English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 22/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.
Luke 10/13-16: ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 21-22/2025
Saint Elias (Elijah) the Living: Prophet of Fire, Ascension, and Holy Zeal/Elias Bejjani/July 20/2025
The crimes committed by al-Julani and his ISIS thugs in Sweida—and the disgraceful support he receives from Arab countries and media outlets—are both deeply saddening and utterly reprehensible/Elias Bejjani/July 18/2025
Tom Barrak Said Today: “Hezbollah is a terrorist, non-Lebanese party, and we will not engage with it”./Alfred Madi/Facebook/July 21/2025
Video Link to a Significant Video Interview with Dr. Ghazi Al-Masri 
US cannot 'compel' Israel to do anything, US special envoy says in Lebanon
Druze: A Religion of Enlightenment, Independent and Sovereign/Dr. Ghazi Al-Masri /July 21/2025
Video Link for an interview From TL(English) with Special USA Envoy Amb Tom Barrack – Arabic Sub/US Supports Lebanon Without Any Demands
Between the Dilemma of Disarming Hezbollah and the Challenge of Rising Israeli Tensions/Amal Chmouny/This is Beirut/July 21/2025
What did Barrack discuss with Lebanese officials?
Report: Lebanese response unanimously approved but Berri to have separate one
Report: Hezbollah fears Berri may accept arms plan despite its objection
Barrack says Trump wants prosperity in Lebanon, US can't guarantee Israel's actions
Aoun says no one can bear another war in Lebanon
Report: Qassem's verbal escalation aimed at reassuring popular base
Lebanon delays implementing arms restriction amid Syria concerns
Parliament to Vote on Lifting MP Bouchikian’s Immunity
Why Lebanon’s fragile state hinges on Hezbollah’s next move

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 21-22/2025
Pope speaks against forced mass displacement of Gaza civilians
Fears of escalation after Israel hits Houthi-held Yemen port
Israeli military attacks Houthi targets in Yemen's Hodeidah port
Syrian authorities evacuate Bedouin families from Sweida city
US envoy doubles down on support for Syria’s government, criticizes Israel’s intervention
Syria violence brings Druze communities' complex cross-border ties to the fore
UN chief warns development goals will fail if wars continue to rage, condemns killings in Gaza
Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared
UK and 24 other nations condemn Israel over ‘inhumane killing’ of civilians
Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared
Belgian king denounces Gaza abuses in unusually direct remarks
Belgium questions 2 Israelis at music festival over Gaza crime allegations
Iranian lawmaker points to regional insecurity if UN sanctions are reimposed
US envoy criticizes Israel’s intervention in Syria
Zelensky names new ambassadors during Ukraine political shakeup

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 21-22/2025
ISIS Extremism or Islamic Doctrine?/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 21/2025
Why Al-Jazeera Should Be Designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/July 21/2025
Druze Revolts, Then And Now/Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 814/July 21/2025
Israel continues to flout world court ruling on its occupation/Chris Doyle/Arab News/July 21, 2025
Confusion in Syria/David Hale/©This is Beirut/July 21/2025
The Grammar of a Bungled Transition/Dr. Charles Chartouni/This is Beirut/July 21/2025
Selected Tweets for 21 July/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 21-22/2025
Saint Elias (Elijah) the Living: Prophet of Fire, Ascension, and Holy Zeal
Elias Bejjani/July 20/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145366/
Lebanon, together with the Maronite Church and believers everywhere, celebrates on July 20 the Feast of the Prophet Elijah—known in our tradition as Saint Elias the Living. He was a fiery prophet who stood fearlessly before kings and tyrants, boldly proclaiming God's word in a time of fear, corruption, and spiritual decline. He was a prophet of confrontation, a man of unwavering faith and divine fire—a flame that never goes out, a zeal that burns away lies and betrayal.
Elijah in the Bible: The Voice of Truth Against Tyranny
Elijah appeared during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who led Israel into idolatry and worship of Baal. But Elijah stood firm and declared: “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand” (1 Kings 17:1). With this declaration, he began his prophetic mission—defying earthly powers, false worship, and spiritual decay without fear or compromise. God was with him in power. Elijah raised the widow’s son from death, called down fire from heaven, parted the waters of the Jordan, and ascended alive into heaven in a chariot of fire. He was a forerunner of Christ—the victorious one—and a symbol of every person who fights for truth and righteousness.
The Transfiguration of Elijah and Moses with Christ: A Revelation of Glory, Prophecy, and the Law
In a moment beyond description, Jesus ascended a high mountain with His three disciples: Peter, James, and John. There, before their eyes, “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him (Matthew 17:3), in a scene where prophecy met the Law, and the ancient testimony bore witness to the glory to come. The Evangelist Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31)—a clear reference to His crucifixion and resurrection. Then came the voice of the Heavenly Father from the cloud, saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5). Thus, Elijah the prophet—who never tasted death—stood alongside Moses to bear witness to Christ, the incarnate Word, who fulfilled all the prophecies and brought the Law to its fullness.
The Miracles of Saint Elijah
He prayed, and the heavens were shut: It did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
(1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:1; James 5:17; Luke 4:25)
The ravens brought him food: God commanded the ravens to feed him.
(1 Kings 17:4)
He blessed the widow’s flour and oil: The jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry.
(1 Kings 17:8–9)
He raised the widow’s son from the dead: Elijah cried out to the Lord, and the child’s life returned to him.
(1 Kings 17:17–24)
Fire from heaven consumed the sacrifice: The altar was burned, the offering was accepted, and the prophets of Baal were destroyed.
(1 Kings 18:29–40)
His prophecy against King Ahaziah was fulfilled: The king died as Elijah had foretold.
(2 Kings 1; 2 Kings 9:27–28)
He parted the Jordan River with his mantle: The waters divided, and he crossed on dry ground.
(2 Kings 2:8)
Fire from heaven consumed the messengers of King Ahaziah: Twice Elijah called down fire from heaven, and it devoured the captains and their men.
(2 Kings 1:10–14)
His ascension into heaven: Elijah was taken up by a chariot of fire and ascended to heaven in a whirlwind.
(2 Kings 2:11–12)
The Character of Elijah: Zeal, Courage, and Prayer
Elijah wasn’t just a prophet—he was truly a man of God. He was zealous for the Lord’s commandments, fearless before kings, and humble in the presence of God. He wept and prayed, and God revealed Himself not in the earthquake or fire, but in a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12). Elijah was a man of prayer and hope. When he cried out to heaven, rain fell after three and a half years of drought. When he prayed for the widow in Zarephath, God raised her son back to life. Elijah was God's voice in a time of drought—His hand of mercy in an age of despair.
Mount Carmel: The Fire of Confrontation
On Mount Carmel, Elijah stood alone against 450 prophets of Baal. He challenged the people, saying: “If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal, follow him!” (1 Kings 18:21). The prophets of Baal prayed all day, but no fire came. Then Elijah rebuilt the altar of the Lord, poured water over the sacrifice three times, and cried out: “Answer me, O Lord, so that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God!”(1 Kings 18:36-37) God answered with fire from heaven—it consumed the offering, the stones, and even the water. The people fell to the ground and cried out: “The Lord, He is God!”Then Elijah prayed again, and the rain returned after years of drought, soaking the thirsty land (1 Kings 18:42–45).
The Fiery Ascension and the Glory of Christ
After fulfilling his mission, Elijah struck the waters of the Jordan with his cloak and crossed on dry ground with his disciple Elisha. Then, “suddenly, a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared... and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). He did not die—he was taken up in glory. And because he did not taste death, Elijah later appeared with Moses during the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor (Luke 9:30). This showed the union of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Light of the world.
Elijah in Zarephath: The Miracle on Lebanese Soil
The Gospel of Luke tells us: “There were many widows in Israel... yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon” (Luke 4:26). That widow gave him bread from her poverty, and God blessed her flour and oil, and later brought her dead son back to life through Elijah’s prayer. So the first miracle of resurrection took place in Lebanon. And the blessing of Elijah touched our land—and began here.
Lebanon and Saint Elias: A Spiritual and Historic Bond
Few prophets are as closely tied to Lebanon as Saint Elias. From Zarephath of Sidon to Mount Hermon, from ancient churches bearing his name in the mountains and valleys, to the caves where monks sought his spirit, Lebanon holds Elijah close in heart and soul. The great Lebanese thinker Fouad Ephrem al-Boustani wrote in his Book of Days: “This is the feast that lights the wounds of the nation—not to deepen them, but to show that the fire of God’s truth is still alive. And in every generation, a new Elijah must rise—to bear witness, to call down rain, and to restore hope to the people.” He called him “The Prophet of Lebanon”—because he walked our soil, breathed our air, and glorified God on our mountains.
Saint Elias and the Lebanese Identity
Saint Elias reflects the very soul of Lebanon: faith in freedom, rejection of false gods, and speaking truth to tyranny. Today, as Lebanon suffers under the oppression of the Iranian occupation and its armed proxies, we need Elijah’s spirit more than ever—a spirit that does not fear, does not bow to Baal, and does not trade truth for power. He is the protector of the free, the voice of courage, the prophet of justice, and the standard-bearer of divine truth on every mountaintop.
The Message of His Feast Today
In an age of compromise, idolatry, and moral decay, we need a new Elijah: A prophet who will not be silent, who will burn with holy zeal, and who will cleanse the land of falsehood and fear. Let us pray through his intercession that the Lord would once again send the rain—not only from the skies, but the rain of grace, of repentance, and of spiritual renewal.
A Prayer for Lebanon
O Saint Elias the Living, Prophet of fire and truth, You who called down rain and fire by your prayers, Send peace upon our suffering Lebanon, Give courage to our people, And renew in our Church the spirit of prophecy. Teach us to stand like you stood, To speak truth like you spoke, And to remain faithful to the Lord alone. Let your fire hover over this land, So that Lebanon may remain forever A nation of faith and freedom, From generation to generation. Amen.

The crimes committed by al-Julani and his ISIS thugs in Sweida—and the disgraceful support he receives from Arab countries and media outlets—are both deeply saddening and utterly reprehensible
Elias Bejjani/July 18/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145329/
The criminality taking place in Syria’s Suwayda province is unacceptable. Genocide is unacceptable. So is the humiliation of Druze religious leaders, the shaving of their mustaches, the killing of civilians and unarmed individuals, the waving of swords in the streets, the burning of a church, the so-called jihadi invasions, and all other barbaric acts.
These are savage atrocities carried out by Al-Julani’s ISIS followers—disciples of Al-Shara—who are funded and adapted by Erdogan and Qatar, along with all branches of political Islam, both Sunni and Shiite. Regardless of how the names and faces change, they are all cut from the same cloth, rooted in the ideology, culture, and terrorism of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian mullahs.
In practice, what they are doing in the Syrian Suwayda province has nothing to do with religion. These barbarians know nothing of faith; they only distort and defile its image. Likewise, whatever Israel—or any other power—does, whether for legitimate or illegitimate reasons, can never justify the barbaric crimes committed by the factions of political Islam across the Middle East, especially now in Suwayda.
What is both shameful and disgraceful is the blind bias shown by the majority of major Arab media outlets—particularly those based in the Gulf—which have taken the side of Al-Shara and his ISIS militants, driven by sectarian fanaticism that ignores even the most basic rights of the Druze people in Suwayda. This blatant display of religious bigotry reveals the depth of moral and humanitarian collapse in these platforms.
As for the official statements issued by Arab governments—including Lebanon, which remains under Iranian occupation through its jihadi proxy falsely named Hezbollah—they have overwhelmingly focused on condemning what they term “Israeli intervention,” employing nauseating, parroted populist rhetoric. These worn-out, recycled slogans are tailor-made to fit the propaganda of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” while not a single word has been uttered about the genocide, forced displacement, destruction, and systematic terror inflicted upon the Druze of Suwayda. It is as if their blood is expendable, and their rights not even worthy of token verbal solidarity.
In short, Al-Julani and his jihadi regime have proven to be “ISIS at its core” in every sense of the phrase. Notably, despite extensive support from Arab states—including Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia—as well as the United States, international actors, and even Israel, Al-Julani has failed, and his regime stands fully exposed. All the cosmetic efforts to rebrand him—the trimmed beard, tailored suits, French ties, and Italian shoes—have done nothing to mask the extremist truth.
Indeed, as the saying goes: He who grows up on something, grows old with it.

Tom Barrak Said Today: “Hezbollah is a terrorist, non-Lebanese party, and we will not engage with it”.
Alfred Madi/Facebook/July 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145487/
Great Mr. Tom Barrak, but what more clarity could we possibly ask for?
But:
– How do you justify your dealings with Nabih Berri, the official spokesperson and strategic ally of Hezbollah, through a political “fatwa” that legitimized both corruption and weapons?
– And how do you justify engaging with a government that includes Hezbollah representatives and whose main job is to shield the group’s illegal weapons and prevent their surrender?
– And how do you explain dealing with political parties and figures who, directly or indirectly, provide cover for Hezbollah’s arms and the broader system’s corruption?
We’d really appreciate it, Mr. Tom, if you could clarify: When exactly will this tragicomic spectacle finally end?

Video Link to a Significant Video Interview with Dr. Ghazi Al-Masri 
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145472/
A powerful and rational discussion of the tragic plight of the Druze community in Sweida under the rule of a jihadi and extremist regime.
This interview presents a scientific, historical, spiritual, and patriotic reading into:
The doctrines, concepts, and history of the Druze faith,
The jihadi invasions targeting the Druze of Sweida,
The ISIS-style regime of Al-Julani,
The authoritarian repression of regimes hiding behind religious pretenses,
The dangers of extremism and jihadism,
The status of the Druze in Israel,
And the future of Druze communities across the Middle East

US cannot 'compel' Israel to do anything, US special envoy says in Lebanon
Reuters/July 21, 2025
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Washington cannot "compel" Israel to do anything, U.S. special envoy Thomas Barrack said in Beirut on Monday, in response to a reporter's question about Lebanese demands that the U.S. guarantees a halt to Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory. The U.S. last month proposed a roadmap to Lebanon's top officials to fully disarm Hezbollah within four months, in exchange for a halt to Israeli strikes and a withdrawal of Israeli troops still occupying positions in southern Lebanon. Lebanon has asked Washington to act as a security guarantor to ensure that Israel will pull out its troops in full and halt targeting operations against members of Hezbollah, if the armed group begins handing in weapons. Asked about those guarantees, Barrack told reporters after a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that the U.S. "has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything." He also told reporters that the U.S. was not forcing Lebanon to strip Hezbollah of its arms, or considering sanctions against Lebanese officials if Hezbollah is not disarmed. "There's no consequence, there's no threat, there's no whip," Barrack said. Barrack, a longtime adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, also serves as U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria. He is making his third trip to Lebanon in just over a month to discuss the U.S. roadmap, which covers disarmament of non-state armed groups, long-awaited economic reforms and better ties with Lebanon's neighbour Syria. Israel and Hezbollah fought a months-long war last year that ended with a U.S.-brokered truce calling for both sides to halt fighting, for Israel to withdraw troops, and for Lebanon to be free of all non-state arms, starting with the southern region closest to the Israeli border. While Hezbollah has handed in some weapons from depots in the country's south to the Lebanese army, Israel says the group is violating the ceasefire by attempting to re-establish itself. Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel has breached the truce by continuing to occupy at least five vantage points in a strip of the Lebanese border, and carrying out strikes on what Israel says are Hezbollah members and arms depots.

Druze: A Religion of Enlightenment, Independent and Sovereign
Dr. Ghazi Al-Masri /July 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145472/
Druze is a religion of spiritual calling—a distinct, sovereign doctrine entirely independent from all Abrahamic faiths. The word Druze is derived literally from the Greek language, the historical language of science and culture in the Middle East before the Abbasid era. In Greek, “Druze” means “wise,” “people of knowledge,” or “people of science”—a meaning once widely embraced across ancient Eastern societies, from Egypt to Phoenicia.
The Druze doctrine is composed of philosophical epistles rooted in Hermetic cosmology, along with Greek philosophical thought on universal reason, logic, and consciousness. These are accompanied by interpretive writings offering spiritual guidance and direction, which are revised every three generations to reflect evolving consciousness and the Druze individual's personal journey toward knowledge.
Druze is not a missionary faith, nor is it a religion of law, fatwas, rituals, or political conquest. It carries no mandatory religious obligations and holds no theological conflict with any other religion, because its foundation lies in cosmological knowledge—not inherited myths.
As for the current Syrian regime or its so-called transitional authorities, they are extremist takfiri organizations rooted in the ideology of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Their framework and collective memory are based on excommunication, bloodshed, looting, and the enslavement of anyone who differs from them—including moderate Sunnis. Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri called for international protection, but neither Arab nor Western powers responded—except for their brethren, the Druze of Israel. With influence and standing within the Israeli government, they pressured authorities to assist Syria’s Druze community. Amid deafening silence from Arab media and official institutions regarding the massacres in the coastal regions, Ashrafieh Sahnaya, and now Sweida, the global Druze diaspora—from Brazil, Latin America, Europe, and North America—has mobilized to raise its voice, collect aid, and rally Western public opinion in support of Syria’s Druze. This Druze awakening is also supported by Syrian expatriates from all of Syria’s original ethnic groups: Kurds, Alawites, Christians, Syriacs, and Sunnis—who stand united in solidarity with the persecuted Druze.

Video Link for an interview From TL(English) with Special USA Envoy Amb Tom Barrack – Arabic Sub/US Supports Lebanon Without Any Demands
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145506/
This is Beirut/July 21/2025
In an exclusive interview with Tele Liban, US envoy Tom Barrack stressed that the United States has made “no demands” on Lebanon and is only offering assistance at the country’s request. “We came to help, not to dictate,” Barrack said, clarifying that Washington’s role is to support Lebanon in resolving internal and regional tensions, not to impose conditions. Barrack emphasized that reviving the failed ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel is essential. “The original deal collapsed because of mutual distrust between the parties,” he explained, adding that a new agreement must be built on transparency and mutual commitment. He reiterated that the US does not engage in direct negotiations with Hezbollah and does not speak on behalf of Israel. “Hezbollah’s participation must be voluntary. We’re not here to represent anyone but to help Lebanon,” he said. Barrack expressed support for a “carrot and stick” strategy, combining incentives with realistic pressure to encourage progress. He warned that ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon is blocking much-needed reforms and investment.“Lebanon should be the region’s economic and tourism hub, but peace and security must come first,” he stated. He praised Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s reform agenda, including efforts in fiscal management, banking, and digital infrastructure, such as a potential Starlink project. But he cautioned that no foreign investor will return without reliable services like electricity, water, and internet.On the military front, Barrack confirmed continued US support for the Lebanese Army, with “no conditions” attached. He called for building the Lebanese Army Forces into a professional peacekeeping force to boost national stability. Regarding UNIFIL, Barrack said Washington is reviewing its position and will make a recommendation before the end of August. Asked about the Lebanon-Syria border demarcation, he said the focus should shift from outdated lines to building a peaceful and united future
In an exclusive interview with Tele Liban, US envoy Tom Barrack stressed that the United States has made “no demands” on Lebanon and is only offering assistance at the country’s request. “We came to help, not to dictate,” Barrack said, clarifying that Washington’s role is to support Lebanon in resolving internal and regional tensions, not to impose conditions. Barrack emphasized that reviving the failed ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel is essential. “The original deal collapsed because of mutual distrust between the parties,” he explained, adding that a new agreement must be built on transparency and mutual commitment. He reiterated that the US does not engage in direct negotiations with Hezbollah and does not speak on behalf of Israel. “Hezbollah’s participation must be voluntary. We’re not here to represent anyone but to help Lebanon,” he said. Barrack expressed support for a “carrot and stick” strategy, combining incentives with realistic pressure to encourage progress. He warned that ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon is blocking much-needed reforms and investment.“Lebanon should be the region’s economic and tourism hub, but peace and security must come first,” he stated. He praised Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s reform agenda, including efforts in fiscal management, banking, and digital infrastructure, such as a potential Starlink project. But he cautioned that no foreign investor will return without reliable services like electricity, water, and internet.On the military front, Barrack confirmed continued US support for the Lebanese Army, with “no conditions” attached. He called for building the Lebanese Army Forces into a professional peacekeeping force to boost national stability. Regarding UNIFIL, Barrack said Washington is reviewing its position and will make a recommendation before the end of August. Asked about the Lebanon-Syria border demarcation, he said the focus should shift from outdated lines to building a peaceful and united future.

Between the Dilemma of Disarming Hezbollah and the Challenge of Rising Israeli Tensions
Amal Chmouny/This is Beirut/July 21/2025
The dialogue between the US and Lebanon concerning Hezbollah's disarmament has entered a crucial phase, characterized by urgency, skepticism and regional complexities. US envoy Tom Barrack emphasized the need for rapid and structured progress, a sentiment echoed in messages from Washington. However, as events unfold, the inherent challenges of this diplomatic undertaking have become increasingly apparent.
American officials have underscored their desire for a clear timeline mandating Hezbollah's relinquishment of its heavy weaponry. Barrack stated on Monday, “President Trump has a huge interest in making sure we have regional stability,” and Lebanon is at the center of that process. Despite this, Washington is growing impatient with the pace of negotiations, further compelling the need for emphasized timelines. Barrack clarified that disarming Hezbollah is fundamentally an internal issue for Lebanon, acknowledging that while failure to act may lead to disappointment for the US, “we cannot force Israel's actions.” Hanin Ghaddar, senior fellow at The Washington Institute, noted, “The main discrepancy is that if the US leaves Lebanon to try to solve this impasse alone, the Israelis will fill the gap.”
In June, the US proposed a three-stage process to disarm Hezbollah, starting with the withdrawal of weapons from regions north and south of the Litani River, followed by disarmament in Beirut and the Beqaa Valley. However, the Lebanese government has shown hesitation about adhering to strict deadlines. President Joseph Aoun's seven-page response embodied an earnest engagement with US proposals, while reflecting Lebanon's internal complexities. Ghaddar highlighted the significance of timelines, and said to This is Beirut, “Having a timetable implies a de facto policy of confrontation vs. non-confrontation. The Lebanese side is trying to play with words, suggesting that we are doing something, but we will proceed in our own way and at our own time. There is no pressure...”
Hezbollah's insistence that any disarmament must first address Israeli aggressions and a comprehensive withdrawal of Israeli forces complicates matters further. Barrack clearly articulated the limitations of the US position, stating that the US “can't compel Israel to do anything; our role is to use our influence to bring calm.” Ghaddar warned, “When the United States leaves, Trump will give Bibi the green light to do whatever he wants in Lebanon. Escalation is the repercussions for Lebanon.” While Lebanon's stability is at stake, regional stability may be less affected as the region seems to be gradually distancing itself from Lebanese issues. Ultimately, Ghaddar argues, “if the United States retreats, the Israelis will fill the vacuum.”
Despite a shared desire for dialogue among all parties in Lebanon, the commitment to finding a resolution remains uncertain. Ghaddar noted, “The main problem is the lack of trust in Lebanon and lack of confidence in anything Lebanon says. That's why they want Lebanon to show something to build on.”Hezbollah believes that disarming could jeopardize its electoral prospects, a concern that leads the Lebanese government to negotiate for its armed status until after elections. This creates a significant divide from US priorities, which seek to disarm Hezbollah now to facilitate freer parliamentary elections.Adding to the complexity is the Lebanese claim that Hezbollah has already been disarmed south of the Litani River, a statement that Ghaddar disputes, “This is inaccurate, as Hezbollah is still present in the south.” From the US perspective, disarmament should encompass all of Lebanon, rather than being restricted to specific regions. To move forward, tangible actions that build trust are essential, requiring commitments that bridge the gap between US and Lebanese strategies regarding Hezbollah's disarmament. Only then can there be hope for a resolution amidst the pressing demands of regional stability and internal Lebanese politics

What did Barrack discuss with Lebanese officials?
Naharnet/July 21, 2025
The Lebanese response delivered to U.S. envoy Tom Barrack on Monday “demanded an end to Israel's violations in return for the removal of arms north of the Litani,” sources told Al-Arabiya television.In remarks to LBCI TV, unnamed sources meanwhile quoted Barrack as saying that “practical steps are needed from Lebanon in order to activate the work of the ceasefire monitoring committee.”“There’s nothing new in the Lebanese remarks that translates the intentions related to monopolizing arms and Barrack demanded turning the intentions into practical steps,” the sources added. “Barrack focused in his meetings on the need to move to the executive stage, which includes monopolizing arms in the hand of the state, amid the presence of questions regarding the mechanism that will be adopted,” informed sources told Al-Jadeed television. According to MTV, the Lebanese response to Barrack was, "We're trying to work on the issue and Lebanon wants (Israeli) steps in return."

Report: Lebanese response unanimously approved but Berri to have separate one
Naharnet/July 21, 2025
While it is yet to be known whether President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Nawaf Salam have decided to distance Lebanon’s official response to the U.S. paper from Hezbollah’s stance, the response has been unanimously approved by the three leaders, sources close to them said. The Lebanese response “stresses the need for Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied points and territory, while emphasizing the need for guarantees focused on the reconstruction of the South. It also expresses readiness to demarcate the border with Syria without settling the ownership of the occupied Shebaa Farms,” the sources told An-Nahar newspaper. Berri has meanwhile revealed that he will have his own response to the U.S. envoy’s paper, the daily said. “This step is not aimed at bypassing what Barrack will hear from President Aoun and PM Nawaf Salam,” the newspaper added, noting that Lebanon’s response will also reflect “the government’s readiness to implement a host of financial and economic reforms.”

Report: Hezbollah fears Berri may accept arms plan despite its objection
Naharnet/July 21, 2025
Hezbollah has concerns over the intentions of Speaker Nabih Berri, political sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, reminding of the Speaker’s approval in November of the ceasefire agreement “despite Hezbollah’s objection.”Hezbollah “fears that Berri might take a similar step regarding the arms monopolization plan and its handover to the state through a decision issued by Cabinet, despite Hezbollah’s objection to this step,” the sources said. Informed sources meanwhile told the daily that “Berri’s attempts to ease Hezbollah’s stance have succeeded in form, but in content Hezbollah has maintained its obstinacy.”

Barrack says Trump wants prosperity in Lebanon, US can't guarantee Israel's actions
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/July 21, 2025
Visiting U.S. envoy Tom Barrack met Monday with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and is scheduled to meet later in the day with political and religious leaders, and on Tuesday with Speaker Nabih Berri. Speaking to reporters after his talks with Aoun and Salam, Barrack said he returned to Lebanon because U.S. President Donald Trump is interested in reaching “regional stability” and that Lebanon is the “center of that process.”Noting that the U.S. wants “security” and “economic prosperity” in Lebanon, Barrack pointed out that the U.S. cannot “compel” Israel to do or not do “anything.”“We’re here to use our influence to bring calm minds together to come to a conclusion. The U.S. has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything,” the U.S. envoy added.
Barrack also said that the Lebanon-Israel cessation of hostilities agreement "didn't work," while noting that Hezbollah's disarmament is a "very internal" issue in Lebanon. He added that if it didn't happen it would be "disappointing."Moreover, Barrack said the U.S. is not trying to threaten the Lebanese and that it is not thinking of slapping sanctions on Lebanese officials. The U.S. does not want to "add more logs to the fire," he said. “There’s no consequence, there’s no threat, there’s no whip, we’re here on a voluntary basis trying to usher in a solution," he added. "Your leaders have been more than helpful," he said on his second visit to Beirut this month, adding that "the reforms that are happening... are amazingly plausible and significant."The Presidency meanwhile said that Aoun handed Barrack, in the name of the Lebanese state, a "draft comprehensive memo for the implementation of everything that Lebanon has pledged -- from the November 27, 2024 declaration to the Lebanese government’s ministerial statement to especially the president’s inaugural speech.”The draft emphasized the need to extend state authority to the entire country, restrict the bearing of weapons to the army and ensure "decisions of war and peace" rest with Lebanese constitutional authorities, according to the Presidency statement. Barrack's visit to Lebanon comes amid ongoing domestic and international pressure for Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in Lebanon that it says are aimed at stopping Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities. On Friday, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said his group was not ready to lay down its arms before an "existential threat" to Lebanon comes to an end, adding that "we will not surrender to Israel." The U.S. "disarmament plan now, at this stage ... is for Israel," Qassem said. "We are ready for any action that leads to a Lebanese understanding... but for Israel and America, we will not do this under any type of threat," he said.

Aoun says no one can bear another war in Lebanon
Naharnet/July 21, 2025
President Joseph Aoun on Monday called on the Lebanese to “unify efforts and act objectively and responsible to keep Lebanon away from the conflict around us,” referring to the latest sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Syria. He added that his objective is to “ensure the country’s safety and not risk the eruption of a war, seeing as no one has the ability to bear it.”“This is a chance to protect Lebanon, in the vein of what happened during the war between Israel and Iran, when we exerted efforts to keep Lebanon away from this war,” the president said.“Foreign nations have lauded the taken decision to monopolize arms in the hand of the state,” Aoun added.

Report: Qassem's verbal escalation aimed at reassuring popular base
Naharnet/July 21, 2025
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim resorted to verbal escalation days before U.S. envoy Tom Barrack’s return to Beirut in order to “obtain needed guarantees to reassure his popular base about Hezbollah’s political future in the political structure that is being reconfigured,” political sources informed on the deliberations between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement said. “Qassem raised his political ceiling to negotiate with Barrack in his own way, live on air, and to bolster the negotiation stance of the three presidents” Joseph Aoun, Nabih Berri and Nawaf Salam, the sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “Qassem does not intend to block the agreement should they reach another arrangement combined with U.S. guarantees that would be binding for Israel in return for Lebanon’s commitment to monopolizing arms in the state’s hand with Hezbollah’s approval,” the sources said. “Qassem is not seeking to bypass the stance of his ally Berri, with whom he is consulting over all the details of implementing the agreement that is being prepared,” the sources added. Hezbollah wants guarantees that “would justify to its environment its giving up of weapons and its joining of the transformations that are taking place in the region and Lebanon,” the sources said. Commenting on Qassem’s remarks that Hezbollah “will not hand over its weapons to Israel,” the sources said that Qassem’s statement “opens the door to handing over the weapons to the army out of his commitment to the monopolization of arms in the hand of the state.”

Lebanon delays implementing arms restriction amid Syria concerns
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/July 21, 2025
LEBANON: Lebanon has delayed the implementation of arms restrictions, Arab News has learned, amid growing concerns over developments in neighboring Syria — though it remains committed to disarming non-state militias, including Hezbollah. US Special Envoy Tom Barrack, speaking from Beirut on Monday, said the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament remains a domestic Lebanese matter. “As far as the US is concerned, Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist group that we have no direct dealings with, and we are discussing this file with the Lebanese government,” said Barrack, who called on the Syrian government “to take responsibility for the developments that occurred in Sweida,” considering that “part of that responsibility may lie in the failure of communication between all Syrian components.”
Barrack, who returned to Beirut on his third visit to Lebanon as part of his mission to establish a mechanism to implement the ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of Hezbollah’s weapons, expressed, after his meeting with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, “the US’s disappointment if no agreement is reached on the issue of arms and the failure of the ceasefire agreement.” He warned that when it comes to guarantees, “the US cannot compel Israel to do anything.”
Barrack began his meetings with officials by meeting President Joseph Aoun in the presence of the US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson. Aoun handed him, “on behalf of the Lebanese state, the draft comprehensive memorandum for the implementation of Lebanon’s commitments, starting from the declaration of Nov. 27, 2024, through the ministerial statement of the Lebanese government, and the presidential inauguration speech,” according to a statement issued by the presidency’s media office.
The statement clarified that “the draft memorandum centered on the urgent need to save Lebanon through the extension of the Lebanese state’s authority over its entire territory by its own forces alone, the exclusive possession of arms by the Lebanese armed forces, affirming the Lebanese constitutional institutions' sole authority over decisions of war and peace.
“This would go in parallel with preserving Lebanese sovereignty across all its international borders, reconstruction efforts, and launching economic recovery; all with the guarantee and support of Lebanon’s brothers and friends around the world, in a way that safeguards the safety, security, and dignity of all Lebanon and all Lebanese.”
A Lebanese political source told Arab News that “the Lebanese response handed to Barrack did not include a timeline for addressing the weapons issue, as the situation has changed in light of the developments in Syria.”
The source explained that Barrack’s meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday, who is negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, will be key to understand the next steps following the recent developments which “have raised more questions.”
The source continued: “The American document includes demands not only related to Hezbollah’s weapons, but also to Lebanon’s relationship with Syria and the border issue.”
it added: “The American side indeed wants a clear timeline for arms withdrawal, but in light of what happened in Sweida, will there be repercussions on Lebanon? Lebanon is afraid of what occurred and extremely concerned about its borders. It is demanding a halt to the entry of Syrians into its territory, including refugees and the potential approach of militants.”
In a press conference held after he met with Salam, Barrack said that the reason for his return to Beirut was “President Donald Trump’s great interest in achieving regional stability,” stressing that Beirut remains “at the center” of the process.
“As we have said before, Lebanon is the key to this experiment that began long ago with the emigration of religious minorities and political parties, who have succeeded around the world. The idea is to restore that success.”
Barrack said his return to the region comes amid instability in Syria, where government forces were recently deployed to contain deadly clashes between Bedouin and Druze communities that left hundreds dead last week.
“However, we must stress the need to focus and restore stability to Lebanon and hope to the region, and we will continue down this path. We will follow up on our meeting with your leaders, who have been more than helpful in reaching the conditions and solutions that will resolve this situation, not only for Lebanon but for all the issues happening simultaneously. We are bringing hope along with economic reforms and prosperity, and this is what we will work on.”Barrack said: “There is a cessation of hostilities agreement that came into effect, but it has not succeeded. There are reasons for its failure, and that is part of what we are all trying to resolve. Failure would be disappointing to the US. There are no consequences, just disappointment. We are trying to help, influence, guide, and bring parties together; just some kind of influence to return to the model you all want to see: prosperity and peace for your children in the region.”
As for whether there are guarantees for Lebanon, Barrack argued that the US in “not here to impose anything on anyone, and we cannot compel Israel to do anything.”
He said: “We are here to use our influence and leverage to help reach an outcome. The matter is up to the government and everyone. When you grow tired of squabbling and rivalries, then everyone reaches the conclusion that there must be greater understanding and peace with neighbors so life can be better.”
Regarding the possibility of imposing sanctions on Lebanese officials, Barrack reiterated that “Sanctions against Lebanese officials is an extremely complicated issue.
“It exists and is sensitive, but it is not under consideration now,” he said. “What we are trying to do is bring peace and stability, not throw more fuel on the fire.”
On developments in Syria and the issue of minorities in Lebanon, Barrack said that US “feels great concern, sorrow, and sympathy toward all the events in Syria, and is offering support.
“There is recognition that the new parties trying to govern the country must understand the importance of accommodating minorities, engaging in dialogue, and coordinating with neighbors, including Israel, and pushing all these pieces together.”
Barrack argued that 15 years of civil war have left the country in dire conditions and its ethic minorities deeply divided.
“The situation in Lebanon is different; there is an existing government working with minorities and the army. There is a stable army understood by the people. In Syria, however, there is a new government, and minorities and tribes who spent most of their childhood in chaos and in the absence of government. What is happening is the result of tribal, individual, and familial clashes. What is happening is undoubtedly horrific, and a quick solution must be found.”
On Monday, Barrack toured and met with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, Metropolitan Elias Audi of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Beirut and its Dependencies, Army Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, and met with several MPs during a dinner at the US embassy.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a speech delivered on July 18, warned Barrack that he is “handing over Lebanon to Israel.” He asked: “Do they want Lebanon to be divided between Israel and Syria? The weapons are an obstacle because they enabled Lebanon to stand on its feet and prevented Israel from expanding.”Qassem warned in his speech that “armed groups in Syria may launch an attack on eastern Lebanon,” saying: “All sects in Lebanon are under threat. Once we remove the danger, we are ready to discuss the defense strategy and the national security strategy.”

Parliament to Vote on Lifting MP Bouchikian’s Immunity
This is Beirut/July 21, 2025
Parliament set to vote on lifting MP Georges Bouchikian’s immunity following a joint committee meeting in Ain el-Tineh. ©The National News Agency. Lebanon’s Parliament is set to hold a session on Wednesday to vote on lifting the immunity of former Minister of Economy and current MP Georges Bouchikian. The decision follows a joint meeting held in Ain el-Tineh between the Bureau of Parliament and the Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee. Reports indicate that Bouchikian, who holds Canadian citizenship, left Lebanon for Canada via Cyprus before the Parliament’s move. Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab confirmed that currently, there is no information on Bouchikian’s whereabouts. Bou Saab emphasized that the same legal mechanism will apply to all immunity-related cases, noting that the Parliament has already informed former Ministers of Telecommunications Nicolas Sehnaoui, Boutros Harb and Jamal Jarrah of similar proceedings against them. He added that any official facing potential charges has the right to defend themselves before Parliament. As for Bouchikian’s case, Bou Saab clarified there is no proof he committed an infraction during his term as minister, a point the general assembly will examine further.

Why Lebanon’s fragile state hinges on Hezbollah’s next move
Sherouk Zakaria/Arabic News/July 21, 2025
BEIRUT: As pressure intensifies on Lebanon’s new government to resolve the question of Hezbollah’s arms, it confronts a fundamental challenge: Can the Iran-backed group relinquish its military wing and become a purely political party? And if it does, will Lebanon’s state institutions and political culture prove capable of supporting such a transition?
Earlier this month, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, telegraphed Washington’s growing impatience with the status quo in Lebanon in remarks to journalists following his visit to Beirut. He described Hezbollah’s disarmament as an essential condition for the renewal of international financial aid and long-term political stability in Lebanon. As part of a proposal presented to Lebanese officials, the US offered support for Lebanon’s economic reform efforts in exchange for Hezbollah’s complete disarmament, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, and the release of Lebanese detainees held by Israel. “If Lebanon doesn’t hurry up and get in line, everyone around them will,” Barrack said. He acknowledged what he described as a “spectacular” response from Beirut in a short time, but criticized the Lebanese political system’s ingrained culture of “delay, detour, and deflect,” saying time was running out for the country to adapt to a fast-changing regional order.
But disarming Hezbollah is far from straightforward. Despite suffering significant losses last year during its war with Israel, including the death of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of much of its military infrastructure, Hezbollah has shown no willingness to give up its arms.
The group’s new leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, reiterated that stance in a video address on July 19. “We will not surrender or give up to Israel; Israel will not take our weapons away from us,” he said. According to him, any disarmament would be discussed only as part of a national defense strategy determined internally by Lebanon, and only after a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
That position is tied to continued Israeli airstrikes, including recent attacks in the south that killed two individuals on July 20, as per local media reports.
Hezbollah cites these violations, along with Israel’s continued occupation of five positions seized after the November 2024 ceasefire, as justification for retaining its arms.
Although the group claims to have handed over 190 of its 265 southern military positions to the Lebanese army, it continues to maintain a significant arsenal in the region and in other strongholds. Hezbollah emerged as Lebanon’s most powerful military force and dominant political actor in the post-civil war era, representing a significant portion of the Shiite population alongside the Amal party. Together, the two groups hold all the 27 Shiite seats in the 128-member parliament.
Analysts say that Hezbollah’s ideological foundation has long rested on armed resistance, so shifting toward civilian politics would require not only strategic recalculation but also a new political message capable of sustaining its popular base.
“For decades, the party has emphasized armed resistance against Israel as central to its appeal,” said David Wood, senior analyst on Lebanon at the International Crisis Group (ICG). “If Hezbollah wants to transition into a normal political party, it will need to craft another electoral narrative based around how it can improve the socio-economic fortunes of its constituents.”Such a transformation is not without precedent. Other armed movements in the region, such as the Palestinian Fatah in earlier decades, have evolved into political organizations. However, the Lebanese context is unique in many ways. Years of economic collapse, institutional paralysis and political gridlock have left the state too weak to assert its authority. The November 2024 ceasefire, brokered by the US and France, was intended to revive the terms of UN Resolution 1701, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, a halt to Hezbollah’s military operations near the southern border, and full control of arms by the Lebanese state. But little progress has been made.
Bilal Saab, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, expressed doubt over Hezbollah’s ability to function effectively as a conventional political party. He pointed to signs of waning support in southern Lebanon and other Hezbollah strongholds. The group’s military losses, the destruction of southern villages, and the economic suffering in Hezbollah-controlled areas are undermining its grassroots support, Saab told Arab News. “It is therefore unclear whether an unarmed Hezbollah could compete effectively in free elections, within Lebanon’s complex political system.”
He said the obstacles ahead of the government are political willingness and “exaggerated” fears of sectarian violence. The new leaders, he said, “must recognize that the chances of sectarian tensions are higher with the status quo unchanged.”
According to Saab, lack of serious action to address the issue of Hezbollah’s arms would prompt Israel to continue its attacks and cause more damage and human casualties. “If that happens, war-weary and economically dispossessed Lebanese could blame Hezbollah for causing even more death and destruction. This would in turn increase the risk of sectarian violence and people taking up arms against Hezbollah and its supporters,” he said.
For Lebanon’s new leadership under President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the challenge is to preserve national stability while dealing with an increasingly polarized domestic landscape and pressure from powerful external actors.
Though both leaders have reiterated their commitment to imposing a state monopoly on arms, they have insisted that any progress depends on Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanese territory and an end to violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
While Barrack’s proposal received praise for its ambition, its feasibility depends on wider geopolitical considerations. Paul Salem, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, believes that Iran, Hezbollah’s principal backer, will have the final say.
“The key decision of disarming Hezbollah would have to be made in Iran, the group’s main backer, not in Lebanon,” he told Arab News. “For the time being, it is clear that Tehran is encouraging Hezbollah to drag its feet and not to hand over all its arms and I think that will remain the case.”Salem emphasized the need for a coordinated domestic and international effort to encourage Hezbollah’s transition into a political entity. This, he said, would require guarantees from the US, a defined role for the LAF, and political assurances from the Arab Gulf states. “Hezbollah, at a minimum, would need assurances about Israel’s withdrawal and protection of its operatives in Lebanon, which would have to come from the US, as well reassurances from Gulf countries of aid for reconstruction of the war-ravaged areas,” Salem said. “They would want some of that money to come through their auspices so they could benefit politically.”The World Bank has estimated the cost of Lebanon’s reconstruction at $11 billion. US and Gulf officials have indicated that significant portions of that aid will only be unlocked if Hezbollah agrees to disarm.
The issue of integrating Hezbollah supporters into Lebanon’s broader political and economic fabric is also paramount. Wood emphasized that the process of disarming Hezbollah should come with assurances that the Shiite community would remain part of the nation-building process in a country long paralyzed by factional politics.
“Lebanon’s leaders must think very carefully about how to fully integrate Hezbollah’s supporters into the country’s future, or else they risk creating dangerous fissures in Lebanese society,” the ICG’s Wood said. Despite mounting pressure, few expect a quick resolution. Reports suggest Hezbollah is conducting a strategic review of its military posture, exploring possible scenarios but delaying concrete action. “Hezbollah is taking a ‘wait and see’ approach for now,” Wood said. “Perhaps it wants to know if regional circumstances might improve for it before seriously entertaining the idea of surrendering its military wing.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army has consolidated control over Rafik Hariri International Airport and large parts of the south, improving state authority and border security. A successful disarmament, officials argue, would boost the credibility of Lebanon’s institutions and the case for the state’s monopoly on force.
The Middle East Institute’s Salem cautioned that Hezbollah is unlikely to fully relinquish its arms without assurances that go beyond Lebanese borders. If anything, he said, the disarmament would reduce sectarian tensions “with the Sunnis, Christians, Druze and other communities that have been afraid of Hezbollah’s arms.”
The potential rewards for Lebanon are clearly substantial. Hezbollah’s disarmament would enable Lebanon to form new alliances with regional and global partners. The disarmament process could also unlock vital economic assistance, helping the country recover from years of political paralysis, financial crisis and social unrest.
However, Lebanon’s leadership remains caught between the demands of the international community and the compulsions of domestic sectarian politics. For now, a delicate balance holds. But as pressure builds, time may be running out for Lebanon’s politicians to chart the country’s future — before others do it for them.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 21-22/2025
Pope speaks against forced mass displacement of Gaza civilians
Reuters/July 21/2025
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo, whose role in advocating for peace in Gaza has become notably stark since Israel struck the territory's only Catholic church last week, told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday that he opposed any forced displacement of Palestinians. The Vatican said Abbas, who leads the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, had phoned the pope on Monday, three days after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called and expressed regret over the strike on Gaza's Holy Family church.Israel has said the strike, which killed three people and wounded the church's parish priest, was a mistake. The small church in Gaza has been a focus of papal advocacy for peace throughout the war in the territory. Pope Leo's predecessor Pope Francis spoke to the parish nightly. In Monday's conversation with Abbas, Leo condemned the "indiscriminate use of force" and any "forced mass displacement" of people in the Gaza Strip, the Vatican said. Israel has said it wants Gazans to move to a special humanitarian zone in Gaza or leave the territory voluntarily. All mainstream Palestinian groups and neighbouring Arab states have rejected any plan that would displace them. In emotional remarks on Sunday after his weekly Angelus prayer, Leo read out the names of those killed at the church in Gaza and called for an end to the "barbarity of war".

Fears of escalation after Israel hits Houthi-held Yemen port
AFP/July 21, 2025
HODEIDA: Israel pounded Yemen’s Houthi-held port of Hodeida with air strikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran. Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the militia began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war. In its latest raids, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck “targets of the Houthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida” and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.The renewed strikes on Yemen are part of a year-long Israeli bombing campaign against the Houthis, but the latest threats have raised fears of a wider conflict in the poverty-stricken Arabian Peninsula country. “Yemen’s fate will be the same as Tehran’s,” Katz said. His warning was a reference to the wave of suprise strikes Israel launched on Iran on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear facilities. During the 12-day war, the United States carried out its own attacks on Iran’s nuclear program on June 22, striking facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. Any Israeli escalation could “plunge the region into utter chaos,” said a Gulf official, requesting anonymity because he cannot brief the media. The Houthis’ Al-Masirah television reported “a series of Israeli air strikes on the Hodeida port.”A Houthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that “the bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes.”On July 7, Israeli strikes hit Hodeida and two nearby locations on the coast, with targets including the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured in November 2023, which the Israelis said had been outfitted with a radar system to track shipping in the Red Sea. A Yemeni port employee in Hodeida said the strikes targeted “heavy equipment brought in for construction and repair work after Israeli airstrikes on July 7... and areas around the port and fishing boats.”An Israeli military statement said that the targets included “engineering vehicles... fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities” against Israel and “additional terror infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime.” It said the port had been used to transfer weapons from Iran, which were then used by the Houthis against Israel.The statement added that Israel had identified efforts by the Iran-backed rebels to “re-establish terrorist infrastructure at the port.”The Houthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel.

Israeli military attacks Houthi targets in Yemen's Hodeidah port
Reuters/July 21/2025
The Israeli military attacked Houthi targets in Yemen's Hodeidah port on Monday in its latest assault on the Iran-backed militants, who have been striking ships bound for Israel and launching missiles against it. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army was "forcefully countering any attempt to restore the terror infrastructure previously attacked."The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said on Monday that a series of attacks on the port was under way, without providing any details. The Israeli military said in a statement that the port it attacked had been used "among other things, to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are then used by the Houthi to execute terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its allies."Since Israel's war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded by launching attacks on Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port. "As I have made clear – Yemen's fate is the same as Tehran’s. The Houthis will pay a heavy price for launching missiles toward the State of Israel," Katz said. The Houthis' military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on Monday that the group attacked several targets in Israel with drones, which was in response to Israel's recent attack on Hodeidah port and the continued military campaign against Gaza. Earlier in July, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the Greek ship Eternity C that maritime officials say killed four of the 25 people aboard. In May, the United States announced a surprise deal with the Houthis where it agreed to stop a bombing campaign against them in return for an end to shipping attacks, though the Houthis said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

Syrian authorities evacuate Bedouin families from Sweida city
Agence France Presse/July 21/2025
Syrian authorities on Monday evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted bloody clashes between the communities, an AFP correspondent and official media said. An AFP correspondent outside the devastated provincial capital saw a convoy including buses enter Sweida and then exit again carrying civilians. The evacuees, including women and children, were headed for reception centres in neighbouring Daraa province and to the capital Damascus, in coordination with the Syrian Red Crescent. State news agency SANA said 1,500 people from Bedouin tribes were to be evacuated. The ceasefire announced Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that has left more than 1,100 dead in a week, according to a monitor. Clashes began between Druze and Bedouin tribes, who have had tense relations for decades, and were complicated by the intervention of Sunni Arab tribes who converged on Sweida in support of the Bedoiun. Witnesses, Druze factions and a monitor have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida last week. "We reached a formula that allows us to defuse the crisis by evacuating the families of our compatriots from the Bedouin and the tribes who are currently in Sweida city," the province's internal security chief Ahmad Dalati told state television. The ceasefire was announced Saturday but effectively only began on Sunday, after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from part of Sweida city and Druze groups retook control. The announcement came hours after the United States said it had negotiated a ceasefire between Syria's government and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria's south. The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city. On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.

US envoy doubles down on support for Syria’s government, criticizes Israel’s intervention
AP/July 21, 2025
BEIRUT: A US envoy doubled down on Washington’s support for the new government in Syria, saying Monday there is “no Plan B” to working with the current authorities to unite the country still reeling from a nearly 14-year civil war and now wracked by a new outbreak of sectarian violence. He took a critical tone toward Israel’s recent intervention in Syria, calling it poorly timed and saying that it complicated efforts to stabilize the region. Tom Barrack, who is ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria and also has a short-term mandate in Lebanon, made the comments in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. He spoke following more than a week of clashes in the southern province of Sweida between militias of the Druze religious minority and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes. Syrian government forces intervened before withdrawing under a ceasefire agreement with Druze factions. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting. In the meantime, Israel intervened last week on behalf of the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military. Israel launched dozens of strikes on convoys of government forces in Sweida and also struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Damascus. Over the weekend, Barrack announced a ceasefire between Syria and Israel, without giving details. Syrian government forces have redeployed in Sweida to halt renewed clashes between the Druze and Bedouins, and civilians from both sides were set to be evacuated Monday.
US envoy says Israeli intervention ‘came at a very bad time’
Barrack told the AP that “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.” Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: “The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”
However, he said that Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”Prior to the conflict in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been engaging in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward a full normalization of diplomatic relations. When the latest fighting erupted, “Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,” Barrack said. “The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.”The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address the broader issues between the two countries, including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone. In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said “both sides did the best they can” to came to an agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.
“Whether you accept that Israel can intervene in a sovereign state is a different question,” he said. He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country. “Strong nation states are a threat — especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel,” he said. But in Syria, he said, “I think all of the the minority communities are smart enough to say, we’re better off together, centralized.”

Syria violence brings Druze communities' complex cross-border ties to the fore
Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame/Naharnet/July 21, 2025
(THE CONVERSATION) A fragile ceasefire was put in place in southern Syria on July 19, 2025, after days of violence between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes that drew in government forces and prompted Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, as a warning to pull back from Druze areas. The United States helped broker the latest agreement, fearing a spillover of violence to other parts of Syria. The conflict's quick escalation brings to the fore multiple layers of politics and identity in the region – particularly among the Druze, who form an important minority in several countries and make up about 2% of Israel's population. As a historian of the Middle East, I have researched Druze cross-border communal ties and followed closely their predicaments since the start of the Syrian civil war in March 2011.
Cross-border brotherhood -
The Druze are a monotheistic religious community that split from a branch of Shiite Islam in the 11th century. Today, they live mainly in three countries: Lebanon, Syria and Israel, with a small presence in northern Jordan. Despite their geographical dispersion, they have managed to retain a strong sense of communal identity. One of the most important creeds of their faith is "protection of brothers of the faith."Another article of faith that helps to buttress shared communal solidarity is belief in reincarnation: that with physical death, the soul is transferred to the body of a newly born Druze. Although Druze history shows that the community is not always united, the belief in and practice of cross-border solidarity is very strong. According to their popular saying, "the Druze are like a copper tray. Wherever you hit it, the whole tray reverberates."
National identity
After World War I, the creation of the modern states in the Middle East divided the Druze community between Syria, Lebanon and the British mandate of Palestine, which is now Israel. In Israel, they have largely integrated into the Jewish state. Like Jewish citizens, Druze men are required to serve in the military, and many have attained leadership positions in the security sector and politics. A popular cliché has developed about their "blood oath" with the Jewish state. In a July 15 statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz cited Israel's "deep covenant of blood with our Druze citizens" and their connections to Druze in Syria. Their integration has been marred by discrimination, a prime example of which is the 2018 law that defines Israel as the nation-state for Jews. Still, many retain a strong sense of Israeli identity that sets them apart from Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel. An additional Druze community lives in the Golan Heights, territory that Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and has occupied since. Most Druze there declined to receive Israeli citizenship, and remained loyal to Syria until the outbreak of the civil war there. Since then, there has been a notable change in their relationship with Israel, marked by increased numbers who have acquired Israeli citizenship.
Druze communities elsewhere in the region have also adopted aspects of their countries' culture, including Arab nationalism and Syrian or Lebanese national sentiments. Still, cross-border solidarity among Druze has remained strong – and often resurfaced in times of crisis.
War in Syria -
When the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011, Syrian Druze were targeted at times by both the Assad regime, which pressured them to support it, and by Islamist rebel groups that regarded them as infidels. The Druze straddled a fine line throughout the war, seeking, not always successfully, to be left on their own. In 2015, that tension came to a boiling point. Druze regions throughout Syria became sites of military confrontations, involving Druze militias, the Syrian army and opposition fighters.
Israeli Druze organized mass rallies in support of their brothers in Syria and called on the Israeli government to intervene. Israel, in turn, protected Syrian Druze villages close to its border with Syria in the Golan Heights. The Israeli government covertly supported Druze areas deeper in Syria, and sent clear messages to combatants on all sides not to harm the Druze. Since the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus in December 2024, Ahmad al-Sharaa, the new Syrian leader, has attempted to bring divided and ruined Syria together under his authority.
However, religious and ethnic minorities have been highly suspicious of the new government. Many of its members hail from al-Sharaa's own militia during the civil war, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, which targeted religious minorities and enforced its own interpretation of Islam on the population under its control.
Spiraling crisis
The most recent violence took place in Mount Druze, a region in Sweida province that is home to most of the community in Syria. It was sparked by an incident where a local Bedouin band robbed and killed a Druze man. The incident quickly became a catalyst for major fighting between Druze, Bedouins and dispatched units of the Syrian army. State security forces tried to impose their authority, but in the process killed scores of Druze. They also violated Druze cultural norms by filming the forced shaving of Druze men's mustaches, including respected religious men, and posting the clips on social media. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 1,100 people have been killed in the fighting. The fragile agreement that the Sweida Druze signed with the new government in May, as part of the government's efforts to solidify authority over the divided country, collapsed following these incidents. Befitting the saying about the reverberation of the copper tray, Israeli Druze immediately mobilized, joined by Druze in the Golan Heights. Hundreds crossed the border to Syria. Many called on the government in Jerusalem to intervene, though others were opposed. On July 16, the Israeli military targeted the Syrian army by striking Damascus – sending a clear threat to al-Sharaa. Israel also struck military targets in southern Syria. Later that day, the Syrian government reached a ceasefire agreement with the Druze in Sweida, which collapsed soon after. On July 19, following more fighting and violence – and mediation by the United States, Turkey and Jordan – a new ceasefire was put in place, though new fighting has been reported.
A changing Middle East -
Even before these recent incidents, Israel became a key player in post-Assad Syria by occupying areas close to their shared border. Now, Israel has deepened its involvement by defending the Druze population in the country – as many Israeli Druze had hoped it would since the start of the civil war in 2011. Apart from supporting the Druze, Israel's military actions are also tied to its efforts to project power amid the tectonic shifts in the Middle East since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. In Syria, it seeks to guarantee its influence on the reshaping of the country after civil war. Domestically, Netanyahu is interested in prolonging Israel's state of emergency, as it extends the survival of his far-right and unpopular government. Syria provides him with another front to maintain this state of emergency. For many Israeli Druze, meanwhile, this still-unfolding episode constitutes another example in their history of seeking to protect their brothers in faith. Among Druze in the Middle East, they are uniquely positioned, with many serving in the region's most powerful military.On July 19, Israel's public broadcaster, Kan news, reported that 2,000 Israeli Druze, including reserve soldiers, signed a petition that said: "we are getting ready to volunteer to fight alongside our brothers in Sweida. It is our time to defend our brothers, our land and our religion."This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/amid-fragile-ceasefire-violence-in-southern-syria-brings-druze-communities-complex-cross-border-ties-to-the-fore-261337

UN chief warns development goals will fail if wars continue to rage, condemns killings in Gaza
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/July 21, 2025
NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned Israel’s killing of civilians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza over the weekend, calling it “an atrocious and inhumane act,” and demanded an immediate ceasefire along with the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and unimpeded aid access to the starving enclave. “These were people seeking UN assistance for their families,” Guterres said in remarks opening the High-Level Political Forum in New York. “We need an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all hostages, and full humanitarian access as a first step toward achieving a two-state solution,” he added. Guterres also called for the fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel to hold and reiterated his call for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, rooted in the UN Charter, international law, and UN resolutions. He urged an end to the conflict in Sudan and pointed to continued violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, the Sahel and Myanmar, warning that war and instability are “pushing the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach.”The secretary-general linked these conflicts directly to the core development agenda, stressing that “sustainable peace requires sustainable development.” He warned that the world is far off track to meet the SDGs by 2030 and said the erosion of peace and rising geopolitical tensions are among the biggest threats to that progress. The UN chief’s address came at a time of growing frustration among developing nations and civil society groups over the lack of progress toward the SDGs, a set of 17 global targets adopted in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet, and promote peace and prosperity by 2030. While the world has seen gains, such as increased access to electricity, internet, and education, only 35 percent of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, according to UN data. Nearly half are moving too slowly, and 18 percent are regressing.
“We cannot sugarcoat these facts,” Guterres said. “But we must not surrender to them either.”He linked peace and development, arguing that sustainable peace is impossible without sustainable development. Despite multiple setbacks, Guterres pointed to recent multilateral breakthroughs as evidence that international cooperation can still deliver results.He cited three key achievements: the adoption of a Pandemic Agreement in Geneva aimed at building a fairer global health system; new ocean protection commitments made in Nice to fight pollution and illegal fishing; and the so-called Seville Commitment, a financial pact aimed at expanding fiscal space for developing countries, improving access to capital, and reforming the global financial architecture.
“This shows that transformation is not only necessary — it is possible,” he said. The HLPF, held annually at UN headquarters, is the central platform for reviewing progress toward the SDGs. This year’s forum spotlights five interconnected goals: health, gender equality, decent work, marine ecosystems, and global partnerships. On health, Guterres urged governments to invest in universal care and prevention, particularly for the most vulnerable. On gender equality, he acknowledged persistent barriers but noted growing grassroots momentum, and called for real financing, accountability, and rights-based policies to drive systemic change. On decent work, he warned that over 2 billion people remain in informal employment and youth joblessness is high. But he cited the UN’s Global Accelerator initiative as helping countries create jobs and expand social protections, especially in green industries. Guterres also emphasized the need to reform the global financial system, which he said no longer reflects current geopolitical or economic realities. The Seville Commitment, he said, sets out concrete steps: strengthening domestic resource mobilization through tax reform, improving debt relief frameworks, and tripling the lending capacity of multilateral development banks. Guterres urged greater investment in science, data, and digital tools, including artificial intelligence, as well as deeper partnerships with civil society, the private sector, and local governments. With five years remaining to meet the 2030 deadline, he called on nations to transform “sparks of progress into a blaze of transformation,” saying: “Let’s deliver on development — for people and for the planet.”

Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared
AP/July 21, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli ground troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.
Deir Al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there. The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion and demanded answers from Israeli leaders. Israel says the seizure of territory in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages, but it is a major point of contention in ongoing ceasefire talks.
FASTFACTS
• The main group representing hostages’ families said it was ‘shocked and alarmed’ by the incursion and demanded answers from Israeli leaders.
• Israel says the seizure of territory in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages, but it is a major point of contention in ongoing ceasefire talks.
• The UN food agency has accused Israeli forces of firing on a crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid over the weekend.
The UN food agency, meanwhile, accused Israeli forces of firing on a crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid over the weekend. Gaza’s Health Ministry called it one of the deadliest attacks on aid-seekers in the war that has driven the territory to the brink of famine.
In the latest sign of international frustration, the UK, France and 23 other Western-aligned countries issued a statement saying “the war in Gaza must end now.” They harshly criticized Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid and called for the release of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza.
Explosions were heard from parts of the city that were ordered evacuated on Sunday. The Israeli military official said it was the first time ground troops had operated in the area.
A man living in the evacuation zone said Israel dropped pamphlets at dawn ordering people to evacuate. Two hours later, tanks rolled into the area.
He said his 62-year-old father, who had spent the night elsewhere, fled from house to house as Israeli forces moved in and saw them flattening structures with bulldozers and tanks. Both men managed to leave the evacuation zone.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said two UN guesthouses in Deir Al-Balah were damaged by shrapnel. He said the cause was still being investigated but that heavy Israeli airstrikes had been reported in the area. Local and international staff will continue to work there, he said.
The military declined to say if it had ordered the evacuation of aid groups based in the city, saying only that it maintains continuous contact with them and facilitates their relocation when necessary.
Tens of thousands of people have sought refuge in Deir Al-Balah during repeated waves of mass displacement in Gaza. The UN humanitarian coordinator says 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under evacuation orders or inside Israeli military zones, “leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 percent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed.”Israel has taken over large areas of Gaza and split the territory with corridors stretching from the border to the sea as it seeks to pressure Hamas to release more hostages.
In response to the Deir Al-Balah incursion, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its statement that “the people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages — both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake.”Israel blames the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas, and it accuses the group of prolonging the war because Hamas has not accepted Israel’s terms for a ceasefire.
The World Food Programme, in a rare condemnation, said the crowd surrounding its convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost. A photographer working with the AP counted 51 bodies at two hospitals.The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 80 people were killed. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat” and questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians. It declined to comment on the WFP statement.

UK and 24 other nations condemn Israel over ‘inhumane killing’ of civilians
Reuters/July 21, 2025
LONDON: A group of 25 Western countries including Britain, France, and Canada said on Monday Israel must immediately end its war in Gaza and criticized what they called the “inhumane killing” of Palestinians, including hundreds near food distribution sites.
The countries in a joint statement condemned what they called the “drip feeding of aid” to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was “horrifying” that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations. “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.”Israel’s foreign ministry said the statement was “disconnected from reality” and it would send the wrong message to Hamas. “The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognize Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation,” the Israeli statement said.Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of the war that began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, with the latest deaths reported on Monday as Israel began a new incursion in central Gaza. The call by about 20 European countries as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand for an end to the war in Gaza and the delivery of aid comes from many countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing the UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which the GHF denies. The countries behind the statement said Israel was denying essential humanitarian assistance and called on the country to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law. They urged Israel to immediately lift restrictions to allow the flow of aid and to enable humanitarian organizations and the United Nations to operate safely and effectively. They added they were “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to securit

Israeli forces push into parts of a central Gaza city that the war had largely spared
Wafaa Shurafa, Melanie Lidman And Samy Magdy/The Associated Press/July 21, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli ground troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors. Deir al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there. The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion and demanded answers from Israeli leaders. Israel says the seizure of territory in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages, but it is a major point of contention in ongoing ceasefire talks. The U.N. food agency, meanwhile, accused Israeli forces of firing on a crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid over the weekend. Gaza's Health Ministry called it one of the deadliest attacks on aid-seekers in the war that has driven the territory to the brink of famine. In the latest sign of international frustration, the United Kingdom, France and 23 other Western-aligned countries issued a statement saying “the war in Gaza must end now.” They harshly criticized Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid and called for the release of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza.
Evacuation orders dropped at dawn
Associated Press reporters heard explosions and saw smoke rising from parts of the city that were ordered evacuated on Sunday. The Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said it was the first time ground troops had operated in the area. A man living in the evacuation zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said Israel dropped pamphlets at dawn ordering people to evacuate. Two hours later, tanks rolled into the area.He said his 62-year-old father, who had spent the night elsewhere, fled from house to house as Israeli forces moved in and saw them flattening structures with bulldozers and tanks. Both men managed to leave the evacuation zone. United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said two U.N. guesthouses in Deir al-Balah were damaged by shrapnel. He said the cause was still being investigated but that heavy Israeli airstrikes had been reported in the area. Local and international staff will continue to work there, he said.The military declined to say if it had ordered the evacuation of aid groups based in the city, saying only that it maintains continuous contact with them and facilitates their relocation when necessary.
U.N. says nearly 90% of Gaza is now off limits
Tens of thousands of people have sought refuge in Deir al-Balah during repeated waves of mass displacement in Gaza. The U.N. humanitarian coordinator says 87.8% of Gaza is now under evacuation orders or inside Israeli military zones, “leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed.”Israel has taken over large areas of Gaza and split the territory with corridors stretching from the border to the sea as it seeks to pressure Hamas to release more hostages. In response to the Deir al-Balah incursion, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its statement that “the people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages — both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake."Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war and killed around 1,200 people. Fewer than half of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive. Israel blames the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas, and it accuses the group of prolonging the war because Hamas has not accepted Israel's terms for a ceasefire.
Rare condemnation from U.N. food agency
The World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said the crowd surrounding its convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost. A photographer working with the AP counted 51 bodies at two hospitals. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 80 people were killed. Israel's military said it fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat” and questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians. It declined to comment on the WFP statement. Hundreds of people have been killed while seeking food in recent weeks, both from U.N. convoys and separate aid sites run by an Israeli-backed group that has been mired in controversy. The Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to more than 59,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Israel detains Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson
Gaza health officials said at least 18 people, including three women and five children, were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.At least three people were killed when crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks were shot at in the area of the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, according to two hospitals that received the bodies. The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces detained Dr. Marwan al-Hams, acting director of the strip’s field hospitals and the ministry’s spokesman. Israeli troops killed a local journalist, Tamer al-Zaanein, who was accompanying al-Hams, and wounded two other people when they detained him near a Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry and the journalist’s family. The International Committee of the Red Cross declined to provide details but said it was “very concerned" about safety and security around the hospital "and the impact this can have on patients and staff.”
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Israel again strikes rebel-held port in Yemen
The fighting in Gaza has triggered conflicts elsewhere in region, including between Israel and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is in solidarity with Palestinians. The Israeli military said it struck the Hodeidah port in Yemen early Monday. Israel has struck the port before, including two weeks ago, accusing the Houthis of using it to import arms from Iran. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the targets included areas of the port that Israel had destroyed in previous strikes. “The Houthis will pay heavy prices for launching missiles towards the state of Israel,” Katz said.

Belgian king denounces Gaza abuses in unusually direct remarks
Reuters/July 21/2025
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgium's King Philippe described abuses in Gaza as a "disgrace to humanity" in a speech on the eve of Monday's national day, unusually direct remarks on international affairs from a monarch who traditionally avoids public politics.
"I add my voice to all those who denounce the serious humanitarian abuses in Gaza, where innocent people are dying of hunger and being killed by bombs while trapped in their enclaves," he said speaking at his palace in Brussels. "The current situation has gone on for far too long. It is a disgrace to all of humanity. We support the call by the United Nations Secretary-General to immediately end this unbearable crisis." It was the first time Philippe has spoken out so strongly and unambiguously about a conflict in public. Belgium's federal government has been more reserved in its criticism of the conflict in Gaza. The king's role in Belgium is limited to giving advice, support, and warnings to the government without making any political decisions. Israel launched its assault on Gaza following an October 2023 attack on Israeli towns by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to health officials there. Much of the territory has been laid to waste and Israel has restricted food and other supplies. Israel denies that its forces commit abuses in Gaza and says restrictions on supplies are needed to prevent aid from being diverted by militants.

Belgium questions 2 Israelis at music festival over Gaza crime allegations
Associated Press/July 21/2025
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian police questioned two members of the Israeli army who were attending a music festival in Belgium over allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Brussels said in a statement Monday. In a statement to The Associated Press, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said an Israeli citizen and an Israeli soldier who were on vacation in Belgium “were taken in yesterday for interrogation and were released shortly afterward." It said Israeli authorities "dealt with this issue and are in touch with the two.”
It was not immediately clear why the Israeli Foreign Ministry referred to one civilian and one soldier, while Belgian prosecutors spoke of two Israeli army members. The whereabouts of the two people who were questioned was not immediately clear.
The case was hailed as a “turning point in the global pursuit of accountability” by a Belgium-based group called the Hind Rajab Foundation, which has campaigned for the arrest of Israeli troops it accuses of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The group was named for a young girl who Palestinians say was killed early in the war by Israeli fire as she and her family fled Gaza City. It isn't the first time an Israeli has been targeted overseas for legal action. In January, Israel helped a former soldier leave Brazil after legal action was initiated against him by the group, which uses geolocation and social media posts to identify soldiers they accuse of war crimes. Since forming last year, the Hind Rajab Foundation has made dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries seeking the arrest of both low-level and high-ranking Israeli soldiers. It was not immediately clear if any soldiers have been arrested as a result of the group's actions. The group did not immediately respond to an email seeking details. “We will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to pursue the investigation fully and independently,” the group said in its statement. “Justice must not stop here — and we are committed to seeing it through.” Israel says its forces follow international law and try to avoid harming civilians, and that it investigates allegations of wrongdoing.
In a written statement, the prosecutor's office said that the two army members — who were in Belgium for the Tomorrowland festival — were questioned after the office received legal complaints on Friday and Saturday from the Hind Rajab Foundation and another group. The prosecution office requested the questioning after an initial assessment of the complaints “determined that it potentially had jurisdiction.”The Hind Rajab foundation said it filed its complaints along with the rights group Global Legal Action Network. The decision to question the two Israelis was based on an article in Belgium's Code of Criminal Procedure that went into force last year and grants Belgian courts jurisdiction over acts overseas that are potentially governed by an international treaty, in this case the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1984 United Nations convention against torture, the prosecution statement said. “In light of this potential jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office requested the police to locate and interrogate the two individuals named in the complaint. Following these interrogations, they were released,” the statement said, without elaborating.
It said it was not providing any further information at this stage of its investigation. The European Jewish Association criticized Belgian authorities for acting on what it called a politically motivated complaint. “These soldiers were carrying out their lawful duties in defence of their country, duties comparable to those of any soldier serving in a democratic nation,” the association said in a statement. The news in Belgium came as the U.N. food agency accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid, in what the territory’s Health Ministry said was one of the deadliest days for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war. The death toll in war-ravaged Gaza has climbed to more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Iranian lawmaker points to regional insecurity if UN sanctions are reimposed
Reuters/July 21/2025
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran could withhold security commitments if European states invoke a U.N. mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, a member of Iran's parliamentary national security commission said on Monday, according to Borna news. "We have many tools in our disposition. We can withhold our commitment to security in the region, Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait as well as other maritime areas," Abbas Moqtadaei said in reference to Tehran's potential counter-measures to the reimposition of international sanctions. He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday between Iranian deputy foreign ministers and British, French and German diplomats in Istanbul. The three European states, known as E3, have said they would restore international sanctions on Iran by the end of August if the country did not enter productive talks on its nuclear programme with Western powers, notably the United States. E3 countries and Iran have in recent months held inconclusive talks on Tehran's nuclear program, in parallel to indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Israel's attack on Iran in June led to the suspension of such talks. "Europe is not in a position to endanger itself in the... Hormuz Strait when it is itself in political, economic and cultural conflicts with Russia, China and even the United States," Moqtadaei said in an interview with Iran's semi-official Borna news agency. Last week, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said Tehran would react to the three European states if they invoked the UN snapback mechanism, which expires on October 18. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the E3 lack the legal standing to invoke the mechanism, arguing that their stance on Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month made them no longer participants to a 2015 nuclear deal to which the snapback mechanism is linked. The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the nuclear pact - from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme. In the past, Iran has used the threat of disrupting maritime transit in the Strait of Hormuz or no longer stopping Europe-bound drug trafficking as a means to push back against Western pressures on its nuclear programme.

US envoy criticizes Israel’s intervention in Syria
Laura Kelly/The Hill/July 21/2025
President Trump’s special envoy for Syria on Monday criticized Israeli strikes against the country last week as poorly timed and complicating efforts to stabilize the region, in an interview with The Associated Press. Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, is engaged in ceasefire efforts to halt sectarian violence in Syria that broke out last week and triggered an Israeli intervention on behalf of Syria’s minority Druze community. A ceasefire was announced July 18. Speaking in an interview with the AP from Beirut, Barrack said the U.S. was not consulted over Israel’s decision to strike Syria last week, “nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”But he added that Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”
Barrack’s criticism follows an Axios report that White House officials are branding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “madman” who is undermining Trump’s wider ambitions in the Middle East. Trump has put his support behind the nascent, interim Syrian government, which took control of the country after ousting long-time dictator Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive at the end of 2024. Trump announced in May he would lift all U.S. sanctions on the country to give it a chance to rebuild. His administration has also removed the terrorist designation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militant group that led the offensive and removed a $10 million bounty for the HTS’s chief and now interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. And while Assad’s ousting was widely celebrated, tensions and violence between sectarian groups persisted. Last week, fighting broke out in Syria’s southern Sweida province between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions. More than 300 people were reportedly killed in the fighting and Israel intervened with strikes against Damascus and against Syrian government forces in the south over what it said was protection for the Druze community.The Druze minority in Israel is deeply respected for its service to the state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were launched to prevent the militarization of Syrian forces on Israel’s northern border and to protect “the brothers of our brothers, the Druze at the Druze Mountain.”Al-Sharaa condemned the Israeli strikes as an attempt to sow “chaos” in the country. The Trump administration has sought to broker ties between the interim Syrian government and Israel in what would be a major breakthrough in peace relations in the region. Al-Sharaa has signaled openness to brokering ties with Israel, but Israeli officials are cautious over empowering a government with past ties to terrorism and groups including al Qaeda and ISIS.

Zelensky names new ambassadors during Ukraine political shakeup
Reuter/July 21/2025
MOSCOW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed over a dozen new ambassadors on Monday, during a big shakeup that has seen him replace top cabinet officials and envoys to shore up relations with Washington and isolate Russia internationally.
The new envoys named on Monday include ambassadors to NATO members Belgium, Canada, Estonia and Spain, as well as major donor Japan and regional heavyweights South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.Zelensky launched a major government reshuffle last week, promoting Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who had served as economy minister and is well known in Washington, to head the cabinet as prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna is set to become Ukraine’s new envoy to the United States, as Ukraine seeks to mend ties with the Trump administration. In remarks to the diplomatic corps released by his office, Zelensky said envoys needed to support “everything that causes Russia pain for its war.”“While the content of our relationship with America has transformed following the change in administration, the goal remains unchanged: Ukraine must withstand Russia’s strikes,” Zelensky said.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 21-22/2025
ISIS Extremism or Islamic Doctrine?
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 21/2025
A lie, by definition, conceals the truth. And when unpleasant but vital truths remain hidden, they go unacknowledged, unaddressed, and ultimately unresolved.
This principle underscores one of the most consequential falsehoods of our time: the claim that violence committed in the name of Islam is wholly unrelated to Islam itself. This widespread denial has enabled what is, at its core, an ideologically vulnerable religion to become one of the most persistent sources of global instability, with no end in sight.
Consider the most recent example: On June 22, Islamist militants launched a suicide attack on a church in Damascus, Syria, killing 25 Christians — mostly women and children—and injuring nearly 100 others.
The central question under current discussion is not why the attack occurred, but rather which group carried it out. The regime of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — formerly the head of the jihadi faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — initially attributed the assault to ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Yet two days later, a lesser-known group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna — an offshoot of al-Sharaa’s own organization — claimed responsibility.
While analysts and media outlets debate which group was behind the bombing, there is near-unanimous agreement on one point: regardless of which faction committed the atrocity, it is not to be seen as representative of Islam. The act is instead portrayed as a “hijacking” of the faith. Accordingly, discussion remains confined to the individual groups — not to Islam itself.
My immediate response is this: There sure appear to be a remarkably high number of organizations “hijacking” Islam — especially when compared to the conspicuous absence of any comparable phenomenon within Christianity or other major religions.
Remember When…
The following examples, far from exhaustive, offer a brief but sobering reminder for those in the West with short institutional memory:
Democratic Republic of Congo (February 2025): The Allied Democratic Forces rounded up 70 Christians, marched them to a church, and decapitated them with knives.
Burkina Faso (Aug. 25, 2024): Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin executed 26 Christians inside a church by slitting their throats.
Philippines (Jan. 27, 2019): Abu Sayyaf militants bombed a cathedral, killing at least 20 Christians and injuring over 100.Indonesia (May 13, 2018): Jamaah Ansharut Daulah bombed three churches, killing 13 Christians and wounding dozens.
Sri Lanka (April 21, 2018): On Easter Sunday, National Thowheeth Jama’ath bombed three churches and three hotels. The coordinated attack killed 359 people — mostly Christians — and wounded over 500.
Egypt (April 9, 2017): On Palm Sunday, ISIS-linked Egyptian terrorists bombed two churches packed with worshippers. At least 45 Christians were killed and more than 100 injured.
Pakistan (March 27, 2016): Following Easter Sunday services, Jamaat ul Ahrar bombed a public park frequented by Christians. More than 70 Christians — mainly women and children — were killed. Just one year earlier, the same group killed at least 14 Christians in coordinated attacks on two churches.
These incidents — while only a fraction of the whole — illustrate a critical point: The groups in question have little, if anything, to do with each other. They are based in widely different countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. They differ in race, language, and sociopolitical context.
What they do have in common is their religion: Islam, which directs them to kill Christians. And yet this is the one factor we are collectively instructed to ignore. It is the one variable mainstream narratives insist is wholly benign and synonymous with peace.
Ignoring the Obvious
This brings us back to the core problem: that deeply unsettling truths, when denied or buried, are never addressed or corrected.
Recognizing that these disparate terror groups are in fact ideologically unified by Islam is considered taboo. This reality is systematically denied by the West’s self-appointed “guardians of truth” — whether in the mainstream media, academia, Hollywood, or politics — all of whom often seem interchangeable in their messaging.
Instead, the public is continually reassured that such atrocities are perpetrated not by Muslims inspired by Islamic doctrine, but by marginal, aberrant groups “hijacking” Islam. The result is a false sense of security. By treating each group as an isolated, localized, and temporary phenomenon, the broader pattern is ignored. Defeat the specific group, we are told, and the threat will disappear.
Take Syria. Whether one believes the attack was carried out by remnants of ISIS or affiliates of the new president’s former militia, the working assumption is that once the specific group is dismantled, the danger will dissipate.
Meanwhile, some 2,400 miles west of Syria, in Nigeria, Christians face an ongoing genocide. There, two Christians are killed for their faith every single hour. By 2021, at least 43,000 Christians had already been murdered (with thousands more in the subsequent years), and some 20,000 churches and Christian schools had been destroyed.
Ordinary Muslims
According to prevailing narratives, the perpetrators are groups like Boko Haram — yet another faction that openly defines itself in Islamic terms, routinely targets churches during Christian holidays, and is nonetheless described as having “nothing to do with Islam.” Again, the suggestion is that Boko Haram is a distinct, localized problem. Defeat it, and the crisis ends.
More recently still, Fulani herdsmen — nominally unaffiliated with any formal terror group — have become the primary agents of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria. Because they are not formally branded, and are often perceived as “ordinary” Muslims, their actions are attributed to “climate change” or “land disputes,” even as they express the same jihadist hostility toward Christians as more infamous terrorist brands.
The pattern repeats elsewhere. Approximately 5,000 miles west of Nigeria, in the United States, Americans were told that al-Qaeda was responsible for the September 11 attacks, which killed 3,000 civilians. The threat, it was claimed, would end with the group’s destruction.
Indeed, after the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, terrorism expert Peter Bergen and others declared, “Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror… It’s time to move on.”
Yet an even more brutal group, the Islamic State, soon emerged.
Many Strata of Data
The denial runs deeper still. The problem is not only the refusal of the media and experts to connect these incidents to Islam; it is their failure to acknowledge that many attacks are not carried out by formal terror groups at all, but by unaffiliated Muslims — ordinary individuals or mobs — who commit similar atrocities far more frequently, though less spectacularly.
While the above examples involved some of the most high-profile attacks, countless acts of persecution are committed by Muslims on a daily basis.
The data is unambiguous. According to the 2025 World Watch List, Muslims — across various strata of society and spanning races, nationalities, languages, and economic conditions — are responsible for persecuting Christians in 37 of the top 50 countries where such persecution is most severe.
These findings are consistent with a rarely cited Pew Research survey, which concluded that in 11 Muslim-majority countries alone, anywhere from 63 million to 287 million Muslims support ISIS. Likewise, 81% of respondents to a recent Al Jazeera poll expressed support for the Islamic State.
In short, the activities of “extremist,” “terrorist,” or “militant” groups — which we are routinely assured have “nothing to do with Islam” — represent only the visible tip of a much larger iceberg. For over a decade, I have documented these patterns in my monthly series, Muslim Persecution of Christians, launched in July 2011. Each installment catalogs dozens of incidents that, if Christians perpetrated them against Muslims, would command wall-to-wall media coverage.
Calling It Out
Thus, the mainstream narrative not only misrepresents the motives of high-profile terrorist groups; it also systematically ignores the daily persecution suffered by non-Muslims at the hands of ordinary Muslims — whether individuals, mobs, police, or governments (including those counted among the West’s “allies”).
These omissions have had devastating consequences. They have permitted the continued persecution of vulnerable minorities throughout the Muslim world while facilitating the spread of similar ideologies into the West — most recently through mass migration.
In conclusion, and to restate the central premise: No problem can be solved unless it is first acknowledged. The uncomfortable but necessary truth is that Islam — not this or that terrorist group — provides the ideological framework that inspires hostility and violence against non-Muslims. Unless this reality is faced head-on, the cycle of denial will only continue — along with the persecution and loss of countless lives.
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**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Raymond Ibrahim © 2025.

Why Al-Jazeera Should Be Designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/July 21/2025
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Al-Jazeera has been openly serving as the unofficial mouthpiece of Hamas and its military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam.
Even before the war, Hamas's political and military leaders often chose Al-Jazeera to spread their propaganda and call for jihad (holy war) against Israel.
Hamas knows it can trust Al-Jazeera: the two share the same radical Islamist ideology that calls for the elimination of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist terror state.
Hamas does not need its own television station. It has Al-Jazeera, one of the most influential and wealthiest TV networks in the Arab world. This is what happens when most of the funding comes from Qatar, which has used its ties with Islamist groups, especially Muslim Brotherhood, as soft power to boost its regional and global influence.
Al-Jazeera, for its part, has been extremely protective of its friends in Hamas. The television station does not allow any criticism of Hamas or Qatar. When a Palestinian dares to criticize Hamas during a live interview, Al-Jazeera quickly cuts off the interview.
Last year, Israeli security forces disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip that confirm the military affiliation of six Al-Jazeera journalists with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terror group in the coastal territory.
One does not have to be an expert in journalism or the Middle East to understand that Al-Jazeera is nothing but a terrorist organization masquerading as a media outlet.
A number of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain understand the dangers of Al-Jazeera.
That is why they have shut the offices of Al-Jazeera, blocked its websites and demanded that Qatar curb the television station. Even the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas... suspended Al-Jazeera's broadcasting in the West Bank....
Why do some Americans and Westerners still consider Al-Jazeera a credible and professional media station if so many Arabs view it as an organ of Islamist terrorists and Jihadis? ... It is time to designate Al-Jazeera as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Al-Jazeera has been openly serving as the unofficial mouthpiece of Hamas and its military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam. Pictured: The headquarters of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
On June 18, the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera TV network (in Arabic) broadcast another "exclusive" video of a speech by Abu Obaida, the masked spokesman of the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas.
This is the group that started the current war in the Gaza Strip, when thousands of its members invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and wounding thousands. Another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 50 are still held captive. At least 20 of those hostages are believed to be alive.
It did not come as a surprise that the video of the Hamas spokesman was first broadcast on Al-Jazeera. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Al-Jazeera has been openly serving as the unofficial mouthpiece of Hamas and its military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam.
Even before the war, Hamas's political and military leaders often chose Al-Jazeera to spread their propaganda and call for jihad (holy war) against Israel. They did not choose Al-Jazeera because it is renowned for its high journalistic and ethical standards. Hamas (and other Islamist terror groups) love Al-Jazeera because, since its founding in 1996, the television empire has been serving as the semi-official mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Notably, Hamas serves as the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestinian branch."
Hamas knows it can trust Al-Jazeera: the two share the same radical Islamist ideology that calls for the elimination of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist terror state.
The "exclusive" video of the Hamas spokesman was not the first of its kind. The same spokesman has been sending his recorded videos to Al-Jazeera for many years. In his speeches, Abu Obaida makes it appear as if his terror group is winning the war and all is needed is more patience before Israel surrenders.
In addition to the speeches and statements of Hamas leaders, Al-Jazeera has also been broadcasting "exclusive" footage of attacks purportedly carried out by Hamas against Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. The propaganda videos, filmed by the terrorists themselves, aim to boost the morale of the Palestinians by creating the false impression that the Israeli army is weak and vulnerable. Such videos are now appearing on Al-Jazeera almost on a weekly basis.
Hamas does not need its own television station. It has Al-Jazeera, one of the most influential and wealthiest TV networks in the Arab world. This is what happens when most of the funding comes from Qatar, which has used its ties with Islamist groups, especially Muslim Brotherhood, as soft power to boost its regional and global influence.
Hamas leaders leading comfortably lives in Qatar have always enjoyed welcome access to Al-Jazeera. The terror group's leaders in the Gaza Strip have always given Al-Jazeera free and exclusive access to secret meetings. Earlier this year, an Al-Jazeera documentary on Hamas military commanders during the war included exclusive footage and interviews with the masterminds of the October 7 massacres: Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and Izz al-Din al-Haddad.
Al-Jazeera, in addition, sent its correspondent Mustafa Ashour to visit one of Hamas's tunnels, where many of the Israeli hostages were – and are still – held.
No other television station has been given such a privilege by the terror group.
Al-Jazeera, for its part, has been extremely protective of its friends in Hamas. The television station does not allow any criticism of Hamas or Qatar. When a Palestinian dares to criticize Hamas during a live interview, Al-Jazeera quickly cuts off the interview.
During one interview, Al-Jazeera asked a wounded Palestinian man to give his eyewitness testimony. The man said: "What's happening is criminal! Why is the resistance [Hamas] hiding among is? Why don't they go to hell and hide there? They are not resistance!" The Al-Jazeera reporter immediately cut him off.
Last year, Israeli security forces disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip that confirm the military affiliation of six Al-Jazeera journalists with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terror group in the coastal territory. They are: Anas Jamal al-Sharif, Alaa Abdul Aziz Salama, Hossam Basel Shabat, Ashraf Sami Saraj, Ismail Farid Abu Omar and Talal Mahmoud Aruki.
One does not have to be an expert in journalism or the Middle East to understand that Al-Jazeera is nothing but a terrorist organization masquerading as a media outlet. A number of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain understand the dangers of Al-Jazeera.
That is why they have shut the offices of Al-Jazeera, blocked its websites and demanded that Qatar curb the television station. Even the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, seems to know about Al-Jazeera's connections to its rivals in Hamas. Earlier this year, the PA suspended Al-Jazeera's broadcasting in the West Bank for "misleading reports" that "provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs."
Why do some Americans and Westerners still consider Al-Jazeera a credible and professional media station if so many Arabs view it as an organ of Islamist terrorists and Jihadis? Al-Jazeera's affiliation with Islamist groups and terrorists also causes harm to the reputation of all media outlets and journalists. It is time to designate Al-Jazeera as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
*Bassam Tawil is a Musim Arab based in the Midde East.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Druze Revolts, Then And Now
السفير ألبرتو فرناندس: ثورات الدروز، ماضياً وحاضراً
By Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 814/July 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145493/
Exactly a century ago, what began as a dispute about local power in the Druze majority region of Southern Syria erupted into a long-lasting anti-imperialist revolt, one that would have a lasting regional impact. In July 2025, a different Druze revolt threatened to change the trajectory of political change in Syria and is already havening regional implications. The Druze, a relatively small and compact ethnic and religious minority found mostly in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, are once again in the spotlight.
On July 21, 1925, Druze feudal leader Sultan Al-Atrash announced a revolt against the French Mandate in the Levant. French rule in Syria, part of the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 between Britain and France, had already been rocky from the start. French efforts at modernizing and controlling Syria had also been characterized by a considerable amount of meddling and heavy-handed micromanaging. The powerful Al-Atrash family (the Turshan, plural of Atrash) had sent representatives to iron out differences with the French only to have them jailed as hostages in order to secure good behavior from the Druze.
The French did not quite know who they were dealing with. Sultan Al-Atrash had lost a father to the Ottomans, been drafted into the Turkish Army and later had fought the French in past battles.[1] This was a warrior chief from among a warrior people. Jealous of his personal power and feudal privileges, the Great Syrian Revolt Al-Atrash ignited was not a parochial one but framed in the potent language of Syrian Arab Nationalism, anti-imperialism and freedom. His revolutionary manifesto (drafted by Damascus intellectuals) even called for the “application of the principles of the French Revolution and the Rights of Man.” The humble Arab masses, what Al-Atrash dubbed “the patchers of cloaks” were especially inspired by this cause.[2]
Despite many small victories and undoubted bravery, Al-Atrash would eventually lose the war to the French but become a legendary figure, even in the West (he was portrayed heroically in the December 1925 issue of The Atlantic, in an article written by a Revisionist Zionist).[3] While he may have lost on the battlefield, Al-Atrash’s cause won politically, giving a tremendous boost to both Syrian patriotism and Arab Nationalism, a feat that would later earn him the praise of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Hafiz Al-Assad.
And yet in 1946, 20 years after that nationalist revolt, the Al-Atrash clan fought fiercely against the newly independent Arab government in Damascus (under Presidents Shukri Al-Quwatli and Adib Shishakli) to maintain Druze rights and autonomy. The Druze, like the Alawites, and like the Christians of neighboring Lebanon, seemed to have had two quarreling factions within their ranks: those seeking unity with the greater whole – either with the state and/or the Arab nation – and those leaning towards greater autonomy, federalism, or separation.[4]
The Turshan still exist but they are not the leading political figures of the Syrian Druze today. As with other polities and individuals in Syria over the past 15 years, the Druze have had to maneuver and scheme in their relations with the state, with each other, with the Assad regime, during the brutal Syrian Civil War, and now with the new Syrian government headed by Islamist President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. There were Syrian Druze who fought against Assad and there were Syrian Druze who collaborated with and indeed held high military rank in the Assad regime army.
A (pro-Al-Hijri) Druze fighter desecrating the tomb of Wahid Al-Balous (July 2025)
Syria’s most prominent Druze figures today represent the two sides of that historic Druze duality and ambivalence. 30-year-old Laith Al-Balous represents the more Syrian Arab nationalist Druze tendency, looking towards today’s Damascus government. The Al-Balous (through Laith’s father, Wahid Al-Balous, who was assassinated by the Assad regime in 2015) raised their own militia which fought against Jihadists and against aggressive Bedouin (Sunni Arab) neighbors but which also mostly leaned against the Assad regime.[5]
The traditional Druze religious leadership, especially in the person of Venezuela-born 60-year-old Hikmat Al-Hijri (many Druze have ties with South America, especially Venezuela), leaned much more decisively towards the Assad regime through the years. Al-Hijri broke with the Assad regime only at the very end, and much more clearly represents the autonomy-seeking tendency among the Druze.[6] And although Al-Hijri’s powerbase was initially religious, he is now very much a political player, with his own militia base and international ties (to the Israeli Druze).[7] Critics also accuse Al-Hijri of having recruited former Assad regime officers among the Syrian Druze and to be deeply involved in the Syrian drug trade across the border into Jordan.
Both Al-Balous and Al-Hijri are connected, in different ways, in the recent violence in Syria’s Druze majority Suwayda Governorate. One of the challenges the new government in Damascus faces is how to incorporate breakaway provinces back into a centrally-ruled Syria. This is a major problem with the Kurdish ruled Syrian Northeast and with Druze Suwayda.[8] Earlier this month, the Damascus government saw what seemed a golden opportunity to reincorporate Suwayda into Syria.
The 1925 war was triggered by a dead cat belonging to a French officer. The ostensible trigger for the 2025 war was the stealing of a Druze vegetable truck at a pro-government Bedouin-run checkpoint. Both local events were, of course, intimately connected to larger questions of power and authority in Syria, a century ago under French military, today, under Syria’s new Islamist rulers.
With the vegetable truck incident, tensions between Bedouin and Druze (which are nothing new) then exploded into outright conflict, with kidnappings and murders on both sides. Al-Hijri’s men – already regarded suspiciously by Damascus because of the international ties, the Assad officer connection and the smuggling question – were prominent in fighting (and killing) their Bedouin rivals. Damascus saw the sending of troops as a way to solve several problems – restore order, extend state power, curtail (or maybe eliminate) a troublesome local potentate, perhaps also build up a more amenable local figure in Laith Al-Balous.[9]
Infamous image of Druze cleric having his mustache clipped by government soldier (July 2025)
But disaster struck. The Damascus units initially sent in had two major problems. They seem to have been made up of raw recruits and they were contaminated by open religious animus. Videos of government soldiers mocking the Druze including several showing government fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze elders peppered social media. Islamists called for “no Druze mustaches (shawarib) or baggy pants (the traditional Druze sherwal).” And if insults were not bad enough, government troops and the pro-government Bedouin militias committed many human rights abuses against Druze civilians (not just against Al-Hijri’s fighters) while Al-Hijri’s forces seem to not just ambushed government troops but also slaughtered civilian prisoners and taken hostages.
All of this, the rhetoric, the videos, calls for revenge, calls to slaughter the Druze (not just “the criminal Al-Hijri”) fed into larger regional and international narratives.[10] Enemies of the Ahmed Al-Sharaa government in Damascus, including Iran and its allies, Assad regime types, and the Syrian Kurds, wasted no time in highlighting the abuses, and there was plenty of real material to work with.
Pro-Syrian government forces stand on image of Druze flag and Sultan Al-Atrash
With its own Druze population, a valued part of the state of Israel’s history and armed forces, rhetoric (and real violence) against the Syrian Druze and deeply ambivalent about Islamist rule in Damascus, the IDF intervened directly on the side of the Druze (meaning on the side of Al-Hijri).[11] Israel has long considered Southern Syria an area of deep strategic concern. Israel not only hit local government units and militias confronting Druze forces but spectacularly bombing the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus on live television.
With the help of American mediation, Damascus tried to forge a de-escalation agreement with the Druze which may or may not last. Government troops pulled back which led to even worse violence which then seems to be leading to government forces returning to the region.[12] There are simultaneously community-generated efforts at vendetta and at peacebuilding happening between Druze and non-Druze.
Much blood has been spilt and hearts hardened, especially among the Syrian Sunni majority against the Druze. There is deep rage and fury on both sides. While pro-government voices seek to place all the blame on the mercurial Druze warlord Al-Hijri, the fact remains that many Druze (and some Christians) were slaughtered, raped or kidnapped by pro-government forces (whether Bedouin or uniformed government units) with no regard to political affiliation.[13]
Syrian Bedouin Tribes Meet to Demand Disarming of Al-Hijri’s militia (January 2025)
Both sides are being portrayed as either victims or villains and both are portrayed too often, falsely, as uniform fronts.[14] There has been so much rhetoric and so much twisting, for political or ideological reasons, of the facts or exaggeration that it is important to make some general statements about the situation:
1) Tension and violence between Syrian Bedouin and Druze are not new. In addition, elements of both groups have connections with and are competitors in the lucrative smuggling (drugs and guns) business. They are not just in conflict because of religion or ethnicity.
2) There has been heightened anti-Druze tension for months in Syria.[15] In April 2025, there were bloodcurdling threats against Druze as a result of a suspicious video of a Druze man insulting the Prophet Muhammad which led to Syrian Sunni Muslim calls for violence against the Druze community as a whole.[16]
3) The March 2025 slaughter of Alawites by government forces on the Syrian Coast and the seeming subsequent impunity of those forces has heightened tensions with all ethnic and religious communities in the country across the board. The Druze, like the Kurds, and unlike the Christians, are armed and everyone is more leery of domination by Damascus after the March events.
4) Hikmat Al-Hijri is indeed a scheming, volatile figure who seeks to gain ultimate power within his community and is involved in all sorts of suspicious enterprises. But the indiscriminate slaughter of Druze by Bedouin/government forces seems to have boosted his popularity among Druze while Al-Balous’s influence is greatly diminished in comparison.
5) The Syrian government has real ties with Syrian Bedouin which it has used and is using as a tool to project power. In this conflict, the Bedouin are not completely free actors but rather enthusiastic sub-contractors, pursuing their own vendettas and crimes (such as rape and looting) while broadly serving the political interests of the Damascus government, in a sense serving as the “bad cop” to the Syrian government’s relative “good cop.”[17]
6) The Damascus government – whatever President Al-Sharaa’s real feelings on the matter – is itself not a free actor in this conflict either. Al-Sharaa is exquisitely aware of Qatari, and especially Turkish interests, in everything involving Syria, including the South. In a way, what happened with the Druze can be seen as a dry-run for a similar campaign to be directed against the Kurdish-led SDF in the country’s Northeast, an issue of tremendous interest to the Erdogan regime. But Al-Sharaa seems to also be hampered by his own cadres, blunt and chaotic instruments who seem to be cruder and less disciplined than he would prefer.[18]
Pro-Al-Hijri Propaganda on social media comparing him to Sultan Al-Atrash (July 2025)
A century after Sultan Al-Atrash’s heroism, the situation in Syria seems dire indeed, balancing on the edge of a knife. Any celebration marking the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 and the great Druze warrior would ring extremely hollow today. A shaky ceasefire seems to be holding in Suwayda but what comes next?[19] The war-wrecked country’s already frayed social fabric is again, deeply and severely wounded.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.

Israel continues to flout world court ruling on its occupation
Chris Doyle/Arab News/July 21, 2025
One year ago on Saturday, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion. The world’s highest interstate court determined on July 19, 2024, that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip was “unlawful” and must be brought to an end.
The key paragraph was crystal clear. It stated: “The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful.”
It also ruled that Israel’s discriminatory legislation and measures are also in breach of international law. They constituted a breach of Article 3 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid.
This was an authoritative determination on the state of the law on a specific issue. It was fortified by a UN General Assembly resolution last September endorsing the advisory opinion and demanding that the Israeli occupation ends by September 2025. There is more chance of Benjamin Netanyahu knocking on the doors of the International Criminal Court and saying, “here I am, arrest me, I am guilty as charged,” than there is of that happening. Israel has to dismantle its settlements and evacuate settlers. It has to do so immediately. And its military presence also needs to be withdrawn. The court determined that Israel owes full reparation for all the damage done by its illegal acts since 1967. Working out the exact compensation due will be some process, but the end figure will have many digits.
The court determined that Israel owes full reparation for all the damage done by its illegal acts since 1967
Showing the sort of contempt that might be expected from a government perpetrating genocide in Gaza, Israel has simply doubled down on its occupation. Settlements are expanding faster than ever, with approval for the doomsday settlement of E1 east of Jerusalem going forward apace. Settler violence is off the charts, with more than 740 settler attacks in the first half of 2025, according to the UN. Demolitions are a daily event. Israel has forcibly displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank alone, as well as nearly the entire population of Gaza. Rather than end the occupation, the Israeli government is pushing relentlessly toward annexation. Occupation in and of itself is not illegal. It may even be necessary. But it is meant to be temporary and is governed by international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. At the time the court’s opinion was issued, Israel’s occupation had lasted a jaw-dropping 57 years and involved the insertion of 750,000 settlers into occupied territory.
But the court also went further. It determined that Israel had violated the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. It was the ultimate legal determination as to Israel’s crimes and unlawful conduct across the whole of the Occupied Territories. There is no higher judicial body to make such a determination.Major powers are under an obligation to prevent and to punish genocide when other states are perpetrating such acts
But who refers to the occupation as unlawful? The US, of course, refuses, as it barely even acknowledges the occupation, a head-in-the-sand legal position. The UK government promised Parliament it would issue a formal response to this — a pledge repeated multiple times. But it seems that 365 days is insufficient time for the government to develop the courage to publish its response, as sources have told this author that a draft has been ready for months. Remarkably, the UK government has stated at the UN that it does not disagree with the central findings of the advisory opinion. The awkwardness of the double negative sums up the awkwardness of the position. Ministers cannot even outline what they consider to be the central findings. Has the media changed how it describes the Occupied Territories? Certainly not the BBC or CNN. This was barely mentioned. It is as if it is still treated as a disputed issue, as opposed to a settled matter of legal certainty. The lack of respect for the International Court of Justice is also exhibited in the abject refusal of Israel to adhere to the provisional measures the court ordered on three occasions under the Genocide Convention between January and May 2024. Major powers have not insisted Israel do so either, even though they are under an obligation to prevent and to punish genocide when other states are perpetrating such acts. Israel should have taken all measures to prevent genocidal acts and ensure the unhindered provision of humanitarian aid, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, and medical supplies. Instead, Israel has, as a matter of declared policy, blocked this.Many governments pay lip service to upholding international law when it comes to Israel. It is time for those who do care to expose this hypocrisy for what it is.
**Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech

Confusion in Syria
David Hale/©This is Beirut/July 21/2025
Recent developments in Syria are causing surprise and confusion. In a bold move, President Trump and his administration acquiesced to requests from the Turkish and Saudi leadership and lifted most sanctions on the Ahmed al-Sharaa regime, his Salafist HTS movement, and Syria itself. It did so without conditionality, without much effort to understand the character, intentions, and capabilities of the new power in Damascus, and without a plan to use this windfall as leverage. A conventional American approach would have involved months of negotiations over conditions-based, step-by-step sanctions relief in which carrots would be doled out for good behavior or withheld for bad. Of course, getting a consensus in Washington behind such an approach, let alone negotiating it with the new Syrian regime, would have taken time, perhaps losing the moment. With a strong preference for bold moves and deals, the Trump team's attitude may have been to accede to the requests of the leaders of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, leaving it to them to sort out the details, so long as American corporate interests were not neglected as contracts got signed.
This boldness and unconventionality may be welcome, but alone can be no substitute for statecraft, diplomacy, and presence. Last week's events in southern Syria should serve as a wake up call; superficial deals and gestures are not the same thing as actual problem-solving. Among the problems: outside the belt of Sunni cities running from Idlib to Damascus, Sharaa's authority is not established, the state is not fully in control, and Sharaa's Salafi/Jihadi base is both frightening and unacceptable to minority groups. Until this past week, American policy seemed to be to sail above all of that and talk up the Abraham Accords as the answer.Yet, American policy overlooked Israel, where Sharaa is not seen as a potential partner but as a potential threat. Moreover, Israeli leaders see little evidence of American realism on this point or about security and stability in Syria. Turkish ambitions in Syria are not reassuring to Jerusalem. And more immediately, Israel's post-October 7 national security strategy is highly proactive and preemptive. This approach is premised on the idea that if neighboring states do not exercise control within their borders to tame security threats to Israel, then the Israel Defense Forces will act with carte blanche. If Israeli allies such as Hikmat al-Hijri, the Druze figure in southern Syria, can be found, they may think all the better. If not, Israel's dominance of the air provides sufficient means, according to this logic. From this perspective, American efforts to cobble together ceasefires promise little but fleeting calm. As for economic development of Syria and foreign investment, the incentive of removing sanctions will not outweigh the disincentive of chaos and the absence of a credible avenue away from it.
It is not too late for a serious American policy that addresses some underlying problems in Syria. A starting point is analytical: our allies involved in Syria are working at cross purposes. Israel is the most obvious example. Its leaders make clear they will preserve their freedom of action and do not believe in any long-term solution based on the likes of Ahmed al-Sharaa. Less obvious is the competition between Ankara and Riyadh that will manifest itself over time. Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman was motivated to convince President Trump to lift sanctions because aid and investment are his main foreign policy tools; sanctions held him back from greater involvement in Syria to prevent Turkish domination there. Sharaa—aware of his own weakness—welcomes Saudi interest as a balance against Turkey. Does Washington understand that Syria is becoming a cockpit for a contest between two key allies, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, not a landscape for cooperation? And has Washington fully absorbed the interplay of events in Syria and Lebanon? Lebanese see Salafi fighters in Syria on their doorstep; Syrian authorities see Hezbollah explosives moving from Lebanon into the hands of their opponents. If these security disconnects between Lebanese and Syrians are not addressed now, they will risk making obsolete the American goal of disarming Hezbollah and enabling the Lebanese army and state to take over.
American statecraft can be effective if it is activated on a persistent basis. That objective would be served by standing up an official American presence on the ground in Damascus, so Washington can evaluate and influence developments there. It would require intense work in de-conflicting behavior and actions by U.S. allies that are now at cross-purposes. And it would entail pressure on Sharaa to break—and be seen to break—from his Salafi roots and the armed gangs that brought him to power. For better or worse, Syria has now become the cockpit for all the rivalries and changes in the Middle East. Getting it right does not mean another "forever war" waged by America on behalf of the dream of state-building. But it will require a more serious level of analysis and engagement in resolving conflicts—their sources, not just their manifestations.

The Grammar of a Bungled Transition
Dr. Charles Chartouni/This is Beirut/July 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145501/
The interpretation of political events can often lead to misunderstandings and confusion. It is crucial to establish clear communication and guidelines to navigate such complexities effectively. Without these measures, the potential for misinterpretation increases, which can exacerbate tensions and hinder progress. Therefore, fostering an environment of transparency and open dialogue becomes essential in bridging gaps and promoting understanding.  The dramatic events in Sweida are quite illustrative of the dismal records of Islamist transition in Syria. The abrupt downfall of the Assad regime was ambivalent, and nobody could have guessed what turn these events may take in the immediate future. The takeover of the HTS terrorist group with its dismal human rights records, leaves observers perplexed about the outcomes of this takeover and its incidence on the future of Syria.
The lessons of this transition were highly instructive insofar as the imponderables of political change in an uncharted terrain. The questions it begets are summarized as follows: There is no prescripted scenario in this context; actors can never claim an overall representation and are bound to engage other political and communal actors if they were to achieve an understanding; international mediations are critical at the preliminary stages if actors were to overcome the bitter legacies of long-haul grievances and conflicts; the grammar of conflict resolution is to be jointly drafted if negotiations were to sustain over time and yield tangible results. Success hinges on the willingness of all parties to listen actively and adapt their strategies in response to one another's concerns. Building trust and fostering open communication are essential components in transcending historical animosities and paving the way for a more collaborative future.
The meteoric takeover of the terrorist group was quite misleading since he thought that he was readily mandated to speak on behalf of all Syrians, whereas the differences were lingering behind the surface and the animosities were likely to be rekindled at any moment. To put it otherwise, no one has conceded legitimacy to this group and given it the right of representation. The international mediations were seeping insidiously into the emerging political scene because the incoming group had come to realize its inability to move beyond the state of prostration unless it tied itself to an international political dynamic that helped normalize its controversial political status and opened up the path to economic cooperation and developmental assistance.
The Saudi conduit turned out to be the most effective diplomatic channel, which opened up the lines of communication with the US and the EU. The lifting of sanctions has proven salvational since it allowed the group to address the issues of governance and public policy and overcome the bottlenecks of ideological politics and their stifling mental restrictions. Unfortunately, what this group has failed to understand is the intellectual and psychological framing of a successful political transition. This was too obvious when it started acting on the basis of a pre-granted political legitimacy, whereas reality is far beyond the delusions nurtured by groups that are ideologically hermetic and impermeable to realities that contradict their ideological worldview.
This group considered the diplomatic overtures secured by Saudi Arabia dispensed from internal dialogue and the need to reconcile with other religious denominations and political factions on the basis of an overlapping consensuses. The matter of fact is even worse because it was dismissive of the moral and political worth of its nemeses and counterparts. There is nothing unusual, because fundamentalist groups are by definition dismissive and condescending, let alone discriminatory. Whatever might be the issues at stake, they can hardly be addressed when the prerequisites of a working negotiation are initially missing.
It’s no hazard that the negotiations with the different factions have been bungled or never considered. That largely accounts for the prevalence of violence, which precluded the very possibility of a discursive approach to conflict resolution. Ahmad al-Sharaa and his group were still in a monologue that precluded any sort of partnership. They took over power as a terror group and never departed from the ideological, psychological and operational schemes that commanded their behavior. The very fact that the structuring of governance was dictated by their inner political considerations and division of labor reflects their inability to perform whatever conversions are needed to move from the terror group mindset to the one of a structured and law-based governance.
Their behavior betrays systemic inabilities and is far from being accidental. The failure to engage in an open national dialogue testified to the fact that ideological proclivities and biases are stifling. It’s no hazard that the egregious human rights violations and the pogroms against Alawites, Druze and Christians were alternating without the least interrogation about their fallouts on the overall national course, let alone the backlash effects and their devastating moral and strategic outcomes. The reason that accounts for this blindness is ascribed to well-entrenched ideological and mental dispositions tainted with moral arrogance and self-righteousness. These repeated failures and inability to adjust to the norms of the international community and its behavioral standards question the relevance of the diplomatic endeavors trying to remedy the inconsistencies of a flawed political vision and its ravaging consequences. What worries most is the skewed approach to the emerging geopolitical realities generated by the Israeli counterinsurgency and its substantive modulations.
The politics of repression are not incidental or tangential to the unfolding strategic and political events; they reflect the inherent misreading of facts and distorted visions. Rather than engaging the other communal groups, the al-Sharaa political style has proven to be condescending, duplicitous and inherently dismissive. What he failed to perceive is the reluctance of these ethno-religious groups to adjust to the mandates of systemic oppression and the openings offered by the Israeli counterinsurgency and its empowering overtones and underlying subtexts.
US diplomacy cannot adhere to the false premises of an unconditional rehabilitation of this group, acknowledge its usurped representation and claim a successful political vindication. The lifting of sanctions was made conditional upon the premise of reconciliation politics, whereas the political facts on the ground testify to the contrary. Short substantive reforms, violence is regaining momentum and the chances of peace are diminishing by the day.

Selected Tweets for 21 July/2025
Walid Abu Haya
Between 700,000 to 800,000 Druze live in Syria, most of them in the Suwayda Governorate, making up about two-thirds of the entire Druze population worldwide! Annihilating the Druze in Syria essentially means wiping out two-thirds of an entire people! That would be equivalent, God forbid, to the extermination of 240 million Americans, or 100 million Russians, or 60 million Germans, Britons, or French citizens!Now do the math: what would it mean to exterminate two-thirds of the Muslim population worldwide? Stop the ethnic cleansing of the Druze in Syria!