English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 25/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Saint Matthew 11/25-30: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent
and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom
the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are
carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’”
Titles For The
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on
November 24-25/2025
The Road to Jerusalem That Hezbollah Has Never Known/Elias
Bejjani/November 24/ 2024
Independence Day: A Mere Memory for Occupied Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/November 22,
2025
Hezbolah Moves Away from the "Path to Jerusalem" While Berri Ignores "The
Movement"
Tabatabai's Assassination Throws "Resistance Axis" into Disarray, Diplomatic
Movement Precedes Pope's Visit
Iran’s IRGC vows ‘crushing response’ after Israel kills Hezbollah military chief
Hezbollah mourns top commander killed in Israeli strike
With killing of Hezbollah’s military chief, Israel ratchets up two-pronged
strategy
Netanyahu calls on Lebanese govt. to 'fulfill its commitment to disarm
Hezbollah'
Preparations in full swing for pope's visit to Lebanon
Tabatabai: Hezbollah military chief who led the group in Yemen, Syria
Welcome to our "house of many homes"/Par Akl Awit/Face Book/November 24/2025
A Triply Divided Lebanon Anxiously Awaits a New Pope/Alberto M.
Fernandez/Catholic Register Website/November 24, 2025
Lebanon, the party and the crisis/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat./November 24,
2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on
November 24-25/2025
Trump begins process of labeling Muslim Brotherhood
chapters as terror groups
Controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announces end of its mission
Israeli settlers build illegal outpost near Tubas, army to seize lands near
Jerusalem
Gazans despair as Israeli forces mark withdrawal line
Islamic Jihad says found body of one of last three Gaza hostages
How Israel is leveraging legal tools and development plans to seize Palestinian
neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah/ANAN TELLO/Arab News/November 25, 2025
Syrian defense delegation attends Arab League armed forces conference in Cairo
US pressed Ukraine to accept deal at Geneva talks, official says
Kremlin says European counter-proposal for Ukraine peace does not work for
Russia
US, Ukraine work to narrow gaps on peace plan to end war with Russia
Trump says he had ‘very good’ call with China’s Xi, accepts invite to visit
Beijing
Iran’s foreign minister to hold talks with French counterpart in Paris this week
UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem bint Ebrahim
al-Hashimy.
Sudan’s RSF says it will enter into ceasefire
Turkish parliamentary delegation meets jailed PKK leader Ocalan
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources on
November 24-25/2025
Extremist Persecution: The Rest of Us Come
Next/Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute./November 24/2025
Reconstructing Gaza: The devil is in the detail/Ben Cohen/Jewish News
Syndicate/November 24, 2025
The Armenian Church At The Hands Of The Armenian Regime/Amb. Alberto M.
Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 869/November 24/2025
Saudi-US ties enter a new strategic era/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya
English/25 November/2025
Who owns Iraq’s media? The answer is simple ...Iraqi media remains a reflection
of authority rather than truth./Karam Nama/The Arab Weekly/November 24/2025
Selected Face Book & X tweets for November 25/2025
The Latest
English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on
November 24-25/2025
The Road to Jerusalem That Hezbollah Has Never Known
Elias Bejjani – November 24, 2024
In reality, and despite all the empty bravado of Iran’s terrorist armed proxy in
Lebanon, Israel has effectively turned it into a funeral-home company
specializing in delusional obituaries about a “road to Jerusalem” it has never
known.
Independence Day: A Mere Memory for Occupied
Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/November 22, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/11/149430/
November 22, Lebanon’s Independence Day, was once a celebration
of freedom and sovereignty. However, today, the reality we live stands in stark
contrast to the values of independence. Independence has been reduced to a mere
memory, stripped of its core elements such as free decision-making, liberty,
law, equality, democracy, services, peace, security, stability, and protected
borders—the list goes on, and all are absent.
Today, Lebanon has completely lost its independence and against the will of its
majority, it finds itself under sectarian, jihadist, and terrorist Iranian
occupation.
This occupation is enforced through a local armed militia comprised of Lebanese
mercenaries working under the command of Iran’s mullahs, operating under the
blasphemously named "Hezbollah." This armed Iranian proxy, through its actions
of force, terror, assassinations, wars, and displacement, stands against
everything Lebanon represents—justice, rights, love, peace, stability, identity,
and openness to the world.
As a result of this occupation, Lebanon is now witnessing a destructive war
between Iran's Hezbollah and the State of Israel. This is an Iranian-Israeli war
in which Lebanon and its vast majority have no stake. It is not Lebanon's war
while Hezbollah initiated it under direct orders from Iran, serving Tehran's
terrorist, expansionist, and colonial agendas.
There is no independence to celebrate today. Lebanon has effectively become a
Hezbollah state. This failed and rogue state continuously violates the
constitution and paralyzes governance. Hezbollah prevents the election of a
president, shuts down parliament, and dismantles state institutions.
The current parliament, subservient and failing in its constitutional duties,
was formed under an electoral law crafted by Hezbollah to ensure its dominance.
This law predetermined the election results before they even took place.
How can we celebrate Independence Day when state institutions are infiltrated,
the judiciary is controlled, citizens' savings have been stolen from banks,
borders are wide open for smuggling, and chaos reigns? Killings, theft, poverty,
displacement, and humiliation define the daily lives of Lebanese citizens.
The independence we should be celebrating today has become an empty memory. True
independence will not return to Lebanon until it is liberated from Hezbollah's
occupation and Iran's domination. Achieving this liberation requires
implementing all international resolutions pertaining to Lebanon, including the
Armistice Agreement and Resolutions 1559, 1701, and 1680. It also demands
conducting free parliamentary elections under a modern electoral law,
eradicating corruption, and holding the corrupt political class accountable.
It may be necessary to declare Lebanon a failed state according to all the UN
criteria for failure and place it under international trusteeship.
Until then, Lebanon remains an occupied state, and Independence Day is but a
painful reminder of a freedom that is no more.
Hezbolah
Moves Away from the "Path to Jerusalem" While Berri Ignores "The
Movement"
Tabatabai's Assassination Throws "Resistance Axis" into Disarray, Diplomatic
Movement Precedes Pope's Visit
Nidaa Al-Watan / November 25 / 2025 (translated from Arabic)
Hezbolah is unable to confront and convince its
public it has recovered.
Lebanon has entered the orbit of the anticipated Papal visit. In a few days, two
contradictory scenes will be drawn: the first is colored with lines of peace and
stability that the Lebanese yearn for, brought to them by Pope Leo XIV with a
message of hope and support; the second is stained with paths of escalation and
war, driven by the "Resistance Axis" led by Tehran. Beirut this week is
witnessing a diplomatic flurry, signaling a delicate phase concerning
demarcation, security, and negotiations.
Following the assassination of Hezbollah's Chief of Staff, Haytham Ali
Tabatabai, contradictory positions emerged, revealing the extent of confusion
within the "Resistance Axis." While the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign
Ministry, Ismail Baqaei, asserted that "Tehran does not interfere in Lebanon's
internal affairs, and the decision belongs to the Lebanese," the "Revolutionary
Guard" (IRGC) came out with fiery escalation, threatening a "crushing response"
against Israel, and vengeance that "will come at the appropriate time."
This disparity in rhetoric reflects a double predicament: an inability to
confront Israel militarily on the ground, and an even greater weakness in
convincing the "Resistance" public that the latter has recovered its leadership
strength and its fortifications against security breaches.
The "Party" Shifts Terminology
In this context, indicators emerged that cannot be separated from the ongoing
shift within the Shiite political environment before others, starting with the
new lexicon used by "Hezbollah" in its mourning statements. Observers noted the
"Party's" shift in terminology, whereby it dropped the phrase "martyr on the
path to Jerusalem" from its statements, replacing it with a new term: "martyr
for the sake of Lebanon and its people." This shift is read as a response to the
widespread discontent within the community, which rejects involvement in
confrontational paths that transcend the state's borders and impose catastrophic
costs on it. This shift is seen as a demand for a return to the thought of Imam
Mohammad Mahdi Shamseddine, based on the principle of the inclusive state in
which the Shiite community is integrated without a parallel project or
specificity above the state.
Deliberate Ignorance?
The shift in the language of terms did not come out of nowhere; it was preceded
by the political "twin" of the Party, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who issued
a notable statement in both form and content following the targeting of the town
of Al-Tairi and the injury of a bus carrying students. In his statement, Berri
explicitly called for lodging a complaint with the UN Security Council, but in
return, he completely ignored mentioning the Israeli raid that targeted a
"Hamas" headquarters in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, avoiding any mention of it
entirely. Well-informed sources indicate that the "Hamas" leadership made urgent
inquiries regarding this matter, but received no answer, only silence.
Wednesday of Negotiation and Demarcation
On a parallel track, Beirut is preparing to welcome the Egyptian Foreign
Minister, Badr Ahmed Abdel Atty, in a visit described as short in time but
heavily loaded in content. According to converging information, what he carries
is not yet a complete initiative but rather a paper of ideas open to
development, but this time surrounded by exceptional Arab and international
momentum, following a series of shuttle meetings conducted by the Egyptian
Minister, most notably with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The
draft he carries includes practical proposals to strengthen the internal
Lebanese situation and improve the conditions for protecting the state and its
institutions in the face of momentous challenges. However, some of these require
bold Lebanese decisions that go beyond crisis management, to initiating a
structural change in the political, security, and strategic approach. Between a
new language in the Dahiyeh (Beirut Southern Suburbs), a calculated silence in
Ain al-Tineh (Berri's residence), and an Egyptian-Arab paper of ideas on the
table, it seems that Lebanon is entering a phase of re-defining what is
"Lebanese first" and what lies beyond.
As for Lebanese-Cypriot relations, the file of oil and gas and border
demarcation is expected to top the agenda of the Cypriot President's visit to
Beirut, especially after the Lebanese government approved the maritime
demarcation file. The anticipated summit in Baabda between President Joseph Aoun
and his Cypriot counterpart will address political and security files, in light
of the role played by Cyprus, with its wide regional and international
relations, and its awareness of the course of developments in the region.
No American Answer
Following the crisis of canceling the visit of Army Commander General Rudolph
Heikal to Washington, "Nidaa Al-Watan" learned that the President of the
Republic is personally managing communications to address the repercussions of
the step, having made direct contact with the Lebanese Ambassador in Washington
on one hand, and with the American Ambassador in Beirut on the other. However,
the American answer so far has remained brief: "The matter is under study and
follow-up."
Tel Aviv Warns
Israeli Army estimations indicate that "Hezbollah" is considering several
options to respond to Tabatabai's assassination, including launching rockets or
carrying out infiltration operations on the southern border. In return, Tel Aviv
affirmed that it will continue to strike the "Party's" efforts to rebuild its
strength, and has sent a warning message to the Party and the Lebanese
government that any attack will be met with a "disproportionate" response. It
has also raised the alert level of its security system in the North, in
anticipation of any escalation. In this context, the "Israeli Broadcasting
Corporation" spoke of unprecedented coordination between "Hezbollah" and "Hamas"
in recent months, and the preparation of hundreds from "The Movement" in Lebanon
to join "The Party" in any upcoming confrontation.
Iran’s IRGC vows ‘crushing response’ after Israel kills
Hezbollah military chief
Yaghoub Fazeli - Al Arabiya English/25 November/2025
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday condemned Israel’s
killing of Hezbollah’s military chief, threatening a “crushing response” in
retaliation. Haytham Ali Tabtabai was killed on Sunday
in an Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut. He is the most senior
Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of the November 2024
ceasefire, which was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities.
In a statement carried by state media, the IRGC said it “strongly
condemns this barbaric crime,” adding that Hezbollah and the rest of the “axis
of resistance” – Iran and the network of Tehran-backed armed groups – reserve
the right to avenge Tabtabai. The IRGC warned that Israel would face a “crushing
response” at a time of its choosing.Earlier on Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry
also condemned the strike, calling it a “flagrant violation of the November 2024
ceasefire and a brutal breach of Lebanon’s national sovereignty.”Israel has
repeatedly carried out strikes inside Lebanon since the truce, saying it targets
Hezbollah fighters and military infrastructure. Hezbollah, whose main backer is
Iran, has been significantly weakened by its latest confrontation with Israel
and by the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, a key ally of both Tehran and
Hezbollah. These setbacks have also hit Iran directly, with its nuclear
facilities targeted by Israeli and US strikes during a 12-day war earlier this
year.
Hezbollah mourns top commander killed in Israeli strike
AFP/November 24, 2025
BEIRUT: Hezbollah will hold a funeral on Monday for its top military chief and
other members of the militant group, a day after Israel killed them with a
strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most senior
Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire
sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two sides. Tabatabai’s
assassination comes as Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon, with the
United States increasing its pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm
Hezbollah. The group called on its supporters to attend the mass funeral for its
“great leader” Tabatabai which will take place in the southern suburbs, a
densely populated area where it holds sway. The
Israeli military said on Sunday that it had “eliminated the terrorist Haytham
Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s chief of general staff.”The group announced the death
of Tabatabai and four other members in the attack.
Hezbollah said Tabatabai assumed the role of military leader after the most
recent war with Israel, which saw the group suffer heavy losses including the
killings of its senior leaders. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the
truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to
stop the group from rearming. According to the
agreement, Hezbollah was to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30
kilometers (20 miles) north of the border with Israel and have its military
infrastructure there dismantled.Under a government-approved plan, the Lebanese
army is to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure south of the river by the
end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.
Hezbollah has strongly rejected the move.
Limited options
After the assassination, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would
“not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power” and called on the Lebanese government
to “fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.”A source close to Hezbollah told
AFP on condition of anonymity that there are currently “two opinions within the
group — those who wish to respond to the assassination and those who want to
refrain from doing so — but the leadership tends to adopt the utmost forms of
diplomacy at the present stage.”The group’s choices now seem limited. Not only
was it weakened by the last war with Israel, it also lost its supply route
through Syria with the fall of former ruler and ally Bashar Assad in December.
In addition to disarmament, Washington is also demanding that Beirut dry
up the group’s funding from Iran, which slammed Sunday’s “cowardly”
assassination. “Hezbollah’s options are very limited,”
Atlantic Council researcher Nicholas Blanford told AFP, as “its support base is
clamouring for revenge but if Hezbollah responds directly... Israel will strike
back very hard and no one in Lebanon will thank Hezbollah for that.”Blanford
said the strike was the biggest blow to Hezbollah since the ceasefire “because
of (Tabatabai’s) seniority and the fact that it demonstrates the Israelis can
still locate and target senior officials despite whatever protective measures
Hezbollah is undertaking” after the war. The Lebanese
military has said it is carrying out its plan to disarm the group, but the US
and Israel have accused Lebanese authorities of stalling the process.A military
official told AFP last week that the American and Israeli demands to have
Hezbollah fully disarmed by the end of the year were “impossible” given a
shortage of personnel and equipment and fears of confrontations with local
communities that support Hezbollah.
In his condemnation of the Israeli strike on Sunday, Lebanese Prime Minister
Nawaf Salam stressed that “the only way to consolidate stability” is through
“extending the authority of the state over all its territory with its own
forces, and enabling the Lebanese army to carry out its duties.”
With killing of Hezbollah’s military chief, Israel ratchets
up two-pronged strategy
The Arab Weekly/November 24/2025
The US Treasury had offered a $5 million reward for information on Tabtabai.
Israel said would do “everything necessary” to stop the Lebanese militant group
from regrouping and the Palestinian group from doing the same in Gaza.
Rescuers evacuate a body from the site of an Israeli air attack that
targeted a residential building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut’s
southern suburb, on November 23, 2025. Israel killed Hezbollah’s military chief
in a strike on Beirut on Sunday in what seemed like a two-pronged strategy to
ratchet up pressure towards the disarmament of both Hezbollah and Hamas. Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would do
“everything necessary” to stop the Lebanese militant group from regrouping and
the Palestinian group from doing the same in Gaza. He
also emphasised that his country “will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its
power”, and called on the Lebanese government to “fulfil its commitment to
disarm Hezbollah”.
In a statement shortly after the strike, the Israeli military said it had
“eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabtabai, Hezbollah’s chief of general
staff”. Hezbollah later confirmed his killing, hailing
him as “the great jihadist commander” who had “worked to confront the Israeli
enemy until the last moment of his blessed life.”Israel had already eliminated
most of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s political and military leadership during a war
that raged between October 2023 and November 2024, when a US-brokered truce was
agreed. But Tabtabai, who was appointed as the group’s chief of staff after its
recent war with Israel, was killed in a rare post-ceasefire operation against a
senior Hezbollah figure. Tabtabai was born in Lebanon in 1968 to a father with
Iranian roots and a Lebanese mother, according to a senior Lebanese security
source. He was not a founding member of Hezbollah but was part of its “second
generation,” deploying with the group to fight alongside its allies in Syria and
Yemen, the source said. Prior to his role as military
chief, Tabtabai was “responsible for the Yemen file” in the group, said a source
close to the group. The United States says he commanded special forces in the
country as well as in Syria, where Hezbollah supported former president Bashar
al-Assad during the country’s civil war.The US Treasury had offered a $5 million
reward for information on Tabtabai.
Israel’s military said Tabtabai joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and held several
senior posts, including in its Radwan Force, an elite fighting unit. Israel
killed most Radwan figures last year ahead of its ground invasion into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the attack killed five people and wounded 28
more. The ministry did not give the identities of those killed in the strike,
which hit the Haret Hreik area in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely-populated
area where Hezbollah holds sway. Hezbollah said later
that four of its fighters had been killed. It was the fifth Israeli strike on
Beirut’s southern suburbs since a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 after a year
of conflict, and comes a week before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon.
Tough spot The Israeli military insisted in its
statement that it “remains committed” to the ceasefire as it pushes for the
disarmament of Hezbollah. The US said it was not consulted before the attack but
it did not express any reservations about it. Regional analysts said the Israeli
attack puts the Lebanese government and Hezbollah in a tough spot as both are
unable to retaliate but are unwilling to be perceived to be surrendering to
Israel pressure.
Netanyahu’s office said he had ordered the attack.
“In the heart of Beirut, the IDF (Israeli military) attacked the Hezbollah chief
of staff, who had been leading the terrorist organisation’s build-up and
rearmament,” the premier’s office said in a statement. Separately, Israeli
Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would “continue the policy of maximum
enforcement”. Hezbollah was weakened by its fight with Israel. It has however
rejected all calls to disarm north of Lebanon’s Litani river, apparently
encouraged by Iranian support. In recent weeks, Lebanon has come under
increasing Israeli and US pressure to disarm the militant group, a move that the
group has denounced. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international
community to intervene firmly to stop Israeli attacks on the country.
Beirut “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its
responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon
and its people”, he said in a statement. But except from Tehran’s condemnation,
there were not many international reactions to Tabtabai’s killing.
Gaza front
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Sunday that it had killed a local Hamas
commander in Gaza, as both Israel and the Palestinian militant group continue to
trade accusations of ceasefire violation. The post identified the commander as
Alaa Al-Hadidi, head of supply in Hamas’ production headquarters. It said he was
killed in one of the attacks across the strip on Saturday. Gaza’s civil defence
agency said 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded in multiple Israeli
air strikes on Saturday. “We are continuing to strike
terrorism on several fronts,” Netanyahu said as he opened a cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire “and we are acting
accordingly.”The Israeli military said an “armed terrorist” had crossed the
so-called yellow line, the boundary within the Gaza Strip that Israeli forces
have withdrawn behind, and fired at Israeli soldiers. In response, the military
then “began striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip”, it said. Netanyahu
claimed on Sunday that Hamas had made “several attempts” to infiltrate beyond
the yellow line to “try to harm our soldiers”. “We
have thwarted this with great force and also retaliated and exacted a very heavy
price. That includes many terrorists we eliminated,” he added. Netanyahu said it
was an “absolute lie” that Israel needed outside approval before taking action.
“We decide independently of any factor, and that is how it should be.
Israel is responsible for its own security,” he said.
Netanyahu calls on Lebanese govt. to 'fulfill its
commitment to disarm Hezbollah'
Agence France Presse/25 November/2025
Israel killed Hezbollah's military chief in a strike on Beirut on Sunday, the
Israeli military and the militant group said, hitting an apartment building and
killing five people according to Lebanese authorities. Haytham Ali Tabatabai is
the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of a
ceasefire in November 2024 that sought to end more than a year of hostilities
between the two. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that
his country "will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power", and called on the
Lebanese government to "fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah". Lebanon's
health ministry said the attack killed five people and wounded 28 more. The
ministry did not give the identities of those killed in the strike, which hit
the Haret Hreik area in Beirut's southern suburbs, a densely populated area
where Hezbollah holds sway. The group itself, however, said later that four of
its fighters had been killed.In a statement shortly after the strike, the
Israeli military said it had "eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabatabai,
Hezbollah's chief of general staff". It was the fifth Israeli strike on Beirut's
southern suburbs since a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 after a year of
conflict, and comes a week before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon.
The military insisted in its statement that it "remains committed" to the
ceasefire.Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the killing of "the great
commander" Tabatabai in "a treacherous Israeli attack".
'Maximum enforcement' -
An AFP correspondent at the scene said the strike hit the third and fourth
floors of a nine-story building, where ambulance and fire crews scrambled to
find survivors and Lebanese soldiers deployed to secure the site. Debris
littered the road below, with several burned-out cars in the street. The AFP
journalist saw rescue workers evacuating a body wrapped in a white bag and at
least three wounded women from the site. "I was on the
balcony. There was a flash, then I hit the railing and all the glass broke," a
man who was in a building opposite the targeted apartment told AFP, refusing to
give his name. Lebanon's official National News Agency said three missiles were
fired at the building. Netanyahu's office said he had ordered the attack. "In
the heart of Beirut, the IDF (Israeli military) attacked the Hezbollah chief of
staff, who had been leading the terrorist organization's build-up and
rearmament," the premier's office said in a statement.Separately, Israeli
Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "Anyone who raises a hand against Israel will
have his hand cut off," warning that Israel would "continue the policy of
maximum enforcement". Israel has defended its attacks on Lebanon since the
ceasefire as upholding the terms of the deal by preventing Hezbollah from
rebuilding. Sunday's strike was the first on Beirut's
southern suburbs since June 5, when Israel said it hit a Hezbollah drone
factory.
- Hezbollah weakened -
Tabatabai, born in 1968 according to Hezbollah's statement, was largely unknown
to the Lebanese public.Prior to his role as military chief, Tabatabai was
"responsible for the Yemen file" in the group, a source close to the group told
AFP. The United States says he commanded special forces in the country as well
as in Syria, where Hezbollah supported former president Bashar al-Assad during
the country's brutal civil war. The U.S. Treasury had offered a $5 million
reward for information on Tabatabai. Hezbollah was
weakened by its fight with Israel, which it started in support of its ally Hamas
in Gaza in October 2023 with cross-border exchanges of fire that later escalated
into two months of full-blown war. Since then, Lebanon has come under increasing
Israeli and U.S. pressure to disarm the militant group, a move that the group
has opposed. Netanyahu earlier on Sunday told a cabinet meeting that Israel
"will continue to do everything necessary to prevent Hezbollah from
re-establishing its threat capability against us". President Joseph Aoun called
on the international community to intervene firmly to stop Israeli attacks on
the country.Lebanon "reiterates its call to the international community to
assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks
on Lebanon and its people", he said in a statement.
Preparations in full swing for pope's visit to Lebanon
Agence France Presse/25 November/2025
Pope Leo XIV embarks on his debut overseas trip Thursday, travelling to Turkey
and Lebanon to promote Christian unity and urge peace efforts amid heightened
tensions in the Middle East. The six-day trip is the first major international
test for the U.S. pope, who was elected head of the Catholic Church in May and
whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive
predecessor, Francis. In Turkey, Leo will celebrate
the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, where the Creed -- a
foundational declaration of the Christian faith -- was written.
While the Chicago-born pontiff's upcoming visit has so far garnered little
attention in the predominantly Muslim country, where Christians represent only
0.2 percent of the 86 million inhabitants, it is eagerly awaited in Lebanon.
Lebanon has long been held up as a model of religious coexistence. But since
2019, it has been ravaged by crises, including economic collapse which has
caused widespread poverty, a devastating blast at Beirut port in 2020, and the
recent war with Israel. "The Lebanese are tired," said Vincent Gelot, director
of the Lebanon and Syria office for l'Oeuvre d'Orient, a Catholic organization
that supports Christians in the Middle East."They expect a frank word to the
Lebanese elite, as well as strong and concrete actions," he told AFP.
- 'A vicious cycle' -
Preparations are in full swing at the sites the pope will visit, with signs
bearing his image and reading "Lebanon wants peace" hung along newly-restored
roads. Lebanon's ambassador to the Holy See, Fadi Assaf, said it was an
"exceptional" visit which would "highlight the difficulties facing Lebanon",
which is hoping for a "political and economic breakthrough". Gelot said the
Lebanese are caught in "a vicious cycle of wars and suffering", "dashed hopes"
and "uncertainty about the future", and they "know full well that (this visit)
will not solve all their problems". It is an opportunity however to highlight
the role of private, often religious, organizations in ensuring access to
healthcare and education -- like the psychiatric hospital run by Franciscan nuns
that Leo is set to visit, he said. Trip highlights include a meeting with the
country's youth, an open-air mass expected to draw 100,000 people, and a prayer
at the site of the port explosion that killed over 220 people and caused vast
damage to the Lebanese capital. Abdo Abou Kassem, the church's media coordinator
for the visit, said the pope also wishes to "reaffirm Lebanon's role as... a
model for both East and West" through an interreligious meeting in downtown
Beirut.
Schisms -
The visit to Turkey, a strategic crossroad between East and West, is also aimed
at promoting the Church's dialogue with Islam. Leo will meet President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday and visit the Blue Mosque in Istanbul on
Saturday.
But at the heart of the trip is the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which
Leo was invited to attend by Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual head of
Orthodox Christianity. Catholics recognize the
universal authority of the pope as head of the Church, while Orthodox Christians
are organized into churches that appoint their own heads.The 325 A.D. meeting in
Nicaea predated the schisms that divided Christianity between East and West and
the commemoration is an important moment to promote Christian unity. On the
shores of Lake Iznik, the current name for Nicaea, the 70-year-old will join
dignitaries from various Orthodox churches on Friday for a prayer which his
predecessor, who died in April, had originally been set to attend. There will be
one notable absence. With the war in Ukraine deepening a rift between the
patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople, Russian Patriarch Kirill -- a
supporter of President Vladimir Putin -- was not invited. The pope will be
careful not to inflame tensions further by irritating Moscow, which fears the
Vatican will strengthen Constantinople's role as a privileged interlocutor and
weaken its influence.
Tabatabai: Hezbollah military chief who led the group in
Yemen, Syria
Agence France Presse/25 November/2025
Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah's top military chief whom Israel killed on
Sunday, had taken the role after the group's senior leaders died in the most
recent war with Israel. He is the most important
Hezbollah figure to have been killed since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to
end over a year of hostilities between the militant group and Israel, including
two months of full-blown war. Largely unknown to the Lebanese public, Tabatabai
was among the new commanders chosen to lead the group after the war.Israel has
repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the truce, mostly claiming to be targeting
Hezbollah members and infrastructure. Hezbollah confirmed the killing of "the
great commander" Tabatabai. Prior to his role as military chief, Tabatabai was
"responsible for the Yemen file" in the group, a source close to the group told
AFP. The United States says he had also operated in Syria, where the group's
armed faction supported former ruler Bashar al-Assad. The strike hit an
apartment building in Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs, where the
group holds sway, killing five people and wounding 28 according to Lebanon's
health ministry. The source said Tabatabai was based abroad and returned to
Lebanon after Israel killed top Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukur in
July. Tabatabai's father is of Iranian origin and his mother Lebanese, according
to the source, who said Tabatabai held Lebanese citizenship. The U.S. State
Department designated him as a "terrorist" and sanctioned him in 2016.
The U.S. Treasury offered a $5 million reward for information on him, adding
that he was also known as Abu Ali Tabatabai. The U.S. Treasury described
Tabatabai as a key Hezbollah military leader "who has commanded the group's
special forces in both Syria and Yemen".The Israeli army said Tabatabai was a
Hezbollah veteran who joined the group in the 1980s and held a series of senior
positions, including "serving as the head of Hezbollah's operations in Syria".
Yemen's Houthi rebels and Hezbollah are part of Iran's so-called "axis of
resistance" against Israel. In November 2024, the United Nations named Hezbollah
as one of the Houthis' "most important supporters", adding that Houthi fighters
were being trained outside Yemen, either in Iran or at Hezbollah training
facilities in Lebanon. In addition to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
and Shukur, Israel has killed many of the movement's main military figures.
Those include Ibrahim Aqil, who led the elite Radwan unit, and Ali Karaki, who
was the number three military commander.
Welcome to our "house of many homes"
Par Akl Awit/Face Book/November 24/2025
Welcome to Lebanon, a thousand welcome to His Holiness the Bishop of Rome. Exult
mountains of cedars, land of saints, hermits, incense and benjoin, for Leon XIV
will be among us, in our house of many mansions.
Holy Father, all of Lebanon- its leaders, men of religion, communities,
denominations, rites, parties, princes of war, militias, men at arms, thieves,
assassins and ... his brave people, his children, his dreams, his dead, his
martyrs, his defeated, his oppressed - will welcome you, officially and
popularly, wherever you go. I do not think that any of you will refuse the most
brilliant manifestations of homage and reverence, so much that at a moment of
your stay among us, you might believe that Lebanon is God's paradise on earth,
the land of harmony, love, concord, of coexistence and coexistence, and that it
is not, as we have described it to you, a country of conflicts, quarrels, civil
wars, racism, obscurantism and ignorance. That he is really, really, "more than
a country, ... a message", according to the expression of your predecessor, the
late Jean-Paul II.
They will cover you with sweet words. They will pour out infantations and
promises before you. They will tell you that Lebanon is a sovereign, free and
independent country. They will paint relationships between their communities as
heaven on earth and affirm that we are a model of coexistence among people of
diverse faiths, horizons, inclinations and beliefs.
Don't believe them. Please don't believe them.
Lebanon is not ok Lebanon is neither sovereign, nor free, nor independent. We
are hypocrites. Liars. Truffles. Charlatans. Merchants of the wind. Brokers.
Smugglers. Money launderers. Brutals. People with easy compromises and "short
week" arrangements.
Don't believe them Holy Father. Please keep believing them. We are not okay.
Because we are in a deep and serious existential and ontological deadlock. Our
borders are being violated. Our sovereignty is being violated . Our state is
being violated. Our dignity is being violated. And our life together is no
longer like "living together". Everyone lives in their own shell and closed
circle. Everyone wants a Lebanon in his image and measure. Each takes down the
other. Each one wants to abolish the other.
How, then, would we be "more than a country, ... a message"?
In the last two weeks, I wrote to you three open letters. I'm told that they had
arrived at the Idoines of the Holy See, as well as at the Apostolic Nonciature
in Beirut. I have explained what I can summarize: Lebanon will know neither
peace nor rest, nor will its people know tranquility nor dignified life, if the
situation of our country and our state remains the same.
The "classic" solutions, usual and agreed upon, will do nothing. As long as the
hand of the international community does not rest on Lebanon, through
"neutralization", it is useless to hope for the least good.
"Neutralization", again and always "neutralization". What I mean by
"international submission" is neither a mandate, occupation, nor guardianship.
This is a collateral neutralization, the result of a global, UN and regional
agreement, for this country, this unique state, which is not like countries,
entities, nor the surrounding states.
I'm leaving the idea of the "message", concept specifically Vatican and
Ecclesiastical. However, such a vocation can only be embodied and realized
through a new, unique and unprecedented "legal way", the one I have submitted to
you. It must be recognized by the entire United Nations, by a unanimous vote of
the Security Council, with the agreement of international and regional powers,
without reservation, no veto, no objection.
This design can only be realized if the Holy See has the ultimate, irrevocable
will. Because he alone - he alone - has the ability.
Everything else is just a waste of time, powder in the eyes, illusions, hollow
politeness that cannot revive a field of ruins.
My friend Leon XIV, a few days from your visit, Lebanon "celebrated" its
independence. But Lebanon is not a state, its independence is not independence,
and its people are not a people. The "Pays-message" is a house of many mansions,
but it's not okay, Leon, that's the truth. Peace be unto you.
A Triply Divided Lebanon Anxiously Awaits a New Pope
Alberto M. Fernandez/Catholic Register Website/November 24, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/11/149526/
ANALYSIS: Despite a Christian legacy that goes back 1,000 years, Lebanon,
awaiting Pope Leo XIV’s visit, is a country is on edge.
In 1099, as the Christian army led by a papal legate passed along the rugged
coastal road toward Jerusalem, they encountered a strong and friendly people,
the Maronite nation, who, as William of Tyre wrote, rendered great service
“concerning our many and significant interests with our enemies.”
This moment, during the First Crusade, marks perhaps the most famous early
contact between a papal enterprise and what are now the Christians of Lebanon.
These ties would slowly be strengthened through the centuries. The first
Franciscans arrived in Beirut in 1200. In 1215, the Maronite Patriarch Jeremiah
II al-Amshiti attended the important Fourth Lateran Council in Rome and the
following year received the pallium from Pope Innocent III. By 1584, the
Maronites had their own pontifical college in Rome.
Despite that history of building ties, a week out from Pope Leo XIV’s visit to
Lebanon, the country is on edge.
On Nov. 23, an Israeli airstrike in downtown Beirut aimed at eliminating a
senior military commander of the terrorist group Hezbollah. There is a ceasefire
in place, more or less, but the conditions of that agreement have not been
fulfilled, and open conflict could return at any moment.
Lebanon, it can be said, is triply divided. It is precariously balanced between
war and peace. Since the late ’60s, the country has repeatedly been drawn into
the larger Arab-Israeli conflict. While most Lebanese — certainly most Lebanese
Christians — want no part in further wars, the political leadership seems to be
paralyzed in taking the needed steps towards peace or even neutrality.
Lebanon is also divided between Muslim and Christian. Although the Christian
population is declining, the country still has the largest percentage of
Christians of any nation in the region. The 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the
Lebanese Civil War, awarded Christians half of the parliamentary seats.
Maronites still maintain the important offices of president of the republic and
commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Pope Leo will certainly talk about peace — the visit’s logo is “Blessed are the
Peacemakers” — and will certainly focus on interfaith dialogue between Muslims
and Christians. There is, on Dec. 1, an “ecumenical and interreligious meeting
in Martyr’s Square in Beirut.”
But Lebanon’s third division — that among or between its Christians — is not
formally on the agenda, although it will certainly come up behind the scenes in
various forums. This is not about the religious division between sects, say
between Catholics and Orthodox, but rather contending political visions among
Lebanese Christians, especially among the numerous Maronites, over what kind of
country Lebanon should be.
This is not a new debate but rather one present at the creation of Lebanon in
1920 under the French Mandate from the League of Nations. The question was: Is a
smaller, “more Christian” Lebanon better or worse for its Christians? Is the
country primarily a refuge for often-persecuted Christians or a
multi-confessional state subject to changing demographics? Is it an Arab state,
in lockstep with the agenda of the Arab League, or does it seek to carve out a
separate identity? More Lebanese and less Arab, more Mediterranean and less
Middle Eastern? More like neighboring Cyprus or like neighboring Syria?
Lebanese Christians had just suffered disproportionately in an Ottoman
Turkish-generated famine during World War I. When the French redrew the lines of
the old Ottoman Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon, they incorporated rich farmland
in Akkar and the Beqaa Valley and other areas, making the country more
economically viable at the time but radically decreasing the Christian
percentage of the population.
Le Petit Liban became le Grand Liban, which would gain full independence in
1943. In expanding the borders (and preventing the new state’s absorption into
Greater Syria), France gave most Lebanese Christians what they had wanted at the
time.
During the Civil War (1975-1990), the Christian parties and their militias
carved out a small mini-state, about 20% of the country, distinct from the
Syrian- and Palestinian-dominated rest of the country. That enclave would be
forcibly retaken by the Syrians.
The Taif Accords blessed the Syrian occupation, affirmed Lebanon’s “Arab”
orientation and disarmed the Christian and other militias — except for
Hezbollah. Syria’s hegemony in Lebanon would eventually end and be replaced by
pro-Iranian Hezbollah dominance, which continues, more or less, to this day.
There is increasing talk of holding, again under Saudi auspices, a second Taif
Accord process to try to settle the Hezbollah question, to find some sort of
balance between Saudi interests and Iranian interests. Rather than coming up
with a new agreement, the idea is to fully implement the old one — especially
those elements that were ignored in the first place but which could now be
revitalized. One such element is moving Lebanon away from the old sectarian
model to a new civil state. Such a process could see Lebanon’s precarious
Christian political voice diluted even further.
While much of the current establishment Christian (especially Maronite)
political leadership leans strongly against Hezbollah and its perpetual-war
regime, many young Christian activists want more. Inspired by Catholic doctrines
of subsidiarity, they want to see a more “federal” Lebanon, where real powers,
including funding, are devolved to local administration (Taif actually mentions
“strengthening local administration,” but little was done in this regard) so
that Lebanon’s Christians and other non-Muslims are no longer at the whim of the
broader Sunni-Shiite conflict and the Muslim “lust for domination.”
If Lebanon does indeed enter into a period of reactivating Taif, Christians are
going to have to speak with one voice and do some hard thinking and planning
about exactly what is best for the survival and flourishing of their community
in their ancient land.
It is to be hoped that Pope Leo will encourage Christian political unity and a
proactive policy of being “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
NB: Click here to read the above analysis on the Catholic Register Website
**Enclosed picture/A memorial plaque at the shrine of Our Lady of Ilige in
Mayfouk commemorates Maronite Patriarch Gebrael Hjoula, burned alive by the
Mamluks in 1367. His martyrdom is part of the long, complex history of Lebanon’s
Christians, a history Pope Leo XIV will engage with during his upcoming visit to
a country facing renewed tension and uncertainty. (photo: Alberto M. Fernandez /
EWTN News)
Lebanon, the party and the crisis
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat./November 24, 2025
Benjamin Netanyahu has his way of dealing with those he perceives as Israel’s
enemies. He may have accepted the Gaza ceasefire, but that does not mean that he
has to suspend what he believes is his right to kill his enemies. So, he
violates the ceasefire and puts the blame on them. He carries out hostile
operations, saying they are a retaliation to violations committed by the other
side. This is happening in Gaza and in Lebanon. His ultimate priority is to
“finish the job,” meaning eliminating any source of danger.
Those who have followed the statements of Israeli officials since the October
2023 attack are not surprised by what Israel did yesterday and the day before
that. Those officials have said Israel will not wait for the dangers to mount
against it in neighboring countries before it acts. They have asserted that
Israel will take the initiative by nipping these dangers in the bud. Israel acts
as if it alone has the ability to assess the nature and extent of these dangers.
Moreover, Netanyahu and his top aides have stressed that they are not looking
for truces, but rather they want to decide the war in their favor and ensure
that it will not erupt again. This means disarming Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah
in Lebanon — which has not happened.
Israeli officials believe that the Oct. 7, 2023, attack gave them the right to
go to war to the very end and decide it in their favor. They do not want to go
to war with Hamas or Hezbollah again in a year or so.
The attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday came as no surprise. Reports
had claimed Israel was preparing to intensify its military pressure on Hezbollah
and Lebanon. Israel views Hezbollah’s rumored attempts to rebuild its
capabilities as a violation of the ceasefire and a danger that must be
addressed. The Israeli escalation appeared imminent when an American official
spoke last week about information that Hezbollah was indeed rebuilding its
capabilities.
The winds of war have been blowing for weeks in Lebanon. The Lebanese
authorities have been unable to convince the Americans that they have done all
they can to implement the decision to impose state authority over arms.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem has been very frank in
saying that the party is in no way willing to hand over its weapons. He also
said that any talk about the fate of the weapons must be preceded by Israel’s
full withdrawal from all Lebanese territories and its release of Lebanese
prisoners. And he demanded that discussions over the party’s arms must be
strictly Lebanese and not tied to any foreign conditions. This has left Lebanon
incapable of providing itself with American protection against the Israeli
assaults.
Amid the reports of a possible escalation of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, more
and more talk has been taking place about Israel and Iran preparing themselves
for a new round of fighting. Tehran has vowed to inflict massive destruction on
Israel should it spark a new conflict. Israel, in turn, has threatened to deal
Iran even more painful blows than the ones it inflicted in June.
Israel has not ceased its attacks on Lebanon since last year’s ceasefire,
explaining that it will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its capabilities.
Sunday’s strike was the most dangerous since the ceasefire was reached. It
signaled the return of Israeli attacks on the southern suburb of Beirut known as
Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold that was the scene of Israel’s assassination of
two Hezbollah secretaries-general and other senior military commanders,
including former chief of staff Fuad Shukr. Israel
wants to provoke a battle with Hezbollah before it has completed rebuilding its
capabilities.Furthermore, Sunday’s strike targeted Haytham Tabatabai, the aide
to the secretary-general, meaning Hezbollah’s chief of staff. He was effectively
the party’s second in command and was on Israeli and American wanted lists.
Tabatabai’s role went beyond Lebanon, as he was also active in Yemen and Syria.
The Israeli attack puts Hezbollah in a very difficult position. Failure to
retaliate will deepen the impression that the balance of power prevents it from
waging a new war with Israel, especially after it lost its Syrian outlet, which
was its rocket supply route from Iran. The war also demonstrated the extent of
Israel’s technological superiority and infiltration of the party. Failure to
respond will also emphasize the position of Hezbollah’s opponents that the party
has become Lebanon’s weakness, not a source of strength, as was once claimed.
However, should Hezbollah retaliate, it would slip right into the Israeli trap.
Israel wants to provoke a battle with the party before it has completed
rebuilding its capabilities. The question, though, is what would Iran do should
this war erupt? Is it ready to take part to defend its ally? Does Israel believe
it necessary to deal Hezbollah a fatal blow before waging a new round of
fighting with Iran? Whatever happens, the party knows for certain that the
majority of the Lebanese people oppose a new war.
Some believe that it is necessary to go through Iran to discuss the fate of
Hezbollah’s arsenal. However, how can we discuss these weapons while Iran itself
is embroiled in a dispute with the West over its own arsenal? Obviously, the
real solution in Lebanon lies in the state having the sole say over decisions of
war and peace. As it stands, Hezbollah and Iran are in no shape to return to
war, leaving the party in a crisis. Going to war will deepen its losses, while
remaining silent over Tabatabai’s killing will increase demands on it to derive
lessons from the major changes that have taken place in the region and to end
its military role. The Lebanese state itself is in
crisis. It cannot confront the Israeli attacks and it cannot meet the conditions
of the Trump administration so that it can protect Lebanon — namely imposing a
state monopoly over arms. Lebanon cannot last long while the winds of war keep
blowing. It is in a painful state and its divisions are deep. Moreover, the
world has started to grow weary of a patient who lacks the ability to make
decisions and who is low on immunity. This patient cannot recover his strength
on his own but is also refusing to take international treatments.
**Ghassan Charbel is editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. X:
@GhasanCharbel
The Latest English
LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
November 24-25/2025
Trump begins process of labeling
Muslim Brotherhood chapters as terror groups
Reuters/25 November/2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday began the process of designating certain
Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially
designated global terrorists, a move that would bring sanctions against one of
the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamic movements.
Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to submit a report on whether to designate any
Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan,
according to a White House fact sheet. It orders the secretaries to move forward
with any designations within 45 days of the report. The Trump administration has
accused Muslim Brotherhood factions in those countries of supporting or
encouraging violent attacks against Israel and US partners, or of providing
material support to Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“President Trump is confronting the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational network,
which fuels terrorism and destabilization campaigns against US interests and
allies in the Middle East,” according to the fact sheet. Republicans and
right-wing voices have long advocated for and considered terrorist designations
for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Republican president mounted a similar effort
during his first term. Months after his second term began, Rubio said the Trump
administration was working to designate the movement as a terrorist
organization. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, also a Republican, last week imposed
the same designation on the Muslim Brotherhood at a state level.
The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in the 1920s as an Islamic political
movement to counter the spread of secular and nationalist ideas. It swiftly
spread through Muslim countries, becoming a major player but often operating in
secret.
Controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announces end of
its mission
AFP/24 November /2025
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US- and Israeli-backed private organization
that provided aid for Palestinians in Gaza but was criticized by the UN, said on
Monday it was ending its mission. “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) today
announced the successful completion of its emergency mission in Gaza after
delivering more than 187 million free meals directly to civilians living in
Gaza,” the group said in a statement. GHF was tasked
with managing aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip in May, effectively
supplanting the UN after Israel placed tight restrictions on international aid
agencies. Those agencies were highly critical of the GHF, which managed four
distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, while the UN system it replaced had 400.
In August, a UN-mandated expert panel alleged that, under the GHF, aid
was “exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas” and United Nations
special rapporteurs called for it to be disbanded. Hundreds of Palestinians were
killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid from GHF distribution sites, according
to the UN human rights office. The foundation said in
its statement on Monday that it had been in talks with other international
humanitarian organizations and with the Civil-Military Coordination Centre, a
task force set up by the US and its allies in southern Israel to monitor the
truce in Gaza. “It’s clear they will be adopting and
expanding the model GHF piloted,” the group’s executive director John Acree
said, according to the statement. The US State Department thanked GHF for its
humanitarian work and its contribution to reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. “GHF’s
model, in which Hamas could no longer loot and profit from stealing aid, played
a huge role in getting Hamas to the table and achieving a ceasefire. We thank
them for all that they provided to Gazans,” Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the US
State Department, wrote on X.In reaction to the announcement of GHF’s closure, a
spokesman for Hamas said the organization should be held accountable for the
harm it caused to Palestinians. “We call upon all international human rights
organizations to ensure that it does not escape accountability after causing the
death and injury of thousands of Gazans and covering up the starvation policy
practiced by the (Israeli) government,” Hazem Qassem wrote on his Telegram
channel. A US-brokered ceasefire and hostage-prisoner
exchange between Hamas and Israel came into effect on October 10. It is the
first phase in what international mediators hope will be a process to end the
war and kickstart reconstruction in Gaza.
Israeli settlers build illegal outpost near Tubas, army
to seize lands near Jerusalem
Arab News/November 24, 2025
LONDON: Israeli settlers established a new illegal outpost in the northern
Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank on Monday, while the Israeli army
plans to confiscate dozens of acres of land owned by Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Mutaz Besharat, a Palestinian Authority official responsible for Jordan Valley
affairs in the Tubas Governorate, said that settlers began building the outpost
in Khirbat Al-Hadidiya after the military ordered the construction of a road. On
Monday, the Israeli army issued a military order to seize almost 19 acres of
Palestinian-owned land in the towns of Al-Za’im and Al-Issawiya, located east of
occupied East Jerusalem.Israeli forces conducted search-and-arrest raids in West
Bank towns overnight, detaining 16 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian
Prisoners Club. Troops stormed homes in Nablus, Ramallah, El-Bireh, Tulkarm,
Bethlehem and Jenin, arresting “wanted” individuals and attacking residents and
property, according to Wafa news agency. All
settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law.
Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967,
about 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside about 3 million
Palestinians.
Gazans despair as Israeli forces mark withdrawal line
AFP/November 25, 2025
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: When Ibrahim Farahat awoke to discover a
large yellow concrete block on his doorstep in Gaza City, he suddenly found
himself right on the perilous demarcation line marking the withdrawal of Israeli
troops. Several residents of the Shujaiya
neighborhood, east of Gaza City, told AFP that they had found such blocks around
their homes — which they believed had been placed by Israeli forces overnight
between Thursday and Friday. “They placed the yellow
block in front of our house. It was previously near the Al-Aqsa pharmacy,” about
a kilometer away (less than a mile), Farahat told AFP.“Things were fine — it was
far from us,” he added.“Now gunfire is reaching our house.”Under the US-brokered
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israeli troops have withdrawn to
positions behind the so-called Yellow Line, though still in control of more than
half the territory. Since the fragile ceasefire came
into effect on October 10, there have been multiple deadly incidents involving
Israeli forces firing on people approaching or crossing the Yellow Line.
A number of Shujaiya’s residents have now decided to leave the
neighborhood, yet another displacement for many since the start of the war more
than two years ago. Among them was Fadi Shafiq
Hararah, who described to AFP how the large yellow blocks had been installed in
his neighborhood. “(The Israeli army) were equipped
with robots, and there was a tank present. They also had a crane,” he said.
“We’re packing our belongings to leave. But where are we supposed to go?“Akram
Jaradah said this was his 16th displacement since October 7, 2023, when Hamas’s
deadly attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza.
“I’ve been displaced 16 times — from one street to another, from one city to
another, from the north to the south,” he told AFP. “This Yellow Line means the
(Israeli) army will constantly be present in the area, posing a danger to us,”
he added.When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was simply marking
the Yellow Line. “It was not expanding it in any way,” it added.
‘Escalating violations’
The Wall Street Journal published an investigation on Friday suggesting that
Israel had sent reinforcements and installed water points along the yellow
line.The Israeli military told AFP that it could not comment on these
allegations. Under the truce agreement between Israel
and Hamas, which was negotiated through mediators including the United States,
Israeli troops are supposed to eventually withdraw further than the Yellow Line,
in step with the progress of the peace process in the Gaza Strip. On Monday,
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Israel “continues daily its campaign of
shifting the yellow line inside the Strip westward.”“This is a blatant breach of
the agreement,” he added.In a statement published Saturday, Hamas accused Israel
of “escalating violations” of the ceasefire, citing the yellow line’s “daily
westward advance, accompanied by the mass displacement of our people, in
addition to airstrikes and artillery shelling of areas in the eastern Gaza
Strip.”The Islamist movement said that this had “led to changes in the
occupation army’s withdrawal lines, contradicting the agreed-upon maps.”The
Israeli military has frequently issued statements saying it has killed militants
who have crossed the Yellow Line and posed a threat to troops, also denouncing
truce violations. Since Wednesday, Hamas and Israel
have been accusing each other of violating the ceasefire.
Islamic Jihad says found body of one of last three Gaza
hostages
AFP/November 24, 2025
GAZA CITY: The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said it
had found the body of one of the last three hostages held in Gaza on Monday.
“Today we found the body of one of the enemy prisoners during search
operations in areas controlled by the Zionist (Israeli) army in the central Gaza
Strip,” the Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement. A source in Islamic Jihad, who
requested anonymity, confirmed the body belonged to one of the last three
hostages held by militants in the territory. At the
start of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into
effect on October 10, militants were holding 20 living hostages and 28 bodies of
deceased captives.Hamas has since released all the living hostages and returned
the remains of 25 dead hostages, in line with the ceasefire terms. In exchange,
Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and
returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
How Israel is leveraging legal tools and development plans
to seize Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah
ANAN TELLO/Arab News/November 25, 2025
LONDON: Israel is entering a “new and dangerous phase” to cement its hold over
occupied East Jerusalem, using sweeping legal and bureaucratic measures to
reshape the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and expand settlements, an Israeli
nonprofit said in a new report. The report, released in late October by human
rights group Ir Amim, says the Israeli government is promoting two major housing
projects under the guise of urban renewal. Together,
they would see about 2,000 Israeli families settled in Sheikh Jarrah, a
neighborhood long emblematic of Palestinian identity.
According to the report, the plans would displace all Palestinians in the
western section, a key Palestinian area known as the Western Neighborhood or Umm
Haroun. This push, Ir Amim notes, forms part of a
wider set of state actions reshaping control over one of East Jerusalem’s most
contested areas.
For residents, these policies compound years of pressure.
“Our neighborhood has been suffering for more than 20 years because of
court cases, eviction orders and rising rents,” said Mahmoud Al-Saou, a
community representative facing eviction. “All of this is being done to force
the residents out.”
Al-Saou said that his own legal struggle began in 2005. “They decided they
wanted to demolish my house and build a six-story building on its land, forcing
me out,” he told Arab News. “We go to the Israeli courts because there are no
others, but they don’t give us justice. Honestly, we only go to court to buy
time.”That uncertainty, he said, has become a constant burden. “Imagine living
in your home and constantly being threatened that at any moment, you might be
forced to leave, with nowhere to go.”His family has lived in their Umm Haroun
home since 1963. “I was born here, my children were born here, and all our
memories are in Sheikh Jarrah,” he said. “We can’t imagine handing our homes
over to settlers.” According to Al-Saou, settler groups have already seized
several plots, turning empty land into parking lots to strengthen future claims.
“They want to build settlement units, shopping centers, malls and playgrounds —
all through land seizure,” he said.Two families have already been removed; the
Shamasnehs and the household of Hajj Abu Khalil and Hajjah Umm Khalil. The
latter had no heirs, and the Israeli General Custodian placed settlers in their
home after their passing. “We tried so hard to take over that house legally, but
we couldn’t,” Al-Saou said. “The neighborhood desperately needs housing for its
own families.”The Shamasneh family, AFP reported, was evicted in 2017 after an
eight-year legal battle that ended with courts siding with heirs claiming
pre-1948 Jewish ownership. Ir Amim’s report confirms that the second household
had no heirs and was seized by the state.
These evictions, the report shows, lay the groundwork for the state-backed plans
now moving forward. In late 2024, the Jerusalem Development Authority submitted
a zoning plan to replace about 40 Palestinian homes in Umm Haroun with 316
housing units.
The plan is marketed as the renewal of the historic Jewish neighborhood of
Nahalat Shimon, which existed before 1948.The authority, jointly owned by the
Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and the Jerusalem Municipality, is responsible for
carrying out government development initiatives. Ir Amim said that past attempts
at mass eviction stalled because residents held protected tenancy rights. But
rebranding the effort as urban renewal, the group says, allows authorities and
settler organizations to bypass these legal protections entirely.
In May, the Jerusalem Municipality’s Local Planning Committee recommended
advancing the plan with several amendments. Pressure is also mounting in the
Eastern Neighborhood, or Karm Al-Jaouni, where several families — including the
Hanouns, Al-Kurds and Al-Ghaouis — have already been evicted.
“They were evicted years ago,” Al-Saou said. “And the court cases continue in
the eastern section.” Beyond evictions, Ir Amim’s report cites ongoing
land-registration processes enabling state and settler bodies to claim
ownership, along with the expropriation of public spaces for Jewish
institutions.
One such plan includes a yeshiva — a Jewish religious school and dormitory — on
land expropriated by the municipality. Additional public spaces are also being
targeted, further tightening Israel’s grip on the area. A September study by the
Israeli nonprofit Bimkom similarly found that the Israeli government’s
Settlement of Land Title procedures in East Jerusalem have been used to
dispossess and displace Palestinians. The group argues
that the legal framework structurally disadvantages Palestinian landowners
seeking to prove and formalize ownership. These processes, Bimkom concluded, are
“part of the broader policy to promote the annexation” of occupied East
Jerusalem. These legal maneuvers accompany large-scale municipal projects across
East Jerusalem, including a business complex in Wadi Joz and a planned municipal
park near Sheikh Jarrah, according to Ir Amim. While city officials say the
projects will improve services for Palestinian residents, Ir Amim argues they
will instead entrench Israeli control over Sheikh Jarrah and the Old City Basin,
accelerating Palestinian displacement. Together, the
report notes, these actions form a coordinated strategy of demographic
transformation. Titled “A Stranglehold on Sheikh Jarrah: New Tools for Israeli
Takeover and Palestinian Displacement,” the report warns that the measures could
turn Sheikh Jarrah from a historically Palestinian neighborhood into a major
Israeli enclave, severing the heart of Palestinian Jerusalem from surrounding
neighborhoods.
Aviv Tatarsky, an Ir Amim researcher, said that the state is now openly steering
these initiatives.
INNUMBERS:
• 730k+ Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank as of Oct. 31, 2024.
• 214 Palestinian structures demolished in East Jerusalem.
• 217 Palestinian households with eviction cases filed in Israeli courts.
(Source: OHCHR)
“All the projects we discuss in the report are state-initiated — whether
so-called urban renewal or the yeshiva project,” Tatarsky told Arab News. “Even
though the yeshiva is supposedly a religious organization’s initiative, the land
was allocated by the Israel Land Authority and the municipality.
“In the past, settler organizations would file eviction claims, and when
criticized, state officials could say, ‘It’s a private matter; it has nothing to
do with us.’ That pretense has now dropped. What we’re seeing today is the state
itself directly driving these projects.”
The intensifying state role builds on decades of efforts by settler groups to
seize properties in Sheikh Jarrah, north of Jerusalem’s Old City, since the area
came under Israeli control following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The neighborhood is divided into two primary sections: Karm Al-Jaouni,
east of Nablus Road, and Umm Haroun, to the west. Each area has its distinct
legal battles, community composition and historical land claims.
Central to many cases is the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law,
which Ir Amim calls “discriminatory” because it grants Jews exclusive rights to
reclaim pre-1948 property while offering no equivalent right to Palestinian
refugees displaced during the same period. Since 1970, nearly 80 Palestinian
families in Sheikh Jarrah have faced eviction lawsuits, according to Ir Amim.
Pressures intensified in 2021, when Israel’s
Supreme Court considered appeals from seven Palestinian families in Karm
Al-Jaouni. The court proposed allowing the families to remain as “protected
tenants” if they acknowledged Jewish ownership and paid rent to a settler
organization, according to media reports. But Palestinian families insisted they
were the rightful owners under a 1954 Jordan-UNRWA agreement. They were
originally displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war from areas including Haifa
and Jaffa.
Amid protests in August 2021, the Israeli government declined to intervene in
the cases. The Foreign Ministry insisted Sheikh Jarrah was a “private real
estate dispute” that had been turned into an international anti-Israel issue,
The Times of Israel reported then.
Jordanian civil law Article 395, along with the 1950s resettlement agreements
with UNRWA, affirms Palestinian families’ claims, according to the Beirut-based
Institute for Palestine Studies. But Israel’s 1950 Absentee Property Law and
1972 Tenant Protection Law have enabled authorities to transfer refugee property
to state or settler control. Ir Amim’s report says eviction lawsuits continue
against several families, filed either by the General Custodian — a department
within the Israeli Justice Ministry — or by settler groups. The General
Custodian oversees assets allegedly owned by Jews before 1948. Tatarsky said
that the state faces little resistance and is not required to justify its
actions. “There is very little pressure against it,” he said. “Israeli society
doesn’t care.”He added: “There are those who are quite strong within Israeli
society who actually support these moves. They are very happy to dispossess
Palestinians and to create settlements in these places. “And there are those who
don’t necessarily support it, but just don’t care, and (this allows) it to take
place. Without the silence of the Israeli public, this could not
happen.”Therefore, he added, “it’s all in the hands of the international
community, which is allowing Israel to get away with everything,” including “the
destruction of Gaza, the terrible nationalistic Jewish (radicalism) in the West
Bank, and dispossessing Palestinians in East Jerusalem. “Israel,
until today, did not even have to justify these new actions. Our report shows
that this is a new phase, one that’s much more dangerous in terms of its scope.
People, governments and organizations need to understand how serious this is —
and act.”Israel maintains that disputes in Sheikh Jarrah are private property
matters to be resolved by the courts. The UN and the EU have declared the
evictions and displacement policies in Sheikh Jarrah violations of international
law, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits
forcible transfers in occupied territory. In July
2024, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark opinion declaring
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and calling for the
evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Still,
international action has largely been limited to calls for accountability,
documentation of abuses, diplomatic condemnation and support for Palestinian
legal challenges.
Meanwhile, since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack triggered Israel’s
retaliatory war in Gaza, a parallel escalation has unfolded in the occupied West
Bank, including East Jerusalem. By October this year, more than 1,000
Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank,
one in five of them children, according to UN figures. The number represents 43
percent of all Palestinians killed in the West Bank over the past two decades
and excludes those who died in Israeli detention during the same period. Since
Oct. 7, 2023, 59 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or armed
clashes in the West Bank and Israel, including 16 women and five children.
Twenty-two were members of Israeli security forces.
The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory attributes the
high Palestinian death toll to what it describes as systematic, unlawful and
disproportionate use of lethal force by Israeli security forces, including live
fire, airstrikes and shoulder-fired missiles, “with evident disregard for
Palestinians’ right to life, including children.”
During the same period, more than 38,450 Palestinians across the West Bank have
been displaced, according to UNRWA, with home demolitions a key driver. About 75
percent of them were forced to flee during large-scale Israeli military raids in
the northern West Bank. Despite these conditions, Al-Saou from Sheikh Jarrah’s
western section still hopes something may change.“We have been living in this
suffering for a long time,” he said. “It’s hard to live your normal life under
such conditions. “These harsh circumstances were imposed on us to empty the
neighborhood of its people, but we are holding on to Sheikh Jarrah with
everything we have. And God willing, things will get better.”
Syrian defense delegation attends Arab League armed forces
conference in Cairo
Arab News/November 24, 2025
LONDON: A delegation from the Syrian Ministry of Defense is attending the 29th
session of the Arab Armed Forces Training Chiefs that began in Cairo on Monday.
The aim of the five-day conference is to enhance coordination among Arab
militaries. The Syrian delegation was led by Maj. Gen.
Abdul Rahman Al-Sarhan, chief of the army’s Training Authority. The theme of the
conference, organized by the Arab League, is “The Role of Artificial
Intelligence in Developing the Future Capabilities of Armed Forces and its
Impact on Operations and Training.”The opening day highlighted the growing role
of AI in planning and support for military operations, and its uses in modern
weapons systems. In his opening remarks, Khalil
Ebrahim Al-Dhwadi, the League’s assistant secretary-general for Arab Affairs and
National Security, said a goal of the conference is to benefit Arab armed forces
by preparing guidance studies to help improve the skills of armed forces
personnel and students at military colleges, and enhance the capabilities of
training chiefs through education, research and development.The conference
reflects the Arab League’s commitment to dialogue, the sharing of experience and
improved coordination among national militaries, he added.
US pressed Ukraine to accept deal at Geneva talks,
official says
AFP/November 25, 2025
KYIV, Ukraine: The United States pressed Ukraine to accept its proposals to end
the war with Russia during talks in Geneva on Sunday, a senior official told
AFP, despite Kyiv protests that the plan conceded too much to Moscow.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington did not
directly threaten to cut off aid if Kyiv rejected its proposals, but that
Ukraine understood this was a distinct possibility.
The US plan, originally made up of 28 points, would see Ukraine effectively cede
its eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions to Russia and slash the size of its army
— demands that Kyiv has decried as unacceptable.
Ukrainian, US and European officials met in Switzerland on Sunday to draft an
“updated” version of the plan, but the Kremlin said Monday that it would not
accept European amendments. Although US pressure on
Ukraine eased during the meeting in Geneva, “overall pressure” remained, a
senior official briefed on the talks said. The source said they did not
understand why Washington was hurrying toward a deal, but that “everyone” was
for an end to the war if there was a real opportunity to do so. Russia launched
its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv and its European
allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War
II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of
violence and destruction. Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel
have been killed since the invasion began, while millions of Ukrainians have
been forced to leave their homes.
‘Critical moment’ -
US President Donald Trump initially gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
until Thursday to respond to the first version of the plan. But German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz threw doubt on Trump’s deadline, saying at an
EU-Africa summit in Angola that discussions would be a “lengthy, long-lasting
process.”A new version of a draft worked on in Geneva has not been published but
all sides agreed that any deal must “uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty.”Countries
supporting Kyiv — part of the “coalition of the willing” — are due to hold a
video call Tuesday following the Geneva talks.
Zelensky said Monday his country was at a “critical moment,” after last week
warning Ukraine risked losing either its “dignity” or Washington as an ally.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had welcomed the original US plan,
saying it could be a basis for a deal. But in Ukraine’s southern city of
Zaporizhzhia, residents balked at the idea of ceding land to Russia. “We cannot
give up any territory. What did our soldiers give their lives for? How will we
look their families in the eye?” asked Tetiana, a worker at a local metal firm.
“I understand that it is very difficult for our boys, but give them an inch and
they will take a mile.”As talks continued, the war ground on. A Russian strike
on the northeastern city of Kharkiv late Sunday killed four people, local
officials said.
Trump optimistic -
In Washington, Trump appeared hopeful of a breakthrough.
“Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,”
Trump said on social media.In Geneva on Sunday, the Ukrainian delegation said a
new draft of the plan “already reflects most of Ukraine’s key priorities.”US
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “tremendous” progress had been made at the
talks. “I honestly believe we’ll get there,” Rubio said, adding: “Obviously, the
Russians get a vote.”Moscow has captured and occupies large swathes of southern
and eastern Ukraine, since it invaded claiming to have annexed five Ukrainian
regions, including Crimea which it seized in 2014. The Kremlin is seeking
recognition of the territories it occupies and wants Kyiv to pull out of the
part of the Donetsk region that remains under its control — demands deemed
unacceptable by Ukraine.
Kremlin says European counter-proposal for Ukraine peace
does not work for Russia
Reuters/24 November/2025
The Kremlin on Monday said that a European counter-proposal to a US 28-point
peace plan for Ukraine was not constructive and that it simply did not work for
Moscow. The publication of the 28-point draft US peace
plan last week deepened concerns in Ukraine and among European powers that
Russia’s core demands on NATO, territory and the chronology of any peace deal
had been accepted by Washington. The European plan
significantly changes the meaning and significance of key points on NATO and
territory, according to a copy seen by Reuters. “The European plan, at first
glance... is completely unconstructive and does not work for us,” Kremlin
foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.President Vladimir
Putin said on Friday that US proposals for peace in Ukraine could be the basis
of a resolution of the conflict but that if Kyiv turned down the plan then
Russian forces would advance further.Ushakov said that “not all, but many
provisions of this (US) plan seem quite acceptable to us.” He added that some
would require more detailed discussion however.
US, Ukraine work to narrow gaps on peace plan to end war with Russia
Reuters/24 November/2025
The United States and Ukraine sought on Monday to narrow the gaps in a peace
plan to end the war with Russia after agreeing to modify a US proposal that Kyiv
and its European allies saw as a Kremlin wish list. Washington and Kyiv said in
a joint statement they had drafted a “refined peace framework” after talks in
Geneva on Sunday. Though there were no specifics, the dialogue received a
cautious welcome from some of Ukraine’s allies. The US blindsided Kyiv and
European countries with a 28-point peace plan last week, giving Ukraine until
Thursday to agree to a framework to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War
Two. The sudden push raises the pressure on Ukraine and President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, who is now at his most vulnerable since the start of the war after a
corruption scandal saw two of his ministers dismissed and as Russia makes
battlefield gains. He could struggle to get Ukrainians to swallow a deal viewed
as selling out their interests. After Sunday’s talks, no public statement was
released on how the revised plan would handle contentious issues such as how to
guarantee Ukraine’s security against future Russian threats and how to fund the
rebuilding of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said negotiations were ongoing, while the Kremlin said nothing had
officially been conveyed to Russia. Kyiv still looking
for compromises, Zelenskyy says
“We all continue working with partners, especially the United States, to look
for compromises that will strengthen but not weaken us,” Zelenskyy said via
video link from a separate summit of Ukraine’s allies in Sweden. Zelenskyy said
Russia must pay for the war in Ukraine and that a decision on using frozen
Russian assets was crucial. Later on Monday, Zelenskyy
said that Ukraine’s official delegation, which was in Geneva for talks, is
returning to Kyiv, adding that the next steps would be decided soon.
“...I am expecting a full report this evening on the progress of the
talks in Geneva and the principal emphases of our partners,” Zelenskyy said.
“Based on these reports, we will determine the next steps and the timing. We
will continue coordinating with Europe and other partners around the world.”
US President Donald Trump has kept up the pressure on Ukraine to reach a deal.
“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between
Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just
may be happening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Zelenskyy could travel to the United States as soon as this week to discuss the
most sensitive aspects of the plan with Trump, according to sources familiar
with the matter. The initial 28-point proposal put
forth by the US last week called on Ukraine to cede more territory, accept
limits on its military and abandon its ambitions to join NATO, Russian demands
that Ukrainians have long rejected. “Trump’s special plan is, in general, a
capitulation for Ukraine,” said Anzhelika Yurkevych, a 62-year-old civil servant
in Kyiv. “I think the Ukrainian people will not agree. Even if they sign, it
needs to be implemented, the Ukrainian people will be the ones to do it. And
they do not agree with this.”Underscoring the war’s toll, Ukraine’s
second-largest city Kharkiv was hit by what officials said was a massive drone
attack that killed four people on Sunday. With smoke
rising from the rubble, one man was seen crouched and holding the hand of a dead
body. “There was a family, there were children,” said Ihor Klymenko, Red Cross
Commander of the emergency response team in Kharkiv. “I can’t tell you how, but
the children are alive, thank God, the man is alive. The woman died,
unfortunately.”Across the border, Russian air defenses downed Ukrainian drones
en route to Moscow, forcing three airports that serve the capital to temporarily
restrict flights.
European nations issue counter-proposal
European allies said they were not involved in crafting the original plan. They
released a counter-proposal that would ease some of the proposed territorial
concessions and include a NATO-style security guarantee from the United States
for Ukraine if it is attacked. “We are, of course, closely monitoring the media
reports that have been pouring in from Geneva over the past few days, but we
have not yet received anything official,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told
reporters. Some EU leaders met to discuss Ukraine on
the sidelines of an EU-African Union summit in Luanda on Monday, with others
dialing in via video conference.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Trump had
expressed an openness to a jointly developed peace plan for Ukraine. “And that
is precisely what the representatives of Ukraine, the United States of America
and the European member states achieved yesterday in Geneva,” said Merz in
Luanda. “We welcome the fact that these talks took place in Geneva. We also
welcome the interim result. Some issues were clarified, but we also know: Peace
in Ukraine won’t happen overnight.”Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said any
agreement must not weaken Ukraine or Europe.“This is a delicate matter because
no one wants to discourage Americans and President Trump from having the United
States on our side in this process,” he said. “There is no agreement that a
military weakening, or so-called limits on the number of troops in Ukraine, is a
condition for peace,” he added.
Trump says he had ‘very good’ call with China’s Xi, accepts
invite to visit Beijing
Al Arabiya English/24 November/2025
US President Donald Trump said Monday he had a “very good” phone call with Xi
Jinping, adding that he accepted an invitation from the Chinese leader to visit
Beijing in April. “I just had a very good telephone call with President Xi, of
China. We discussed many topics including Ukraine/Russia, Fentanyl, Soybeans and
other Farm Products,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.He described the US
relationship with China as “extremely strong!”“President Xi invited me to visit
Beijing in April, which I accepted, and I reciprocated where he will be my guest
for a State Visit in the US later in the year.”
Earlier on Monday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the two
leaders discussed bilateral cooperation and the issue of Taiwan in a phone call.
Xi told Trump the two countries should “maintain momentum in ties,”
according to Xinhua, after a meeting last month in South Korea where the two
leaders sought to ease a blistering trade war. In his Truth Social post, Trump
said the call with Xi was a follow up to their “highly successful” meeting in
South Korea. “Since then, there has been significant progress on both sides in
keeping our agreements current and accurate.”
Xinhua said Xi also “stressed that Taiwan’s return to China is an important part
of the post-war international order.”China claims democratic Taiwan as part of
its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the self-ruled island
under its control.Trump and Xi met in October for the first time since 2019,
engaging in closely-watched talks as the world’s top two economies have remained
locked in a trade war. The tussle between Washington
and Beijing, which encompasses everything from rare earths to soybeans and port
fees, has rocked markets and gummed up supply chains for months. Xi told Trump
on Monday that the “successful” meeting in South Korea “helped calibrate the
course and inject momentum into the steady forward movement of the giant ship of
China-US relations,” Xinhua reported. Since the meeting, China-US ties have
“remained stable and have continued to improve, which has been widely welcomed
by both countries and the international community,” Xi added. With AFP
Iran’s foreign minister to hold talks with French
counterpart in Paris this week
AFP/24 November/2025
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will hold talks with his French
counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in Paris this week, France’s foreign ministry said
Monday. Tehran is under pressure from Western powers
to allow inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), into its facilities.“Foreign Minister Araghchi will travel
to France on Wednesday and hold talks with the minister,” the French ministry
said, adding it would be the opportunity to urge Iran to resume its cooperation
with the IAEA. Western countries accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a
claim Tehran has systematically denied.In mid-June, Israel launched an
unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that the
United States briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities. The
war derailed high-level nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington that had
begun in April, during which the two sides were at odds over Iran’s right to
enrich uranium – which Tehran defends as “inalienable.”In September, an
agreement was reached between Iran and the IAEA in Cairo to establish a
framework for cooperation.But Iran declared that deal invalid when Britain,
Germany and France triggered the return of UN sanctions that had been lifted
under a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s top diplomat on Friday said a new
approach should be taken for the monitoring of the country’s nuclear sites. He
had earlier in the day accused the United States, Britain, Germany and France of
pursuing a path of “escalation,” after the IAEA passed a resolution demanding
Tehran provide “full and prompt” cooperation including access to sensitive
nuclear sites. The meeting on Wednesday “will be an opportunity for us to call
on Iran to comply with its obligations towards the IAEA and to quickly resume
cooperation with the agency,” the French ministry said.
UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem
bint Ebrahim al-Hashimy.
Al Arabiya English/24 November/2025
The United Arab Emirates lambasted Sudan’s army chief on Monday for rejecting a
US truce proposal, after he accused Washington of parroting the UAE’s talking
points. “Once more, General al-Burhan refuses peace
overtures. In his rejection of the US Peace Plan for Sudan, and his repeated
refusal to accept a ceasefire, he demonstrates consistently obstructive
behavior. This must be called out,” said Reem bint Ebrahim al-Hashimy, the UAE
minister of state for international cooperation. The
UAE has been accused of arming the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces,
who are at war with the army-backed government. The UAE denies the accusations.
The comments came a day after Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan
said the latest truce proposal sent by US envoy Massad Boulos on behalf of a
group of mediators was the “worst yet,” adding that it was unacceptable to his
government.
In a video address released by his office, he accused Boulos of parroting
talking points from Abu Dhabi. Since war broke out between al-Burhan’s forces
and his former ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s RSF in April 2023, mediation efforts
have failed to bring about a ceasefire, with both sides vying for a decisive
military victory. With AFP
Sudan’s RSF says it will enter into ceasefire
Al Arabiya English/25 November/2025
The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces said late on Monday that his
paramilitaries would immediately enter into a three-month humanitarian truce,
after US President Donald Trump said last week that he would intervene to seek
an end to a war that has plunged the country into famine. The United States, the
United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – known as the Quad – earlier this
month proposed a plan for a three-month truce followed by peace talks. The RSF
responded by saying it had accepted the plan, but soon after attacked army
territory with a barrage of drone strikes.
Monday’s statement appeared to announce a unilateral ceasefire. It came a day
after Sudan’s army chief rejected the Quad’s proposals, and criticized the
inclusion of the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of arming the RSF,
as a mediator. The UAE has denied such accusations and
said it aims to stop the war. “In response to
international efforts, chiefly that of His Excellency US President Donald Trump
... I announce a humanitarian ceasefire including a cessation of hostilities for
three months,” General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF said in a speech on
Monday. “We hope the Quad countries will play their
role in pushing the other side to engage with this step,” he added. His comments
come at a time when the RSF has come under fire for brutal attacks on civilians
in the aftermath of its takeover of the city of al-Fashir in late October. That
takeover cemented its control of the Darfur region, and the force has
subsequently stepped up attacks on the Kordofan region in a bid to take control
of the country. Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in his
speech on Sunday accused the US proposal of aiming to weaken the Sudanese army
while allowing the RSF to maintain the territory it has seized.
“No one in Sudan will accept the presence of these rebels or for them to
be part of any solution in the future,” al-Burhan said. He also denied what he
said were US accusations of Islamist influence in his government. “In his
rejection of the US Peace Plan for Sudan, and his repeated refusal to accept a
ceasefire, he demonstrates consistently obstructive behavior,” Reem bint Ebrahim
al-Hashimy, UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation, said in a
statement on Monday. Massad Boulos, White House advisor on African and Arab
Affairs, met the UAE’s top diplomat in Abu Dhabi on Monday, the Emirati state
news agency reported.The war in Sudan, which broke out in April 2023 over
disagreements on integrating the two groups, in addition to plunging Sudan into
famine, has killed tens of thousands of civilians, particularly in
ethnically-based bloodshed.
The RSF has been accused of genocide, and both Dagalo and al-Burhan have been
sanctioned by the United States. With Reuters
Turkish parliamentary delegation meets jailed PKK leader Ocalan
Reuters/24 November/2025
A delegation from a Turkish parliamentary commission overseeing the disarmament
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group paid their first
visit to its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan on Monday, the parliamentary
speaker’s office said. In their meeting in a prison on
the island of Imrali off Istanbul, the delegation asked Ocalan about the PKK’s
dissolution and disarmament as well as the implementation of an agreement
between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF), a statement said.
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November 24-25/2025
Extremist Persecution: The Rest of Us Come Next
Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute./November 24/2025
"Anti-Zionism is the demand that Israel cease to exist as a Jewish state,"
writes columnist Luke Tress. It is the existence of Israel – not settlements or
other pretexts – that underlies most of the conflict between Israel and radical
Islamists in the Middle East. Some countries in the area, such as Qatar and
Turkey, appear less interested in "peace and prosperity" than in the elimination
of Israel.
In Western societies, anti-Zionism seems to be the "politically correct" root of
social conflict wherever Islamists have settled. Unfortunately, as these Western
societies have yet to find out, the wish to eliminate "undesirables" is not
limited to Israel and Jews, but extends to Christians and all other "infidels" –
including many Muslims not considered the "right" kind of Muslim... In Nigeria,
Islamists have reportedly murdered more than 52,000 Christians just since 2009
-- with the additional incentive of then being able to seize their land. To
various degrees, much of Western civilization is engulfed in this grave issue of
"replacement."
"Wherever individuals are persecuted because of their race, religion, gender, or
political views, that place must, at that moment, become the center of the
universe." — The late Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, December 10,
1986.
In Western societies, anti-Zionism seems to be the "politically correct" root of
social conflict wherever Islamists have settled. Unfortunately, as these Western
societies have yet to find out, the wish to eliminate "undesirables" is not
limited to Israel and Jews, but extends to Christians and all other "infidels."
A small reminder: Jews were expelled from England during the decade of 1290;
from France in the 1390s; from Spain in the 1490s; from Sicily in the late
1400s; from Portugal in the 1500s; Ukraine in the 1640s; Russia in the 1880s;
Germany in the 1930s; and various Arab countries in the 1940s to 1960s.
Now, in the decade of 2020, when "Statistical data shows the doubling and
trebling of anti-Semitic incidents on America's streets," where are Jews to go?
The only place that welcomes them with open arms is their ancestral home of
Israel. Jews from anywhere in the world now have the absolute right of return to
Israel, at state expense.
Western countries have allowed in Jewish immigrants in the last several decades,
but history shows that might always be temporary, subject to the winds of
prevailing ideologies and political whims. In the West, as Islam starts to
dominate the political, religious, and social landscape, including in the US,
the Jews' options narrow.
Beginning with the Israelites' arrival in Egypt, after a famine, roughly 3,700
years ago at the time of Jacob and his children, Jews became slaves there for
400 years. Their long and torturous journey back to their promised land was
begun by their great leader Moses, in about 1,300 BCE.
During the destruction of Jerusalem and the Roman expulsion of Jews in 70 CE ,
they became widely scattered, stateless, without a permanent home. Over
centuries, Jews have been persecuted, slaughtered, and hounded everywhere they
tried to settle.
In 1948, with the establishment of modern Israel as the rightful historic
homeland of the Jewish people, Jews again had a place to call their own. Even
so, they are still relentlessly scapegoated on the world stage, as is their
homeland. The core problem appears not about land but about deep-seated
anti-Semitism, which now manifests itself at a national level, in the supposedly
more politically-correct antagonism to the existence of Israel (Zion).
The concept of Israel as the rightful homeland of indigenous Jewish people is
anathema to many. In the West, as publicly expressed Jew-hate is occasionally
considered impolite, Jew-haters of this world use the term "Zionist" as a mask
for their animosity. Zionists are those who believe in the political, legal,
historic and religious right of Jews to their ancient homeland of Israel – an
entity which has become the main focus of global prejudice, bitterness and
attack.
We are therefore subjected to the disparaging use of the word "Zionist" as an
epithet, as the new, supposedly socially acceptable, word for "Jew." This bias
is often disguised under various pretexts to distract from possible hate-speech
sanctions in the West.
In October 2025, after their release from Hamas' tunnels after two years in
darkness, twin brothers, Gali and Ziv Berman, said: "Don't forget, we are one
people and we have nowhere to go." Apart from Israel, most Jews indeed have
nowhere else to go. The antagonism by Islamists and their supporters on both the
left and the right leads to the central danger for all Jews: the ongoing intent
to destroy their sanctuary, the ancestral homeland, the fount of Zionism,
Israel.
Despite the current Gaza ceasefire, a British anti-Israel student group claimed
their task was "not over" until "Zionism is completely eradicated."
"Eradicating Zionists," commented journalist Melanie Philips, "surely can't be
far behind." Jew-hate, she further points out, has suffered "no pushback at all
in the West." So, the global hatred of Jews escalates, without reason,
rationality, or justification.
In Italy recently, protestors carrying Palestinian flags, shouted, "Yesterday
partisans, today anti-Zionists and anti-Fascists" – not "anti-Israel" or
"anti-Jews." Professor Maxim Shrayer, however, who taught at Italy's University
of Pisa, divulged that "some Italian intellectuals felt emboldened to turn their
anti-Zionism [technically meaning Israel] into attacks against all Israelis and
Jews." The Hamas Covenant (Charter) of 1988, in Article 7, clearly states "all
Jews":
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing
the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees
will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
(Related by al-Bukhari and Moslem in the book of Mohammed's sayings and deeds,
the Hadith.)
Shrayer asserted that, in reality, anti-Zionism is simply a mask for Jew-hatred.
To paraphrase Katharina von Schnurbein -- the EU's commissioner on anti-Semitism
– "antisemitism hides behind anti-Zionism."
As a consequence, many Jews and Israelis no longer feel safe in most Western
European countries and have been departing for safer locations.
Using "Zionist" as an avenue of attack against Jews seemingly seeks to "oust
Israel from the community of nations, deny Jewish experience, and strip us Jews
of our very identity, including our status as an indigenous people," suggests
the Scottish author Ben M. Freeman.
"For a Jew, to be in Jerusalem [the heart of Zion]," Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel
is quoted , "is to be at home."
The use of "Zionist" as a degrading term has roots going back to the USSR, where
a policy of state-sponsored antisemitism prevailed. During the Soviet period,
"antisemitism officially came in the form of anti-Zionism." In Russia and other
Soviet nations, "there was a whole, massive, organised campaign geared against
Israel, geared against Zionism, and it was international," Russian émigré,
Izabella Tabarovsky recalled.
Leftist "anti-Israel progressives," he adds, at present "use the exact same
language that Soviet propaganda used. Same tropes, same motifs, same explanatory
logic, even the same stories that Soviet propaganda used." Western neo-Marxist
academia contributed vastly to the rise of this irrational hatred, fatuously
founded on inverted oppressor-oppressed social justice doctrines. With
anti-Semitism regarded as the world's oldest hatred, some things never go out of
fashion.
Although modern Zionism emerged from the ideas of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) as a
political movement, it has early biblical roots. The Torah records an
irrevocable covenant with Abraham concerning the perpetual allocation of a
homeland to his descendants -- through his only legitimate son, Isaac, and then
to his son Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Since the Roman-era dispersion, and for centuries thereafter, Jews have been
comforted by the divine promise in Deuteronomy of return to their ancestral
roots:
"Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from
there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to
the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it."
"Anti-Zionism is the demand that Israel cease to exist as a Jewish state,"
writes columnist Luke Tress. It is the existence of Israel – not settlements or
other pretexts – that underlies most of the conflict between Israel and radical
Islamists in the Middle East. Some countries in the area, such as Qatar and
Turkey, appear less interested in "peace and prosperity" than in the elimination
of Israel.
This "holy war" can be seen in the forcible displacement of the great Byzantine
Empire by Islamists in what is now called Turkey.
In Western societies, anti-Zionism seems to be the "politically correct" root of
social conflict wherever Islamists have settled. Unfortunately, as these Western
societies have yet to find out, the wish to eliminate "undesirables" is not
limited to Israel and Jews, but extends to Christians and all other "infidels" –
including many Muslims not considered the "right" kind of Muslim, such as the
Alawites, the Druze, the Ahmadiyya, the Baha'i, and, in Turkey, the Alevi. In
Nigeria, Islamists have reportedly murdered more than 52,000 Christians just
since 2009 -- with the additional incentive of then being able to seize their
land. To various degrees, much of Western civilization is engulfed in this grave
issue of "replacement."
If one cares about one's physical and cultural survival, there can sadly be no
"neutral" stance. Shrayer, referring to the largely international chill of
Israel fighting on seven fronts to defend the West, wrote: "The response to the
war in Israel has proved, yet again, that silence is acquiescence." The very
lives of not just of an ancient, brilliant, people and their legitimacy to live
peacefully on ancestral land are at stake, but our own.
Elie Wiesel, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986,
elaborated on the West's enduring obligation to support the Jewish nation:
"Wherever individuals are persecuted because of their race, religion, gender, or
political views, that place must, at that moment, become the center of the
universe."
As the Jews fight for survival in the face of unrelenting persecution for their
supposed arrogance in defending themselves and their land, this is no time for
silence. The rest of us come next.
**Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member
of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the
Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Dr. Haug holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical
Theology and is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden –
the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning
in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The
American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National
Association of Scholars, Jewish Journal, James Wilson Institute (Anchoring
Truths), Jewish News Syndicate, Tribune Juive, Document Danmark, Zwiedzaj
Polske, Schlaglicht Israel, and many others.
© 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.
Reconstructing Gaza: The devil is in the detail
Ben Cohen/Jewish News Syndicate/November 24, 2025
The world is on the cusp of making the same mistake with Hamas that it did with
Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. Still, there is progress to be made if the
involved parties pay attention.
No doubt, the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803 on the postwar
reconstruction of Gaza was a triumph for American diplomacy. Drafted by the
United States and eagerly endorsed by a host of Middle Eastern and Islamic
nations on Nov. 17—among them Qatar and Turkey, two of Israel’s most insidious
adversaries—the resolution garnered 13 of the 15 votes on the council. Russia
and China, two of the five permanent members with the power of veto, decided not
to oppose the resolution, meekly abstaining instead.
However, the diplomatic obstacles to securing the resolution’s passage pale in
comparison with the political and strategic obstacles confronting its
implementation.
In post-conflict situations where outside forces are deployed to ensure
stability, a distinction between peacekeeping and peace enforcement has
traditionally been made. “Blue Helmet” operations deployed by the United Nations
are either governed by Chapter VI of the U.N. Charter, which restricts these
missions to monitoring, mediating and negotiating duties among the belligerent
parties, or Chapter VII, which allows for the use of force in applying the
mandate.
From what I can tell, the International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza
proposed by Resolution 2803 is more Chapter VII than Chapter VI. Additionally,
while the ISF has the authorization of the U.N. Security Council, it will not be
managed by the U.N.’s peacekeeping department in New York. In that light, the
ISF looks broadly similar to KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force established
in Kosovo following the defeat of the Serbian regime in 1999, whose legal status
was also enshrined by a Security Council resolution.
KFOR, however, came into being following a sustained NATO bombing campaign
against Serbia to curb the brutal ethnic cleansing of the Albanian majority in
Kosovo. Eight days after KFOR boots landed on the ground, the Serbs had
withdrawn from Kosovo entirely. In the Gaza Strip, however, Hamas has only
become more entrenched since the ceasefire was announced in mid-October.Under
the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas is meant to disarm. The terror group has no
intention of doing so. Right after Resolution 2803 was passed, a Hamas statement
asserted that the ISF’s ostensible duties, “including disarming the resistance,
strips it of its neutrality and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor
of the occupation.”Even with a mandate that allows for enforcement, it is very
difficult to envisage ISF troops—many of whom will be drawn from Muslim
countries with established records of support for the Palestinian cause—clashing
with Hamas terrorists in a bid to disarm them. Indeed, an aversion to peace
enforcement is a key reason why both Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have
ruled out the participation of their troops. They are wary, perhaps
understandably, of being perceived as doing the dirty work of the Israelis, and
they are determined not to risk the lives of their soldiers in that regard. If
the ISF is deployed without a verifiable commitment from Hamas to disarm, then
the correct comparison is not with KFOR, but UNIFIL (U.N. Interim Force in
Lebanon)—the 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in Southern Lebanon
following the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Just as in Gaza, in
Lebanon, there was a clear demand on Hezbollah to give up its weapons as
instructed by Resolution 1701 of the Security Council. But no outside party was
willing to follow through with force, if necessary, to achieve this outcome, and
so UNIFIL was deployed while Hezbollah remained armed to the teeth.
The world is on the cusp of making the same mistake with Hamas in Gaza. And the
victim of that error will be Israel, which will have to factor in the presence
of thousands of foreign troops whenever the Israel Defense Forces is compelled
to respond militarily to Hamas provocations.
If ISF troops end up as collateral damage in an Israeli strike, the follow-on
script pretty much writes itself; handwringing over supposed Israeli brutality,
condemnations at the United Nations and other world forums of alleged Israeli
ceasefire violations, attempts by pro-Palestinian legislators to impose or
reimpose military and commercial embargos on Israel, and so on. Those outcomes,
which are predictable, may also be overshadowed by far less predictable tensions
between Jerusalem and Washington. While the United States shares the Israeli
goal of defanging Hamas, it is also deeply wedded to the idea of the ISF and
mindful of the need to keep its Arab allies on side.
Israel was therefore correct to welcome the passage of Resolution 2803, if only
for the sake of maintaining good relations with Washington. It must also
cooperate with the ISF for the same reason. But none of that means that Israel
can’t demand certain guarantees, especially as the reconstruction of Gaza
envisaged by the United States cannot proceed without Israeli consent.
One demand Israel can reasonably make is that all countries providing troops to
the ISF should either have full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state or
assume them before dispatching their contingents. This would apply, for example,
to Indonesia, whose willingness to supply troops for the ISF has been widely
reported on.
In the same vein, Israel should negotiate rules of engagement and operational
protocols with the ISF to ensure that its ability to strike at Hamas is not
compromised by the presence of ISF troops.
Additionally, Jerusalem should seek to avoid an outcome whereby the ISF spends
more than a decade in Gaza, as UNIFIL has done in Lebanon. Nor should it rely on
the ISF to be the only hurdle between Hamas and a repeat of the mass atrocities
in Israel’s south on Oct. 7, 2023. There will need to be a permanent buffer zone
along Israel’s lengthy border with Gaza with traffic between the territories
limited to the supply of humanitarian aid and occasional crossings by
Palestinian civilians—for example, those traveling abroad for urgent medical
treatment or starting new lives outside the war-torn enclave.
Finally, Israel should take an active interest in the appointments to the
so-called Board of Peace, to be chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump, slated
to manage Gaza’s governance. Israel should lobby for appointees who will not
allow Hamas to worm its way into governing through either the front door or the
rear entrance. And just as it has rightly rejected the participation of Turkish
and Qatari troops in the ISF, Israel should object to representatives of either
regime serving on the Board of Peace.
In his address to the U.N. Security Council backing Resolution 2803, U.S.
Ambassador Mike Waltz cited the old saying that defines insanity as doing the
same thing over and again, yet expecting different results. In the same spirit,
if the U.S.-directed plan for Gaza is to avoid the pitfalls of the recent past,
then it needs to learn the lessons of history and apply them now.
The Armenian Church At The Hands Of The Armenian Regime
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 869/November 24/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/11/149516/
To say that there is a connection between the Armenian Apostolic Church and
Armenian identity and nationalism would be an understatement. The identity of
this ancient Anatolian people for thousands of years was reforged when Armenia
became the first Christian nation in 301 A.D. The Armenian Church – one of the
four "Oriental Orthodox" Churches – was the repository of much of Armenian
identity, especially during the many centuries that this people were under
foreign rule – Persian, Arab, Turkish, or Russian.[1]
Given such a deep connection, it is more than a bit shocking that the Armenian
Church is suffering an ongoing wave of arrests and accusations – personal,
partisan, and political – at the hands of the government of the Republic of
Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has not only arrested priests, bishops,
and archbishops, he, his wife, and political party have engaged in a harsh war
of words with the Head of the Armenian Church itself, Catholicos Karekin II.[2]
The roots of this clash between the prime minister and the Church go back years.
Coming to power in the democratic Velvet Revolution of 2018 against corrupt and
autocratic rule, the journalist and politician Pashinyan was styled a
pro-Western reformer, a product of Western investment in Eastern European civil
society in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian propaganda says
that Pashinyan and his circle are the product of the likes of the Soros
Foundation and organizations like USAID and NED. Anti-Russian voices counter
that the 2018 revolt was the will of the Armenian people (later ratified in
democratic elections won overwhelmingly by Pashinyan).[3] Both sides are telling
the truth.
Pashinyan rose to power railing against the so-called "Karabakh Clan," former
politicians who came originally from the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan and who
had risen to high office in Armenia.[4] And yet it was Pashinyan himself who in
2019 would controversially utter the unprecedented statement that "Karabakh is a
part of Armenia and full stop!"[5]
As political scientist Kimataka Matsuzato has convincingly argued, it was
Pashinyan, more than any other individual, who is responsible for the loss of
Karabakh because of a series of disastrous political, diplomatic, and military
decisions made by his government.[6] This is a key part of the dispute with the
Church.
The Armenian Church has criticized Pashinyan's governance, on Karabakh and other
matters, and the Prime Minister is aggressively seeking to shore up his
political position before elections slated to be held in June 2026. He has broad
powers of coercion and repression, ironically inherited by him from the autocrat
Prime Minister Sargsyan who was overthrown in 2018. Pashinyan has used them
ruthlessly against church leaders.[7]
On June 25, 2025, the Armenian government arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan
and 13 others, charging them with treason and terrorism in plotting a supposed
coup. The charismatic Galstanyan led popular demonstrations against Pashinyan
for his Karabakh policies and for handing four border villages in Armenia proper
(in his diocese of Tavush) to Azerbaijan.[8] The Prime Minister described the
arrests as disrupting a "large and sinister plan by the criminal-oligarchic
clergy to take power."[9] Archbishop Galstanyan's trial is still ongoing.[10]
On June 27, 2025, the government took into custody Archbishop Mikayel Ajapahyan
(they had earlier tried to arrest on the grounds of Etchmiadzin Cathedral and
had been prevented by the people). Charged with attempting to overthrow the
government, Ajapahyan was sentenced in September to two years in prison.[11]
On October 15, 2025, six more priests, including Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan, who is
the nephew of Catholicos Karekin II, were arrested and charged with "coercing"
people to attend anti-government demonstrations in 2021, demonstrations against
the government's policies on Nagorno-Karabakh.[12]
Looming over the arrests and serving as the backdrop to the campaign against the
Church is the August 8, 2025 Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal, an agreement
engineered by the Trump Administration which, among other things, aimed at
preventing an invasion by Azerbaijan of Armenia.[13] Azerbaijan is still gearing
up for war in terms of weapons purchases and bellicose rhetoric but is also
holding out carrots as well as sticks. On November 14, 2025, for the first time
in 30 years, a grain shipment arrived in Armenia from Kazakhstan having crossed
Azerbaijan.[14] Part of the promise of the peace deal is that it would bring not
just peace but prosperity (and enhanced regional trade) to Armenia.[15]
In a difficult balancing act, Pashinyan seeks to blame his critics within the
Church of being pro-Russian (even though Galstanyan is Western-educated) and of
trying to overthrow him while knowing that attacking the Church is generally
unpopular and hoping that the deal will improve things quickly enough to matter
for ordinary citizens. Meanwhile he faces hostile propaganda from Russia and
Iran and principled criticism from Armenians (in and outside the Church) while
he tries to blur the difference between the two.[16]
There seems little doubt that the political campaign against the Armenian Church
is politically motivated, much of the evidence and charges are trumped up, and
that it could turn out quite badly for all Armenians.[17] Pashinyan may not even
be thinking just of his own political future but may believe that suffocating
opposition is the only way to preserve Armenia in the face of invasion.[18] As
one Azeri outlet approvingly noted, "the Church stands in the way" of
Pashinyan's vision.[19] One day soon we will know whether cynicism or
self-sacrifice, or a weird combination of both, was the main factor in this
campaign. And whether it was actually worth it.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
Saudi-US ties enter a new strategic era
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya English/25 November/2025
The assumption that the Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to Washington was mainly
about dealing with regional shifts is an exaggerated one. What is reasonable to
say is that it was the most significant visit in decades, because it elevated
the relationship between the two countries to a new level. It was strengthened
by the strategic defense agreement and the advanced weaponry that made Saudi
Arabia a deeper ally than before. Washington also backed the Crown Prince’s
project to transform the Kingdom into an advanced global technology and economic
hub, and the two governments signed a nuclear cooperation agreement that lays
the groundwork for a partnership that will stretch for decades.
What about the joint strategic defense agreement? It is more valuable than
building a one-million-soldier army when it comes to deterrence. But if
countries that have defense treaties with the United States rarely need to
activate them, then what is their real value? The agreement that was signed is
not primarily meant to respond to an attack. More importantly, it is meant to
prevent the very idea of an attack from forming in the first place.
The last time North Korea attacked its neighbor South Korea was in 1953, and
since then the people of Seoul have lived in peace, even with seven hundred
thousand North Korean soldiers massed behind the demilitarized zone just forty
kilometers from their city. Despite Pyongyang’s threats, its forces have not
dared cross the border for eighty years. For nearly nine decades, Saudi Arabia
has had a strong relationship with the United States. It was tested once when
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Riyadh’s special relationship with Washington
helped end the occupation and safeguard Gulf security. In another instance, Iran
struck the Abqaiq area at four in the morning, temporarily halting oil
production at one of Saudi Arabia’s most vital facilities for several days.
Later, Iran became a target of American pressure. That attack reinforced the
idea of structuring the relationship militarily, and it pushed China to sponsor
the reconciliation agreement between Riyadh and Tehran, which proved important
for both sides during the region’s recent turbulence.
The defense agreement is not the product of a crisis, and Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman did not go to Washington during a war or under threat
against his country that would force him to offer concessions. The agreement
came after he had already built a strong relationship with China and after he
ended the dispute with Tehran under Beijing’s sponsorship. This means the
agreement has long-term goals and is rooted in strengthening deterrence. Saudi
Arabia is a vast country with long land and sea borders stretching around seven
thousand kilometers, which makes a deterrence strategy the best option for
discouraging hostile planning, since its consequences would be devastating for
any aggressor.
And the agreement raises a set of questions. Is it aimed at Tehran? Iran today
seeks a good relationship with Riyadh and, after its confrontation with Israel,
is even more in need of being close to Saudi Arabia. Is it aimed at China? That
is impossible to imagine, since China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest economic
partner. Will it serve Israel? Nearly all opposition voices to the agreement and
the weapons deals have come from Israel.
The agreement has become even more important with the F-35 fighter jet and tank
deals. It is the most significant development since the 1945 meeting between
King Abdulaziz and President Roosevelt, who declared Saudi Arabia strategically
important to the United States. The relationship can be seen from both sides.
For Americans, Saudi Arabia is strategically important. For Saudis, the United
States is an economic, scientific, and military superpower that makes it a
necessary partner.
The recurring question remains: Are these commitments tied to President Trump?
Partly, yes. He is the president, and no agreement can be concluded without him.
At the same time, the relationship is strong with other political actors as
well. The American political establishment in general is convinced of the
importance of ties with Riyadh.We also saw how the Crown Prince handled his
exchange with President Trump in the Oval Office in front of reporters. Trump
asked MBS who he thought was the best president for Saudi Arabia, beside
himself.
The Crown Prince replied, “Roosevelt… a Democrat.”
Trump: “Roosevelt?!”
The Crown Prince: “Yes, Roosevelt and Reagan… and we work with any American
president.”
Trump, jokingly: “But Trump is the best, right?”
Naturally, in Trump’s presence it is uncomfortable to praise anyone else,
especially Democrats. Even so, the point was made clearly. And in the future, we
will likely see support for Saudi Arabia from both the Republican and Democratic
parties, because the strategic relationship with Riyadh is not a matter of
dispute.
Who owns Iraq’s media? The answer is simple ...Iraqi media
remains a reflection of authority rather than truth.
Karam Nama/The Arab Weekly/November 24/2025
In Baghdad, a presenter does not move from his or her chair without party
approval. A camera does not roll unless a militia man signals from behind.
Everything is staged. Even news bulletins are read as though they were
obituaries written in the language of authority. This is not a literary
exaggeration. It is the daily reality of the Iraqi media, which has been shaken
by scandal after scandal, including revelations by blogger Ali Fadel about the
misconduct of a senior government media official. What politicians call
‘channels’ are little more than ‘media shops’, and independent journalists are
disappointed by them. There is no limit to vulgarity as long as the financier is
a politician or businessman seeking a parliamentary seat.
Consider the intense scrutiny the BBC faced following its significant editing
error in a speech by US President Donald Trump, prompting the broadcaster to
issue a public apology. But when has any Iraqi or Arab satellite channel ever
been held accountable for the deliberate, offensive mistakes it makes on a daily
basis?In Iraq’s fake order, journalism is bought, scripted and broadcast. The
truth is not published, but rather what the militias, political parties,
sectarian authorities, businessmen and state thieves want to be said. ‘When
journalism breaks under the weight of money, truth becomes just an ethical
option that everyone bypasses,’ writes Margaret Sullivan in The Guardian. Free
journalism is not merely the ability to publish; it is also the courage to speak
out against governments.
In Baghdad, that privilege does not exist. Loyalties are bought, reports are
fabricated and journalists are terrorised, either through threats to their
livelihoods or with stray bullets. As Dan Perry, a former Associated Press
editor, observed, journalists have been transformed ‘from observers into
government employees’. Only in Iraq will you find
entire TV studios operating from inside militia headquarters. News is prepared
there and delivered to viewers as though it were a military communiqué. Those
who refuse this theatre end up on the streets, or in the grave.
Journalism now obeys authority more than truth. This is not a generalisation,
but the result of hundreds of cases of censorship, bans, dismissals and
sometimes, killings. Official stories rarely provide more than a starting point
for deeper reporting that might reveal the truth. Yet everything in the Iraqi
media is subject to the rules of political, sectarian and financial patronage.
Whoever pays controls. The result is a hybrid media landscape: outlets that
raise the banner of freedom, but which, in reality, merely parrot the government
and flatter the militias. “What frightens authority is not dissenting opinion,
but the independent journalist,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post.
This is why Iraqi channels are granted meaningless titles and the profession is
stripped of its purpose.
In the West, there is an ecosystem that supports journalism. In the East,
however, there is a political system that undermines it daily. In Britain,
journalists are seen as the voice of society. In Iraq, however, they are merely
employees of whoever pays their salary.
Nevertheless, the Western media has not been immune to the absurdities that have
shaken its core in recent decades, leaving it confused and wounded. Ask any
reader of American or British newspapers today what they want, and they will
immediately answer: truth. Millions around the world want it back.
Yet journalists cannot simply erase politicians because they do not fit the mood
of our institutions or governments. It is unjust and goes against the historic
essence of journalism to turn the media into a field of selfish desires.
Fear and anger have become the dominant political emotions in major
democracies, and the media has played a part in this dangerous escalation. These
emotions have become more primal and less persuasive, threatening the very idea
of democracy that the media is supposed to serve. As Martin Wolf of the
Financial Times warns, such raw emotions are difficult to contain. At its core,
democracy is a civilised form of civil war, a struggle for power contained by
institutions and agreements. ‘The stronger the emotions and the more constrained
the ambitions, the more likely democracy is to collapse into authoritarianism.
Demagogues are democracy’s fatal weakness,’ writes Wolf. Thus, the battle for
truth has become a struggle against toxic division, changing how people view the
media. It is a war to preserve the ideal of journalism, which is inseparable
from the struggle for genuine democracy. When the influence of money breaks the
back of journalism, its value is lost and it becomes something else entirely,
closer to propaganda, entertainment or silent loyalty. And so the question
remains: who owns Iraq’s media? The answer is simple: those who own power and
money. This is why Iraqi media remains a reflection of authority rather than
truth.
**Karam Nama is British-Iraqi writer. He has published several books, including
An Unlicensed Weapon: Donald Trump, a Media Power Without Responsibility and
Sick Market: Journalism in the Digital Age.
Selected Face Book & X tweets for November
25/2025
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Now explaining the Lebanon-Israel
situation on TV in English:
1. If Hezbollah does respond to #Israel killing of its top military guy,
response will debunk every claim by the State of Lebanon that it has implemented
its part of the Nov. 2024 Cessation of Hostilities it signed with Israel.
2. If Hezbollah's escalation leads to full scale war, this time there will be no
way out: In 2024, Lebanon promised to elect a president, form a cabinet, and
disarm Hezbollah. It never disarmed the militia. Now the world does not believe
Lebanon anymore, so the war will have to be to the bitter end.
3. Every time Lebanon asks for another chance to disarm Hezbollah, America gives
it whatever it wants: U.S. holds back Israel, offers military and diplomatic
assistance. For the third time since 2000, Lebanon reneged on its promise to
disarm Hebzollah, and this time, it has made Washington angry. Cancelling all
LAF Commander meetings in Washington was a precedented. America is unhappy with
the State of Lebanon.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Received several calls from dear
friends at the Lebanese Forces, surprised by my post. Let me say that I’ve been
rooting for Samir Geagea to become president of Lebanon for 20 years—and still
am. This is what’s wrong with his statement today that ruffled my feathers:
Lebanese leaders like Geagea should be candid with the Lebanese people, in
Lebanon and the diaspora, about the true reason for war in Lebanon, since
Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2000: Hezbollah!
There is no such thing as Israeli attack or aggression on Lebanon. Please don’t
use such fake, populist language in your statements. Since 1948, the first
bullet fired was from Lebanon at Israel, and this continues today. There are no
Israeli schemes, ambitions, or greed toward Lebanon. The reason Lebanon has been
at war with Israel since 1968 is non-state militias that undermine the Lebanese
state and attack Israel—not defend Lebanon from Israeli attacks. (Militias rose
after Israel crushed Arab armies in 1967)
Geagea is using the typical Lebanese lingo: “Since we know Israel is aggressive
and has schemes against Lebanon, let’s remove the Hezbollah excuse and therefore
rid Lebanon of the Israeli danger and aggression.” He may think this leads to
the same result—disarming Hezbollah. But I’m sick and tired of the Lebanese
rhetoric resulting from the Lebanese living in their bubble, on Lala land.
Hezbollah is the problem prompting Israel to police Lebanon and maintain a
military presence on five hilltops. Remove Hezbollah, and—voilà—Israeli policing
and presence disappear. Please be forthcoming and honest. Enough with “we want
to stop Israeli aggression and therefore disarm Hezbollah.” Such phrasing is not
only wrong; it’s populist and unethical. Let’s call a spade a spade. The other
day I watched him dodge Marcel Ghanem's question on peace with Israel by saying
Lebanon had to be in sync with the Arab League (read Saudi Arabia). Why? Why not
endorse the Abraham Accords model (bilateral interests, not multilateral Arab
baloney).
Despite his horrible statement today, Geagea remains several notches above the
rest of Lebanon’s leaders and politicians, and remains my choice for president.
Oh, and it’s a shame Lebanon needs Saudi Arabia (or any other country) to figure
out how to be sovereign. Define Lebanese national interests, and let Saudi
Arabia—or any other country—follow, or stay away if they disagree (for example,
Iran).
Pope Leo XIV
I was deeply saddened to learn of the kidnapping of priests, faithful, and
students in Nigeria and Cameroon. I feel great pain, above all for the many
young men and women who have been abducted and for their distressed families. I
make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the
competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their
release. Let us #PrayTogether for these brothers and sisters of ours, and that
churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Went on Lebanese Al-Jadeed channel to explain, in Arabic, what’s wrong with
Beirut’s foreign policy. Lebanon signed on a certain sequence with Israel:
Disarm Hezbollah, then, Israel stops policing and withdraws from five hill tops.
After that demarcation, truce, peace, the world doesn’t really care.
Lebanon, however, is now blaming the world for not accepting a new sequence:
Israel stops policing and withdraws first, then, Lebanon (might) disarm
Hezbollah. The Lebanese are in violation of ceasefire and all relevant UN
resolutions, and they insist on blaming Israel and America for their shitshow
(excuse my French).
U.S. Embassy Beirut
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “On behalf of the United States of America, I
offer my best wishes and heartfelt congratulations to the people of Lebanon as
you commemorate the 82nd anniversary of your independence.
This year, the Government of Lebanon has taken courageous steps to promote a
brighter future for the Lebanese people. The United States will continue to
stand in partnership with Lebanon as we work together to promote stability and
economic prosperity in Lebanon and across the region.”
https://www.state.gov/releases/2025/11/lebanon-national-day
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