English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  December 16/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 07/11-18/:”The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews. About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at it, saying, ‘How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?’ Then Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 15-16/2025
The Necessity of Severing Diplomatic Relations Between Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran and Expelling the Iranian Ambassador/Elias Bejjani/December 13/2024
Depositors’ Cry Association: Yassine Jaber, Accomplice or Powerless in the Banking Crisis?
Association of Banks Criticizes Draft Gap Law
Israel Accuses Hezbollah of 1,900 Ceasefire Violations
Lebanon’s south could become US-backed economic zone, according to local paper Nidaa Al-Watan
Lebanese army shows ambassadors efforts to disarm Hezbollah
Ambassadors, military attaches visit border villages, are briefed on weapons centralization south of Litani River
Iran will 'resolutely support' Hezbollah, supreme leader adviser says
Zamir says Israel to continue to 'thwart threats' in Lebanon 'before they develop'
Reports: US reining in Israel in Lebanon, wants to preserve regional stability
Hezbollah's representative in Iran voices defiant stances
Aoun stresses importance of national unity, 'especially in negotiations'
Aoun and Salam reportedly propose delaying elections to summer, Berri says no
Barrack meets Netanyahu over Syria, Lebanon
Adraee lauds Aoun's condemnation of Sydney shooting
Israel army says killed 3 Hezbollah members in south Lebanon
How Qatar Can Help Lebanon/David Daoud and Natalie Ecanow/Real Clear World/December 15/2025
Lebanon Must Pick the Abraham Accords over the Muslim Brotherhood/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This is Beirut/December 15, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 15-16/2025
IDSF/Video LinkWas the Bondi Attack Preventable? And are Jews Safe Anywhere?
Gazans struggle to retrieve bodies as storms lash war-damaged buildings
Israel to demolish 25 residential buildings in West Bank camp
Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager near Bethlehem
Israeli military raids in Syria raise tensions as they carve out a buffer zone
Netanyahu lashes out while world shows shock and sympathy over Australia shooting
Australia to toughen gun laws as it mourns deadly Bondi attack
How an Australian citizen of Syrian origin became the hero of Bondi Beach and his nation
Trump says Ukraine deal closer than ever, Europe proposes peace force
Europeans propose ‘multinational force’ for Ukraine peace
Zelensky hails ‘real progress’ in Berlin talks with Trump envoys
What to know about the US military's role in Syria after deadly IS attack
ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Syrian security forces, monitor says
Stranger in Moscow: Leaked data details life of Assad in exile
MBS meets Sudan’s army chief al-Burhan in Riyadh, US envoy meets Prince Khalid
Iran Human Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi 'Unwell' After Violent Arrest

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 15-16/2025
IDSF/Video LinkWas the Bondi Attack Preventable? And are Jews Safe Anywhere?
Mossad Vault/Video Link/How Mossad Used a Luxury Hotel Maid to Slip Into a Terror Boss’s Suite
Mossad Black Files/Video Link: How Mossad Used a P*rn Star to Blackmail a Hezbollah Commander's Brother
Gaza: Can 'Peacekeepers' and 'Monitors' Succeed Except in Wishful Thinking?/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 15, 2025
“Heroes, Criminals, and the Media Distortion in Lebanon"!/Dr Doreid Becherraoui/X platform/December 15/2025
Scrutiny Rising Over Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ties to Terrorism — and Turkey’s Government/Sinan Ciddi/The New York Sun/December 15/2025
The Islamic State’s war on Christians in Congo/Caleb Weiss and Ryan O'Farrell/ FDD's Long War Journal/December 15/2025
Israel Moves To Secure Its Most Vulnerable Border/Ahmad Sharawi/FDD-Policy Brief/December 15/2025
Israel vs. Islam: The False Moral Seesaw/Raymond Ibrahim/December 15, 2025
Will phase two mean a slow return to the Gaza genocide?/Chris Doyle/Arab News/December 15, 2025
Sweida’s dangerous turn: When internal fracture becomes a strategy/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/December 15/2025
Selected Face Book & X tweets for /December 15, 2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 15-16/2025
The Necessity of Severing Diplomatic Relations Between Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran and Expelling the Iranian Ambassador
Elias Bejjani/December 13/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150192/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eKHFG0jauY&t=4s
What is known as the “Islamic Republic of Iran” is not the name of a normal state seeking balanced relations with its surroundings, but rather a mullah-led, expansionist, sectarian, and terrorist regime that, since its establishment in 1979, has been built on exporting Shiism, chaos, violence, sectarianism, and fanaticism under the slogan of “exporting the revolution.” This regime has never recognized the borders or sovereignty of states, but instead has treated the countries of the region as open arenas of influence. Lebanon has been—and continues to be—one of its most prominent victims.
Thus, Lebanon does not suffer from Iran’s criminality and terrorism as a geographically distant regime, but rather suffers from it as a regime effectively residing within its territory, imposing its decisions, paralyzing the state, confiscating the future, security, and coexistence of its people, and assassinating sovereignists and free individuals through its military, sectarian, terrorist arm, falsely and deceitfully called Hezbollah.
It is necessary to recall that Lebanon and the Lebanese people—particularly the Shiite community—did not choose the Iranian regime, nor were they behind the emergence of the Iranian terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Iranian hegemony over Lebanon never came with the consent of the Lebanese people, nor even with the consent of the Shiite community itself, which has been abducted, confiscated, and turned into a hostage in the hands of Hezbollah, along with the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people.
Hezbollah was born under the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, with the direct sponsorship of the Hafez al-Assad regime, which facilitated and sponsored the violation of Lebanese land, institutions, and security agencies by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. At that stage, Hezbollah was not merely a resistance organization, but a closed ideological project whose goal was first to fully control the Shiite community, then to use that control to dominate the Lebanese state and transform Lebanon into an arena and base for Iran’s expansionist wars.
Under the false slogan of “resistance,” pluralism within the Shiite community was abolished, the community was politically, militarily, and financially subjugated, and turned into a human reservoir for an Iranian project that has nothing to do with its people, Lebanon, or Lebanese interests.
In 2005, the Syrian occupation army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon under the pressure of the Independence Intifada and international resolutions. However, the Lebanese did not regain their sovereignty, because the occupation did not end—it merely changed its form and tools. Instead of the state returning to its people, guardianship was transferred from Damascus to Tehran.
At that pivotal moment, Hezbollah replaced the Syrian army—not merely as a military force, but as a direct instrument of Iranian occupation. It gradually transformed from an armed militia into a state within the state, then a state above the state, and finally the state itself.
Since then, Hezbollah—composed of Lebanese mercenaries—has decided war and peace, paralyzed the parliamentary system in all its forms, imposed or toppled governments, dominated security and military decision-making, paralyzed the judiciary, and used state institutions as a superficial façade for its external project. Thus, Lebanon is no longer a partially hijacked state, but a fully confiscated one.
More dangerous than the occupation itself is the arrogance of Iranian rhetoric. Senior Iranian officials, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have never attempted to conceal their interference in Lebanese affairs. On the contrary, they have openly boasted that Lebanon is part of their “axis,” that its decision is not independent, and that Hezbollah’s weapons are a red line decided in Tehran, not Beirut. These are not verbal slips, but a systematic official policy reflecting a condescending view of Lebanon, its people, constitution, and institutions, as if the Lebanese are incapable of governing their own country and in need of a “Supreme Jurist” to rule them from abroad.
Today, after Hezbollah’s military and political defeat, and after the issuance of clear international resolutions aimed at ending the state of illegal weapons and restoring Lebanese sovereignty, Iran insists on rejecting the new reality. Iran is not defending Lebanon, nor the Shiite community, but rather its last foothold on the Mediterranean coast. Therefore, it refuses to hand over Hezbollah’s weapons—which are, in reality, its own—refuses to return decision-making to the state, refuses to abide by international resolutions, and insists on keeping Lebanon, through Hezbollah, hostage to its regional project, even at the cost of what remains of the country.
Accordingly, there is no meaning or legitimacy for any diplomatic relations between Lebanon and a state that occupies its political decision, possesses an armed militia on its territory, openly interferes in its internal affairs, and treats its institutions with contempt.
Since diplomatic relations between states are based on parity and mutual respect—not on a relationship between a sovereign state, a regional master, and an affiliated militia—severing Lebanese–Iranian relations and immediately expelling the Iranian ambassador becomes an obvious sovereign step, not provocation or hostility, but a national rescue duty. There can be no liberation of the state while the embassy of an occupying power remains, and no sovereignty with a militia obeying foreign orders.
Lebanon will not be a state as long as Hezbollah is the state. It will not be independent as long as decisions of war and peace are made in Tehran. It will not rise as long as it remains occupied by weapons, terrorism, and Iran’s sectarian ideology. Therefore, cutting relations with Iran is not the end of the problem, but its correct beginning.
What is required, clearly and without hesitation, is: to prosecute Hezbollah’s leaders as war criminals and traitors, to completely disarm this Iranian terrorist proxy, to dismantle all its security, social, cultural, intelligence, and financial institutions, to officially designate it as a terrorist organization, as it is classified in dozens of countries around the world, and most importantly to prevent any ideologically indoctrinated Hezbollah member from entering state institutions, especially security and military ones.
Without this, Lebanon remains merely a name on a map, not a truly sovereign, free, and independent state.

Depositors’ Cry Association: Yassine Jaber, Accomplice or Powerless in the Banking Crisis?
This is Beirut/December 15, 2025
The Depositors’ Cry Association sharply criticized Finance Minister Yassine Jaber over the proposed Financial Gap Law, accusing him of failing to protect bank customers’ funds amid Lebanon’s ongoing banking crisis.In a statement, the association questioned whether Jaber is “a conspirator on depositors’ money” or simply “helpless” as decisions are reportedly influenced by figures such as Nawaf Salam and Amer Al-Bassat. The group highlighted that “no project related to banking regulation or the financial gap can be advanced without the Finance Minister,” urging Jaber to clarify his role. The association also accused Jaber of hypocrisy, noting that he previously claimed banks would be the “biggest losers” under the law, while his past record included involvement in governments and councils that legalized corruption and mismanaged public funds. “Either reveal your true face as one of the symbols of the conspiracy on depositors’ money, or prove you are the minister who says: ‘The word is mine,’” the statement said, calling on Jaber to take responsibility before it’s too late. The Financial Gap Law, which is currently under debate in the Cabinet, has sparked widespread concern among depositors and political observers, as critics warn that it could lead to significant losses for individuals holding deposits in Lebanon’s banks.

Association of Banks Criticizes Draft Gap Law
This is Beirut/December 15, 2025
The Association of Banks in Lebanon addressed an open letter to the three presidents, as well as to all Lebanese citizens—particularly depositors—in which it expressed its opposition to the contents of the draft law on the financial gap, whose ninth version was recently leaked. The Association said that “the draft contains serious shortcomings, both in substance and in form. It includes provisions that could dangerously undermine the banking system and its sustainability, while prolonging the economic recession.”It added that “it is unacceptable for the state to evade its responsibilities and shift them onto the banks, thereby leading to the liquidation of the sector and denying depositors their right to recover their funds.”In its letter, the Association of Banks questioned: “Who will bear the losses suffered by depositors resulting from the liquidation of commercial banks? And how can this approach be reconciled with repeated statements asserting that rebuilding the banking sector is essential to Lebanon’s recovery and future growth?” The Association also proposed a plan based on the following pillars: Ensuring that the Banque du Liban and the banks honor their contractual obligations toward depositors, as well as the state’s guarantee to the Banque du Liban in accordance with Article 113 of the Code of Money and Credit. Guaranteeing the restoration of confidence and credibility in the banking sector, as well as financial stability. Returning deposits by allocating the necessary assets of the Banque du Liban and the state to the implementation of their obligations, while significantly reducing the unfair burden imposed on banks by the draft law. Restoring confidence in the Lebanese economy by reviving growth and financial sustainability.

Israel Accuses Hezbollah of 1,900 Ceasefire Violations
This is Beirut/December 15, 2025
The Israeli army on Wednesday accused Hezbollah of violating the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire more than 1,900 times since it took effect late last year. The Israeli military said it conducted targeted operations in around 30 locations across southern Lebanon since early October, resulting in the killing of approximately 40 fighters. The Northern Command led the operations, with the support of intelligence units and the air force. According to the Israeli army, the strikes form part of a broader effort to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military capabilities along the Israeli-Lebanese border, despite the ceasefire that took effect on November 27, 2024. The military claimed that more than 380 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since the agreement came into force. The army said those targeted were involved in what it described as “terrorist activities” in southern Lebanon, including rebuilding military infrastructure, smuggling weapons, and coordinating between civilians and Hezbollah command structures. It described these actions as a “clear violation” of the understandings governing the ceasefire. As part of its announcement, the Israeli military released a map showing the locations of targeted strikes carried out in 30 villages in southern Lebanon, highlighting the geographic spread of the operations since early October. It said the strikes were intended to neutralize what it called “emerging threats” near Israel’s northern border. Separately, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visited northern Israel, where he told soldiers that Israel would not allow hostile groups to reestablish themselves near its borders. “We will respond to every violation of the agreement and act preemptively to neutralize any threat,” he said. The Israeli army also said it carried out three separate strikes on Sunday against Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon, killing at least two persons. Among those killed was Zakaria Yahya al-Hajj, whom the Israeli army described as a Hezbollah operative active in the Jouayya area. The military alleged that he was involved in activating networks within Lebanese security institutions and suppressing internal dissent within the group. The statement concluded that the Israeli army would continue to act against any threat it deems a risk to Israel’s security.

Lebanon’s south could become US-backed economic zone, according to local paper Nidaa Al-Watan
Arab News/December 16, 2025
LONDON: Lebanese daily Nidaa Al-Watan has reported that the office of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has prepared detailed maps for a so‑called “Trump Economic Zone” in southern Lebanon.
According to columnist Tarek Abou Zeinab, the Kushner plan has been formally submitted to the White House for consideration. Citing unnamed sources, the column said that the idea is no longer just a “whispered” concept among political circles but has entered what it described as “concrete border‑related discussions aimed at fast‑tracking the plan onto the US administration’s Middle East implementation agenda.” Arab News asked the US Embassy in Beirut and the US State Department for comment, but was directed to the White House for any official response. The White House was subsequently contacted but has not responded. Lebanon has been mired in prolonged political paralysis. Large parts of the south remain under Hezbollah’s influence, while Israel illegally occupies at least five outposts along the border that are within Lebanese sovereign land. According to Nidaa Al‑Watan’s sources, the US concept frames southern Lebanon as a key gateway for a wider economic transformation, tying large‑scale investment and infrastructure projects to security arrangements on the ground. The reported plan would seek to attract international capital, establish factories and logistics hubs, upgrade infrastructure, and build a port connected to global shipping routes. Its aim, according to the column, would be to open new export channels through a free‑zone model and lure major energy companies by linking southern Lebanon to wider schemes such as the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor. Supporters of the plan argue it could trigger large Arab and international investments, raise living standards and create long‑term jobs, thereby lowering the risk of renewed conflict. However, Lebanese political and media sources quoted by the daily have warned that the proposal follows a new “hegemonic” approach and carries major political implications that cannot be ignored. The critics say the reported US vision goes beyond development to include the establishment of Jewish settlements in parts of southern Lebanon, justified on religious and security grounds to protect northern Israel. One source expressed concern that such moves would create a geographic and symbolic link between Israel and southern Lebanon, deepening fears over sovereignty and the region’s future political trajectory. The paper said Kushner is focussed on areas stretching from Mount Hermon to Shebaa and Naqoura in the far south at a time when Israel has been pressing for a buffer zone along the border, citing security concerns since the end of major clashes with Hezbollah in November 2024. The proposed zone would cover more than 27 southern towns, raising questions over Lebanese sovereignty. In parallel, the Lebanese army has been tasked with bringing all weapons under state control and asserting government authority in areas long dominated by Hezbollah, as part of a broader disarmament and security plan. Despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out attacks inside Lebanese territory and maintains control over parts of the south, saying the measures are necessary for security. Lebanese and Israeli delegations held talks in Naqoura earlier in December to shore up the ceasefire and discuss reconstruction in the south.

Lebanese army shows ambassadors efforts to disarm Hezbollah
AFP/December 15, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army gave several ambassadors and foreign military officials a tour on Monday meant to demonstrate its efforts to disarm Hezbollah, as Beirut contends with fears of expanded Israeli strikes and mounting diplomatic pressure to show results.Lebanon has committed to disarming Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the army has set a goal of dismantling the group’s military infrastructure south of the Litani River — around 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel — by year’s end before tackling the rest of the country. In a statement, the military said it “organized a field tour for a number of ambassadors, charges d’affaires, and military attaches to learn about the implementation of the first phase of the army’s plan in the south of the Litani sector.”Army chief Rodolphe Haykal said the tour was intended to highlight the army’s commitment to the efforts in spite of its “limited capabilities.”Israel and Hezbollah clashed for over a year after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, and a November 2024 ceasefire was meant to put an end to the hostilities. According to the agreement, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled. Israel was meant to pull back its forces and halt its attacks, though it has carried out regular strikes in the south and has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected calls to disarm, and many fear a wider Israeli escalation should Beirut fail to deliver on its plans. The ceasefire is monitored by a committee that includes the United States, France, UN peacekeepers, Lebanon and Israel, and is slated to meet on December 19.

Ambassadors, military attaches visit border villages, are briefed on weapons centralization south of Litani River
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/December 15, 2025
BEIRUT: A delegation of Arab and foreign ambassadors and military attaches toured areas south of the Litani River on Monday, accompanied by Lebanese Army Chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, for a briefing on the progress in implementing the plan to confine weapons to the state. According to a military source, the visit aimed to “review the tasks being carried out by the Lebanese Army to implement the Homeland Shield Plan mandated by the Council of Ministers.”The first phase of the plan is scheduled to conclude by the end of this month, after which the army will move to the next stage: centralizing all weapons north of the Litani line. Diplomats are expected to convey their field observations to their respective governments on the eve of a US–Saudi–French meeting with the army commander on Dec. 17 and 18 in Paris, where they will also discuss supporting the Lebanese Army, the weapons centralization plan, and the progress achieved. The commander of the southern Litani sector, Brig. Gen. Nicolas Thabet, briefed the diplomatic delegation on the operations being carried out by the army during a meeting held at the Benoit Barakat Barracks in Tyre, which was joined by the army commander and senior officers. The delegation then moved on to inspect the western sector. Haykal stressed “the importance of supporting the army and the commitment of all parties to the ceasefire agreement and respect for Lebanese territorial sovereignty.”While Thabet presented an operational overview to the ambassadors, diplomats focused on evaluating the first phase of the weapons centralization plan, the mechanisms for transitioning to the second phase, and the obstacles facing the army.
The diplomats inspected several army positions deployed along the forward edge, including the town of Aita Al-Shaab and the Wadi Zibqin area, where a Hezbollah facility had previously been located.
A week earlier, Thabet had disclosed that “during the execution of its mission south of the Litani, the army has dealt with 177 tunnels since the launch of the Homeland Shield Plan, closed 11 crossings along the Litani River, and seized 566 rocket launchers.”
Monday’s tour coincided with a meeting on the other side of the border between US Envoy Thomas Barrack and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, focused on de-escalating tensions with Lebanon and Syria.
On Monday, Israel continued through its media to promote the prospect of an imminent Israeli military escalation against Hezbollah unless it is disarmed by the end of the year. According to the Lebanese Army, “the recent Israeli strikes targeted civilian homes. The army inspected them after they were hit and found no evidence that they contained any weapons.”Army command further clarified that “after the Israeli enemy threatened two days ago to bomb homes, the Lebanese Army conveyed a message to the relevant mechanism expressing its readiness to inspect the houses before any strike to determine whether they contained weapons or ammunition.”However, Israeli forces allegedly rejected the proposal and went ahead with air raids on the homes, destroying them. For his part, President Joseph Aoun said on Monday before visitors that “contacts are ongoing domestically and internationally to consolidate security and stability in the south through negotiations via the mechanism committee, which will hold a meeting next Friday.”He added that the mechanism’s work “enjoys Lebanese, Arab, and international support, particularly following the appointment of former Ambassador Simon Karam as head of the Lebanese delegation.”Aoun noted that “the choice of negotiation is the alternative to war, which would yield no results but would cause further harm and destruction to Lebanon and the Lebanese without exception.”

Iran will 'resolutely support' Hezbollah, supreme leader adviser says
Agence France Presse/December 16, 2025
A senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader said Sunday that the country would "resolutely support" Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon, in the group's efforts to confront Tehran's regional foe Israel. The remarks by Ali Akbar Velayati came as Lebanon faces pressure from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, which engaged in more than a year of hostilities with Israel following the outbreak of the Gaza war. "Hezbollah, as one of the most important pillars of the resistance front, plays a fundamental role in confronting Zionism," state news agency IRNA quoted Velayati as saying to Hezbollah's representative in Tehran. "The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership and orders of the (supreme) leader, will continue to resolutely support this valuable and selfless group on the front lines of the resistance," he added. Iran has for years supported what it calls the axis of resistance, a network of anti-Israel armed groups that includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hezbollah was weakened by its recent war with Israel, and by the overthrow of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who had provided the group an overland link with Iran. Lebanon has committed to disarming the group, starting with the country's south, where it has historically held sway. Velayati recently drew sharp criticism from Beirut after he said in late November that the "existence of Hezbollah is more essential for Lebanon than the daily bread". Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji responded on X that "what is more important to us than water and bread is our sovereignty, our freedom, and the independence of our internal decision-making".Following the exchange, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi officially invited his Lebanese counterpart to visit Tehran for negotiations. Rajji declined the offer, and in an interview with Al Jazeera days later, he described Iran's role in the region as "extremely negative" and one of "the sources of instability", especially in Lebanon.In a post on X, he also blamed Iran for Hezbollah not having been disarmed. "Hezbollah cannot hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision, and its concern today is to buy time and preserve itself internally in order to rebuild its power," Rajji said of the group.

Zamir says Israel to continue to 'thwart threats' in Lebanon 'before they develop'
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir has conducted a situation assessment at Israel's Northern Command. “In a short period, we eliminated the Hezbollah commander (Haitham Tabatabai) and the head of Hamas' manufacturing division. We will not allow the enemy to expand and will respond to any violation of the agreement. Our policy is clear, in all arenas, and here in Lebanon -- we will continue to act and thwart threats before they develop,” Zamir told troops and officers. “Our forces are creating lines of security on all fronts -- in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza -- and our presence at these points allows for better protection of our citizens, along with freedom of action for our forces. Even on the border with Lebanon, we are forming a barrier between the enemy and our communities -- preemptively confronting them according to our established principles,” Zamir added. He also vowed that the Israeli army will “continue working to protect the residents of the northern region.”

Reports: US reining in Israel in Lebanon, wants to preserve regional stability
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
The U.S. administration is currently preventing Israel from escalating its strikes in Lebanon, pressing it to settle for limited attacks, Israel’s Channel 12 said. Quoting reports issued in Washington and Jerusalem, the channel said the Israeli security establishment is pushing for a broad operation in Lebanon and that the air force is prepared for such a scenario that would be aimed at “preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities in the fields of missiles, rockets and drones.”“The key factor that is blocking a broad campaign at the moment is the heavy U.S. pressure, with Washington preventing any broad ground operation or even an air campaign,” Channel 12 added. It also said that the U.S. messages conveyed through diplomatic channels to Lebanon and Iraq are aimed at “preserving regional stability and preventing an all-out war.”Israel’s Haaretz newspaper meanwhile said that it is unlikely that Washington would give Israel a green light for an operation in Lebanon, adding that there are discussions over “new agreements related to both the deadline” given to Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani River as well as to “the achievements required in every stage.” Haaretz added that Washington is expected to grant Lebanon two additional months to finish the demilitarization of the South Litani sector. A conclusion presented by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies meanwhile said that “a change has occurred in the Lebanese balance of power but is not a drastic change.”The Institute also recommended continued strikes on Hezbollah targets to “prevent it from rehabilitating its assets,” adding that “it is preferable to avoid waging broad attacks resulting in civilian casualties and leading to an erosion of political and military legitimacy.”But the Institute said the Lebanese Army must be asked to “purge the military institution from those loyal to Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah's representative in Iran voices defiant stances
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
Ali Akbar Velayati, the international affairs advisor to Iran's supreme leader, met with Hezbollah’s representative in Iran Abdallah Safieddine on Sunday and stressed that Tehran will continue to firmly support Hezbollah. Hezbollah is “one of the most important pillars of the resistance front and is playing a key role in confronting Zionism,” Velayati said. Safieddine for his part said that Hezbollah today is “stronger than ever” and is “ready to defend Lebanon’s territorial integrity and people and will not lay down its arms under any circumstances.”“The Zionist entity and its supporters must know that Hezbollah -- when it takes the decision -- will respond firmly,” Safieddine added.

Aoun stresses importance of national unity, 'especially in negotiations'
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
President Joseph Aoun announced Monday that “domestic and external contacts are ongoing to consolidate security and stability in the South through negotiations via the Mechanism committee, which will hold a meeting on Friday.”“The choice of negotiations is the alternative to a war that will not yield any result, but will rather inflict further harm and ruin to Lebanon and the Lebanese without any exception,” Aoun said, in a meeting with a delegation from the Tashnag Party. Emphasizing the need that everyone show “a sense of patriotism and responsibility during these circumstances in particular,” the president said “national unity has great importance in strengthening the Lebanese stance, especially in negotiations.”Aoun added that the achievements made during the first ten months of his term were “fundamental and encompassed various sectors.”“Some fail to recognize this and unfortunately they target the state and its institutions, distorting reality and spreading harmful rumors for political and personal reasons,” the president lamented. “Ignoring the positive achievements and focusing solely on the negatives reveals the true intentions of those who harm their country and its people. These attempts, however, will be futile because the Lebanese people's faith in their state and its institutions is unwavering, and confidence in Lebanon has been restored, thus opening up numerous opportunities for work and productivity,” Aoun added.

Aoun and Salam reportedly propose delaying elections to summer, Berri says no
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has told President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that he is against postponing the parliamentary elections from spring to summer, pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported Monday. The daily said Aoun and Salam proposed to delay the elections to the summer holiday when expats are in Lebanon for them to be able to participate in the vote. The current electoral law only allows expats to vote for six newly-introduced seats in parliament. Sixty-five MPs, including those of the Lebanese Forces and constituting a parliamentary majority, demanded to amend the law in order to allow expats to vote for all 128 seats. Berri refused to discuss the draft law in parliament and has suggested many times that the expats who wish to vote come to Lebanon to do it. Hezbollah and Amal argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that other parties enjoy abroad and are objecting against the possible amendment. The debate stirred a flurry of attacks between Berri and LF leader Samir Geagea. Aoun and Salam proposed the summer delay to ease the tension, al-Akhbar said. Former PSP leader Walid Jumblat also intervened to try to persuade Berri to delay the elections until summer, an Amal official told al-Akhbar.

Barrack meets Netanyahu over Syria, Lebanon
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack held talks Monday in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.The talks were to focus on preventing escalation in Syria and Lebanon, media reports said prior to the meeting.
Informed sources meanwhile told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal that the Israeli government has not yet decided its stance on Lebanon, pending the anticipated meeting between Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump on December 29.

Adraee lauds Aoun's condemnation of Sydney shooting
Naharnet/December 16, 2025
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee criticized "Hezbollah's supporters" who attacked Lebanese President Joseph Aoun after the latter condemned a mass shooting at a Jewish holiday event that killed at least 11 people in Sydney. Adraee said those who "live on the rhetoric of death see a threat in every humanitarian stance."World nations, including Iran, expressed shock and sympathy over the mass shooting. "Terrorism and the killing of people, wherever they occur, are unacceptable and must be condemned," Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said.
Adraee lauded Aoun's statement that condemned terrorism and the killing of civilians. "It is an ethical and humanitarian stance that is respected and valued," he said, adding that the attack on Aoun is not "surprising or unexpected."Aoun had "fully condemned" the attack, in a statement Sunday on the x platform. He said that "humanitarian values are universal principles and are not subject to selectivity."

Israel army says killed 3 Hezbollah members in south Lebanon
Agence France Presse/December 16, 2025
The Israeli military said it killed three Hezbollah members in strikes Sunday on southern Lebanon, where it has carried out repeated attacks despite an ongoing ceasefire with the Iran-backed group. The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in strikes in the Yater, Safad Al-Battikh and Jwaya areas of the south. The Israeli army said on Sunday evening that it had "struck and eliminated Zakaria Yahya al-Hajj, a senior" Hezbollah figure in the Jwaya area. "As part of his role, he activated (Hezbollah) agents within Lebanon's security" services, the military said.
In an earlier statement, the army said it had "struck and eliminated two Hezbollah" members in the Yater and Bint Jbeil areas "within less than an hour". Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five southern areas it deems strategic. Israel says the strikes target Hezbollah members and infrastructure, and aim to stop the group from rearming. The only diplomatic contact between Israel and Lebanon is through a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which includes the United States, France and the United Nations. The mechanism's next round of talks will be on December 19. On Saturday, the Israeli army said it had "temporarily" suspended a planned strike on a building in Yanuh that it described as Hezbollah infrastructure. According to the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled. Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon's army is to conduct the dismantling south of the Litani by the end of the year, before tackling Hezbollah's weapons in the rest of the country. In a televised speech Saturday, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, who has repeatedly rejected attempts to disarm the group, said "disarmament will not achieve Israel's goal" of ending resistance, "even if the whole world unites against Lebanon".

How Qatar Can Help Lebanon
David Daoud and Natalie Ecanow/Real Clear World/December 15/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150236/
Hezbollah’s efforts to regenerate have seemingly reached a critical juncture. In one of the most escalatory actions since the ceasefire took effect in Lebanon last November, Israel eliminated Hezbollah’s de facto military chief of staff Haitham Ali Tabatabai on November 23. Israel and Hezbollah may be closer to war than at any point over the last twelve months. Another round of fighting is not in Israel’s or Lebanon’s interest. Nor is it in the interest of Lebanon’s Gulf benefactors, most of whom have grown particularly disillusioned after receiving no return on their investments in various Lebanese politicians, movements, and governments. Decades of overpromising and underdelivering on countering Hezbollah — not to mention political reform and combating corruption — have lost support in Lebanon.
Exceptionally, Qatar remains willing to engage and entertain, aiding Lebanon. Senior Lebanese officials, including Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Commander Rodolphe Haykal, visited Doha throughout 2025 seeking Qatari aid, including for the LAF. But any future Qatari aid will only perpetuate Lebanon’s self-destructive status quo unless preconditioned on meaningful Lebanese efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s yearlong war with Israel, which ended in November 2024, significantly weakened the group militarily. Almost 40 years after the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon’s civil war by requiring all sectarian militias to disarm, Beirut now has a historic opportunity to rid itself of its most problematic and enduring vestige, Hezbollah.
But, so far, Hezbollah has managed to deftly navigate Lebanon’s post-war environment, retaining the overwhelming support of Lebanese Shiites — and demonstrating that support at several critical milestones since the war’s end. In effect, Lebanon’s social and political dynamics, which empower Hezbollah and have deterred successive Lebanese governments from disarming or restraining it for fear of provoking a civil war, remained virtually unchanged. Thus, in February, Hezbollah received two ministries and corollary influence in Lebanon’s new cabinet. Now, that same government, which came to power in February, ostensibly promising to disarm Hezbollah, has ceded the initiative on disarmament to the group itself. Of course, Hezbollah has consistently refused to surrender its arsenal. Therefore, on September 5, the Lebanese government — deterred by Hezbollah’s popularity — declined to unambiguously adopt the LAF’s disarmament plan and kept its contents and progress secret. Senior Lebanese officials insisted Hezbollah’s forcible disarmament was not being considered. The Lebanese government has since jumped through linguistic hoops to tacitly shift from a policy of “disarming” the group to a policy of inaction. The government hopes passive “containment” of Hezbollah’s arsenal will, in time, destroy what Israel hasn’t, even as the group is actively regenerating.
Meanwhile, as Lebanon musters, at best, token responses to Hezbollah’s open defiance, it is nevertheless seeking tangible benefits from the international community, including Qatari aid, for its irresolute and largely symbolic disarmament efforts.Qatar has engaged Lebanon several times under similar circumstances in the past, seeking to sustain Lebanon over the long-term through creating increments of short-term stability. But that has only reinforced the country’s decades-long downward spiral. After the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Doha unconditionally pledged $300 million toward the $2.3 billion reconstruction funds Lebanon required, alleviating from Hezbollah the burden of rebuilding what its war with Israel had destroyed. Two years later, Qatar brokered the Doha Agreement to resolve the ongoing deadlock between Fuad Siniora’s Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which had erupted into street fighting. The negotiated stability it produced, however, was only a veneer, coming at the price of granting Hezbollah and its allies a veto over government decisions. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s structural problems remained unresolved.
Almost a decade later, as a result, Lebanon suffered a total economic collapse, which the World Bank described as “one of the worst economic crises globally since the mid-nineteenth century.” This disaster was compounded by the August 4, 2020, Beirut Port explosion, one of history’s largest-ever non-nuclear explosions and perhaps the most egregious example of Lebanese governmental negligence, corruption, and incompetence. Qatar again stepped into the breach, immediately airlifted medical aid into Lebanon, deployed search and rescue personnel, and pledged another $50 million to help reconstruction efforts — all without demanding any meaningful change from Beirut. By October of 2022, another presidential crisis gripped Lebanon. The Qataris — alongside France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United States — sought to help, but without endorsing the preferred candidate of either the Hezbollah-aligned factions or their opponents. The presidency, Doha maintained, was “an internal Lebanese matter.”
Ultimately, the recent Israel-Hezbollah war broke Lebanon’s political deadlock and domestically humbled Hezbollah enough to deny the ideologically pro-“resistance” Suleiman Frangieh the presidency. Instead, the preferable but far from ideal Joseph Aoun took office on January 9.
Given the uncompromising anti-Westernism promoted by its various soft-power platforms, Qatar may be nefariously seeking to allow Lebanon’s political processes to run their natural course, strengthening Hezbollah and weakening American regional influence in the process. More realistically, however, Doha understands that Lebanon’s structural dysfunction cannot be cured easily or swiftly, and that pursuing deeper and sustained change will, in the immediate term, likely shatter the country’s veneer of stability. Even if Qatar were willing to upend the status quo, it’s difficult to predict whether a successful or stable Lebanon would emerge, or whether more chaos would ensue. So, Qatar falls back on the Faustian bargain routinely made by the Lebanese themselves of subsisting on short-term fixes that delay confronting the country’s corrosive elements.
That approach, however, is no longer tenable, especially as the Trump administration leans more heavily on Doha to promote regional stability. The administration has made clear that it wants genuine progress in Lebanon, not reversion to self-destructive patterns or continued hedging and inaction against Hezbollah. Doha, meanwhile, possesses tools to be the productive partner the United States wants and the one that Lebanon needs — even if it cannot, alone, solve all the country’s problems, or any of them in the short term.
Qatar possesses influential charitable funds and state-owned media outlets that Doha traditionally uses to promote radicalization. But they can likewise be influential tools that can, gradually and perhaps over many years, function as part of a comprehensive process to strengthen credible Shiite competitors to Hezbollah. If that momentum grows into sustained and widespread Lebanese Shiite opposition to the group, the risk that restraining Hezbollah would spark a civil war will recede. Over time, this will give Beirut increased flexibility to strip Hezbollah of its freedom of action – and then, ultimately, its arms.
In the interim, Qatar can condition incremental aid packages upon Beirut consistently enforcing the rule of law against all non-state actors, including Hezbollah. This can begin with ordering Lebanese security forces to prevent Hezbollah and all such actors from defying governmental decisions, and the Lebanese judiciary to punish them if they do. For example, Doha can press Lebanon to arrest and prosecute the Hezbollah entities and officials involved in publicly projecting the image of its late secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, onto Lebanon’s iconic Raouche rock in late September in violation of Beirut’s prohibition, and prevent similar acts of defiance in the future. The accumulation and normalization of such measures will, in time, ensure that Beirut’s will by default trump the sectarian militias. Qatar can then condition further aid upon serious Lebanese efforts to cut off Hezbollah’s fundraising channels, including expanding Beirut’s largely symbolic ban on the arrival of Iranian airliners into thorough, transparent inspections of all arriving aircraft that could plausibly be carrying money destined for any militia. When social conditions are ripe, this can expand to delicensing Hezbollah’s social and financial apparatuses while the Central Bank incrementally clamps down on Lebanon’s shadow economy, where those organs operate.
In time, this can set the stage for Qatar funding the LAF, but only on the precondition that Beirut consistently demonstrates it is willing to order the Lebanese army to operate against Hezbollah. Even then, Doha’s aid should be disbursed in batches, as the LAF seizes and destroys Hezbollah’s arms and assets north of the Litani River, where the group has rejected disarmament. This will ensure that Qatari assistance rewards clear demonstrations of Lebanese intentions, and not merely its words.
Qatar alone can’t save Lebanon. None of Beirut’s international partners can. That task must be assumed, first and foremost, by the Lebanese themselves. But Doha can position itself as part of a constellation of helpful partners, using the unique tools at its disposal to nudge and guide Lebanon towards self-correction rather than continuing in its role as a reinforcer and enabler of Beirut’s excesses.
**David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Natalie Ecanow is a senior research analyst. Follow David on X @DavidADaoud and Natalie @NatalieEcanow.
https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2025/12/12/how_qatar_can_help_lebanon_1153015.html
Read in Real Clear World

Lebanon Must Pick the Abraham Accords over the Muslim Brotherhood
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This is Beirut/December 15, 2025
It would be a grave mistake for Lebanon to swap the Islamist resistance axis of Iran for the Muslim Brotherhood of Turkey and Qatar.
Lebanon must pick a side in the regional map of alliances. One seeks peace, prosperity and higher standards of living for all and consists of the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Bahrain, and Morocco, enshrined by the Abraham Accords. The rival alliance—Qatar, its ATM, and Turkey, its NATO muscle, as well as Syria, Algeria, and Tunisia—dismisses Western systems of governance as degenerate and aims to replace it with Muslim Brotherhood–style Islamist regimes.
Islamist Iran, whose theocracy is built on a Shia version of the Muslim Brotherhood’s supremacist government, was, until recently, the dominant Islamist regional force—especially in Lebanon—until Israel crushed its proxies across the region and severely bruised the Iranian regime.
The countries hunkering down and hedging include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Mauritania. As they wait and see, they endorse a populist rhetoric sometimes articulated by the claim that “Israel is a greater danger to Arabs than Iran.” The only reason these countries argue as such is because they fear the retaliatory fury of Islamist Iran—and Turkey and Qatar—but are not scared of Israel, which never comes after anyone for their opinion, even if it is in favor of spilling Jewish blood.
Meanwhile, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen are struggling to choose a side. Lebanon has faced this dilemma since its independence in 1943. On the brink of civil war in 1975, Christian organizations argued that Lebanon should remain neutral in the war between Israel and the Palestinians. The Christians presented a historical narrative about themselves—whether real or imagined—that portrayed them as part of the West, not the Arab or Muslim worlds.
Lebanon’s Muslims—who had not accepted Lebanon as an independent state and who demanded that Lebanon join an imagined pan-Arab nation or Islamic caliphate—countered by calling the Christians isolationists and pawns of the imperial West and evil Zionism. Along such fault lines, the Lebanese fought 15 years of bloody civil war, during which Palestinian factions played a major role in fanning the flames under the banner of “liberating Palestine.”
When the war ended in 1990, both sides made concessions. Christians agreed that Lebanon would define itself as an Arab country, while Muslims endorsed Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence as a final destination, not a temporary arrangement awaiting accession to the imagined greater Arab nation. But then, a new disagreement emerged: what should post-civil war Lebanon look like?
This time, the division was not along Christian-Muslim lines, but between capitalism and anti-imperialism. Rafic Hariri, a Sunni billionaire with strong connections to Saudi Arabia, had a plan and a vision that would have made Beirut what Dubai is today. Shia Hezbollah, however, had something else in mind. In the words of Naim Qassem—then its second-in-line and now its chief—in his book “The State of Resistance,” Lebanon should stay on its toes thereafter, engaged in perpetual conflict on the side of the downtrodden—especially including the “liberation of Palestine”—against the “arrogant powers,” Iranian code word for America and the West.
Syria’s Assad forced Lebanon to remain aligned with Hezbollah’s so-called “resistance axis.” When the U.S. war in Iraq weakened this axis, Hariri and Druze chief Walid Jumblatt saw an opportunity to assert themselves. Minority leaders like Jumblatt rarely take risks and always bet on who they think would be a winning horse. America seemed adamant about spreading democracy in the Middle East.
In 2005, Assad and Hezbollah assassinated Hariri, sparking a revolution that ejected Assad’s forces from Lebanon. As the Lebanese rushed to fill the vacuum and decide the country’s direction post-Assad, the witty Jumblatt summarized his country’s choices by quipping that Lebanon should decide whether it wants to be “Hanoi or Hong Kong,” the first being famous for a bloody war that ejected America while the second was focused on economic development that brought it enormous prosperity.
But Islamism won the day. In 2006, Hezbollah inaugurated the model of Lebanon as a “resistance state” by taking the country into a devastating war with Israel that ended in a stalemate. Both sides started preparing for the next round that came 17 years later when Hezbollah launched a war to support Gaza on October 8, 2023.
Israel has decimated Hezbollah and given Beirut a chance to switch from perpetual war to peace, economic growth and prosperity. This would mean Lebanon abandoning the Islamist resistance and joining the Abraham Accords.
Lebanon’s leaders, however, find it easier to hunker down and save their careers than to stand up and save their country. Beirut has not even attached itself to another irrelevant country, Saudi Arabia, and instead are watching events unfold, making statements like pundits, and hoping for the best. But the best will not come. Israel will likely intensify its maintenance strikes to ensure that Hezbollah remains at the same strength it was on the eve of the ceasefire last year. If the Jewish state manages to eradicate Hezbollah fully, Lebanon will find itself stuck with the other branch of crazy Islamism: The Muslim Brotherhood of Qatar and Turkey. Doha already bankrolls the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to the tune of $144 million a year. Syria’s Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly al-Jolani of al-Qaeda, seems to be a joint Turkish-Qatari venture, and will likely play an instrumental role facilitating the expansion of Sunni Islamism into Lebanon. The Muslim Brotherhood types already swept the Sunni vote in the municipal election earlier this year, while Sunnis of Lebanon celebrated the accession of Sharaa to power last week, ignoring the patriotism they had long urged their Shia compatriots to uphold. It would be a grave mistake for Lebanon to swap the Islamist resistance axis of Iran for the Muslim Brotherhood of Turkey and Qatar, much like it replaced Palestinian terrorism with Hezbollah’s “resistance.”
Lebanon’s salvation needs bold leadership that pulls it away from Islamist Iran, Turkey and Qatar as well as the irrelevant and toothless Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. Lebanon’s leaders should step up, be bold, join the Abraham Accords, the West, and prioritize economic growth and national interests over anything else.
Lebanon should pick Abraham Accords over the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 14-15/2025
IDSF/Video LinkWas the Bondi Attack Preventable? And are Jews Safe Anywhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQKJzsW-ww
Israel's Defense and Security Forum
December 15, 2025 IDSF Daily War Briefing
In this episode, Brigadier General Res. Amir Avivi talks about the horrific terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia that left 15 dead and dozens wounded. Was this entire incident preventable? Is there something that the State of Israel could be doing right now to prevent these types of attacks against Jews around the world. The General addresses these issues and then turns to the bigger questions of how world Jewry should relate to Israel as a safe haven and how emigration to Israel fits into a strategic interest for Israel.

Egyptians Tell U.S. Hamas Will Disarm Only if Palestinian State Created
FDD/December 15/2025
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/12/12/egyptians-tell-u-s-hamas-will-disarm-only-if-palestinian-state-created/
Hamas Will Disarm Only if Palestinian State Created: Egyptian officials have warned the United States that Hamas still retains significant military capabilities in Gaza, including the ability to strike Israel, according to a report in the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. The officials reportedly added that Hamas will disarm only when a “Palestinian state is created with East Jerusalem as its capital” and the terrorist organization receives “firm guarantees that Israel will not violate any potential agreement and resume strikes on Hamas.” The warnings come as President Donald Trump remains determined to move into phase two of the U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan, which stipulates the disarmament of Hamas.
Qatar Waging ‘Jihad’ Against Israel: In discussions with U.S. officials, Qatar and Egypt have accused Israel of “trying to impose realities on the ground in Gaza” by expanding the buffer zone behind the yellow line that divides IDF- and Hamas-controlled parts of the enclave. Meanwhile, Israeli media outlets quoted a senior official asserting that Qatar aimed to “destroy the relationship between Israel and the Trump administration from the ground up.” The same official charged that Qatar was waging “jihad” against Israel. Anti-Hamas Leader in Gaza Proposes Militia Unification: In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on December 11, the commander of the anti-Hamas militia Counter Terrorism Strike Force, Hussam al-Astal, called for the unification of Gaza’s five anti-Hamas militias. “As time passes, it is clear that our groups should unite under the banner of a new Gaza security service,” he wrote. “I recommend that our combined force report to President Trump’s Board of Peace, and that our forces take an oath that neither Hamas nor any other terrorist group will take power in Gaza again.”
FDD Expert Response
“Washington and Jerusalem should dispel the illusion that Hamas will ever disarm of its own accord. The Egyptian official’s explanation that Hamas would relinquish its weapons in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital is not only implausible but also internally incoherent. Hamas’s political leverage, such as it is, derives almost entirely from its arsenal, and it has clearly demonstrated a willingness to use violence against both Israelis and Palestinians to achieve its goals.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal
“It is encouraging that anti-Hamas Palestinians are mobilizing in this way. Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority is popular, and the great untapped Palestinian constituency has always been civil society leaders disenchanted with both. This development underlines that Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar must be kept out of Gaza at all costs. Turkish troops deployed there as part of an International Stabilization Force would tip the scale against these militias in favor of Hamas.” — Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Fellow

Gazans struggle to retrieve bodies as storms lash war-damaged buildings
Reuters/December 15, 2025
GAZA: Authorities in Gaza warned on Monday that more war-damaged buildings may collapse because of heavy rain in the devastated Palestinian enclave. They said the weather was making it hard to recover bodies still under the rubble. Two buildings collapsed in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 12 people according to local health authorities, amid a storm that has also washed away and flooded tents, and led to deaths from exposure. Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of intense bombardment and military operations. I saw my son’s hand sticking out from under the ground. The scene affected me the most. My son is under the ground, and we are unable to get him out.
Mohammed Nassar, Gaza resident
However, humanitarian agencies say there is still very little aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless. Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents. “If people are not protected today, we will witness more victims, more killing of people, children, women, entire families inside these buildings,” he said. Mohammed Nassar and his family were living in a six-story building that was severely damaged by Israeli strikes earlier in the war, and then collapsed on Friday.
His family had struggled to find alternative accommodation and had been flooded out while living in a tent during a previous severe weather event. Nassar went out to buy some necessities on Friday and returned to a scene of carnage with rescue workers struggling to pull bodies from the rubble.
“I saw my son’s hand sticking out from under the ground. The scene affected me the most. My son is under the ground, and we are unable to get him out,” Nassar said. His son, 15, died, as did a daughter, aged 18. Later on Monday, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said more aid must be allowed into Gaza without delays to prevent putting more displaced families at serious risk.“With heavy rain and cold brought in by Storm Byron, people in the Gaza Strip are freezing to death,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X. “The waterlogged ruins where they are sheltering are collapsing, causing even more exposure to cold,” he added. Lazzarini said they have supplies that have been waiting for months to enter Gaza and would cover the needs of hundreds of thousands of the population of over 2 million. UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting. Gaza authorities are meanwhile still digging to recover around 9,000 bodies they estimate remain buried in rubble from Israeli bombing during the war, but they lack the machinery needed to expedite the work, spokesman Ismail Al-Thawabta said. On Monday, rescue workers retrieved the remains of around 20 people from a multi-story building bombed in December 2023, where around 60 people, including 30 children, were believed to be sheltering. Gaza authorities say Israel is not allowing in as much aid as promised under the truce. Aid agencies say Israel is blocking essential items. Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the group denies.

Israel to demolish 25 residential buildings in West Bank camp
AFP/Reuters/December 15, 2025
International Criminal Court rejects Israeli bid to halt Gaza war investigation
Tulkarm, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli army is to demolish 25 residential buildings in the north West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp later this week, local authorities said on Monday. Abdallah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarem governorate where Nur Shams is located, said he was informed of the planned demolition by the Israeli Defense Ministry body COGAT.Faisal Salama, head of the popular committee for Tulkarm camp, which is near Nur Shams, said the demolition order would affect 25 buildings holding up to 100 family homes. “We were informed by the military and civil coordination that the occupation will carry out the demolition of 25 buildings on Dec. 18, Thursday,” he said. On Monday, a dozen displaced Nur Shams residents held a demonstration in front of the armored military vehicles blocking their way back to the camp, protesting the demolition orders. Aisha Dama, a camp resident whose four-floor family home, housing about 30 people, is among those to be demolished, said she felt alone against the military. Also on Monday, appeals judges at the International Criminal Court rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court’s probe into its conduct of the Gaza war.On appeal, judges refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The ruling means the arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant remain in place.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager near Bethlehem
Arab News/December 15, 2025
LONDON: The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager in Tuqu town, southeast of Bethlehem, on Monday. Tayseer Abu Mifreh, head of Tuqu’s council, said Israeli soldiers raided the village and fired indiscriminately, seriously injuring Ammar Yaser Sabbah with a live round to the chest. According to Wafa news agency, the 17-year-old was taken to a local health center for first aid, but he died from his injury soon after. Over 1,000 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of the Gaza war in late 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. During the same period, 43 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.

Israeli military raids in Syria raise tensions as they carve out a buffer zone
AP/December 15, 2025
BEIRUT: Qassim Hamadeh woke to the sounds of gunfire and explosions in his village of Beit Jin in southwestern Syria last month. Within hours, he had lost two sons, a daughter-in-law and his 4-year-old and 10-year-old grandsons. The five were among 13 villagers killed that day by Israeli forces. Israeli troops had raided the village — not for the first time — seeking to capture, as they said, members of a militant group planning attacks into Israel. Israel said militants opened fire at the troops, wounding six, and that troops returned fire and brought in air support. Hamadeh, like others in Beit Jin, dismissed Israel’s claims of militants operating in the village. The residents said armed villagers confronted Israeli soldiers they saw as invaders, only to be met with Israeli tank and artillery fire, followed by a drone strike. The government in Damascus called it a “massacre.”The raid and similar recent Israeli actions inside Syria have increased tensions, frustrated locals and also scuttled chances — despite US pressure — of any imminent thaw in relations between the two neighbors. An expanding Israeli presence. An Israeli-Syria rapprochement seemed possible last December, after Sunni Islamist-led rebels overthrew autocratic Syrian President Bashar Assad, a close ally of Iran, Israel’s archenemy. Syria’s interim president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who led the rebels who took over the country, said he has no desire for a conflict with Israel. But Israel was suspicious, mistrusting Al-Sharaa because of his militant past and his group’s history of aligning with Al-Qaeda.
Israeli forces quickly moved to impose a new reality on the ground. They mobilized into the UN-mandated buffer zone in southern Syria next to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed — a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Israeli forces erected checkpoints and military installations, including on a hilltop that overlooks wide swaths of Syria. They set up landing pads on strategic Mt. Hermon nearby. Israeli reconnaissance drones frequently fly over surrounding Syrian towns, with residents often sighting Israeli tanks and Humvee vehicles patrolling those areas. Israel has said its presence is temporary to clear out pro-Assad remnants and militants — to protect Israel from attacks. But it has given no indication its forces would leave anytime soon. Talks between the two countries to reach a security agreement have so far yielded no result.
Ghosts of Lebanon and Gaza
The events in neighboring Lebanon, which shares a border with both Israel and Syria, and the two-year war in Gaza between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas have also raised concerns among Syrians that Israel plans a permanent land grab in southern Syria.
Israeli forces still have a presence in southern Lebanon, over a year since a US-brokered ceasefire halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. That war began a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with its ally Hamas.
Israel’s operations in Lebanon, which included bombardment across the tiny country and a ground incursion last year, have severely weakened Hezbollah. Today, Israel still controls five hilltop points in southern Lebanon, launches near-daily airstrikes against alleged Hezbollah targets and flies reconnaissance drones over the country, sometimes also carrying out overnight ground incursions. In Gaza, where US President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire deal has brought about a truce between Israel and Hamas, similar buffer zones under Israeli control are planned even after Israel eventually withdraws from the more than half of the territory it still controls. At a meeting of regional leaders and international figures earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, Al-Sharaa accused Israel of using imagined threats to justify aggressive actions. “All countries support an Israeli withdrawal” from Syria to the lines prior to Assad’s ouster, he said, adding that it was the only way for both Syria and Israel to “emerge in a state of safety.”
Syria’s myriad problems
The new leadership in Damascus has had a multitude of challenges since ousting Assad. Al-Sharaa’s government has been unable to implement a deal with local Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria, and large areas of southern Sweida province are now under a de facto administration led by the Druze religious minority, following sectarian clashes there in mid-July with local Bedouin clans. Syrian government forces intervened, effectively siding with the Bedouins. Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many by government fighters. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights. Israel, which has cast itself as a defender of the Druze, though many of them in Syria are critical of its intentions, has also made overtures to Kurds in Syria. “The Israelis here are pursuing a very dangerous strategy,” said Michael Young, Senior Editor at the Beirut-based Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center. It contradicts, he added, the positions of Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt — and even the United States — which are “all in agreement that what has to come out of this today is a Syrian state that is unified and fairly strong,” he added.
Israel and the US at odds over Syria. In a video released from his office after visiting Israeli troops wounded in Beit Jin, barely 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the edge of the UN buffer zone, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel seeks a “demilitarized buffer zone from Damascus to the (UN) buffer zone,” including Mt. Hermon. “It is also possible to reach an agreement with the Syrians, but we will stand by our principles in any case,” Netanyahu said. His strategy has proven to be largely unpopular with the international community, including with Washington, which has backed Al-Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate his control across Syria. Israel’s operations in southern Syria have drawn rare public criticism from Trump, who has taken Al-Sharaa, once on Washington’s terror list, under his wing. “It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social after the Beit Jin clashes. Syria is also expected to be on the agenda when Netanyahu visits the US and meets with Trump later this month. Experts doubt Israel will withdraw from Syria anytime soon — and the new government in Damascus has little leverage or power against Israel’s much stronger military. “If you set up landing pads, then you are not here for short-term,” Issam Al-Reiss, a military adviser with the Syrian research group ETANA, said of Israeli actions. Hamadeh, the laborer from Beit Jin, said he can “no longer bear the situation” after losing five of his family. Israel, he said, “strikes wherever it wants, it destroys whatever it wants, and kills whoever it wants, and no one holds it accountable.”

Netanyahu lashes out while world shows shock and sympathy over Australia shooting
Associated Press/December 16, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at Australia's leader on Sunday while nations expressed shock and sympathy over a mass shooting at a Jewish holiday event, saying he had warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that "your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire."Netanyahu during the war in Gaza has repeatedly sought to link widespread calls for a Palestinian state, and criticism of Israel's military offensive in the territory following Hamas' 2023 attack, to growing incidents of antisemitism worldwide. While others in Israel's government on Sunday also urged Australia to do more against a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks, Netanyahu went further in attempting to link the attack in Sydney that killed at least 11 people, including an Israeli, to support for a Palestinian state. Australia was among several countries formally recognizing a Palestinian state in September during the United Nations gathering of world leaders. According to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, 159 countries have recognized Palestine. The vast majority of the international community believes that a two-state solution is the only way to end decades of conflict.Netanyahu's government has said the international push for a Palestinian state rewards Hamas.Here are some global reactions to the Australia shooting:
Iran
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that "terrorism and the killing of people, wherever they occur, are unacceptable and must be condemned." Australia in August cut off diplomatic relations with Iran and accused it of masterminding antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
United States
President Donald Trump called the shooting "a purely antisemitic attack," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that "antisemitism has no place in this world."
Britain
King Charles III said he was "appalled and saddened." He also leads the Commonwealth, and the office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday said Herzog had reached out to the king in September warning of an "epidemic of antisemitism" in three Commonwealth countries: Britain, Canada and Australia.
Meanwhile, police in London said they would step up security at Jewish sites.
Germany
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the attack "has left me speechless" and added that "this is an attack on our shared values. We must stop this antisemitism, here in Germany and worldwide."
United Nations
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was horrified and that "My heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hannukah, a festival celebrating the miracle of peace and light vanquishing darkness."
India
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the "ghastly terrorist attack" and said that "we stand in solidarity with the people of Australia in this hour of grief."
World Jewish Congress
The organization's president, Ronald Lauder, said that "No community should ever fear coming together to celebrate its faith, traditions, or identity," adding: "Make no mistake, this will not break us."
Australia
"I'm surrounded by antisemitic graffiti constantly. I think for our community in the east (of Sydney), and as a Christian, I just want to declare I stand with the people of Israel," Anglican pastor Matt Graham told Australian Broadcasting Corp. He said he had been conducting a service at the nearby Bondi Anglican Church when panicked people began entering to take shelter.

Australia to toughen gun laws as it mourns deadly Bondi attack
AFP/December 16, 2025
SYDNEY: Australia’s leaders have agreed to toughen gun laws after attackers killed 15 people at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, the worst mass shooting in decades decried as antisemitic “terrorism” by authorities.Dozens fled in panic as a father and son fired into crowds packing the Sydney beach for the start of Hanukkah on Sunday evening. A 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a local rabbi were among those killed, while 42 others were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds and other injuries. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened a meeting of leaders of Australia’s states and territories in response on Monday, agreeing with them “to strengthen gun laws across the nation.”Albanese’s office said they agreed to explore ways to improve background checks for firearm owners, bar non-nationals from obtaining gun licenses and limit the types of weapons that are legal. Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the town of Port Arthur in 1996, which led to sweeping reforms long seen as a gold standard worldwide. Those included a gun buyback scheme, a national firearms register and a crackdown on ownership of semi-automatic weapons. But Sunday’s shooting has raised fresh questions about how the two suspects — who public broadcaster ABC reported had possible links to the Daesh group — obtained the guns.
‘An act of pure evil’ -
Police are still unraveling what drove Sunday’s attack, although authorities have said it targeted Jews. Albanese called it “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores.”A string of antisemitic attacks has spread fear among Australia’s Jewish communities after the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The Australian government this year accused Iran of orchestrating a recent wave of antisemitic attacks and expelled Tehran’s ambassador nearly four months ago. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of “pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the months before the shooting, referring to Canberra’s announcement that it would recognize Palestinian statehood in August. Other world leaders expressed revulsion, with US President Donald Trump condemning the “antisemitic attack.”The gunmen opened fire on an annual celebration that drew more than 1,000 people to the beach to mark Hanukkah. They took aim from a raised boardwalk at a beach packed with swimmers cooling off on the steamy summer evening. Witness Beatrice was celebrating her birthday and had just blown out the candles when the shooting started. “We thought it was fireworks,” she told AFP. “We’re just feeling lucky we’re all safe.”Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed the 50-year-old father.
The 24-year-old son was arrested and remains under guard in hospital with serious injuries.
Australian media named the suspects as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram.
Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, said the father arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998 and had become a permanent resident. The son was an Australia-born citizen. Hours after the shooting, police found a homemade bomb in a car parked close to the beach, saying the “improvised explosive device” had likely been planted by the pair. Rabbi Mendel Kastel said his brother-in-law was among the dead. “We need to hold strong. This is not the Australia that we know. This is not the Australia that we want.”Wary of reprisals, police have so far avoided questions about the attackers’ religion or ideological motivations. Misinformation spread quickly online after the attacks, some of it targeting immigrants and the Muslim community.Police said they responded to reports on Monday of several pig heads left at a Muslim cemetery in southwestern Sydney.
Panic and bravery
A brave few dashed toward the beach as the shooting unfolded, wading through fleeing crowds to rescue children, treat the injured and confront the gunmen. Footage showed one man, identified by local media as fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired. The 43-year-old wrestled the gun out of the attacker’s hands, before pointing the weapon at him as he backed away.A team of off-duty lifeguards sprinted across the sand to drag children to safety. “The team ran out under fire to try and clear children from the playground while the gunmen were firing,” said Steven Pearce from Surf Life Saving New South Wales. Bleeding victims were carried across the beach atop surfboards turned into makeshift stretchers. On Monday evening, a flower memorial next to Bondi Beach swelled in size as mourners gathered. Hundreds, including members of the Jewish community, sang songs, clapped and held each other. Leading a ceremony to light a menorah candle, a rabbi told the crowd: “The only strength we have is if we bring light into the world.”

How an Australian citizen of Syrian origin became the hero of Bondi Beach and his nation
Arab News/December 15, 2025
LONDON: Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s most beloved seaside destinations, became the site of unspeakable violence on Sunday evening. What started as a joyful Hanukkah celebration attended by families and tourists transformed in moments into a scene of chaos and bloodshed. Gunmen opened fire on crowds gathered for the “Chanukah by the Sea” event, leaving multiple people dead and dozens wounded. But amid the terror and panic, a single act of courage stood out. An unarmed man tackled one of the attackers, wrestled a rifle from his hands and placed it out of reach, likely saving scores of lives. The man was Ahmed Al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two, a fruit-shop owner and a Muslim Australian of Syrian heritage. Before that night, Al-Ahmed was far from a public figure. He ran a modest fruit shop in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, greeting customers by name and living a life centered on family, faith and community. But his actions that evening transformed him from a quiet local business owner into a symbol of bravery recognized around the world. According to his cousin Mustafa Al-Asaad, who spoke to Australian media after the attack, Al-Ahmed acted not out of calculation but conscience.
“When he saw people dying and their families being shot, he couldn’t bear to see people dying,” Al-Asaad said. “It was a humanitarian act, more than anything else. It was a matter of conscience. “He’s very proud that he saved even one life. When he saw this scene, people dying of gunfire, he told me, ‘I couldn’t bear this. God gave me strength. I believe I’m going to stop this person killing people’.”The footage that emerged soon after the attack captured the moment Al-Ahmed ran toward danger.With chaos erupting around him, he sprinted at a gunman and brought him to the ground, disarming the attacker in the process. The images spread across television and social media, shocking viewers in Australia and beyond. But the act of confronting an armed assailant came at great personal cost. Al-Ahmed was shot twice during the struggle, sustaining serious injuries to his hand and shoulder.
He was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery, where he remained in serious but stable condition as tributes poured in. The attack itself has been widely condemned. Australian authorities quickly characterized it as a terrorist act, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a public address praising the courage of civilians who confronted the gunmen. “We have seen Australians today run towards danger in order to help others,” he said. “These Australians are heroes, and their bravery has saved lives.”In a separate statement, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns wrote on Facebook: “His incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk.”
Minns, who visited the injured Al-Ahmed at a hospital in Sydney on Sunday, said it was an honor to “to pass on the thanks of people across NSW.”“There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for Al-Ahmed’s selfless courage.”Across the Pacific, US political leaders also weighed in. President Donald Trump, speaking at the White House, commended Al-Ahmed’s decisive action. “It’s been a very, very brave person … who went and attacked frontally one of the shooters and saved a lot of lives,” Trump said. He referred to the Bondi Beach attack as “a terrible situation” but emphasized the courage that shone through in a moment of crisis. For many observers, the images of Al-Ahmed intervening challenged simplistic narratives about identity and violence. Here was a Muslim of Middle Eastern heritage, acting not out of ideology, but out of a sense of moral obligation and human solidarity, intervening to protect people — many of them Jewish — at a festival of light. It was a moment that not only captured global attention but resonated deeply with communities confronting rising Islamophobia and antisemitism alike. Muslim leaders in Australia and abroad condemned the violent attack while highlighting Al-Ahmed’s response as reflective of values shared across faith traditions. His father, Mohamed Fateh Al-Ahmed, told reporters through an interpreter that he was proud of his son’s actions. “He has the urge to protect people,” he said. “When he saw people lying on the ground and blood everywhere, his conscience and soul immediately compelled him to pounce on one of the terrorists and snatch the gun from him. “I feel pride and honor — because my son is a hero of Australia.”
His mother, Malakeh Hasan Al-Ahmed, echoed her husband’s sentiments.
“He saw they were dying, and people were losing their lives, and when that guy (the shooter) ran out of ammo, he took it from him, but he was hit,” she said. “We pray that God saves him.”Al-Ahmed’s family background is rooted in the Syrian diaspora. Relatives say his parents emigrated from the Idlib region, a part of northwest Syria marked by decades of conflict and displacement. In Australia, they built a new life, working hard, raising children and becoming part of a multicultural society where people from many backgrounds live and work side by side. It was in that environment — shaped by community ties yet rarely thrust into the spotlight — that Al-Ahmed grew up. A practising Muslim, he attended local mosque events and was known as a generous presence in his neighborhood.  His life before the attack was defined by ordinary concerns: early mornings at the fruit shop, football games with his children, weekend dinners with extended family. Nothing in his personal history suggested that he would become a symbol of defiance and courage in the face of terror. After the attack, though, his community rallied around him. Messages of support and admiration came from across Australia, with neighbors who knew him before the tragedy expressing shock at the sudden spotlight. Fundraisers were established to assist with medical costs and support his family, contributions arriving from customers, strangers, and community organisations alike. Some donors said they contributed not only because of his heroism, but because his story felt like a reminder of shared humanity.  Yet Al-Ahmed himself, according to those close to him, has been humble about the attention. Friends said he does not seek accolades or applause. The broader impact of the Bondi Beach attack has sparked national debate in Australia about public safety, religious tolerance, and how to confront extremism without dividing communities. But across those conversations, Al-Ahmed’s act of bravery has offered a rare point of unity — a moment in which people of different backgrounds, religions and political views have recognized not just courage, but compassion.
In interviews with international outlets, scholars and civil society leaders have described Al-Ahmed’s intervention as a striking example of moral courage — an instinctive choice to protect others even at great risk to oneself.  International reaction to Al-Ahmed’s courage has also come from Jewish community leaders in Australia and abroad, many of whom expressed deep gratitude for his actions. Some saw in his intervention an affirmation that solidarity can cross centuries-old divides, even in moments of profound fear. When asked how he felt about the worldwide attention, one of his close friends said Al-Ahmed was overwhelmed but grateful, insisting that he hoped his story would not be used to sow division, but to encourage unity. “I am proud that my son helped people, he saved lives, souls,” Al-Ahmed’s mother said. “God will not harm him because he was a benefactor. My son has always been brave, he helps people, that’s who he is.”

Trump says Ukraine deal closer than ever, Europe proposes peace force
AFP/December 16/2025
US President Donald Trump said Monday that a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine was closer than ever, as European leaders proposed a “multinational force” to enforce a potential peace accord. The upbeat remarks came as key powers met in Berlin with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to push forward efforts to end the war – although Russia had yet to react to the latest proposals. “I think we’re closer now than we have been ever,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he had “very long and very good talks” with Zelenskyy and others, including the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and NATO. The European leaders in a joint statement at the Berlin talks proposed a force as part of US-backed “robust security guarantees” aimed at guaranteeing that Russia would not violate an agreement to end the war, which started with Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy said earlier that talks with Trump’s envoys were “not easy” but brought “progress” on the question of security guarantees. He met for a second day with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for talks aimed at ending the war, building on a proposal initially put forward by Trump. Zelenskyy hailed new security guarantees offered by Washington but also said differences remained on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to Russia. “There has been sufficient dialogue on the territory, and I think that, frankly speaking, we still have different positions,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
US security guarantees
An upbeat German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the talks had created the “chance for a real peace process” and praised the US for offering “substantial” security guarantees. The European statement – whose signatories included the leaders of Britain, France and Germany – also outlined what it said were other points of agreement between the European leaders and US officials. Ukraine’s military should continue receiving extensive support and maintain a peacetime strength of 800,000 troops, it said. Peace would also be maintained by a “US-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” that would identify violations and “provide early warning of any future attack.”US officials warned Ukraine must accept the deal, which they said would provide security guarantees in line with NATO’s Article Five – which calls an attack on one ally an attack on all. “The basis of that agreement is basically to have really, really strong guarantees – Article Five-like – also a very, very strong deterrence” in the size of Ukraine’s military, a US official said on condition of anonymity. “Those guarantees will not be on the table forever. Those guarantees are on the table right now if there’s a conclusion that’s reached in a good way,” he said. Trump has previously ruled out a formal entry of Ukraine into NATO and sided with Russia in calling Kyiv’s aspirations to the alliance a reason for the full-scale invasion by Moscow. Merz said “substantial legal and material security guarantees” from the United States were “truly remarkable” and “a very important step forward.”
‘Criminal attack’
Zelenskyy said of the talks with the US side that “these conversations are always not easy” but that it had been “a productive conversation.”An official briefed on the US-Ukrainian talks earlier told AFP that US negotiators still want Ukraine to cede control of the eastern Donbas – made up of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Moscow controls almost all of Lugansk and about 80 percent of the Donetsk region, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War. Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants territory,” said the official, adding that the United States was demanding that Ukraine “withdraw” from the regions and that Kyiv was refusing. One of the US officials acknowledged that there was no agreement on territory. Trump has called it inevitable that Ukraine would need to surrender territory to Russia, an outcome unacceptable to Zelenskyy. Russia, meanwhile, has signaled it will insist on its core demands, including on territory and on Ukraine never joining NATO. Moscow has previously objected to any European-led force in Ukraine to police a peace agreement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was expecting the United States to “provide us with the concept that is being discussed in Berlin today.”

Europeans propose ‘multinational force’ for Ukraine peace
AFP/December 15, 2025
BERLIN: European leaders on Monday proposed a European-led “multinational force” with US support to enforce a potential peace deal in Ukraine, according to a joint statement. The force would be part of “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine from the United States and European powers aimed at guaranteeing that Russia would not violate an agreement to end the war. The statement — whose signatories included the leaders of Britain, France and Germany — was released as European leaders gathered with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin. The statement also outlined what it said were other points of agreement between a dozen European leaders and US officials in talks over the outlines of a peace proposal. Ukraine’s military should continue receiving extensive support, and maintain a peacetime strength of 800,000 troops, the statement said. Peace would also be maintained by a “US-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” that would identify violations and “provide early warning of any future attack,” the statement said. Countries should also make a “legally binding commitment, subject to national procedures, to take measures to restore peace and security in the case of a future armed attack.”The statement was also signed by the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden, as well as the heads of the European Council and the European Commission.
Progress on security -
Earlier on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that talks in Berlin with two of US President Donald Trump’s close advisers — special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — had yielded “substantial” progress on security guarantees, long a sticking point over any potential peace deal. The joint statement also stressed the importance of rebuilding Ukraine’s economy, with the leaders backing favorable trade arrangements and “major resources” for reconstruction. The signers also said they “strongly support” Ukraine joining the European Union. Talks remain in flux, however, and the statement stressed that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”It remains unclear how Russian President Vladimir Putin might react to the proposals — particularly the prospect of security guarantees for Ukraine and European troops potentially being deployed on Ukrainian territory. There also remains the key question of the fate of territory occupied by Russian forces, a sticking point in earlier discussions. The statement said it is “now incumbent upon Russia to show willingness to work toward a lasting peace by agreeing to President Trump’s peace plan and to demonstrate their commitment to end the fighting by agreeing to a ceasefire.”Until then, the European leaders “agreed to continue to increase pressure on Russia to bring Moscow to negotiate in earnest.”

Zelensky hails ‘real progress’ in Berlin talks with Trump envoys
Arab News/December 15, 2025
BERLIN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that talks in Berlin with US President Donald Trump’s envoys on ending the war with Russia were “not easy” but brought “real progress” on the question of security guarantees. Zelensky met for a second day with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for talks aimed at ending the war that started with Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, building on a proposal initially put forward by Trump. He hailed new security guarantees offered by Washington but also said differences remained on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to battlefield enemy Russia. “There has been sufficient dialogue on the territory, and I think that, frankly speaking, we still have different positions,” Zelensky told reporters. An upbeat German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the talks had created the “chance for a real peace process” and praised the US for offering “substantial” security guarantees.From Washington, Trump said he would hold a phone call later Monday with Zelensky and a group of European leaders set to meet in Berlin, among them UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Also expected were Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish premier Donald Tusk and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and other leaders, as well as NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen. The United States said it had offered strong, NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine and voiced confidence that Russia would accept, in what Washington said would be a breakthrough in ending the war.
‘Very strong deterrence’ -
US officials described the hours of talks in Berlin as positive and said Trump in his call would seek to push forward the deal. The US officials warned Ukraine must accept the deal, which they said would provide security guarantees in line with NATO’s Article Five — which calls an attack on one ally an attack on all. “The basis of that agreement is basically to have really, really strong guarantees — Article Five-like — also a very, very strong deterrence” in the size of Ukraine’s military, a US official said on condition of anonymity. “Those guarantees will not be on the table forever. Those guarantees are on the table right now if there’s a conclusion that’s reached in a good way,” he said. Trump has previously ruled out a formal entry of Ukraine into NATO and sided with Russia in calling Kyiv’s aspirations to the alliance a reason for the full-scale invasion by Moscow. Merz said any ceasefire must be “secured by substantial legal and material security guarantees from the United States and Europe, which the United States has put on the table here in Berlin in terms of legal and material guarantees.”
“This is truly remarkable. This is a very important step forward, which I very much welcome,” he said.
‘Criminal attack’ -
Zelensky said about the talks with the US side that “these conversations are always not easy” but that it had been “a productive conversation.”An official briefed on the US-Ukrainian talks earlier told AFP that US negotiators still want Ukraine to cede control of the eastern Donbas — made up of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Moscow controls almost all of Lugansk and about 80 percent of the Donetsk region, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War. Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants territory,” said the official, adding that the United States was demanding that Ukraine “withdraw” from the regions and that Kyiv was refusing. One of the US officials acknowledged that there was no agreement on territory. Trump has called it inevitable that Ukraine would need to surrender territory to Russia, an outcome anathematic to Zelensky after his country’s defense of nearly four years. Russia, meanwhile, has signalled it will insist on its core demands, including on territory and on Ukraine never joining NATO. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was expecting the United States to “provide us with the concept that is being discussed in Berlin today.” Merz vowed sustained support for Ukraine as it fights back against what he labelled “Putin’s criminal attack.”“We will only be able to achieve lasting peace in Europe together, with a free and sovereign Ukraine, a strong Ukraine that can defend itself against Russian attacks now and in the future,” he said.
“The fate of Ukraine is the fate of all Europe.”

What to know about the US military's role in Syria after deadly IS attack
Associated Press/December 15/2025
The death of two U.S. service members and one American civilian in an attack in Syria by an alleged member of the Islamic State group has drawn new attention to the presence of American forces in the country. Saturday's attack was the first with fatalities since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago. The United States has had troops on the ground in Syria for over a decade, with a stated mission of fighting IS. While not part of its official mission, the U.S. presence has also been seen as a means to hinder the flow of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters and weapons into Syria from neighboring Iraq. The number of U.S. troops in the country has fluctuated and currently stands at around 900. They are mainly posted in the Kurdish-controlled northeast and at the al-Tanf base in the southeastern desert near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. Here's the back story and present situation of the U.S. military force in Syria:
What U.S. forces are doing in Syria
In 2011, mass protests in Syria against the Assad government were met by a brutal crackdown and spiraled into a civil war that lasted nearly 14 years before he was ousted in December 2024. Wary of getting bogged down in another costly and politically unpopular war in the Middle East after its experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington sent support to rebel groups but at first avoided direct military intervention. That changed after the rise of the IS, which carried out sporadic attacks in the U.S. and Europe, while in Iraq and Syria, it seized territory that was at one point half the size of the United Kingdom. In the areas the group controlled, it was notorious for its brutality against religious minorities, as well as Muslims whom it considered to be apostates. In 2014, the administration of then-U.S. President Barack Obama launched an air campaign against IS in Iraq and Syria. The following year, the first U.S. ground troops entered Syria, where they partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country's northeast. By 2019, IS had lost control of all the territory it once held, but sleeper cells have continued to launch attacks.
The US military and Syrian forces
Before Assad's ouster, Washington had no diplomatic relations with Damascus and the U.S. military did not work directly with the Syrian army. That has changed over the past year. Ties have warmed between the administrations of U.S. President Donald Trump and Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that used to be listed by Washington as a terrorist organization. In November, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country's independence in 1946. During his visit, Syria announced its entry into the global coalition against the Islamic State, joining 89 other countries that have committed to combating the group. While the entry into the coalition signals a move toward greater coordination between the Syrian and U.S. militaries, the Syrian security forces have not officially joined Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military mission against IS in Iraq and Syria, which has for years partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.
The future US footprint in Syria
The number of U.S. troops posted in Syria has changed over the years. Trump tried to withdraw all forces from Syria during his first term, but he met opposition from the Pentagon because it was seen as abandoning Washington's Kurdish allies, leaving them open to a Turkish offensive. Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. The number of U.S. troops increased to more than 2,000 after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in Israel, as Iranian-backed militants targeted American troops and interests in the region in response to Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The force has since been drawn back down to around 900, but Trump has given no indication that he is planning a full withdrawal in the near future. After Saturday's attack, U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack posted on X: "A limited number of U.S. forces remain deployed in Syria solely to finish the job of defeating ISIS once and for all." The U.S. presence "empowers capable local Syrian partners to take the fight to these terrorists on the ground, ensuring that American forces do not have to engage in another costly, large-scale war in the Middle East," he said, adding, "We will not waver in this mission until ISIS is utterly destroyed."

ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Syrian security forces, monitor says
Al Arabiya English/December 15/2025
ISIS claimed responsibility on Monday for an attack that killed four Syrian security personnel the day before, the SITE Intelligence Group reported. “The soldiers of the Caliphate attacked a patrol for the apostate Syrian government on the Maaret al-Numan road yesterday with machine guns,” the group said according to a statement shared by SITE, which monitors extremist groups. Syria’s interior ministry had said on Sunday that four members of its “road security department were killed, and a fifth was wounded, when their patrol was targeted while on duty” in the same area in Idlib province, without identifying the attackers.ISIS once controlled swathes of Syria before its territorial defeat in 2019. The group has claimed fewer attacks on Syrian and Kurdish forces since the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive by Syrian opposition forces last December. It claimed its first attack on the new authorities on May 30, when it said it had planted an “explosive device” on a Syrian forces vehicle, killing one person and wounding three, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Damascus often announces operations against ISIS, the latest being carried out alongside a US-led coalition to target “sleeper cells” in the Syrian desert following a Saturday attack that killed two US soldiers and a civilian translator in Palmyra. Washington and Damascus blamed ISIS for the attack, though it has not claimed responsibility. An interior ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity Sunday that three people had been arrested over their suspected involvement in that attack. Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba has said that the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who was due to be fired for his “extremist” views. A Syrian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”With AFP

Stranger in Moscow: Leaked data details life of Assad in exile
Arab News/December 15, 2025
LONDON: More than a year after fleeing Syria, ousted former president Bashar Assad is living a secluded life of luxury in Moscow, with reports suggesting he has returned to studying ophthalmology while remaining cut off from political life. Assad, who trained in London as an eye doctor before assuming power in 2000, was deposed in December 2024 as rebel forces advanced on Damascus, ending decades of his family’s rule. He fled the country overnight, with Russian assistance, after 14 years of civil war that left more than 600,000 people dead and nearly 14 million displaced. According to sources cited by The Guardian newspaper in a report published on Monday, Assad is now living in or near Rublyovka, an exclusive gated community west of Moscow favored by Russia’s political and financial elite. Despite his wealth and the security surrounding his exile, the former leader is said to be living a largely isolated life and is regarded as politically irrelevant in Moscow’s ruling circles. A family friend told the newspaper that Assad has been studying Russian and revisiting his medical training, describing ophthalmology as a long-held passion. Russian authorities have reportedly barred him from engaging in any form of political or media activity. Russia’s ambassador to Iraq confirmed in November that Assad was prohibited from making public appearances, despite being safe and under protection. Sources told The Guardian that Assad left Syria without warning senior regime allies or members of his extended family, many of whom were forced to scramble to escape as the government collapsed. His brother Maher Assad, a senior military figure, was said to have remained in Damascus until the final moments, helping others flee. In the months since the family’s escape from Syria, attention has reportedly focused on the health of Assad’s wife, Asma, who had been undergoing treatment in Moscow for leukaemia. According to sources familiar with the situation, her condition stabilized following experimental therapy. While Assad himself remains largely invisible to the Russian public, his children have gradually adapted to life in the country. His daughter, Zein, graduated in June from Moscow’s prestigious MGIMO University, one of the few public sightings of Assad family members since their regime’s fall from power. His sons, Hafez and Karim, have withdrawn from social media and keep a low profile. Despite prior hopes of relocating to the UAE, sources said the family now accepts that a permanent move out of Russia is unlikely in the near future, even as they continue to travel between Moscow and the Gulf.

MBS meets Sudan’s army chief al-Burhan in Riyadh, US envoy meets Prince Khalid
Al Arabiya English//December 15, 2025
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday. They discussed the latest developments in Sudan and the efforts to achieve security and stability in the war-torn country, according to the report. The meeting was attended by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Minister of State and National Security Advisor Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban, Finance Minister Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Jadaan, and Saudi Ambassador to Sudan Ali Hassan Jaafar, SPA said.Separately, US envoy for Africa Massad Boulos met with Prince Khalid. “During the meeting, we reviewed the bilateral relations between our countries and discussed recent developments, as well as our efforts to promote peace,” Prince Khalid said in a post on X. “We also addressed other topics of mutual interest.”In a post on X, Boulos thanked Prince Khalid for a “fruitful and forward-looking discussion that advanced progress on the resolution of regional conflicts and shared priorities between allies.”Reports suggested that Boulos met with Burhan while in Saudi Arabia; however, Al Arabiya English could not independently confirm the news. Sudan has been gripped by conflict since April 2023, with fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces triggering a severe humanitarian crisis and destabilizing large parts of the country. Saudi Arabia has been actively engaged in diplomatic efforts related to Sudan, including facilitating talks and providing humanitarian assistance, as it continues to push for an end to the conflict and a return to stability.

Iran Human Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi 'Unwell' After Violent Arrest
This is Beirut/December 15, 2025
Iranian Nobel peace laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was taken to the hospital twice after being violently arrested in Iran last week. According to her supporters, Mohammadi “appeared unwell” in her first telephone contact since being detained. She suffered "severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck" during her arrest, according to her foundation. Iranian civil society activists, including prize-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of Mohammadi and other campaigners arrested on Friday.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 15-16/2025
IDSF/Video LinkWas the Bondi Attack Preventable? And are Jews Safe Anywhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQKJzsW-ww&t=183s
Israel's Defense and Security Forum
December 15, 2025 IDSF Daily War Briefing
In this episode, Brigadier General Res. Amir Avivi talks about the horrific terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia that left 15 dead and dozens wounded. Was this entire incident preventable? Is there something that the State of Israel could be doing right now to prevent these types of attacks against Jews around the world. The General addresses these issues and then turns to the bigger questions of how world Jewry should relate to Israel as a safe haven and how emigration to Israel fits into a strategic interest for Israel.

Mossad Vault/Video Link/How Mossad Used a Luxury Hotel Maid to Slip Into a Terror Boss’s Suite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXiRpzmgTDE
December 14, 2025
A hotel maid knocks twice, enters room 518, and twenty minutes later walks out having transformed a luxury suite into an intelligence collection platform. For eight months, an Israeli operative lived as Greta Hoffmann—working shifts, attending church, dating casually—while waiting for one of the Middle East's most dangerous bomb makers to check into her hotel. This is the story of Operation Vienna: how Mossad planted surveillance devices inside Abu Ibrahim's hotel room, the master bomb maker whose barometric pressure devices nearly brought down a Pan Am flight at 35,000 feet. We reconstruct the patient architecture of deep cover espionage—the eight-month identity establishment, the four-minute window to plant three devices, and the four days of audio surveillance that exposed training sessions and operational plans. We examine how invisibility becomes the weapon: a maid so unremarkable that security cameras never register her as a threat, so professionally competent that supervisors never question her access. But this operation reveals darker truths about intelligence work. Every friendship formed was a lie. Every colleague who trusted Greta was being used without consent. We explore the ethical calculation: does gathering intelligence that prevents attacks justify deceiving innocent people? Is using hotel employment as cover acceptable—or an exploitation that crosses ethical lines? And what happens to operatives who spend months inhabiting false identities so completely that returning to their real selves feels like adopting another disguise?

Mossad Black Files/Video Link: How Mossad Used a P*rn Star to Blackmail a Hezbollah Commander's Brother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUcZGvjKZAA
December 15, 2025
Intelligence agencies don’t always rely on weapons or explosives. Sometimes, the most powerful tool is compromise. In “How Mossad Used a P*rn Star to Blackmail a Hezbollah Commander’s Brother,” this video examines an alleged covert intelligence operation where Israeli intelligence reportedly exploited personal secrets to pressure someone close to a senior Hezbollah commander. Instead of direct confrontation, Mossad is said to have used a well-known adult film actress as part of a carefully calculated blackmail and leverage operation — turning private behavior into a strategic weapon. This story explores how modern espionage uses human vulnerability, reputation, and social exposure to gather intelligence or influence high-value targets. We break down how honey-trap operations work, why family members of militant leaders are often targeted, and how intelligence agencies weaponize scandal without ever pulling a trigger. From psychological manipulation and covert surveillance to the ethics of blackmail in intelligence warfare, this video reveals how personal lives can become battlefields in the shadow war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Gaza: Can 'Peacekeepers' and 'Monitors' Succeed Except in Wishful Thinking?
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 15, 2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22124/gaza-peacekeepers-monitors
Hezbollah used UNIFIL's peacekeepers as "shields" to deter any Israeli military activity and prevent compliance in case a peacekeeper might be hit. Israel was forced to just sit and watch while Hezbollah put countless tunnels and weapons in place.
The disastrous model of UNIFIL is about to be copied to the Gaza Strip. Hamas will undoubtedly exploit a similar, weak UNIFIL-style "nanny" force to rearm and operate with impunity, exactly as Hezbollah did in Lebanon.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly stressed their opposition to laying down their weapons. They have also emphasized that the role of any international force in the Gaza Strip should be limited to being present on the borders to prevent clashes -- meaning firing on Israel should it try to prevent them from rearming -- merely to "keep" peace, not impose it.
[Senior Hamas leader Khaled] Mashaal, living comfortably far from Gaza, pointed out that Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey -- all three longtime supporters and enablers of Hamas -- share its position regarding the role of the proposed international force.
According to Israeli officials, Qatar and Turkey are working to dissuade Hamas from disarming.... Behind both proposals lies the aim of preserving Hamas's influence in the Gaza Strip, as well as the ability to launch another "October 7" massacre at a convenient date.
The Arabs and Islamic countries clearly do not want to be part of any force that could be drawn into confrontation with Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.... These leaders are afraid of being labeled traitors working on Israel's behalf to disarm the Palestinian armed groups.
The Gaza Strip does not need "peacekeepers" or "monitors." Instead, it needs an extremely strong security force whose members would engage the terrorists, confiscate their weapons, dismantle their military capabilities, and eradicate the terror infrastructure. It is deranged to assume that any UN-authorized force would forcibly disarm terrorists, destroy tunnels, stop rocket fire, or perform counterterrorism operations.
As Trump himself repeats, "peace through strength" is the only way to achieve stability and peace in the Gaza Strip and prevent countless more deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians.
The Gaza Strip does not need "peacekeepers" or "monitors." Instead, it needs an extremely strong security force whose members would engage the terrorists, confiscate their weapons, dismantle their military capabilities, and eradicate the terror infrastructure. It is deranged to assume that any UN-authorized force would forcibly disarm terrorists, destroy tunnels, stop rocket fire, or perform counterterrorism operations.
As part of US President Donald J. Trump's plan for ending the Israel-Hamas war, international troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month, US officials told Reuters on December 12. According to the unnamed officials, the proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF) would not fight Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that sparked the war by invading Israel on October 7, 2023 and murdering more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and wounding thousands more.
In mid-November, the United Nations Security Council endorsed Trump's 20-point "Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict," welcomed its establishment of a "Board of Peace" and authorized the Board Member States working with it to establish a temporary ISF in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution gives the ISF "a wide mandate, including overseeing the borders, providing security and demilitarizing the territory."
According to the text of the resolution:
"The ISF shall work with Israel and Egypt... along with the newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force, to help secure border areas; stabilize the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups..." [Emphases added.]
The US officials' announcement that the ISF would not disarm Hamas means that the international troops will end up playing the role of "monitors" or "peacekeepers" in the Gaza Strip. This is exactly what Hamas wants: a security force similar to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established in 1978 to "confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, restore international peace and security, and assist the government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area."
UNIFIL, however, completely failed to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group. Instead, UNIFIL allowed Hezbollah to build up a massive arsenal and military infrastructure right under its nose.
Despite UNIFIL's presence, Hezbollah grew its arsenal from a few thousand missiles to more than 150,000, while embedding weapons in civilian homes and building infrastructure near UN posts. UNIFIL failed to confiscate weapons or dismantle military infrastructure. Moreover, Hezbollah used UNIFIL's peacekeepers as "shields" to deter any Israeli military activity and prevent compliance in case a peacekeeper might be hit. Israel was forced to just sit and watch while Hezbollah put countless tunnels and weapons in place.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain, research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted:
"UNIFIL has not engaged outlaw forces in any firefights or law enforcement actions. Instead, it focused on searching for Hezbollah's arms caches and reporting them to the Lebanese Armed Forces – an effort in which it consistently failed."
The disastrous model of UNIFIL is about to be copied to the Gaza Strip. Hamas will undoubtedly exploit a similar, weak UNIFIL-style "nanny" force to rearm and operate with impunity, exactly as Hezbollah did in Lebanon.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly stressed their opposition to laying down their weapons. They have also emphasized that the role of any international force in the Gaza Strip should be limited to being present on the borders to prevent clashes -- meaning firing on Israel should it try to prevent them from rearming -- merely to "keep" peace, not impose it.
Senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was recently quoted as saying that his group rejects any arrangement that would give such a force "powers affecting the people of the Gaza Strip or the weapons of the resistance." Mashaal, living comfortably far from Gaza, pointed out that Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey -- all three longtime supporters and enablers of Hamas -- share its position regarding the role of the proposed international force.
According to Israeli officials, Qatar and Turkey are working to dissuade Hamas from disarming. Both countries are reportedly offering alternatives: either Hamas gives its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, or the weapons are transferred to some kind of "secure" storage under oversight -- presumably until Trump leaves office, when they might take the weapons out of "secure" storage to attack Israel again. Behind both proposals lies the aim of preserving Hamas's influence in the Gaza Strip, as well as the ability to launch another "October 7" massacre at a convenient date.
Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that disarming Hamas should not be the first task of the ISF:
"Disarmament cannot be the first stage. We need to proceed in the correct order and remain realistic. The ISF's first goal should be to separate Palestinians from the Israelis."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in an interview with the German Der Spiegel magazine on December 10, that the ISF "will primarily monitor the ceasefire, secure the external borders and ensure the operation of border crossings in the Gaza Strip."
Last month, even Jordan's King Abdullah II announced that he would not send Jordanian forces into the Gaza Strip because his country was "too close politically" to the situation, adding:
"What is the mandate of security forces inside of Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping, because if it's peace enforcing, nobody will want to touch that."
The Arabs and Islamic countries clearly do not want to be part of any force that could be drawn into confrontation with Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. The Arab and Muslim leaders are afraid that such involvement could trigger protests by their own people, many of whom are sympathetic to the Palestinians and Hamas. These leaders are afraid of being labeled traitors working on Israel's behalf to disarm the Palestinian armed groups.
The Arabs and Muslims seem to prefer a traditional "peacekeeping" model, focused on monitoring and humanitarian aid rather than enforcing demilitarization.
The Gaza Strip does not need "peacekeepers" or "monitors." Instead, it needs an extremely strong security force whose members would engage the terrorists, confiscate their weapons, dismantle their military capabilities, and eradicate the terror infrastructure. It is deranged to assume that any UN-authorized force would forcibly disarm terrorists, destroy tunnels, stop rocket fire, or perform counterterrorism operations.
The proposed ISF, as first envisioned, should have a clear mandate to open fire at any terrorist roaming the streets of the Gaza Strip. The ISF should help to end Hamas's rule and ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. As Trump himself repeats, "peace through strength" is the only way to achieve stability and peace in the Gaza Strip and prevent countless more deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

“Heroes, Criminals, and the Media Distortion in Lebanon"!
Dr Doreid Becherraoui/X platform/December 15/2025
Some Lebanese TV channels described in their evening broadcasts Ahmed Ahmed as “the Muslim hero who prevented the massacre in Sydney.”
Undoubtedly, the person who intervened and disarmed the criminal terrorist displayed individual courage; however, this bravery did not prevent the terrorist from escaping and continuing his criminal operation with another weapon.
The problem is not the courage itself, but the clear media bias. Certain media outlets, loyal to moneyed elites and corruption, focused on “Ahmed Ahmed the Muslim hero” and highlighted his religious beliefs, deliberately ignoring that the perpetrators of the massacre were extremist Muslims and that their attack was driven by a radical religious ideology employed by some terrorist organizations aligned with the Iranian Islamic Republic and other extremist regimes.
It must be clarified here that mentioning the attackers’ religion does not imply that all Muslims are terrorists, nor is it intended to target any religious group. The purpose is to shed light on those who use religion as a tool and basis for their terrorist operations, thereby distorting that faith, and to situate them within the true context of the event.
Here lies the serious distortion: the media that highlights the faith of the person who tried to save lives chooses to conceal the religion of the attackers and the real motives behind their assault.
As a result, the public receives a skewed picture, and the terrorist attack is presented as an isolated event, detached from the broader context of religious and political manipulation.
This is not merely a professional failure but a clear media betrayal of the national duty. The problem in Lebanon is not limited to the ruling political system, which has become subservient and entirely under militia control, but also involves yellow journalism that has become a tool in the hands of moneyed interests and Iranian-backed militias, contributing to the whitewashing of terrorists’ faces, distorting citizens’ understanding of facts, and concealing the role of foreign-funded organizations in destabilizing national security.
In short, Lebanon today exists under a political and media system that is subservient and compromised, threatening security and stability while distorting values and national awareness.

Scrutiny Rising Over Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ties to Terrorism — and Turkey’s Government
Sinan Ciddi/The New York Sun/December 15/2025
Turkish entities with ties to the Erdogan government have increasingly become enablers of CAIR Action’s emerging political influence machine inside the United States.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is taking a beating this holiday season. Just before Thanksgiving, Texas designated the civil rights organization, known colloquially as “CAIR,” as a foreign terrorist organization. Florida followed suit on December 8.
The day that Governor Ron DeSantis designated CAIR, news broke that the organization’s political advocacy arm, CAIR Action, has been operating in America “without the licenses, registrations, or legal authority required in any of the 22 states where it raises money or conducts political activity.” Nor does CAIR Action possess the documentation required to “legally operate or solicit funds” at Washington, D.C., where it’s incorporated.
CAIR has repeatedly fallen under federal scrutiny for alleged “ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.” That its political organ is allegedly and simultaneously operating outside the bounds of American law is startling enough. The issue, however, is more than an administrative one. Turkish entities with ties to the Erdogan government have increasingly become enablers of CAIR Action’s emerging political influence machine inside the United States, and the pattern should alarm American policymakers.
Evidence shows that CAIR Action and senior CAIR leadership maintain close operational ties to Turkish state–linked organizations. Multiple CAIR chapters, say, have received sponsorship from Turkish Airlines, a company roughly half-owned by Ankara’s sovereign wealth fund and widely understood as an instrument of Turkish state influence in foreign jurisdictions — including at New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams was indicted for improperly accepting “free or discounted travel” on the airline. In 2012, Turkish Airlines helped raise $235,000 for CAIR Chicago’s eighth annual banquet, and contributed between $2,500 and $5,000 to CAIR New York’s 25th Anniversary Gala in 2023.
Just as concerning, CAIR and CAIR Action have repeatedly used the Diyanet Center of America — a facility funded, owned, and controlled by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs — to conduct youth leadership and political-social programming. A recent report argues that “CAIR chapters have repeatedly held youth-leadership and political-social programming” at the Diyanet Center “in 2016, 2019, 2024, and 2025.”
The report adds that in light of the Diyanet Center’s “institutional linkage to the Turkish government and the broader role of the Diyanet in Turkey’s global diaspora influence strategy, this partnership constitutes direct interaction with a foreign-government entity 45 in the context of U.S. domestic political-mobilization.
Meanwhile, CAIR and CAIR Action officials frequently appear on Turkey’s state-run broadcaster, TRT World, to advance political messaging aligned with Ankara’s foreign-policy priorities — particularly anti-Israel rhetoric and efforts to constrain U.S. security cooperation with Israel. TRT World is part of Turkey’s national broadcasting corporation and is widely considered to be the propaganda arm for the Erdogan regime.
Further technical indicators show CAIR Action’s accounts routing through the Turkey App Store — an unusual footprint for an American political entity that raises funding and influences elections domestically.
Atop all these connections is CAIR Action’s national political operation, which is allegedly evading regulatory compliance in 22 states where it raises money and conducts political activities. When a foreign-aligned network operates outside American election and tax-law oversight, two questions arise: Who is underwriting the political messaging? And to what end? These questions are of higher consequence in Turkey’s case, given Ankara’s historic support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
From a national-security perspective, the concern is straightforward: Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
has positioned itself as a geopolitical competitor to American regional priorities, particularly in the Middle East. When state-linked Turkish institutions provide sponsorships, venues, media platforms, and communications infrastructure to an unregistered American political influence operation, Congress cannot assume benign intent.
The issue is not merely whether CAIR Action violates regulatory norms. It is whether a foreign state — one increasingly hostile to the United States’ partners and interests — is using American civil-society channels to shape electoral outcomes, push extremist narratives, and weaken congressional support for key allies. That question alone justifies immediate federal scrutiny.
**A senior research analyst at FDD, Natalie Ecanow, contributed to the authorship of this article.
https://www.nysun.com/article/scrutiny-rising-over-council-on-american-islamic-relations-ties-to-terrorism-and-turkeys-government?member_gift=CUZ5qwd3crq4pmz-xrd
Read in New York Sun

The Islamic State’s war on Christians in Congo
Caleb Weiss and Ryan O'Farrell/ FDD's Long War Journal/December 15/2025
As the Trump Administration touts an ostensible peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, another deadly, albeit less-talked-about conflict is also raging in eastern Congo. Since January 2025, the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), colloquially known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), has killed at least 967 civilians in various massacres, with most, if not all, of the victims being Christian villagers.
Most of these massacres have been perpetrated in Congo’s North Kivu Province, specifically in its Lubero territory. This locale is not particularly far from the conflict between the DRC and the Rwandan-backed M23 Movement that the Trump Administration is trying to stop.
The largest of these massacres came in September, when ISCAP murdered at least 90 people in two locations in eastern Congo. In both cases, the Islamic State made clear that the explicit targets of the attacks were Christian civilians. This ideological framing against Congolese Christians has consistently grown in the last few years.
In the larger of the two incidents that day, ISCAP militants brutally slaughtered at least 72 people, including 26 at a funeral wake, in the village of Ntoyo in North Kivu Province’s Lubero territory. This number is likely a low estimate, as some local officials stated that the death toll was as high as 102, while others reported that at least 100 others were believed to be abducted by the group. Various vehicles and houses were also burned down by the militants.
The Islamic State was relatively quick to claim the massacre, stating the following day that its men “killed upwards of 100 Christians.” The communique also noted that ISCAP’s fighters burned dozens of houses and vehicles, confirming local reports.
Given the locality, the Ntoyo massacre was likely carried out by Abuwakas, an especially radical and violent ISCAP commander of Arab Tanzanian descent. His highly mobile camp is particularly known for its wanton violence against locals, having been responsible for most of the violence in the northern Lubero territory over the last year.
The second incident, occurring in Fotobu, northwest of the city of Oicha in North Kivu’s Beni territory, left another 18 civilians dead after they were abducted from their fields. In the Islamic State’s official claim of responsibility for that massacre, it again framed the attack as against local Christians.
It is possible, though unconfirmed, that the massacre near Oicha was carried out by field commanders belonging to Mzee Mayor’s forces. Mzee Mayor, a veteran Ugandan ISCAP commander, and his mobile units have been responsible for most of the violence in Ituri and north of Beni town over the last few years. Though Mzee Mayor also operates a physical camp, he often deploys mobile units for months-long operations.
Attacks by both ISCAP commanders have continued in their respective areas of responsibility, particularly within Abuwakas’. Since September, his mobile camp has been responsible for the deaths of at least another 138 civilians. This total includes three massacres in October that resulted in 45 dead civilians and two massacres in November that killed 54. The militants perpetrated dozens of smaller attacks during the same period, killing another 56 civilians.
Retaliation over military operations
Even prior to September’s large massacre in Ntoyo, ISCAP was committing relatively smaller mass murders in the same areas, again perpetrated by Abuwakas’ and Mzee Mayor’s camps.
For instance, on July 8, ISCAP murdered at least 70 people in Beu-Manyama in Beni territory. Later that month, on July 27, another 40 civilians were killed inside a church in the town of Komanda in Congo’s Ituri Province. And on August 13, ISCAP killed an additional 44 people in the area of Melia in North Kivu’s Lubero territory.
These summer massacres were likely a retaliation for a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation in early July against ISCAP’s main camp, which houses most of its senior leadership and is referred to as “Madina” by the group. Retaliatory massacres against civilians are a longstanding tactic used by ISCAP when it seeks to redirect military forces to alleviate pressure against it. These attacks are usually carried out by smaller, more agile mobile groups that are sent out from ISCAP’s semi-permanent jungle camps. It is this mobility that affords the jihadist group one major center of gravity to its operations, which has undoubtedly helped both its longevity and lethality.
Framing against Christians
ISCAP operates in eastern Congo, where estimates indicate that 95 percent of the population is Christian. As such, the degree to which ISCAP targets civilians explicitly for their Christian faith or simply because that is who populates the area in which it operates has long been debated.
Since the group joined the Islamic State in 2017, it has become increasingly clear from both the Islamic State’s official media and through ISCAP’s unofficial media that ISCAP is explicitly targeting Christians over their faith. This paradigm is particularly pronounced in more recent years, as older, more historical ISCAP members were killed, and younger commanders, who are often more religiously extreme, such as Abuwakas, have risen in the group’s ranks.
ISCAP defectors have told Bridgeway Foundation personnel that since Abuwakas joined the organization in 2017, he has explicitly made it clear that the group can and should target Christians and loot their property. The group has followed this direction.
For instance, in June 2021, on the same day that ISCAP performed its first-ever suicide bombing, an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the group detonated in a Catholic church in Beni town. In addition, the group’s deadliest bombing to date killed 17 worshippers attending a Sunday service at a Pentecostal church in the border town of Kasindi on January 15, 2023.
By late 2022, in its claims of responsibility, the Islamic State began framing ISCAP’s attacks on trade vehicles as part of an “economic war” against Christians, ideologically meant to harm what it sees as a Christian-funded war against it. Around the same time, the Islamic State, in its weekly Al Naba newsletter, first began imploring Congolese Christians to pay the jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, in order to be spared from ISCAP’s violence.
In the fall of 2024, the Islamic State began highlighting ISCAP’s dawah [proselytizing] attempts in local Congolese communities. Prior to this, ISCAP’s so-called dawah efforts involved forcibly abducting people and asking them to convert to Islam under threat of death. The group’s abductees are frequently executed in Congo’s vast jungles for refusing to convert to Islam, attempting to escape, or other perceived infractions.
Until its recent emphasis on dawah, outreach to civilians in nearby communities had been limited to a short-lived effort in 2021 to utilize inter-ethnic tensions to recruit members from amongst the marginalized Congolese Hutu minority.
However, in September 2024, the Islamic State’s Al Naba newsletter showed one of ISCAP’s ideologues leading a prayer with a group of men whom the publication said the group had captured and subsequently converted to Islam through preaching and dawah. The Islamic State also stated that it released the men “with a message to take into their respective villages about accepting Islam, to sanctify their blood and protect them, as the mujahideen are much more keen to guide the people than to kill them.” Though this new approach contained elements of the group’s more violent, historical form of dawah, it was nevertheless inching closer to more mainstream jihadist practices.
By June 2025, ISCAP, again via Al Naba, highlighted another dawah campaign in various local villages of Ituri Province. However, this time, the group mentioned giving three choices to Christians during its preaching: conversion to Islam, paying the jizya, or death. Again, the Islamic State framed this preaching campaign in positive terms, with Al Naba noting that “the mujahideen are more keen to save people than they are to kill them.” The newsletter added that “the mujahideen […] are indeed more keen to preach to the people and clarify the Haqq [absolute truth of Islam/God] to them whenever it is possible.”
Since then, the jihadist group has periodically highlighted this proverbial carrot approach to civilians. Locals and ISCAP defectors who spoke to Bridgeway Foundation personnel confirm that the group has systematically gathered farmers in certain areas to register and tax their access to fields, while also requiring their attendance at lectures about Islam.
This more conciliatory approach in certain locations has marked a significant shift in its modus operandi. Notably, these efforts have thus far been limited to the Mambasa and Irumu territories in Congo’s Ituri Province, while Abuwakas—responsible for the majority of the group’s massacres in Lubero territory—has not implemented the new strategy.
Following the Congolese-Ugandan military raid on ISCAP’s main camp of Madina in early July 2025 and the jihadist group’s subsequent massacres of civilians, ISCAP’s rhetoric has become more hostile. For example, an editorial in the August issue of Al Naba indirectly referenced the massacres and clarified the threat against Christians:
If the Christians of Africa want to feel safe and escape the cycle of killing, then they must know that our true Islam provides them the freedom to choose between three options. First, is Islam. They can become our brothers, and what we owe them, they will also owe us. Second, is paying Jizya. Humiliated and subdued, they can protect their blood and be safe in their villages. If they refuse to join Islam or pay Jizya, then the third choice is to die and suffer more displacement, which they have already suffered from for many years.”
These “options” were repeated almost verbatim in a series of videos published by ISCAP on YouTube and TikTok just days later. In these releases, one of ISCAP’s Congolese ideologues, Zakaria Banza Souleymane, better known as Bonge La Chuma, outlined the options in Swahili, Lingala, and French (the main languages in eastern Congo), warning that the violence against local Christians will not stop until they accept one of the three “choices.”
Given the use of three languages and the group’s choice of a Congolese presenter, the videos were meant to expand the warning to a Congolese audience. The ISCAP likely hopes to justify its massacres by outlining an ideological conflict with local Christians. In both its actions and words, the jihadist group has increasingly characterized its violence against civilians along sectarian lines, utilizing the Islamic State’s ideological and methodological frameworks against non-Muslims. Nevertheless, given Congo’s demographics, ISCAP’s victims will always predominantly be Christian. To be clear, however, the group has also periodically killed Muslims in both Congo and Uganda who have preached against its activities.
ISCAP’s new approach puts it more in line with the Islamic State’s wider activities, such as in Nigeria and Mozambique, where there are also large populations of Christians in or near jihadist areas of control or presence. The Islamic State has routinely made clear that it seeks to either violently eradicate or convert such populations to Islam. ISCAP is now repeating this mantra in Congo.
**Caleb Weiss is an editor of FDD’s Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa. Ryan O’Farrell is a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2025/12/analysis-the-islamic-states-war-on-christians-in-congo.php
Read in FDD's Long War Journal

Israel Moves To Secure Its Most Vulnerable Border
Ahmad Sharawi/FDD-Policy Brief/December 15/2025
Israel’s longest and most porous border, shared with Jordan, has been the scene of smuggling and multiple infiltrations. Iran and its proxies have led much of the activity to funnel materiel to Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank. In response, Israel has begun constructing a security barrier that will cover the entire 264 miles of the border, passing along the West Bank border with Jordan, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had already announced the establishment of an eastern division to protect its frontier with Jordan in October 2024.
These moves could significantly reduce the flow of weapons along the border, but questions remain about how effective such a barrier can be. The border’s length and difficult terrain, as well as the previous successes of smuggling networks adapting to obstacles — such as using drones to carry light weapons across the border — make it difficult. The new barrier will likely place additional strain on Jerusalem’s cold relationship with Amman, currently at a historic low point, despite robust security cooperation.
Jordan Is a Critical Corridor for Arms Smuggling Into the West Bank
Since 2020, Israeli and Jordanian authorities have intercepted more than 1,000 firearms destined for Iran’s proxies in the West Bank and for criminal networks inside Israel. Still, many weapons successfully cross the border. There have also been infiltration attempts from the Jordanian side into Israel. In October 2024, two Jordanians crossed into Israel south of the Dead Sea and attacked two Israeli soldiers, wounding both before the IDF killed the two terrorists. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood later claimed that the two were affiliated with the organization.
Most smuggling operations are not carried out by members of Iran’s proxy networks themselves. The weapons are transported from either Syria or Iraq and handed over to seasoned Palestinian and Jordanian arms traffickers who know the border well. Given its length, there are numerous dead zones that lack adequate monitoring. Constructing a barrier could help address this vulnerability.
Jordanian’s Cold Relationship With Israel
Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks from Gaza, Jordanian officials have been overtly critical of Israel. In its initial statement on October 7, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called for a “halt to the escalation.” The statement avoided any explicit condemnation of Hamas or its atrocities. The government’s rhetoric has helped anti-Israel groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to exploit the public’s frustrations with the Gaza War, inciting support for Hamas and its slain leaders throughout the war. The Jordanian government has allowed these groups space to express their views and has refrained from cracking down on their rhetoric, fearing domestic unrest and the perception that it is opposing an issue with broad popular support.
Growing extremism threatens Jordan’s otherwise strong security partnership with Israel, the value of which was evident during Iran’s attacks on Israel. Jordan allowed Israeli jets to enter its airspace and intercept many of Iran’s projectiles. But the Jordanian government is clearly feeling pressure to mirror the public’s negative sentiments toward Israel, and the border fence may become another target of this dynamic. Jordanian officials routinely worry that any overt cooperation with Israel could brand the government as collaborators with Jerusalem.
Israel and Jordan Must Balance Political Friction With Security Coordination
Both countries recognize Iran as a significant threat to the region’s stability. It’s imperative that Jordan understand that weapons flowing into the West Bank will also have adverse impacts on Jordan’s national security. Iran has always had ambitions of increasing its influence in the Jordan with the aim of destabilizing the monarchy. Tehran also sees Jordan as a conduit to increase its pressure on Israel. Despite the domestic challenges for Jordan, it is essential that the United States emphasize to the Jordanians the centrality of the security relationship with Israel as a counter to Iran’s ambitions, and advise Jordan not to politicize the border barrier by portraying it as a land grab to avoid a rhetoric that can be exploited by radical groups to rile up the population.
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/12/12/israel-moves-to-secure-its-most-vulnerable-border/
**Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Ahmad and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Ahmad on X @AhmadA_Sharawi. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Israel vs. Islam: The False Moral Seesaw
Raymond Ibrahim/December 15, 2025
A recent development—both striking and troubling—has become increasingly difficult to ignore: the seemingly universal tendency to view Islam and Israel as inextricably linked.Across political, ideological, and cultural lines, many observers now treat Islam and Israel as inseparable concepts, locked into a rigid either–or framework. In this view, the two are mutually exclusive: if one is good, the other must be bad; if one is bad, the other must therefore be good. This inversion has become particularly evident as Israel faces mounting criticism. For decades, the prevailing assumption ran as follows: if Islam is bad, then Israel must be good. Today, however, the syllogism has flipped on its head. Increasingly, we are told—explicitly or implicitly—that if Israel is bad, then Islam must be good.
This is flawed reasoning.
Consider what this assumption entails. The policies and actions of a tiny Jewish state, barely seventy-seven years old, are now said to define—or even redeem—the religion, history, and behavior of nearly two billion Muslims worldwide. Whatever one’s views of Israel, such reasoning collapses under even minimal historical scrutiny. Historically, Islam has been—and in many respects continues to be—the West’s most persistent civilizational adversary. I have documented this extensively in my own work, from Sword and Scimitar, which examines Islam’s historic conquests of Christendom, to Crucified Again, which details the modern persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.
The historical record speaks for itself.
From its very inception in the seventh century, Islam emerged as a militant faith that expanded primarily through violent conquest—above all against Christian lands and peoples. What is today described as the “heart” of the Muslim world—the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from Iraq to Morocco—was once the heartland of Christendom. Islam violently conquered it all.
For centuries thereafter, Islamic forces repeatedly assaulted Europe, the last bastion of Christian civilization. Nearly a millennium after Muslims overran Christian Spain in 711, they stood at the gates of Vienna in 1683. Even the United States was not immune. America’s first war as a nation—the First Barbary War of 1801—was fought against Muslim states that raided American ships and enslaved their sailors.When Thomas Jefferson asked the Barbary envoy, Abdul Rahman, to explain why Muslims were terrorizing Americans, the answer was unambiguous. As Jefferson later wrote to Congress,
We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
Here’s the lynchpin: Israel did not exist during any of this.
Indeed, during more than a thousand years of Islamic jihad against Christendom, there was no Jewish state to provoke, justify, or explain Muslim behavior. Israel’s brief existence—whether one applauds or condemns its policies—tells us nothing about Islam’s historical or contemporary relationship with the West.
Criticism of Israel, therefore, does not exonerate Islam. To suggest otherwise is to embrace a false—and dangerous—dichotomy. To underscore this point, consider Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953), one of Europe’s most prominent intellectuals. Belloc, writing in 1938—more than a decade before Israel came into existence and at a time when the Islamic world was at its weakest relative to the West—offered a prescient warning: Millions of modern people of the white civilization—that is, the civilization of Europe and America—have forgotten all about Islam… They take for granted that it is decaying, and that it is merely a foreign religion which will not concern them. It is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past. [From his The Great Heresies, 1938]
By today’s standards, Belloc’s criticism of Islam would almost certainly be dismissed as support for Israel. Yet Belloc was hardly a champion of Jewish causes. In fact, his 1922 book The Jews has led many critics to label him an anti-Semite.
Belloc thus serves as living proof that one can regard Islam as the West’s “most formidable and persistent enemy” without doing so in defense of Israel. The two are not inherently connected, regardless of how frequently they are conflated today.
To reiterate: condemning Israel does not require sanctifying Islam. Islam, practiced by nearly two billion people across vastly different cultures and regions, cannot be reduced to—or redeemed by—a localized political conflict.
The Israeli–Palestinian dispute tells us little about Islam at large. Meanwhile, millions of Muslim migrants are destabilizing parts of Europe, and jihadist organizations—ISIS being merely the most notorious—continue to terrorize “infidels” across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, including Israel itself.
Are we seriously to believe that the existence of a Jewish state is necessary to explain patterns of Islamic behavior that have existed since the dawn of Islam fourteen centuries ago? Obviously not.

Will phase two mean a slow return to the Gaza genocide?
Chris Doyle/Arab News/December 15, 2025
According to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Gaza peace deal will enter phase two shortly. Remember that the 20-point plan was not an Israeli-Palestinian deal but a US-Israeli one that was delivered to Hamas as a surrender or die option. Trump and Netanyahu will no doubt be reviewing the state of play when they meet again on Dec. 29. Shifting to phase two presumes that phase one is nearly complete. Any rational, fact-based assessment would state categorically that it is not. On the plus side, the hostages have been released, Palestinian detainees released and all but one of the hostage bodies located and returned. But in three vital areas, phase one has not been implemented. This needs to be addressed, not least by the Trump administration, before further progress.
Firstly, Israel has not adhered to the ceasefire. All that has happened is that its forces have reduced their lethal fire on Palestinians, so the fatality rate has dropped. This is why at least 379 Palestinians have lost their lives since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10. The assassination of Hamas commander Raad Saad on Saturday will test this further. Secondly, Israel is still preventing or impeding lifesaving humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, a situation made more desperate by the winter storms that have led to makeshift Palestinian tents being washed away. The trickle of aid permitted before Oct. 10 has become slightly faster but it is not a flood. Most of the crossings are still closed. More than 9,000 children in Gaza were treated for acute malnutrition just in October. In three vital areas, phase one has not been implemented. This needs to be addressed before further progress
Thirdly, Gaza is now firmly partitioned, with Israel taking almost 58 percent of the Strip under its full direct control, akin to Area B in the West Bank. Israel is even expanding this area and taking even more territory amid international silence. The Israeli army’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir has said that this “yellow line” will be a new border for Israel. This should have been a red line for the US and other powers, not least as the agreement stipulated that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
Hamas controls the remainder of Gaza. It has not disappeared but it is not an immediate threat to Israel. If the aim is to remove it from meaningful control in Gaza, phase one has not worked. Netanyahu would prefer to collapse the plan before phase two, to avoid concessions to the Palestinians. The Israeli military would then be able to smash Hamas without the fear of killing hostages. Completing phase one matters. The next phase includes reconstruction in Gaza. How can proper, lasting reconstruction take place if Israel is still treating Gaza like a prison to which it holds the keys? Israel has, for example, agreed to open the Rafah crossing — but only one way, so that Palestinians can exit but not return. Emptying the enclave is a key aim of the Israeli right. Reconstruction would require the import into Gaza of massive quantities of steel, concrete, timber and other construction materials that Israel has been refusing entry for years as dual-use items. The second phase also requires Hamas to cooperate with several major steps, including handing over its weapons and demilitarization. The absence of any trust in the process will undermine that. Without Hamas disarming, Israel will threaten to do so itself, essentially ending even this pseudo-ceasefire. The absence of any credible Palestinian agency remains perhaps the greatest weakness of the whole plan
The proposed International Stabilization Force will not be likely to do this instead, as many states have made clear. Volunteers are in short supply. Hamas has stated it would not accept the force doing so and would resist its efforts. Netanyahu expects Israel will carry out the disarming of Hamas, saying: “It can be done the easy way, it can be done the hard way. But eventually it will be done.” Be in no doubt, this will be a return to full-on genocide in Gaza. The Israeli leader is clearly very relaxed with that prospect. Gaza still lacks the apolitical, technical body of Palestinians that will be charged with the day-to-day running of the Strip. The absence of any credible Palestinian agency remains perhaps the greatest weakness of the whole plan. Overseeing all this will be the colonial-style Board of Peace. Trump has promised this will be set up by the beginning of 2026. Again, the membership of this body is unknown but, according to the US president, it will be “one of the most legendary councils ever. Kings, presidents and prime ministers — they all want to be on the peace council.”The danger is that phase two will be kicked off based on the false assumption that phase one is complete and satisfactory. Even then, the fatal weaknesses of the whole plan remain: the lack of Palestinian agency; the complete disconnect with the other part of the Palestinian state, the West Bank; and the total lack of accountability. Even with the determination of the Trump administration to make it a success, the most likely prospect is that, in early 2026, the whole plan will collapse unless there are major revisions.
**Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech

Sweida’s dangerous turn: When internal fracture becomes a strategy
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/December 15/2025
Sweida is entering a perilous new phase – one in which internal division is no longer a tragic byproduct of the Syrian conflict but a deliberate instrument of control. Away from the headlines, the dynamics now unfolding in the Druze heartland reveal a familiar playbook: reshaping political confrontation into communal infighting, thereby neutralizing outside involvement and draining local resistance of its legitimacy. This logic – of dissolving political responsibility into internal disorder – is increasingly visible not only in Syria’s peripheries but across a region and world grappling with the strategic use of fragmentation as a tool of governance and containment. For years, Sweida stood apart from the full militarization that devastated much of Syria. Its leadership, most notably Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, articulated grievances through political mobilization rather than armed rebellion. This relative restraint, however, has increasingly become a liability rather than a shield. As pressure mounted, political contention has gradually been redefined – not as a dispute over governance and rights, but as an alleged security problem tied to “crime networks” and local armed factions. That reframing has clear consequences: It erases the political nature of Sweida’s dissent and rebrands it as internal disorder requiring localized containment.
This method of depoliticization mirrors a broader pattern now evident across conflict zones. The recent attack near Tadmur, which targeted Syrian and American forces during a joint presence, was quickly subsumed into familiar counterterrorism narratives. Yet emerging accounts suggest a far more unsettling reality – one where infiltration, internal sabotage, and manipulated security environments blur the lines between terrorism, state structures, and local proxies. The objective is not merely violence, but plausible deniability: Disorder without ownership, chaos without a clear perpetrator. Sweida’s transformation from a political challenge into a security problem follows the same script.
Recent developments point toward a concentrated effort to accelerate this transformation. New armed cells have reportedly emerged in Druze villages stretching from Mount Hermon to the northern edges of the governorate, particularly in locales known for opposition to al-Hijri’s leadership. Rather than deploying direct military force into Sweida’s urban centers, the operational logic favors internal balancing – supporting rival Druze groupings to confront al-Hijri’s camp and fragment his social base. The effect is to turn a stand-off between community leadership and the state into a Druze-on-Druze confrontation.
This approach serves multiple objectives simultaneously. First, it dilutes accountability: when clashes unfold between local factions, central authorities remain ostensibly removed from frontline responsibility. Second, it deprives external actors – particularly Israel – of a pretext for involvement under the banner of protecting the Druze. Once violence becomes internal and sectarian, the argument for border-based intervention collapses. Finally, communal fragmentation weakens any unified negotiating posture emerging from Sweida, allowing the conflict to be managed rather than resolved.
The same logic has become visible far beyond Syria. The recent antisemitic terror attack against the Jewish community in Sydney illustrates how internal fracture is increasingly framed as a societal pathology rather than a political crime. By reducing targeted violence to questions of “community tensions” or isolated radicalization, responsibility is dispersed and accountability softened. In both cases – Sweida and Sydney alike – violence is stripped of its political context and repackaged as an internal failure of cohesion, absolving the structures that enable it.
International calculations have played an equally decisive role in Sweida’s predicament. While some Druze activists imagined that demands for autonomy or special international protections could gain external traction, recent signals from Washington and Tel Aviv have pointed unmistakably in the opposite direction. Regional stability – not the redrawing of Syria’s internal map – now dominates international priorities. The specter of cascading demands from other communities, especially among Kurdish and Alawite populations, has made any talk of decentralization beyond limited administrative reform unacceptable to major stakeholders. In this environment, expectations of external political sponsorship have evaporated.
The consequences for Sheikh al-Hijri’s camp are severe. Without diplomatic cover and facing increasing internal contestation, the political space available to him is shrinking rapidly. Efforts to repackage his movement as an entity tied to illicit networks, rather than civic mobilization, further marginalize his standing. The strategic calculation is clear: isolate, delegitimize, and exhaust – until leadership fractures or capitulates.
Against this backdrop, the Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has initiated a mediation effort, proposing dialogue between Sweida’s figures and Damascus through visits by clerics and social intermediaries. On paper, such a move represents perhaps the only remaining path toward de-escalation. Yet its prospects are bleak. Al-Hijri’s outright rejection of mediation – going as far as threatening visiting delegations – reveals the depth of distrust and the severity of polarization within the community. Without buy-in from Sweida’s most visible leadership, mediation risks becoming another accelerant rather than a brake on violence.What emerges is a troubling pattern: a strategy of rule that operates not through negotiated political accommodation, but by managing fragmentation and prolonging low-intensity internal conflict. This model allows authorities to regain practical control over rebellious regions without incurring the international costs associated with overt large-scale repression or military campaigns. Yet the human price is grievous. A cycle of reciprocal violence within a historically cohesive community threatens to devastate a social fabric that survived years of civil war intact.
Sweida’s dilemma thus reflects a broader Syrian – and increasingly global – tragedy: political demands are systematically hollowed out until communities are left fighting themselves rather than bargaining with power. The outcome may be short-term stability imposed from within, but at the expense of durable peace. Fragmentation, once unleashed, rarely remains manageable. It metastasizes. In the end, no authority truly benefits from turning communal fracture into a governing strategy. The erosion of trust, leadership credibility, and social unity will outlive any tactical victory. And for Sweida, a region that once prided itself on avoiding the worst of Syria’s collapse, the cost of this turn may prove irreparable.

Selected Face Book & X tweets for /December 15, 2025
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Told Laura Cellier on i24NEWS:
1. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is not talented, he was the sub of the sub, found himself in position out of sheer luck. To be fair, he got a much weaker hand than Nasrallah and blaming all the weakness on him is an exaggeration.
2. For Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, it needs to feel US consistency and we in Washington dropped the ball by introducing envoys who keep going off script and scaring the Lebanese into inaction. 3. Hezbollah's rearmament has outpaced Israel's maintenance strikes. Come 2026, we'll likely see IDF stepping up its strikes on the pro Iran militia to keep it suppressed.