insight, unquestioned accountability, and an
irrealistic perception of political and military evolutions and their
deleterious consequences. He is in a typical state of denial, which prevents him
from coming to terms with the nature of the latest security breach, his
faltering defenses, and the looming strategic hazards. He has failed to grasp
the magnitude of the ongoing intelligence and military failures and their impact
on his outdated strategic blueprints. He is still refusing to acknowledge
defeat, dismissive of international resolutions and arbitration, and clinging to
the whims of an elusive strategic parity and dysfunctional political alliances,
at a time when all these projections have turned awry.
The questions elicited by the actual impasses make us wonder whether the
projected truce is likely to reach its ambivalent goals, restrain the radical
agendas, accommodate the Iranian power politics, and usher in a transformative
peace process. The brunt of the open-ended war in the Near East and its mutating
levers and actors are getting ahead of the peace process, if not relegating it
to irrelevance. If the region is to progressively stabilize, the Iranians have
to disengage from the ongoing conflicts and promote an alternative political
agenda. Israelis are compelled to reinstate their national security, reopen the
channels of communication with the moderate Palestinians, and reclaim the
Abraham Accords as their alternative path to a deliberately subverted peace.
Short of these preconditions, the ingredients of a total war are already in
place.
Is Mary a ‘Bridge’ between Islam and Christianity?
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/September 23/2024
Is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, a “bridge” between Islam and Christianity?
That’s what a major Muslim scholar, the Ayatollah Ahmad Moballeghi, recently
insisted.
On September 5, while addressing a conference on interfaith dialogue at the
University of Pretoria, the ayatollah showered Mary, a revered figure in
Christianity, with praise. Some of his remarks follow. (Confusing Arabic-Islamic
honorifics and formulae have been removed for clarity.)
Maryam plays a crucial role in the history of divine religions; she was not only
the mother of a great prophet but also the Quranic focus on her made her a
bridge between Islam and Christianity… Her character contributes to
strengthening solidarity and cooperation between Muslims and Christians…. Maryam
serves as a bridge of purity and faith between Islam and Christianity and is
regarded as a symbol of chastity and virtue in the world … Maryam is recognized
as a model of piety and virtue among all women worldwide, and her life is filled
with divine signs and miracles that have made her a bridge for bringing Islam
and Christianity closer together. Moballeghi, it should be noted, is a serious
scholar of Islam: He is a professor at Qom Seminary, Iran; a member of the
Assembly of Experts; and the president of the Majlis [Council of] Islamic
Studies Center in Qom.
After saying that the Koran mentions Mary 34 times — with an entire surah
dedicated to her — he continued:
The life of Maryam is full of divine miracles and signs, including her
miraculous conception without human intervention, the divine sustenance provided
to her, and the speaking of Jesus as a newborn, where he testified to his
prophecy and the Oneness of God.
What to make of all this? Has a bridge for mutual cooperation between Muslims
and Christians been found at last in the person of Christ’s mother?
Is Sharing Caring?
Considering that many on the Left are making the same claims, it would certainly
seem so. For example, in May, Pope Francis stated that “Mary is a figure common
to both Christianity and Islam. She is a common figure; she unites us all.”
In 2021, the Marian academy in Rome launched a 10-week webinar series titled
“Mary, a model for faith and life for Christianity and Islam,” in collaboration
with the Grand Mosque of Rome and the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy.
Based on his belief that Mary is “a Jewish, Christian, and Muslim woman,” Fr.
Gian Matteo Roggio, a Catholic priest and organizer of that particular
Muslim-Catholic initiative, said he hoped to use “Our Lady” as a model of “open
borders” between religious and multicultural worlds. While all this may sound
promising, there is one problem: Islam does not “share” Mary — or any other
biblical character — with Christianity. Rather, Islam appropriates the names and
sacred auras of biblical figures, but then recasts them with completely
different attributes, some which directly contradict their defining features in
the Bible.
Revisionist History
For example, far from being the Eternal Virgin, as 1.5 billion Catholic and
Orthodox revere her to be, Islam presents Mary as being “married” to Muhammad in
paradise — a claim that would seem to sever rather than build “bridges.”
In a hadith that was deemed reliable enough to be included in the corpus of the
renowned Ibn Kathir (1300 – 1373), Muhammad declared that “Allah will wed me in
paradise to Mary, Daughter of Imran,” whom Muslims identify with Jesus’s mother.
Nor is this just some random, obscure hadith. Dr. Salem Abdul Galil — previously
deputy minister of Egypt’s religious endowments for preaching — affirmed its
canonicity in 2017 during a live televised Arabic-language program. Among other
biblical women (Moses’s sister and Pharaoh’s wife), “our prophet Muhammad … will
be married to Mary in paradise,” Galil enthusiastically proclaimed.
If few Christians today know about this Islamic claim, medieval Christians
living in Muslim-occupied nations were certainly aware of it. There, spiteful
Muslims regularly threw it in the face of Catholic and Orthodox Christians who
venerated Mary as the “Eternal Virgin.” Thus, Eulogius of Cordoba, an indigenous
Christian of Spain under Islamic rule, once wrote, “I will not repeat the
sacrilege which that impure dog [Muhammad] dared proffer about the Blessed
Virgin, Queen of the World, holy mother of our venerable Lord and Savior. He
claimed that in the next world he would deflower her.”
As usual, it was Eulogius’s offensive words about Muhammad — and not the
latter’s obscene words about Mary — that had dire consequences: Eulogius, along
with many other Spanish Christians vociferously critical of Muhammad, were found
guilty of “blasphemy” and publicly tortured and executed in “Golden Age” Cordoba
in 859 AD.
More Like an Evil Stepsister
This is the main problem the purveyors of “Abrahamism” — the idea that Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam are “sister” religions — fail to acknowledge: Islam does
not treat biblical characters the way Christianity does.
Christians accept the text of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, as it is. They
do not add to, take away from, or distort the accounts of the patriarchs that
Jews also accept as sacred.
Conversely, while also relying on the figures of the Old and New Testaments —
for the weight of antiquity and authority attached to their names — Islam
completely recasts them with different attributes that reaffirm Muhammad’s
religion as the one true and final “revelation,” as opposed to Judaism and
Christianity, whose original biblical accounts on these figures are then seen as
“distorted” because they are different from Islam’s later revisions.
Jesus is a perfect example. While Muslims are fond of saying that they revere
Him as a sinless prophet and miracle worker born of a virgin — all clear
commonalities between Muslims and Christians — lesser known is that the Koran
rejects, and Muslims do not accept, the most important points about Jesus. They
reject that He was the Son of God, that He was crucified and killed for the sins
of mankind, and that He was resurrected. In fact, those who insist that Christ
is the Son of God — namely, Christians — are accursed and deserve nothing but
relentless jihad (e.g., Koran 5:72-73 and 9:29-9:30).
Far from creating “commonalities,” it should be clear that such appropriation
creates conflict. By way of analogy, imagine that you have a grandfather whom
you are particularly fond of and, out of the blue, a stranger who never even met
your grandfather says: “Hey, that’s my grandfather!” Then — lest you think this
stranger is somehow trying to ingratiate himself to you — he adds, “And
everything you think grandpa said and did is wrong! Only I have his true life
story.” Would that create — or rather burn — “bridges” between you and that
insolent stranger?
Zion: A Place Worth Defending
Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute/September 23, 2024
In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt to re-establish their ancestral home,
their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely despises
them. Zion (now Israel), is a place they can gather to practise their faith
without persecution. The six ancient cities of refuge were located only within
the Land of Israel, just as, in a microscopic sense, the family is a city of
refuge. The world desperately needs Jewish values and wisdom -- those detailed
in the holy scriptures. Jewish wisdom was among the first, after the Babylonian
Code of Hammurabi (c. 1,755 BCE), to present the world with social justice --
not only in the Ten Commandments -- but also in how we treat our fellow
creatures:
"But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do
any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female
servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner
residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you
do" (Deuteronomy 5:14);
"Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Deuteronomy 14:21);
"If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the
ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the
mother with the young" (Deuteronomy 22:6);
"You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one
of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your
towns" (Deuteronomy 24:14);
"You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets - for he is
poor and counts on it" (Deuteronomy 24:15);
"You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or
defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour"
(Leviticus 19:15);
"You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child" (Exodus 22:22).
Jews have historically defended liberty against tyranny and moral confusion...
The true calling of the Jews, with "the world's most moral army," as the IDF is
referred to by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, as they now wage a war that
was forced on them, is to bring eternal values such as those above, found in the
Torah, to the world at large. The Jews remain, after all, a "kingdom of priests
and a holy nation." They are entitled to their land, a place historically theirs
-- Zion, Israel, their ancestral home. This land was promised to the Jewish
nation forever. It is a place worth defending.
In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt by Jews to re-establish their ancestral
home, their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely
despises them. Zion (now Israel), is a place they can gather to practise their
faith without persecution. Pictured: A view of Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, Israel,
on December 10, 2019. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
The concept of home resonates deeply in all those searching for connection,
peace, love, permanence and tranquility. This is particularly so for Jews, who
have been scattered among alien cultures for countless generations. Their common
faith and the ideal of a home -- with specific focus on Israel -- has enabled
them to maintain their sense of identity and culture despite tremendous odds,
barely surviving in hostile lands.
The ancestral home of Jews is the Land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, Zion. Perhaps
that is why dispersed Jews have for millennia celebrated Passover and Yom Kippur
with the cry of longing, "Next year in Jerusalem" (L'Shana Haba'ah
B'Yerushalayim). The center of Jewish existence for nearly 4,000 years has been,
and remains, "the holy land and Jerusalem the holy city" -- their forever home.
The Welsh people, having lost independence of their homeland, call this sense of
longing hiraeth: homesickness for a place of their past.
After the destruction of Jerusalem's Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews in the
diaspora maintained their faith through community in little villages in Europe
and Slavic lands (called shtetls) and in tight communities in the Middle East
and Central Asia. After having lived in the Land of Israel continuously for so
long, but forced from their ancestral residence to become itinerant, the Jewish
people might well feel need to return to Israel as their home. They refer to it
as Zion.
In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt to re-establish their ancestral home,
their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely despises
them. Zion (now Israel), is a place they can gather to practise their faith
without persecution. The six ancient cities of refuge were located only within
the Land of Israel, just as, in a microscopic sense, the family is a city of
refuge. The increasing demise in the West of conventional two-parent households,
where children can be raised in love and discipline, has led to an increase in
single-parent and fatherless homes. The outcome is a rise in juvenile crime,
illiteracy, loneliness, gender confusion and domestic violence. Recently,
however, there seems to be growing opposition to fashionable identity theories
of race, gender, victimhood, entitlement and other ideologies that adversely
affect the traditional family structure. The common good of society would
certainly be helped by a restoration of the core principles pertaining to
family.
America was founded on traditional biblical values, as clearly reflected in the
underlying values of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
These values form the basis of Western social virtues, laws and justice -- as in
England's Magna Carta of 1215. It was adherence to the spirit of the Ten
Commandments, the Mosaic codes, that helped make America and the West great; it
is a greatness that can be revitalized. Concerned citizens need the
determination and courage to re-establish where they live the values set out in
the constitutional documents of the West.
The world desperately needs Jewish values and wisdom -- those detailed in the
holy scriptures. Jewish wisdom was among the first, after the Babylonian Code of
Hammurabi (c. 1,755 BCE), to present the world with social justice -- not only
in the Ten Commandments -- but also in how we treat our fellow creatures:
"But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do
any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female
servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner
residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you
do" (Deuteronomy 5:14);
"Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Deuteronomy 14:21);
"If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the
ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the
mother with the young" (Deuteronomy 22:6);
"You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one
of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your
towns" (Deuteronomy 24:14);
"You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets - for he is
poor and counts on it" (Deuteronomy 24:15);
"You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or
defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour"
(Leviticus 19:15);
"You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child" (Exodus 22:22).
Jews have historically defended liberty against tyranny and moral confusion,
with individual liberty such as the freedoms of speech and religion. The value
of each person can again be revived.
The true calling of the Jews, with "the world's most moral army," as the IDF is
referred to by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, as they now wage a war that
was forced on them, is to bring eternal values such as those above, found in the
Torah, to the world at large. The Jews remain, after all, a "kingdom of priests
and a holy nation." They are entitled to their land, a place historically theirs
-- Zion, Israel, their ancestral home. This land was promised to the Jewish
nation forever. It is a place worth defending.
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of
the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the
Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Retired from law, his particular field of
interest is the intersection of Western culture with political theory,
philosophy, theology, ethics and law. He holds various degrees including Ph.D.
in Theology (Apologetics). Dr. Haug is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in
the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and' Enemies of the Innocent –
Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been widely published by
such as Quadrant, First Things Journal, The American Mind, Gatestone Institute,
National Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, Anglican Mainstream, Jewish
News Syndicate, and others.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
The Road Away From Damascus
Michael Young/Diwan/September 23, 2024
In an interview, historian Eugene Rogan discusses his latest book on the 1860
massacre of Christians in the city.
Eugene Rogan is a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University
of Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, including The Arabs: A History
(Basic Books and Penguin, 2009, 2nd ed. 2012), The Fall of the Ottomans: The
Great War in the Middle East, 1914–1920 (Basic Books and Penguin, 2015), and
most recently, The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the
Old Ottoman World (Penguin, 2024). Diwan interviewed Rogan on his latest book in
mid-September.
Michael Young: There is a tendency when talking or writing about the sectarian
conflicts in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860 to look at events in Damascus as a
continuation of the sectarian killings in Mount Lebanon and Wadi al-Taym. For
example, this is what Leila Tarazi Fawaz did in her history of the conflict.
You, however, have chosen to focus on Damascus. What made you do so, and was
something lost by adopting this approach?
Eugene Rogan: I think it is important to distinguish between the very different
contexts of the violence in Mount Lebanon and Damascus in 1860. The roots of
violence in Mount Lebanon lay in the disintegration of the feudal system of the
Shihabi Emirate following the Egyptian occupation in the 1830s and provoked
strife between the largely Maronite Christian majority and the Druze minority.
In Damascus, the tensions were much more the product of the growth of trade with
Europe and the Ottoman reforms that empowered the Christian minority at the
expense of the Muslim majority. What the events in Mount Lebanon and Damascus
had in common was the perception that the newly-assertive Christians had come to
pose an existential threat to their Druze or Sunni neighbors. The events in
Mount Lebanon influenced what happened in Damascus by example: where Christians
were deemed to pose an existential threat, extermination was a reasonable
solution. By all local accounts, Damascene Muslims followed the violence in
Mount Lebanon and Wadi al-Taym with enthusiasm. As I note in my book, the
violence in Mount Lebanon was a key trigger of the Damascus Events. But it seems
to me reasonable to examine the two cases independently. They had very different
origins, involved different protagonists, followed very different courses, and
had very different historical consequences. Where most historians trace the
origins of Lebanon’s confessional system of government back to 1860, the
Damascus Events left no sectarian legacy in Syria. MY: Your focus is on Mikhail
Mishaqa, the U.S. vice-consul in Damascus in 1860. Why did you choose him as the
prism through which to tell your story, all the more so as you note that later
in life he adopted a position on the 1860 events quite different than when
writing diplomatic reports in real time during the killings? Did you have any
questions about his reliability in light of this rather dramatic shift in
direction?
ER: Mishaqa was my inspiration to write the book. As a doctoral student back in
1989, I discovered the notebooks in which he recorded his reports as U.S.
vice-consul in Damascus, spanning the years 1859 to 1870. Mishaqa was America’s
first consular official in Damascus and he kept his records in Arabic (he never
learned English) in small notebooks. The archivists could not read them to
identify them as the first three volumes of the consular reports from Damascus
and had left them on a shelf along with the other records from Damascus, which
is where I found them.
This remains my most exciting archival discovery ever. I realized I was the
first modern scholar to access these records, which began one year before the
violence and covered the first decade of reconstruction after the Events. They
were, without doubt, the most important new source on one of the most
controversial moments in 19th century Arab history. I photocopied each and every
page, and spent the last three decades gathering further source material to try
and come to grips with what Damascus experienced in the lead-up to the Events
and in the long road to reconstruction.
In that narrative, Mishaqa proved a remarkable source. Unlike the many
chronicles of 1860, which were written with hindsight years after the Events,
Mishaqa’s reports were contemporary to events and captured the uncertainty of
the future. They are the best source precisely because Mishaqa had no knowledge
of what the future held. By 1873, when he wrote his own history of the events,
it was natural for his interpretation to have changed. I think the way his
narrative shifted from despairing of Ottoman rule to advocating total loyalty to
the Ottoman state provides insight into the impact of the government’s efforts
to rebuild the city and reconcile its divided communities. By 1873, Mishaqa’s
loyalism reflects not total confidence in the state so much as recognition that
there was no alternative to the Ottomans, and that Damascenes were reliant on
the Ottomans to restore their damaged city.
MY: There is a striking figure in your account, namely Fouad Pasha, the Ottoman
official who came to Damascus to deal with the aftermath of the massacre of
Christians. What challenges was he facing when he arrived in the city, and later
in Mount Lebanon? How would you characterize his way of dealing with them? ER:
Fouad Pasha was already one of the most influential statesmen in the Ottoman
Empire in 1860. One of the architects of the Tanzimat reforms, Fouad was then
foreign minister and enjoyed cordial relations with Europe’s leading statesmen.
Even with those assets, he faced tremendous challenges during the 1860 crises.
The European powers—Britain, France, Russia, Prussia and Austria—regularly
intervened in Ottoman affairs on behalf of Christian and Jewish minority
communities. Massacres on the scale of 1860 risked provoking not just foreign
intervention but an imperial land grab that could end Ottoman rule in the Syrian
provinces. Napoleon III of France dispatched a major campaign force to Syria,
and the European powers convened an international commission to “assist” the
Ottomans in restoring order. Both European measures posed dangerous threats to
Ottoman sovereignty. Fouad had to demonstrate that he could restore law and
order, punish those responsible for the massacres, and provide immediate relief
for survivors and the funding to compensate their losses and permit them to
rebuild their homes and workplaces.
Incredibly, he managed to navigate these treacherous waters and set Damascus on
a course of reconstruction within eighteen months of the events. He never
allowed an ideal solution to get in the way of a more practicable good solution
and made such compromises as necessary to preserve the grudging cooperation of
Damascene Muslims and the skeptical collaboration of the European commissioners.
For his success with this remarkable balancing act, Fouad was rewarded with a
promotion by being named grand vizier, or prime minister, at the end of his tour
in Damascus.
MY: Tell us something about the competition between Beirut and Damascus in the
wake of the 1860 events. In many respects, the fate of the Christians in both
cities was intimately tied to the cities’ emergence as centers in their own
right. Can you explain how?
ER: Beirut was the rising boom town of the mid-19th century, expanding with the
growth of European trade and steam shipping across the Mediterranean. Damascus
was the grand old provincial capital that had served for centuries as a center
of administration, learning, and overland trade with Asia and Africa. The 1860
massacres impacted the two cities very differently. Beirut did not witness
sectarian violence, but was flooded with tens of thousands of refugees from the
devastated villages of Mount Lebanon. Damascus, on the other hand, suffered
massive devastation, with thousands of Christians massacred and whole sections
of the city center laid waste. The events and the Ottoman government’s reprisals
placed the economy of Damascus into a death spiral, as Muslim and Jewish
townsmen were taxed to pay for the reconstruction of Christian quarters. It
would take a massive injection of funding to reverse Damascus’s economic
decline, and the Ottoman provincial reform law of 1864 provided a means to
increase cash flow.
The provincial reform law, associated with Fouad Pasha now in his role as grand
vizier, was applied to Syria in 1865. It combined the three provinces of
Damascus, Sidon (ruled from Beirut), and Jerusalem into a super-province called
Syria. Beirut’s leading Christian and Muslim merchants were quick to nominate
their city to serve as capital of the new province of Syria. The Damascenes
mobilized to check the parvenu Beirutis and to assert their city’s claim as the
“natural” administrative center of Syria. The stakes were high, as the new
province would command a budget that was over five times greater than the
revenues of the former province of Damascus. The Ottoman authorities ultimately
decided that Damascus would be the capital of the new province. This was the
lifeline for Damascene reconstruction. Between 1865 and Beirut’s secession from
Syria to be capital of a new province of Beirut in 1888, Damascus witnessed a
building boom and expansion of commercial, administrative, cultural, and
educational facilities that lifted the city out of its economic decline and
completed the reconstruction of Damascus as a vital and prosperous city.
MY: While 1860 was characterized by the massacre of Christians in Damascus (as
well as in Mount Lebanon and Wadi al-Taym), you spend a considerable amount of
time examining the beneficial consequences that followed in terms of the Ottoman
response, both with regards to Damascus and broader relationships within the
empire between the Ottoman authorities and their subjects. Can you summarize
your thinking on this, above all your belief that after 1860 a new era of
Ottoman modernity began?
ER: The 1860 Events were a consequence of Ottoman reforms that destabilized
society, such as the imposition of legal equality between Muslims and
non-Muslims, which was introduced to stabilize Ottoman relations with European
powers without consultation or consent from Ottoman society. But later reforms
played a major role in the reconstruction and reconciliation that followed the
events. Before 1860, the Ottomans ruled through communal organizations such as
villages, town quarters, and religious councils. The Millet system, which gave
autonomy to the religious communities in managing communal affairs, allowed a
high degree of Christian and Jewish self-government, but left non-Muslim
minorities as distinctly second-class citizens.
The first step toward citizenship was the controversial 1856 reform conferring
legal equality that, I argue, played a major role in provoking the 1860
massacres. But Ottoman measures following the massacres neutralized further
resistance to equality, and later reforms such as the 1864 provincial reform law
replaced the old system of communal governance with elected councils in which
all Ottoman men could not only vote but run for office as well, whether in
municipal councils, provincial councils, the court system and, after the 1876
Constitution, parliament.
This expansion of citizens’ rights and participation in administration was
combined with additional responsibilities, such as individual taxation and
military service. But the end result was a move away from a despotic to a
participatory order more in line with the norms of modern statecraft.
Humanity’s stark choice: Coexistence or carnage
BARIA ALAMUDDIN/Arab News/September 23, 2024
My friend is an impeccably educated, beautiful woman from one of the wealthiest
families in Lebanon. Now retired in her 60s, she lost her wealth in the banking
and currency collapse and each day queues alongside fellow Lebanese at the bank
for a meager sum that hardly buys food, let alone necessary medicines. Poverty
and starvation have become unifying forces in today’s Lebanon. Following
Israel’s detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies last week and the latest
escalations, my friend related to me how terrified of each other Lebanese have
become. One man in the bank queue caused panic for carrying a first-generation
Nokia phone. People urged him to throw it away, but he repeatedly refused,
resulting in chaos as those present began screaming at him and beating him,
before he was unceremoniously thrown out onto the street along with his phone.
Later that day, Israeli planes strafed Beirut and my friend was reduced to
cowering under her bed, fearing that long-anticipated war was commencing.
Daily survival in Lebanon is an ordeal of trauma, poverty, humiliation and fear.
As pagers exploded, people did not know what could be next; they began throwing
away mobile phones, removing babies from incubators, fearing to use computers
and avoiding public places, with obvious concerns about what devices were safe
to carry on aircraft and public transport. Although a high proportion of victims
were Hezbollah members, many who lost hands and eyes were innocent bystanders or
family members. The attack’s indiscriminate nature added new levels of horror to
this unpredictable, grinding conflict.
With the latest escalations and assassination of prominent commanders, Israel
seeks to goad Hezbollah into a war
Hassan Nasrallah was correct in asserting that the war has turned northern
Israel into a no-go zone, but likewise for southern Lebanon. Even if Israel were
to follow up on threats to reoccupy Lebanon up to the Litani river, such a
cordon would hardly be an obstacle for medium-range Hezbollah munitions and such
an occupation would be championed as a cause celebre for Hezbollah’s
“resistance” pretentions.
With the latest escalations and assassination of prominent commanders, Israel
seeks to goad Hezbollah into a war, which the former would inevitably win
through unlimited Western support. But along with the utter destruction of
Lebanon, there would be immense costs for Israel.
Already, a year of war has had a hugely damaging impact for Israel. As well as
almost the entire population of the north and south being evacuated, economic
activity has been harmed by the widespread call-up of reservists and prices have
soared. An estimated 60,000 Israeli businesses will shut in 2024, with large
numbers of other small enterprises struggling. Spooked by the chronically
uncertain security situation, thousands of families have simply emigrated —
mimicking a similar brain drain witnessed in Lebanon in recent years due to
economic collapse. The result in both states has been a deterioration in the
numbers of skilled essential professionals — doctors, teachers, bureaucrats,
entrepreneurs. Yet commanders on both side hint that the real war has not yet
begun.
Every conflict in modern history — no matter how destructive or decisive —
inevitably concludes with negotiations and peacemaking. Hence, the looming
regional war would cost tens of thousands of lives and cause hundreds of
billions of dollars-worth of destruction, only for all sides to ultimately be
compelled to withdraw to their positions prior to the conflict, with nothing to
show for the carnage other than grieving widows, maimed orphans and lost
futures.
The Ukraine conflict grinds away with comparable futility, with hundreds of
thousands of lives on both sides squandered over a few kilometers of territory.
Sudan is, meanwhile, being ripped apart by two power-hungry generals, both with
scant prospect of winning outright, while unleashing ruinous mayhem and
genocide. Through sub-Saharan Africa to Asia, via the Middle East, the planet is
wracked by conflict-ridden disintegrating states, causing the number of forcibly
displaced people to unprecedentedly soar to 120 million. The vacuous platitudes
of countless official statements emanating from global capitals are rendered
farcical by the perfect storm of crises the world faces.
Our world lacks guardrails because conflict-resolution bodies like the UN
Security Council have been paralyzed by superpower rivalries, while developed
nations have retreated from historic peacekeeping roles. When there are no
consequences for invading and annihilating a weaker neighbor, we should expect
this to be favored as normalized diplomatic practice in a planet bristling with
nuclear weapons, while artificial intelligence offers hitherto undreamed-of
war-making methods.
The vacuous platitudes of countless official statements are rendered farcical by
the perfect storm of crises the world faces
My friend in Beirut described a sense of numbness and loss of empathy as every
day brought with it exhaustively horrendous news — locally and in the world at
large: hastily arranged back-to-back funerals, an entire generation of Gaza
orphans, new depths of inhuman cruelty.
The land of Palestine is miniscule: Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese
populations live mere kilometers away from one another. Muslim, Christian and
Jewish holy sites and residential areas in Jerusalem are practically built on
top of each other. If they can peacefully pray that closely alongside each
other, why can they not resolve to live together in peace? One side cannot
annihilate the other without bringing unimaginable suffering and trauma upon its
own citizens.
With the world’s two biggest superpowers, America and China, locked in an arms
race, nations are sharply reducing living standards in order to spend greater
proportions of their gross domestic product on innovative ways of killing one
another.
All wars are futile. The universal lesson from all this misery is simple: If we
do not want our neighbors to harbor fantasies of destroying us, then we must
find ways of peacefully coexisting with our neighbors. If we want states and
leaders to act with morality and justice, there must be vigorously imposed
international laws and norms, protecting human rights and outlawing aggression.
Aside from a tiny political warlord class whose egos, reputations and fortunes
are staked upon perpetual war-making and saber-rattling, 99.99 percent of
humanity desires to flourish in peace and safety, coexisting with their
neighbors. For the sake of our offspring, let us make better choices in
selecting wise, just and humanitarian leaders.
**Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
The War of the Absent General
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/September 23/2024
For nearly a year, the region has lived with the war that was sparked by the Al-Aqsa
Flood Operation. It also seemed that Israel has started to live with the “war of
support” launched by Hezbollah within certain rules of engagement. The
impression was that the United States succeeded in preventing the region from
sliding towards a regional war that allegedly neither Iran, Israel nor Hezbollah
want. The big explosion did not take place despite the two major blows that were
the assassination of Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut’s southern
suburbs and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran itself. Many believed that the
mutual fears of a regional war were preventing all sides from slipping into one.
However, in just a handful of days last week, Israel succeeded in reawakening
the fears of such a war. The detonation of Hezbollah’s pagers was an
unprecedented strike that brough the war to establishments and houses and led to
deaths, injuries to eyes and amputation of fingers. The attack seemed like a
deliberate invitation to Hezbollah to carry out a retaliation that Israel would
use as a justification to replicate the scenes in Gaza in Beirut. Israel was not
done. It dealt a fatal blow to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, striking a
building in Beirut’s southern suburbs where its leaders were meeting. The attack
left scores of civilians dead. Israel accused the gatherers in the building of
plotting to invade Galilee, meaning repeating the October 7 scenario but from
across the Lebanese border.
In just a handful of days, Israel reminded everyone of its technological
superiority, how deeply infiltrated is its intelligence and how quickly its army
can move to carry out a precise assassination. It was clear that Israel has left
Hezbollah with no choice but to respond to what has happened to it because the
security and image of the party – the backbone of the Resistance Axis – are at
stake.
Despite the calculated response, we can safely say that the recent days marked
an escalation in the war and an expansion of its arena.
It became clear in recent months that Benjamin Netanyahu has been resisting the
Israeli army’s desire to reach a hostage exchange deal with Hamas. He wanted to
prolong the war until the United States goes into a presidential elections coma
that will prevent its candidates from taking a firm position against Israel and
its behavior. Netanyahu didn’t want to offer Kamala Harris and Joe Biden a
present, especially after his friend, Donald Trump, bluntly said he will hold
the Jews responsible if he is not elected president, believing that his victory
will prevent the extermination of Jews in Israel itself.
In recent months, Netanyahu did not hesitate in reprimanding generals and
threatening to sack them. He accused them of lacking their past fighting spirit,
as if he were already blaming them for any failure in achieving the war goals.
He took a good step forward when he declared that returning the residents of the
North back to their homes was now a war goal. Israeli politicians may be divided
over the truce in Gaza, but they are unanimous over wanting to return the
northerners back home. Netanyahu’s rivals themselves believe that achieving this
goal is worth raising the level of the confrontation with Hezbollah, even at the
risk of sparking a tough war. So, Netanyahu has effectively thrown the ball in
the military’s court, as if he were tasking it with destroying Hezbollah’s
capabilities, the way it did in eroding Hamas in Gaza. It’s no secret that the
new mission is more difficult and more dangerous.
Eroding Hezbollah’s capabilities through assassinations and strikes will be no
less costly. Observers closely watching the developments stress that a war on
Lebanon will be different that the war on Gaza. They explained that Hamas was a
significant ally to Iran, but it is not a vital artery in the Resistance Axis in
the region. Hezbollah is. They believe that Iran can play the long patient game
as Israel tries to destroy Hamas, but it will not tolerate Israel trying to
break Hezbollah – its most successful experience in the region.
Iran has been trying to avoid a regional war for a whole year. It views it as an
Israeli trap to lure it into a confrontation with the US. But Iran’s ability to
resist Israel’s traps will weaken when Hezbollah’s fate is on the line. Iran is
the architect of the Resistance Axis that was born after the ouster of the
regime in Iraq. The Axis is one of its most powerful cards that it uses to
pressure, negotiate and escalate.
The observers believe that the October 7 operation would never have been on the
cards were it not for the groundwork paved by slain Quds Force commander General
Qassem Soleimani. They said Soleimani was the one who vowed to develop Hamas’
capabilities through an agreement to finance it, smuggle weapons and manufacture
weapons in the tunnels. Soleimani was interested in Hamas because it is the
Palestinian arm of the Axis and because it can fight Israel in its own home,
meaning both Gaza and the West Bank.
Soleimani also saw to the development of Hezbollah’s arsenal, which grew to
include precision missiles during the 2006 war that the general oversaw from its
very arena. Soleimani was the mastermind behind bringing in militias to save the
Syrian regime and helped provide guarantees for cooperation with Russia’s
intervention in Syria. Soleimani’s fingerprints were all over the new
post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, especially in regard to the establishment, empowerment
and arming of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which effectively holds the power
of war and peace in the country the same way Hezbollah does in Lebanon.
Soleimani was also the mastermind behind attracting the Houthis, and training
and allowing them to seize power.
The past week brought to mind Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in
Baghdad. Rockets fired by Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and “Jihad” and a drone
launched from Iraq. The absent general will be present in a wide-scale war that
engulfs the region.