English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  October 25/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The Parable of the king who gave a wedding banquet for his son, but those he invited did not come...For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22/01-14: "Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, "Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet." But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet." Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?" And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For many are called, but few are chosen.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 24-25/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
Elias Bejjani/To PM, Nawaf Salam: Hezbollah Is an Iranian Terrorist Militia That Did Not Liberate South Lebanon in 2000 but Occupies It Along with All of Lebanon/
Nawaf Salam… When History Is Distorted to Appease Hezbollah/October 24, 2025
Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: The 42nd Anniversary of Hezbollah’s Crime – The 1983 Bombing of the U.S. and French Military Headquarters in Beirut/Elias Bejjani/October 23, 2025
Israel Continues with Raids and Assassinations... Aoun Strips Berri of the Negotiation Card
Israel launches strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon as it targets Hezbollah
Israeli strikes in south Lebanon kill two, including senior Hezbollah member
One killed in Israeli strike in south Lebanon
Report: Ortagus to press Lebanon on Hezbollah in upcoming visit
Israeli army claims it killed 'Hezbollah logistics chief' in South Lebanon strike
UN Special Coordinator urges Lebanese to be patient amid 'uncertain times'
Mechanism head vows to exert efforts to prevent escalation
Report: Israel says has reported 1,734 'Hezbollah violations' to 'Mechanism'
Berri says elections to be held on time, 'no delay, no postponement, no extension'
Trump 'knew everything' about Lebanon pagers attack, here's what he said
Rajji from south: Destruction extent increases resolve to liberate land, monopolize arms
Lebanese journalist says Israel about to escalate, reassuring messages 'misleading'
Report: Israeli army not prepared for multi-front war without budget increase
Recasting the political scene: Will a new Sunni power emerge in Lebanon's 2026 elections?
Talks, promises, and no progress—Can Lebanon ever seal a real deal with the IMF?
From near-death to hope: Lebanese neurosurgeon defies odds to save critically injured toddler
Salam says diplomacy with Israel 'not effective' but sees 'no other options'
UNIFIL marks 80th anniversary of United Nations with ceremony in South Lebanon
Tom Barrack’s Lebanon problem/Yassin K Fawaz /The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
The Mechanism: Towards Activating Both the Military and Political Tracks/Daoud Rammal / Nidaa Al-Watan/October 25, 2025
The State as a Puppet/Sana Al-Jaak/Nidaa Al-Watan/October 25, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 24-25/2025
Trump moves to shield peace plan, assert leadership in post-war Gaza phase amid muted tensions with Israel
US will end support for Israel if West Bank annexed: Trump
Palestinian factions agree to hand Gaza to technocrat committee
Rubio seeks quick deployment of international Gaza force
Rubio tours US-led center in Israel overseeing Gaza ceasefire
US names career diplomat for Gaza ceasefire monitor
Sick of tents, many displaced Gazans still cut off from home
Rubio says more countries ready to recognize Israel
Wife of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti asks Trump to seek his release
WHO pleads for sick Gazans to be allowed to leave
Spain probes steelmaker bosses for alleged trading with Israeli arms firm
Israeli man sentenced to 5 years for illegally selling Greek Cypriot land in breakaway north
UN agencies warn of escalating catastrophe in Sudan as millions face hunger and displacement
Turkiye appoints ambassador to Syria
Seven Yemeni UN workers detained in Sanaa: Houthi security source
Erdogan says US, others must press Israel to abide by Gaza ceasefire
Turkish court expected to rule on case that could oust opposition leader
Turkiye in talks with Qatar and Oman to buy used Eurofighter jets, Erdogan says
Iraq faces elections at a delicate moment in the Middle East
US imposes sanctions on Colombia president and family members over drug trade allegations

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 24-25/2025
Question: “If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him?”/GotQuestions site/October 24/2025
'I Got That White Girl': The War Over Racism, America's Ultimate Taboo/Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/October 24, 2025
The legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank: a vital question that keeps cropping up/Fadi Farhat/The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
Higher education at the top holds its worth — for now/Arnab Neil Sengupta/Arab News/October 24/2025
Erdogan seeks strategic alignment on Gulf tour/Dr. Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/October 24, 2025
What a Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Should Say/Michael Jacobson/The Washington Institute/October 24, 2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 24-25/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
Please be informed that my account on the X platform has been suspended for reasons unknown to me. This is the fourth account in five years to be arbitrarily suspended.

Elias Bejjani/To PM, Nawaf Salam: Hezbollah Is an Iranian Terrorist Militia That Did Not Liberate South Lebanon in 2000 but Occupies It Along with All of Lebanon
Nawaf Salam… When History Is Distorted to Appease Hezbollah
Elias Bejjani/October 24, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148505/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqM-JHMSoi4
In an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV on October 23, 2025, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam made a shocking statement that cannot go unanswered: “If not for the sacrifices of Hezbollah and the national resistance in general, before and with the Hezbollah, the South Lebanon would not have been liberated.”
This statement not only contradicts historical truth but also constitutes a deliberate falsification of history and an insult to the memory of the Lebanese who witnessed the events of the liberation firsthand. They know very well that Israel withdrew from South Lebanon in 2000 by a purely internal Israeli government decision, having nothing to do with Hezbollah or any so-called sacrifices.
In May 2000, then–Prime Minister Ehud Barak fulfilled his electoral promise to unilaterally withdraw from Lebanon— a decision made within the Israeli government as part of a broader security realignment strategy. Hezbollah had no role in the withdrawal and entered the evacuated areas only days later, while the Syrian occupation prevented the Lebanese army from deploying in the South, leaving a security vacuum that Hezbollah later exploited to impose its control under the pretext of “liberation.”
It is worth recalling that Hezbollah’s last military attempt before Israel’s withdrawal was the Battle of Jisr al-Hamra against the South Lebanon Army, which ended in total failure and heavy casualties for Hezbollah—an event that alone demolishes the myth of “liberation by resistance.”
Politically, the withdrawal was the result of a tacit understanding among Israel, Syria, and Iran, facilitated by Arab and Western channels. Israel’s pullout from the border strip was part of regional security arrangements in which the so-called Lebanese resistance played no role whatsoever. All subsequent Israeli, Syrian, and Iranian political documents confirm that the withdrawal stemmed from security bargaining related to South Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and the future of Syrian–Israeli negotiations, not from any military victory by Hezbollah.
In another part of the interview, Nawaf Salam referred to what he called the “Lebanese National Movement,” which then included parties such as the Progressive Socialist Party, Amal, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Communist Party, and Palestinian organizations. He described them as part of the “national resistance,” while the historical record clearly shows that they were instruments of the Syrian–Palestinian scheme that ended what remained of Lebanon’s sovereignty through the infamous 1969 Cairo Agreement, under which Lebanon relinquished control over the South and the thirteen Palestinian camps, allowing armed factions to establish a state within the state and drag Lebanon into civil war.
As for what Salam called “the Lebanese resistance before Hezbollah,” it was not a resistance at all but chaotic armed groups that liberated not a single inch of Lebanese land. They were part of the anarchy that destroyed the state and paved the way for its occupation by the Syrian and Iranian regimes.
While Salam’s interview included some acceptable points, his rhetorical bowing to Hezbollah and his plea for its approval by claiming that it “liberated the South” and “made sacrifices” represent a moral and political collapse unworthy of a Lebanese Prime Minister, who should represent the state, not the militia. His words amount to whitewashing the dark history of a terrorist organization that has inflicted oppression, abductions, assassinations, and occupation upon the Lebanese people.
Hezbollah’s Record of Terror and Crime
Since 2000, Hezbollah has brought Lebanon nothing but destruction, assassinations, Iranian hegemony, futile wars, poverty, displacement, and enmity with the world. The militia has assassinated some of Lebanon’s finest: Rafik Hariri, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Gemayel, Walid Eido, Antoine Ghanem, Lokman Slim, Wissam Eid, Wissam al-Hassan, Mohammad Chatah, Joe Bejjani, Elias al-Hasrouni, and many others among journalists, politicians, and security officers.
Hezbollah invaded Beirut and Mount Lebanon in May 2008, turning its so-called “resistance” weapons against the Lebanese.
Today it controls the state’s decision-making, paralyzes the government, blocks the implementation of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, defies international resolutions and the Lebanese constitution, cripples Parliament and the judiciary, and uses ports, airports, and crossings for smuggling weapons and drugs.
It has also dragged thousands of young Lebanese Shiites into Iran’s losing wars in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, leaving their families in misery and poverty.
Since its creation in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in collaboration with the criminal Syrian Baath regime of Hafez al-Assad, Hezbollah has never been a Lebanese organization, a resistance movement, a liberator, or a representative of the Shiite community. It is an Iranian transnational militia and jihadist terrorist entity composed of Lebanese mercenaries serving the Iranian regime. Its goal is to establish an Islamic Republic in Lebanon subordinate to the Wilayat al-Faqih system—foreign to Lebanon’s identity, heritage, and to the free Lebanese Shiites it holds hostage.
Conclusion
Hezbollah is neither a “liberator” nor a “resistance.” It is a gang of evildoers listed as a terrorist organization by most countries in the world, practicing every form of crime, smuggling, and assassination under the banner of religion and resistance, in service of Iran’s destructive agenda.
The undeniable truth remains: the South was liberated by an Israeli decision, not by Hezbollah’s bullets. What Hezbollah did afterward was to impose a new occupation clothed in religious rhetoric, isolating Lebanon and condemning it to endless wars.
To claim, as Nawaf Salam did, that Hezbollah liberated the South is not merely a political slip — it is a betrayal of truth and history. For those who truly liberate do not occupy; those who sacrifice do not assassinate; and those who fight for their country do not hand it over to the rule of the mullahs.

Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: The 42nd Anniversary of Hezbollah’s Crime – The 1983 Bombing of the U.S. and French Military Headquarters in Beirut
Elias Bejjani/October 23, 2025
On this day, we remember with deep national pain and heartfelt prayers the 42nd anniversary of a horrific terrorist crime that targeted our American and French friends who came to Lebanon to help its people resist the combined terrorism of the Syrian, Iranian, and Palestinian forces — supported by the global left and both branches of political Islam, Sunni and Shiite.
On October 23, 1983, the jihadist and criminal regime of the Iranian mullahs in Tehran, through its terrorist proxy blasphemously named Hezbollah, bombed the U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut. The attack resulted in the martyrdom of 241 American Marines, 56 French soldiers, and a large number of innocent Lebanese civilians.
That massacre was neither spontaneous nor isolated. It was the founding declaration of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s terrorism beyond its borders, and the first public announcement of Tehran’s so-called “exporting the revolution” project— a campaign of ideological and military expansion carried out through extremist sectarian militias, whose mission was and remains to destroy peace and stability in the Middle East and impose Iranian hegemony over the Arab world.
All conclusive evidence proved that the Iranian regime ordered, planned, financed, trained, and executed that attack through its newly formed military proxy at the time — Hezbollah.
Since that day, nothing in Hezbollah's essence, behavior, or purpose has changed. It remains today the terrorist and occupying proxy of Iran, both inside Lebanon and across the free world.
The same Hezbollah that murdered American and French soldiers in 1983 is the same entity that now slowly kills the Lebanese people— through state capture, political paralysis, economic collapse, corruption, wars and isolation. After its humiliating defeat in its latest futile war against Israel, Hezbollah shamelessly returned to internal terror tactics: intimidation, assassination, hunger, and propaganda against every free Lebanese who refuses to kneel to the Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) regime in Tehran.
It must be said clearly and unequivocally: “Hezbollah has never been, and will never be, a resistance movement.”
It is not a Lebanese entity by any means, nor does it represent the honorable Shiite community. It has kidnapped and enslaved this community, sending its youth to die in Iran’s expansionist and jihadist wars. It imposes its so-called political and parliamentary representation through murder, fear, and terrorism, silencing dissenters from within before silencing others.
Hezbollah is an Iranian, terrorist, criminal, and jihadist mercenary gang— it has absolutely nothing to do with defending Lebanon or liberating its land. It was founded solely to serve the interests of the Iranian Mullahs regime and execute its security and military orders. True resistance defends its people and nation — it does not occupy, rob, or destroy them, nor does it act as a foreign army operating under foreign command.
Over four decades, reality has proven that Hezbollah has not liberated a single inch of Lebanese territory. On the contrary, it has occupied Lebanon, dragged it into senseless wars, devastated its economy, opened its borders to smuggling and chaos, and stripped its citizens of sovereignty and dignity.
Therefore, Hezbollah’s continued domination and armament mean that the 1983 crime is still ongoing — in new forms, every single day. Just as it once targeted international peacekeeping forces, today it targets the Lebanese state itself, preventing its recovery and holding its future hostage to Tehran’s decisions.
The international community must act now — not with words, but with deeds — to help Lebanon reclaim its sovereignty and dismantle this Iranian occupation structure. This requires:
*Full implementation of all international resolutions, especially UNSC Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias; Resolution 1701, which mandates that weapons be held exclusively by the Lebanese state; and Resolution 1680, alongside the Lebanese Constitution and the Armistice Agreement with Israel.
*Enforcement of the recent ceasefire agreement that Hezbollah signed following its defeat and surrender to Israel, ensuring that Lebanon’s southern border is no longer a hostage to Hezbollah’s weapons or terror.
*Strengthening the Lebanese Army and legitimate state institutions so that they alone hold authority and control over all Lebanese territory.
*Placing Lebanon under UN Chapter VII international protection if current leaders and rulers remain hesitant, complicit, or incapable of confronting Hezbollah and dismantling its military, security, and propaganda networks.
*Imposing severe international sanctions on Hezbollah and all those who fund or politically cover it, and prosecuting its leaders as war criminals and terrorists before Lebanese and international courts.
If the free world truly seeks peace in the Middle East, it must help Lebanon dismantle the Iranian occupation apparatus embodied by Hezbollah and allow the Lebanese people to rebuild their free, sovereign, and independent nation.
On this solemn anniversary, we offer prayers for the souls of the American and French soldiers, and for the innocent Lebanese who perished in that terrorist attack. We also pray for Lebanon’s liberation from the Iranian occupation and its criminal militias — so that our nation, Lebanon, may once again rise as a free, sovereign, and dignified homeland, worthy of peace and justice.

Israel Continues with Raids and Assassinations... Aoun Strips Berri of the Negotiation Card
Nidaa Al-Watan/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
Political and field developments related to the implementation of the decision to confine arms exclusively to the state have accelerated in the past hours. Leading these developments were official sources informing "Nidaa Al-Watan" that the intensification of Israeli strikes and raids is part of a context to increase pressure on Lebanon. At the same time, the sources pointed out that the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, is proceeding with negotiations after conducting internal consultations and receiving the green light because he wants to spare Lebanon a war. He believes that the only solution lies in diplomatic frameworks capable of restoring the land and securing lasting peace on the border, especially since Lebanon will not compromise its rights and fundamental principles. Regarding the position of "Hezbollah" and the "Amal" Movement, the sources affirmed that they will not stand in the way of this issue, especially since the negotiation is for the retrieval of rights and not normalization. The President is well aware of the Lebanese nature and sensitivities and is entrusted with preserving the land and the people, and thus acts in the best interest of the nation. These facts came to clear up a confusion previously caused by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who moved towards undermining President Aoun's direction toward negotiations and said that Lebanon had no choice but to adopt the "Mechanism" chaired by the United States to technically supervise the ceasefire in the South.
Berri and Expatriate Voting Politically, Speaker Berri's position, in which he considered granting expatriates the right to vote for all 128 MPs as a "civil war and isolation of the Shiites," did not pass unnoticed. Political circles told "Nidaa Al-Watan" that Berri's stance was a message to the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, because the Prime Minister prepares the Cabinet's agenda and informs the President of the Republic. Berri thus saw and felt that things were moving towards placing the draft law related to the cancellation of Article 112 on the Cabinet's agenda. If it is placed there, it will be approved and voted on, then referred to the Parliament where Speaker Berri is obliged to present it to the General Assembly. If the project is presented to the General Assembly, the parliamentary majority will vote in favor of this project to cancel Article 112 and enable expatriates to vote for all 128 MPs, which is what he does not want. These circles said: "Berri would not have taken this position if he had not felt the danger of the expatriate vote, which will overturn the results. The 'Duo' has major fears of the expatriate vote and wants to cancel it at any cost. In contrast, the parliamentary forces that want to cancel Article 112 are going for more pressure by supporting the government in the draft law and pushing Berri to put the urgent repeat draft law on the agenda of the first legislative session."
Israeli Raids and Threats In a separate context, field tension escalated yesterday in the South after Israel launched a series of aerial operations resulting in 3 deaths and a number of injuries. An Israeli drone targeted a car in the Tulin area, at the Harouf intersection near Nabatieh, in a raid that resulted in the death of a "Hezbollah" member, Hussein Al-Abd Hamdan from Mays Al-Jabal, who was wounded in the pager explosion last year. It also led to the death of Abbas Hassan Karaki by a guided missile when he was in his car. He is the brother of Radwan Karaki, who died around these days in the 66-day war. Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced that "the army attacked in the Nabatieh area in South Lebanon and eliminated Abbas Hassan Karaki, the logistics official in 'Hezbollah's' Southern Front command." He continued: "Abbas Karaki led and supervised the rebuilding of 'Hezbollah's' combat capabilities and contributed to attempts to reconstruct infrastructure south of the Litani River. He also held the position of official for force building in 'Hezbollah' and managed operations for the transfer and storage of combat means in South Lebanon." Last night, an Israeli raid on a car on the Qaaqaiyet Al-Jisr - Zawtar Al-Gharbi road in the Nabatieh area resulted in the death of one person. In this context, the Israeli army announced the conclusion of a five-day divisional exercise by its forces, led by Division 91 and the National Ground Training Center, in the Lebanese border area on Thursday evening. The Israeli army stated that the exercise scenarios were adapted to the operational situation after the fighting in South Lebanon, during which "Hezbollah's" operational capabilities were damaged. An Israeli security source told "Sky News Arabia" yesterday that Israel is monitoring "Hezbollah's" attempts to restore all its capabilities, including its strategic ones. The source added: "Either the Lebanese state disarms the 'Party' or we will do it. We send the locations of the 'Party's' weapons and activities to the Coordination Committee, and if it does not act, we act. Sometimes, when there is an immediate threat, we attack without sending a prior warning to the committee."
1734 Israeli Complaints of "Hezbollah Violations" The source revealed that Israel has submitted a total of 1,734 complaints to the Cessation of Hostilities Committee with Lebanon, regarding what it described as "Hezbollah violations" along the border. The source explained that the Lebanese Army was asked to deal with 840 of those complaints, adding that 452 activities carried out by "Hezbollah" were addressed on the initiative of the Lebanese Army. The source indicated that in 812 cases, complaints were submitted to the Cessation of Hostilities Committee after Israel had already dealt with them on the ground. The source also quoted the Lebanese Army as saying that 528 complaints submitted by Israel through the aforementioned committee were addressed, within the framework of the security follow-up mechanism between the two sides under the auspices of the United Nations.
Rajji in Naqoura: Determined to Confine Arms In a related context, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, accompanied by his office director Ambassador Albert Samaha and the Director of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Salim Badoura, conducted an inspection tour yesterday morning aboard a helicopter belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). During the tour, he surveyed the extent of the destruction caused by Israeli attacks in the border villages, and inspected the Blue Line and the five points occupied by Israel. Upon his arrival at the headquarters of the international forces in Naqoura, he was received by UNIFIL Commander Major General Diodato Abagnara, who accompanied him on a field tour. Rajji said: "What I have seen increases our determination on the necessity of liberating Lebanese territories and supporting the Lebanese Army in its efforts to extend state sovereignty, implement Resolution 1701, and execute the government's decision to confine arms to the state and restore the decision of war and peace." The visit concluded with Minister Rajji's participation in a ceremony held at the international forces' headquarters on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, where he laid a wreath on behalf of the Lebanese people at the memorial for the soldiers who died while performing their duties in Lebanon. For his part, the UNIFIL Commander said: "We continue to work alongside the Lebanese Army to implement Security Council Resolution 1701, and to create a space where peace can grow."

Israel launches strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon as it targets Hezbollah
The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
Four people were killed in Israeli air strikes in eastern and southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to the country’s health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it had attacked Hezbollah targets. The ministry reported that strikes in mountainous areas in the east “resulted in an initial death toll of two” people. It later stated that two others were killed in a separate strike in the south around Nabatieh, with the official National News Agency (NNA) reporting an elderly woman was one of the dead. The NNA had earlier said that “Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent strikes on the eastern mountain range” in the Bekaa region near the border with Syria. It also reported that two Israeli strikes targeted the Hermel range in the country’s northeast. The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it had attacked Hezbollah sites in east and north Lebanon, including “a military camp and a site for the production of precision missiles” in the Bekaa valley. The military said in a statement that it “struck several terrorist targets” in the Bekaa, including “a camp used for training Hezbollah militants”. It later announced having also struck “a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Nabatieh”.Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, which brought to an end more than a year of hostilities with the militant group Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war. As part of that deal, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to dismantle its forces in the region. Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan which the militant movement and its allies oppose.
Implementation of the plan seems doubtful considering the inability of the army to enforce it.

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon kill two, including senior Hezbollah member
AFP/24 October /2025
Israeli air strikes killed two people in southern Lebanon on Friday, state media and the Health Ministry reported, with Israel’s military saying it had targeted members of Hezbollah. According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), one man “was targeted by an Israeli drone with a guided missile while he was driving” along the road to the village of Toul, not far from Nabatieh. It identified the slain man as Abbas Hassan Karaki. In a statement, the Israeli army said it “struck and eliminated” Karaki, calling him “the logistics commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front headquarters.”The military said Karaki had “led efforts to rebuild Hezbollah’s combat capabilities” following last year’s war with Israel, and that he had also been responsible “for managing the transfer and storage of weapons in southern Lebanon.”The Health Ministry later reported that another “Israeli strike targeting a car” had killed one person and wounded another, also near Nabatieh. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war. The latest attack comes a day after Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed four people, including an elderly woman. The Israeli army said on Thursday that it “struck several terrorist targets,” including “a camp used for training Hezbollah militants.”As part of that ceasefire deal, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani river and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south. Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose. During a meeting on Thursday with US General Joseph Clearfield, the head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated that “Lebanon is committed to completing the arms monopoly process south of the Litani River before the end of the year.”He demanded, in return, that Israel fulfill “its duties and obligations to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories and cease its ongoing attacks.”Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.

One killed in Israeli strike in south Lebanon
AFP/October 24, 2025
BEIRUT: An Israeli air strike killed one person in southern Lebanon on Friday, state media reported, with Israel’s military saying the man was a Hezbollah “logistics commander.”According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), the man “was targeted by an Israeli drone with a guided missile while he was driving” along the road to the village of Toul, not far from Nabatieh. It identified the slain man as Abbas Hassan Karky. In a statement, the Israeli army said it “struck and eliminated” Karky, calling him “the logistics commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front headquarters.”The military said Karky had “led efforts to rebuild Hezbollah’s combat capabilities” following last year’s war with Israel, and that he had also been responsible “for managing the transfer and storage of weapons in southern Lebanon.”Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war. The latest attack comes a day after Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed four people, including an elderly woman. The Israeli army said on Thursday that it “struck several terrorist targets,” including “a camp used for training Hezbollah militants.”As part of that ceasefire deal, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani river and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south. Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose. During a meeting on Thursday with US General Joseph Clearfield, the head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated that “Lebanon is committed to completing the arms monopoly process south of the Litani River before the end of the year.”He demanded, in return, that Israel fulfil “its duties and obligations to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories and cease its ongoing attacks.”Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.

Report: Ortagus to press Lebanon on Hezbollah in upcoming visit
Naharnet/24 October/2025
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus will preside over the meeting of the Mechanism ceasefire committee in her visit to Lebanon in the next few days, informed sources said.
“She will stress the need for Lebanon’s full commitment to the ceasefire agreement, through Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the South Litani area, the handover of all its arms to the Lebanese state, and the halt of all its military activities, in order to avoid any possible Israeli military action,” the sources told the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal. “The region has entered a new phase based on the ‘peace by force’ principle and Lebanon must meet this transformation and avoid descending into a destructive war that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is looking for,” the sources added.

Israeli army claims it killed 'Hezbollah logistics chief' in South Lebanon strike
LBCI/24 October/2025
The Israeli army claimed that it killed the head of logistics for Hezbollah’s southern front in a strike earlier on Friday in the Nabatieh area of South Lebanon. According to army spokesperson Avichay Adraee, Abbas Hassan Karaki had recently overseen Hezbollah’s efforts to rebuild its combat capabilities and restore damaged infrastructure south of the Litani River—areas that were heavily hit during recent fighting, particularly in “Operation Northern Arrows.” The statement said Karaki was also responsible for managing Hezbollah’s weapons transport and storage operations in South Lebanon and had held several positions within the group over the years.

UN Special Coordinator urges Lebanese to be patient amid 'uncertain times'
Naharnet/24 October/2025
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert Statement marked Friday the United Nations 80th anniversary, urging the Lebanese people to be patient amid "uncertain times". "As the United Nations turns 80, while pursuing change and reform, Lebanon is passing through a momentous period of its modern history that will determine its path forward. Meanwhile, major regional shifts and global forces continue to shape a new security and geopolitical landscape," Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement. She added that Lebanon was in 1945 one of the founding States which gathered to form the United Nations as an attempt to avoid further suffering for humankind after the devastation of the Second World War. "In the decades since, a strong partnership has been built between the Organization and Lebanon. The latter carved out its space in the multilateral arena, not least through its contribution to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, while the United Nations, with its peacekeeping and political missions, and its dedicated agencies, funds and programs, accompanied the Lebanese people throughout different stages – many of which were marked by crises and turmoil."This year’s United Nations Day falls amid uncertain times for Lebanon, Hennis-Plasschaert said, adding that momentous efforts have been made by Lebanese authorities and the Lebanese Armed Forces, which have breathed some life into long-stalled provisions of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701 (2006)since hostilities escalated in 2024. "Yet, with much of the south of the country still in ruins, significant funding shortfalls and continued uncertainty on how the near future will look, patience is something which, although in low supply, is still being asked of the Lebanese people," she said. "History has left its mark and the underlying causes of past cycles of crisis have not yet been addressed. But collective efforts, in support of Lebanon's valiant, uphill climb are ongoing. And while it is true that hard work is still ahead, both at the domestic and regional levels, Lebanon has made clear that there is no turning back from its current path towards progress. The country has, throughout its life, been hampered by systemic political and economic failures, but never by its people. The United Nations will continue to work side-by-side with the Lebanese State and its people in pursuit of stability and prosperity for all."

Mechanism head vows to exert efforts to prevent escalation
Naharnet/24 October/2025
U.S. General Joseph Clearfield, the new chief of the U.S.-led ceasefire monitoring committee, has vowed to exert efforts to prevent military escalation between Israel and Lebanon, expressing a clear desire to activate the committee’s work and meetings, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. Clearfield had met Thursday with President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in meetings described as “positive and carrying a new spirit in terms of serious work and exerting a bigger efforts in the coming period,” informed ministerial sources told the daily. Aoun for his part emphasized that “Lebanon is committed to implementing all the security measures that the Army Command has taken and will continue his work,” adding that “no one, from the South’s residents in particular and Lebanon in general, wants to return to a state of war.”

Report: Israel says has reported 1,734 'Hezbollah violations' to 'Mechanism'
Naharnet/24 October/2025
European sources have warned in remarks to Sky News Arabia that a large-scale Israeli strike against Lebanon may only be a matter of time. The sources added that it is unclear whether Israel will treat the Lebanese state as “a complicit or a failure.”An Israeli security source meanwhile told Sky News Arabia on Friday that Israel had submitted a total of 1,734 complaints to the Cessation of Hostilities Committee (the Mechanism) regarding Hezbollah “violations.”The source explained: "The Lebanese Army was asked to address 840 of these complaints... and the Lebanese Army said that 528 complaints were addressed."He added, "The Israeli army itself dealt with 88 complaints... and in 812 cases, the complaint was filed after Israel had already dealt with them." The security source also revealed that "452 activities were dealt with at the initiative of the Lebanese army."

Berri says elections to be held on time, 'no delay, no postponement, no extension'
Naharnet/24 October/2025
Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel told Friday Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that the right of the Lebanese expatriates to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections would not "isolate" the Shiites. "The ones isolating them from the rest of the Lebanese are those who are rejecting the logic of the state and holding onto their arms," he said. Gemayel said that Berri's opinion about the expats' voting does not grant him the right to refuse discussing it in Parliament in a plenary session. "The Parliament is the body that represents all Lebanese and it consequently has the right to decide". Berri had said if the expats want to vote for the 128 seats, they would have to come to Lebanon. The current electoral law only allows expats to vote for six newly-introduced seats in parliament. Sixty-five MPs -- forming a parliamentary majority -- demanded to amend the law in order to allow expats to vote for all 128 seats. Hezbollah and Amal argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that other parties enjoy abroad and are objecting the amendment.MP Ghassan Skaff suggested the elections be postponed for a few weeks in order for the expats to come vote in Lebanon, but Berri refused. He said The elections will not be postponed "not even for one day." "The elections will be held on time. No delay, no postponement, no extension," he said.

Trump 'knew everything' about Lebanon pagers attack, here's what he said
Naharnet/24 October/2025
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he knew everything about the Israeli pagers' attack that targeted Hezbollah's pagers and walkie-talkies, killing 42 people and injuring 4,000, including children and civilians. The attack on 17 and 18 September 2024 was part of an Israeli operation against Hezbollah, which had started firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians following the Oct. 7 attack."All of those attacks were done in auspices with, actually, with me directly," Trump said. "You know, with Israel doing the attacks, with the pagers and all that stuff... they let me know everything. And sometimes I'd say no, and they'd be respectful of that."

Rajji from south: Destruction extent increases resolve to liberate land, monopolize arms
Naharnet/24 October/2025
Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji on Friday made an inspection visit to south Lebanon aboard a UNIFIL helicopter, in which he assessed the destruction of border villages at the hands of Israel and inspected the Blue Line and the five points occupied by the Israelis.
Rajji also visited UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on the occasion of the U.N.’s 80th establishment anniversary, lauding the U.N. force’s role in maintaining peace and stability in south Lebanon. Commenting on “the huge destruction caused by Israeli attacks,” Rajji said what he saw “increases our resolve to liberate the Lebanese land and support the Lebanese Army in its efforts to extend state authority, implement Resolution 1701 and the government’s decision to monopolize arms in the state’s hand and regain the decisions of war and peace.”

Lebanese journalist says Israel about to escalate, reassuring messages 'misleading'
Naharnet/24 October/2025
Lebanese journalist Sami kleib warned Friday that Israel would escalate its targeted assassinations and its attacks in Lebanon in the coming days, but ruled out the possibility of a full-scale war. Kleib said he has obtained information confirming that Israel will expand its attacks on Hezbollah and on regions that support the group and will intensify its targeting of military and political Hezbollah officials. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, which brought to an end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war. Kleib said the escalation he expects aims at preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities. "Anyone who tries to reassure people that things will be okay is misleading them, intentionally or without knowing," he said. As part of the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to dismantle its forces in the region. Under U.S. pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan which the militant group and its allies oppose.

Report: Israeli army not prepared for multi-front war without budget increase
Naharnet/24 October/2025
Israeli military officials have warned that they are still not prepared to enter a multi-front war without an urgent budget increase to rebuild their forces and compensate for weapons shortages, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The officials said the shortages and the multi-front threats from Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Turkey, which is again active in Syria, require an immediate reinforcement of forces, while the finance ministry is refusing to provide the funds. The newspaper added that the Israeli military initially planned, after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, for a war lasting about one month, with the possibility of extending it for two weeks, based on a scenario involving two fronts: Hezbollah in the north as the primary front, and Hamas in Gaza as a secondary front. Consequently, the war stretched across eight fronts, forcing Israel to rely on more than 900 cargo planes and 150 supply ships --mostly from the United States -- to replenish essential equipment. Even this proved insufficient, given the shortage of many weapons, the report said. Israeli military officials pointed to years of ongoing cuts to the defense budget, exacerbated by what they describe as irresponsible campaigns by the finance ministry. Now, they warn, Israel faces a repeat of those mistakes. Finance ministry officials continue to resist transferring the funds needed to build up forces and expand production, despite lessons learned since the Hamas attack, the report said. Military commanders say they are unable to publicly detail the army’s precise needs or equipment shortages for fear of exposing vulnerabilities to adversaries. Senior officers emphasize the need to shift from rearmament to long-term manufacturing, including precision munitions, helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles.“We need to move to the force buildup phase -- acquiring advanced systems, smart bombs, and air defense interceptor systems,” says an official. “Enemy missiles may cost $400,000, but each Arrow 3 interceptor missile costs $3 million and takes months to produce.”Beyond Gaza and Lebanon, a new Israeli concern is emerging: Turkey’s growing influence in Syria and its growing “hostility” under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to Israeli military officials. A government committee on national security warned that Israel could soon face a renewed threat from forces backed by Ankara, especially if Turkish-backed militias gain a foothold near Israel's northern border.A senior official summarized the new scenario, saying: "Peace has not yet been achieved. Iran is a wounded enemy undergoing a rapid recovery, the ceasefire in Gaza is fragile, Lebanon is experiencing daily attacks, Turkey is monitoring Syria, the eastern border is exposed, and the West Bank is seething." Senior Israeli army commanders concluded: "We are facing a fundamental shift in the Middle East. The additional funds we have received are not enough at all. The lessons of October 7 are not limited to that night alone; they reflect years of strategic miscalculation, and we must never return to that mindset."

Recasting the political scene: Will a new Sunni power emerge in Lebanon's 2026 elections?
LBCI/24 October/2025
As Lebanon heads toward the 2026 parliamentary elections, political attention is turning toward reshaping the balance of power within key sectarian blocs. While international focus is expected to center on attempts to break the dominance of Hezbollah and Amal within the Shiite representation, a parallel effort is underway to build a unified and influential Sunni bloc. The upcoming elections will allocate 27 seats to Sunni representatives, with the potential to rise to 28 if the six expatriate seats from the newly created 16th district are included. However, with the Future Movement's absence from the political and electoral scene, a void has emerged within the Sunni landscape that several figures are now seeking to fill. Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari has been at the center of this effort, holding meetings in recent years with a wide range of Sunni parliamentarians—from members of the National Moderation Bloc, independents like Fouad Makhzoumi, Ashraf Rifi, and Ihab Matar, to former allies of the March 8 camp such as Faisal Karami and Hassan Mrad. The goal appears to be the consolidation of a strong Sunni parliamentary bloc that supports the exclusive authority of the Lebanese state over weapons and security, a stance that could command up to 20 seats, based on early studies. However, Hezbollah and Amal may also seek to expand their limited Sunni representation. The Shiite alliance currently counts three Sunni MPs within its ranks and is reportedly exploring ways to increase that number in certain districts.
The real challenge, observers say, will lie in uniting the anti-Hezbollah Sunni MPs, many of whom come from vastly different political backgrounds. Some were formerly aligned with the Future Movement, others represent Change MPs, while a few had previously been close to Hezbollah and Amal.

Talks, promises, and no progress—Can Lebanon ever seal a real deal with the IMF?
LBCI/24 October/2025
Once again, negotiations and talks are underway between Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). What is being said in Beirut is echoed by Lebanese officials in Washington: plenty of promises, few actions, and zero results. To this day, there is nothing to indicate that Lebanon is ready to reach an agreement with the IMF. An initial agreement was signed in April 2022, but it remained ink on paper. The IMF demanded clear reforms, while the state still does not seem to understand what the word “reform” even means. Ironically, reforms are first and foremost the demand of the Lebanese people—before being a demand of the IMF or any other donor. The IMF called for a transparent economic plan, and Lebanon responded with one—but only on paper. Under pressure, Lebanese officials were forced to take action, yet even then, they failed to do their job properly. The capital control law never saw the light. The banking secrecy law was amended several times. The banking sector restructuring law was born troubled and will have to be amended again. The financial gap law remains a draft, and discussions with the IMF continue, with no clarity yet on how deposits will be returned. All they are talking about now is $100,000—nothing more. As for the rest, “we will see how to return it.”As for the meetings with the IMF, what is striking is that Lebanese officials insist the negotiations are “positive,” as if optimism has become the country’s only economic policy. The truth today is that Lebanon does not meet the IMF’s conditions—not because it cannot, but because it does not want to change a system that thrives on chaos and benefits from collapse. It seems the IMF is still waiting for a functioning state, while the state is still waiting for a miracle.

From near-death to hope: Lebanese neurosurgeon defies odds to save critically injured toddler
LBCI/24 October/2025
A two-year-old boy survived a horrific car accident that left him critically injured, with his neck internally disconnected from his spine. While doctors initially considered his survival impossible, a determined Lebanese neurosurgeon took on the challenge and gave the child a chance at life. The accident left the boy, identified as Oliver, and his family severely wounded. Both parents and his twin sibling suffered injuries and fractures, while Oliver lost consciousness and stopped breathing. Family members feared the worst until his aunt administered emergency resuscitation, after which he was airlifted to a hospital in Mexico City for specialized treatment. Oliver's injuries were devastating: his head was internally detached from his spinal column, and initial medical assessments suggested he would not survive or regain mobility. Yet his family persisted in seeking solutions, eventually turning to Dr. Mohammad Baydoun, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Chicago. Dr. Baydoun did not make promises but refused to give up. Through skill, determination, and innovative surgical intervention, he performed a procedure that offered Oliver a real chance to recover. The boy's survival stands as a testament to the persistence of his family and the expertise and humanity of Dr. Baydoun. The story highlights not only a remarkable medical achievement but also the capacity of Lebanese professionals to excel globally in science, compassion, and resilience.

Salam says diplomacy with Israel 'not effective' but sees 'no other options'
Naharnet/October 23, 2025
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said that diplomacy to end the Israeli violations has failed despite the government's efforts, as Israel despite a ceasefire reached almost a year ago kept up its strikes on Lebanon almost on a daily-basis. On Friday, a strike on the southern town of Toul killed two people and injured two others, a day after strikes on south and east Lebanon killed four people, including an elderly woman. Salam said the government has been working on diplomatic channels to halt the Israeli attacks, end the occupation of five hills in south Lebanon, and release Lebanese prisoners detained by Israel. "Diplomacy was not effective," Salam told al-Mayadeen Online in an interview Thursday night. "But I do not see any other option," he added. "This diplomatic battle will not be resolved in a matter of days." Salam described the situation in Lebanon as a war despite the ceasefire reached in late November. "It's a war of attrition and we are doing everything we can to prevent this war from escalating," he said, as he called for unity among Lebanese.

UNIFIL marks 80th anniversary of United Nations with ceremony in South Lebanon
LBCI/24 October/2025
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) commemorated the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations with a ceremony at its headquarters in Naqoura, South Lebanon. The event was attended by Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, Brig. Gen. Hassan Audi representing the Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Rodolph Haykal, UNIFIL Force Commander Gen. Diodato Abagnara, the Regional Commander of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces Brig. Gen. Ahmad Abou Daher, Director of Orientation Brig. Gen. Hussein Ghadar, UNIFIL spokesperson Candice Ardell, and other military, security, and religious officials, along with UNIFIL officers and staff. The ceremony featured a military parade by UNIFIL units, accompanied by the raising of the Lebanese flag alongside the flags of UNIFIL and participating countries. Abagnara, Rajji, and the army representative laid wreaths at a memorial honoring UNIFIL personnel who have fallen in service. Abagnara also presented plaques to several UNIFIL staff who had completed their service. A photography exhibition highlighting UNIFIL’s role in global peace operations was also part of the event. In his speech, Gen. Abagnara said: “Today, as you all know, we stand together under the blue flag of the United Nations to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its founding and the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. These are not just dates on a calendar—they tell the story of individuals who believed in peace, in dialogue, and who refused to let war have the final word. Two milestones, one message: peace is not built by individuals alone, but through collective action. Inclusivity is not a symbol; it is the essence of peace itself, and without it, peace cannot endure.”

Tom Barrack’s Lebanon problem
Yassin K Fawaz /The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
https://www.thearabweekly.com/tom-barracks-lebanon-problem
Now, as he warns that Lebanon must “reclaim its sovereignty,” Barrack is addressing a problem he inadvertently helped revive. Tom Barrack’s latest statements about Lebanon are not wrong, they are simply too late.
When he says that Lebanon must “resolve its own divisions and reclaim its sovereignty,” he is articulating a truth most observers already accept. But the problem is that Barrack himself helped squander the moment when such words might have mattered. The right message, delivered after the window of influence has closed, becomes commentary, not policy. For much of this year, Barrack had the opportunity to turn principle into pressure. He inherited a file shaped by Morgan Ortagus’ clarity and momentum, a period when Lebanon’s political elite were unsettled, even fearful, of genuine accountability. Deadlines were set, aid was conditional and Washington’s line was unmistakably firm. But instead of reinforcing that discipline, Barrack tried to reframe engagement through reassurance and optimism. His tone softened; his meetings multiplied. Diplomacy became dialogue for its own sake. In Beirut, that was all the signal the system needed to resume business as usual. Now, as he warns that Lebanon must “reclaim its sovereignty,” he is addressing a problem he inadvertently helped revive. Barrack’s October 20 essay, “A Personal Perspective, Syria and Lebanon Are the Next Pieces for Levant Peace,” reads more like an after-action report than a diplomatic roadmap. It is full of imagery, mosaics, tapestries, symphonies, but short on the one thing Lebanon ever needed from Washington: consequence. The piece captures Barrack’s fundamental miscalculation. He narrates the process of peace as though it were inevitable, when in truth it has already slipped beyond his control. His reflection on “Gaza’s truce evolving into a mosaic of partnership” and calls for a “renewed covenant” may sound visionary, but in the context of Lebanon they come across as rationalisations for lost leverage.
Diplomacy is not poetry; timing is its grammar. Once the moment has passed, even the right words can read like self-defence.
Barrack even labelled his October 20 essay “A Personal Perspective”, a revealing choice of words. In diplomacy, there are no personal perspectives, only policy. By presenting what reads like an official manifesto under his own name, he effectively admitted that these were his own reflections, not Washington’s directives. His subsequent October 22 post about the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing continued that pattern: emotional, patriotic, but again personal, a form of venting more than governing. At a time when the official US line is being re-defined ahead of Ambassador Michel Issa’s expected arrival in Beirut and Morgan Ortagus’ renewed engagement, Barrack’s solo commentaries blur the line between policy and memoir. They reveal a diplomat trying to shape legacy after losing leverage.
Lebanon’s lost chances
Lebanon is not short on roadmaps, it is short on resolve. Every foreign envoy eventually learns that the country’s crisis is not one of misunderstanding, but of impunity. Its political class has mastered the art of waiting out foreign pressure until the visitors leave, the envoys change and the rhetoric cools.
Barrack’s tenure, despite its promise, fell into that same rhythm. His early optimism, his talk of “dialogue,” and his preference for reassurance over confrontation allowed Lebanon’s old order to breathe again. The momentum that once existed under Ortagus’ sharper framework dissolved into a haze of speeches and symbolism. By the time Barrack began to sound tougher, the system had already adapted. Beirut listens politely to envoys who speak late. Tom Barrack is, by all accounts, a decent man, well-intentioned, articulate and personally loyal to President Trump. But good intentions do not always translate into alignment. His diplomacy in the region increasingly reflects the habits of career bureaucrats rather than the instinct of a president who built his foreign policy on strength and clarity. Part of this may not even be Tom’s fault. As the sitting US ambassador to Turkey, he operates within a bureaucratic machinery that often resists Trump’s America First vision. The “system”, the same entrenched foreign-policy establishment that once diluted Trump’s directives, still shapes the tone and tempo of American diplomacy abroad. Its instinct is to smooth edges, not sharpen them; to reassure, not to confront. But that is precisely where Barrack’s politics have begun to diverge from Trump’s. The president’s approach has always been transactional and decisive: loyalty rewarded, hesitation punished, results measured. Barrack’s has been reflective and rhetorical. That contrast may explain why his recent posts sound less like an envoy executing a mandate and more like a man narrating his distance from it. None of this was unforeseeable. Months ago, many of us warned that Barrack’s softer tone risked undoing the hard-won leverage built by Morgan Ortagus’ tenure. The illusion of calm diplomacy, I wrote then, would only embolden Lebanon’s entrenched class to re-entrench itself. That is exactly what happened. What was once a moment of fear in Beirut’s political salons has now reverted to comfort, and comfort is the currency of corruption. Barrack’s October 22 post commemorating the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing, a moving tribute in itself, was followed by a line that encapsulated his current problem: “Lebanon must resolve its own divisions and reclaim its sovereignty.”It is a valid point, but one that rings hollow coming from an envoy whose tenure blurred Washington’s resolve at a critical juncture. Sovereignty cannot be reclaimed by rhetoric alone; it must be enforced through the kind of pressure Lebanon’s leaders actually feel. Diplomacy that speaks in hindsight becomes commentary, not consequence.
A passing of the file
With Ambassador Michel Issa preparing to arrive in Beirut and Morgan Ortagus continuing her engagement on Lebanon, the United States has an opportunity to restore discipline to a process that drifted. Barrack’s analysis may still be useful, but his influence has faded. He has become the voice of reflection in a region that rewards only momentum.
He once had the chance to make his words matter; now they read like what might have been.There is also a personal dimension to all this. Tom Barrack has served loyally and carried the weight of difficult assignments. But his continuing involvement in Lebanon risks doing him more harm than good. The situation has already slipped beyond his influence, and the longer he remains entangled in it, the more it erodes his standing, not only in the region, but within the circles that matter most. He is, after all, a personal friend of President Trump, a man who values loyalty, clarity and strength above all else. To preserve that legacy, Barrack would be wise to step back before his well-intentioned persistence becomes self-defeating. There is a moment in diplomacy, as in life, when withdrawal preserves dignity better than persistence protects pride. That moment may have come.
And to give him credit, Tom Barrack is finally saying the right things. He has grasped the essence of Lebanon’s problem and is voicing truths that others still avoid. But the moment for words has passed.
Lebanon remains what it has always been, a state captured by its own sectarian machinery. It is not awaiting rescue but resisting accountability. Barrack’s earlier optimism, his dinners and declarations, gave that system breathing space. His continued presence risks reinforcing the same complacency, all under the guise of experience. Beirut’s political elite are already preparing the script: warm welcomes, talk of “dialogue,” promises of “national unity.” They will flatter, delay and remind him how much they appreciate his “understanding.” It is the same choreography that disarmed every foreign envoy before him. The most valuable contribution Tom Barrack can make to the Lebanese file now is absence. The diplomatic field needs discipline, not duality. His personal reflections, however sincere, have already confused allies and emboldened adversaries. Lebanon’s recovery demands coherence, one voice, one policy and zero tolerance for sentimentality masquerading as strategy. History does not repeat itself; people repeat it. Barrack has a chance to prove he has learned from his own miscalculation. If he truly believes Lebanon must reclaim its sovereignty, he should begin by reclaiming his silence. In diplomacy, getting the message right means little if you deliver it after your credibility is gone. Lebanon has already learned to wait out his optimism; now it will wait out his warnings. The tragedy is not that he was wrong, it is that he was right too late.
**Yassin K Fawaz is an American business executive, publisher and security and terrorism expert.

The Mechanism: Towards Activating Both the Military and Political Tracks
Daoud Rammal / Nidaa Al-Watan/October 25, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
The Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Committee, known as the "Mechanism," led by U.S. General Joseph Clearfield, is beginning a new phase of its work. Its objectives are regularity, effectiveness, and the establishment of sustainable operating rules, in an attempt to transition from a stage of hostilities that have not ceased on the Israeli side, to managing a relatively acceptable calm in the South, leading ultimately to the desired outcome of establishing actual stability on the ground. This launch is not limited to resuming regular bi-weekly meetings. According to a concerned ministerial source, it also includes "intensifying communication through auxiliary meetings held during the intervals, reflecting a trend towards transforming the Committee into a permanently monitoring operations room with tangible effectiveness, after it had been rendered dysfunctional and unable to achieve its mandate since its inception due to both internal factors and others beyond its control."A notable feature of the Committee's new working pattern, as revealed by the ministerial source to "Nidaa Al-Watan," is "the move towards having a permanent representative of its chairman on the Israeli side. This would allow for accelerating field coordination and containing any tension before it escalates into a wide-scale confrontation. While this step carries technical connotations, it expresses a different approach by General Clearfield, based on building an instant communication network that mirrors the nature of the recurring violations on the southern border, where diplomatic or political response often follows raids and military movements."
However, the most important element in the new launch plan is the adoption of a "field inspection mechanism"—that is, verifying Israeli claims about the presence of weapons or military installations in specific areas before these claims turn into a justification for a new aggression. The source explains that this procedure "was met with a positive Lebanese response, as it could constitute an advanced step to limit destruction and mitigate human and material losses, and pave the way for establishing the principle of field accountability in the face of allegations that Israel has long used as a pretext to expand its targeting."
It appears that General Clearfield seeks to establish a new equation based on linking the security and political tracks. The source indicates that "it is no coincidence that he deliberately informed the Lebanese leaders he met that the arrival of the new U.S. Ambassador, Michel Issa, to Beirut is very imminent and that he has completed all arrangements enabling him to come to Lebanon at any moment. This signifies the reactivation of the U.S. diplomatic channel in parallel with the Committee's field efforts. In this sense, the 'Mechanism' is transforming into a dual tool: on the one hand, ensuring the continuation of the cessation of hostilities and monitoring the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, and on the other hand, supporting the political path aimed at solidifying the ceasefire agreement and turning it into a permanent commitment."
In contrast, the source points out that Clearfield's meetings with the three presidents "demonstrated the unity of the Lebanese position in demanding a halt to daily Israeli aggressions, full respect for Resolution 1701 in letter and spirit, and the importance and necessity for the Committee to accompany Lebanon's full commitment to its duties south of the Litani by pressuring Israel to end its occupation. Lebanon, which continues to reinforce the deployment of its army in the South and implement its security plan for the end of the current year, believes that border stability is achieved only through a balance of obligations, not by accumulating violations."Thus, the "Mechanism's" new beginning appears more organized and clearer, signaling an international—specifically American—intention not to leave the southern arena hostage to the field alone. Between a set meeting schedule, a precise monitoring mechanism, and nascent political coordination with the new U.S. Ambassador, General Clearfield is outlining a phase that may soon be tested in the South: a phase of searching for viable stability, even amidst the storms of fire that continue to threaten the land borders, proposals for buffer zones, and consequently, the Armistice Line.

The State as a Puppet
Sana Al-Jaak/Nidaa Al-Watan/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
Citizenship is forbidden until further notice, and the state is nothing more than a "puppet" that meets demands and cleans up damages regardless of who caused them. This is what "Hezbollah" instills in the minds and instincts of its community. The state is the "Party's" primary enemy, and its enmity precedes, in its intensity, the enmity towards Israel, which can be considered a perpetual necessity for trading on the "Resistance" tune and violating the Constitution and laws. Therefore, the state must remain deficient, and it does not matter that the "Party," along with the "Amal" Movement, share a significant portion of the decision-making centers, administrations, and institutions, from the base of the pyramid to its apex. Despite this, the "Duo" is not to blame for the suffering of the affected community, and of course, it is ignored that the damage affects Lebanon as a whole, and not just the Shiites of the "Duo."
The state must only give; it is forbidden to take. If the rule of give-and-take were established, only then would citizenship be realized, the balance of rights and duties be straightened, the concept of patronage based on sectarian and confessional affiliation rather than national belonging would dissolve, and the principle of reward and punishment would be enshrined, negating the interpretation that "all officials are thieves, therefore stealing from the state is permissible." At that point, privileges and illegal, random construction used to create belts of misery—whose function is to become ticking bombs serving the project of the "Party" and its operator—would disappear. This is evident in the incitement against self-evident official decisions for reconstruction that simply require obtaining a permit, which the fierce obstructionists portray as if they are "directly targeting the people and punishing them instead of helping them."
The farce of the matter is that the heads of municipalities in the affected southern villages, who are supposed to abide by the laws because their municipalities are state institutions, consider the "Party"—which facilitated, and perhaps falsified, their ascent to office—to be their sole employer. In this context, accusations of state deficiency in confronting Israel, demands for the release of prisoners, reconstruction, and tax exemptions are prominent, under the pretext that this community is a victim of continuous Israeli attacks, and negating responsibility from those who brought the enemy into Lebanon with the "support war" adventure.
While there is no debate about the state's responsibility towards its citizens, there is also no debate about the citizen's responsibility, even if they are from the "supporting environment," towards their state: paying taxes, water, electricity, and mechanic bills, not building their home on state commons, or violating building codes. If state representatives attempt to hold them accountable, they act as if they are targeted by "arbitrary measures" and victimized because they are the children of this "community," and not because their violation is clearly defined.
Furthermore, studies show the impossibility of financing reconstruction with the state's own capabilities, and that obtaining Arab and international aid for funding has the essential condition of confining arms to Lebanese legitimacy—meaning "Hezbollah" must surrender its weapons and the decision of war and peace to the state in which it participates and against which it incites. If this condition were met, the state would find those who would assist it, even if Israeli attacks continued, as they would lose their pretext at that point... This, however, contradicts the projects of "Hezbollah" and its Iranian operator... Hence, the incitement to keep the state only as a "treasurer" must continue.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 24-25/2025
Trump moves to shield peace plan, assert leadership in post-war Gaza phase amid muted tensions with Israel
The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
The US leader issued a stark warning to Israel it could lose US support over any intent to annex the West Bank.
US President Donald Trump moved on Thursday to shield his 20-point peace plan and assert his leadership in setting the agenda for Gaza and the West Bank amid muted tensions with Israel after the Knesset voted to advance annexation of parts of the Palestinian occupied territories. The US leader issued a stark warning to Israel that it could lose US support over any intent to annex the West Bank. He declared, in a Time Magazine interview published on Thursday, “It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support,” Trump said when asked what the consequences would be for Israel if it moved towards annexation. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”Trump has rarely threatened Israel it could lose US support. Washington has been Israel’s most important military and diplomatic backer supplying it with weapons and shielding it with an unwavering veto power at the UN during the Gaza war.
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation. The vote was backed by ultranationalists National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. When asked on Thursday if he was concerned by the votes, Trump told reporters at the White House: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank.”Asked by reporters about the vote, US Vice President JD Vance said: “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it. “The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy,” Vance added at the end of a two-day visit to Israel. Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, a key element of Trump’s ceasefire plan, have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line. In a joint statement carried by Saudi state media on Thursday, more than a dozen such states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey condemned the Israeli parliament’s vote. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, one of a string of top US officials to visit Israel in recent days, had warned before his arrival that the annexation moves were “threatening” to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Netanyahu, standing next to Rubio after their meeting on Thursday, was quick to avoid any suggestion of tension with Washington, calling the US secretary an “extraordinary friend of Israel” and saying that the back-to-back visits by US officials to Israel were part of a “circle of trust and partnership”.Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out Palestinian statehood. His cabinet has considered the idea of annexation as a response to major Western allies recently recognising a Palestinian state to put pressure on Israel to stop its devastating war in Gaza, but appeared to shelve it after Trump objected last month. Trump, who sees truce in Gaza as crucial to his vision of expanded Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab states, also told Time Magazine that he believed Saudi Arabia would join the accords by the end of the year.
“Yes, I do. I do,” he said when asked if he thought Riyadh would join in that time frame. “See they had a problem. They had a Gaza problem and they had an Iran problem. Now they don’t have those two problems,” he said, referring to Israel’s war in Gaza and Iran’s nuclear programme, which US air strikes targeted earlier this year. The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not strike a deal with Israel without a credible path to a Palestinian state.
Trump also showed he was taking the key decisions about post-war Gaza as he told Time Magazine he would be “making a decision” on whether Israel should release high-profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, as part of plans for the enclave.
Barghouti, from Hamas’ rival, the Fatah movement, was among the Palestinian prisoners Hamas wanted to see released as part of the Gaza deal but Israel turned down the request. The 66-year old militant was sentenced in 2004 to five life sentences and 40 years in jail after a court convicted him of orchestrating ambushes and suicide attacks on Israelis during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. He has denied the charges. As a leader of the 2000 uprising against Israel, Barghouti has maintained good relations with rival leaders from Hamas and other factions and enjoys great respect and admiration among leaders and grass-roots of the Fatah movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He is said to have led discussions with former Israeli officials on prospects for peace with the Jewish state. Many in Fatah draw a likeness between him and the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. Others compare him to South African leader Nelson Mandela.But who will govern the Palestinians in the Strip remains a complicated issue. Under Trump’s 20-point peace plan, an international security force drawn from Arab and Muslim allies would stabilise Gaza as Israeli troops withdraw, while a transitional authority would take over the territory’s administration from Hamas. Calling the shots in the enclave will be a “board of peace” chaired by Trump himself.

US will end support for Israel if West Bank annexed: Trump
Arab News/October 24, 2025
LONDON: The US will end its support for Israel if its parliament votes to pass a bill giving it sovereignty over the West Bank, President Donald Trump has said. The bill refers to the region in its Biblical terms, imposing “Israeli sovereignty across Judea and Samaria.”A preliminary reading — the first of four stages — passed in favor of the legislation on Wednesday with 25 votes for and 24 against. Trump is adamant that the bill will not pass into law. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” he told Time magazine. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”He told reporters on Thursday: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank.” On Wednesday, Israel’s parliament also voted to apply Israeli law to an illegal settlement near Jerusalem, Maale Adumim, in legislation put forward by an ultraconservative parliamentarian, Avi Maoz. It came despite a decision by the parliament’s legislation committee to postpone all coalition votes while US Vice President JD Vance is in Israel on an official visit. Vance hit out at the decision to press on with the votes, telling reporters that they were “stupid” and that “the policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

Palestinian factions agree to hand Gaza to technocrat committee
AFP/October 24, 2025
CAIRO: The main Palestinian factions, including Hamas, said Friday they had agreed that an independent committee of technocrats would take over the running of post-war Gaza. During a meeting in Cairo, according to a joint statement published on the Hamas website, the groups agreed to hand “over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee composed of independent ‘technocrats’, which will manage the affairs of life and basic services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions.”

Rubio seeks quick deployment of international Gaza force
AFP/Reuters/October 25, 2025
TEL AVIV: Top US diplomat Marco Rubio voiced hope on Friday of soon putting together an international force to police the ceasefire in Gaza, as Palestinian factions agreed that a committee of technocrats would run the post-war territory. The secretary of state visited Israel on the heels of Vice President J.D. Vance as part of an all-out effort by the US to persuade both Hamas and Israel to respect the truce. Rubio said it was critical for the deal to create “the conditions for the stabilization force to come in as soon as it possibly can be put together.”During a meeting in Cairo, according to a joint statement published on the Hamas website, the Palestinian groups agreed to hand “over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee composed of independent ‘technocrats’, which will manage the affairs of life and basic services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions.”In Gaza on Friday, families were still trying to find their way back to their ruined homes — in many cases only to find they lie in areas controlled by Israeli forces beyond the so-called “Yellow Line.”The US is considering a proposal for humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza that would replace the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It is one of several concepts being explored, said two US officials and a humanitarian official familiar with the plan, as Washington seeks to facilitate increased deliveries of assistance to the Palestinian enclave after two years of war. “Multiple approaches are being considered to effectively get aid to the people of Gaza — nothing is finalized,” said a senior US administration official. After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris and three quarters of buildings have been destroyed, a UN data analysis shows. As of July 8, 2025, the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territory, representing about 78 percent of existing structures before the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to satellite analysis by the UN’s UNOSAT programme. In an assessment of images from Sept. 22-23 of Gaza City, the UN agency estimated that an even higher proportion — 83 percent — of buildings there had been damaged or destroyed. The total 61.5 million tonnes of debris is nearly 170 times the weight of New York’s Empire State Building and is equivalent to over 169 kg of debris for each square metre of Gaza’s small territory.

Rubio tours US-led center in Israel overseeing Gaza ceasefire
AP/October 24, 2025
KIRYAT GAT, Israel: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday toured a US-led center in Israel overseeing the Gaza ceasefire, as the Trump administration worked to set up an international security force in the territory and shore up the tenuous truce between Israel and Hamas. Rubio was the latest in a series of top US officials to visit the center for civilian and military coordination. US Vice President JD Vance was there earlier this week where he announced its opening, and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were also in Israel. Around 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries at the center, planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza. On Friday, an Associated Press reporter saw international personnel there with flags from Cyprus, Greece, France, Germany, Australia and Canada. “I think we have a lot to be proud of in the first 10 days, 11 days, 12 days of implementation, where we have faced real challenges along the way,” said Rubio. He named the US ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, to lead the civilian side of the coordination center in southern Israel. The center’s top military official is Adm. Brad Cooper of the US Central Command.
Seeking support
The United States is seeking support from other allies, especially Gulf Arab nations, to create an international stabilization force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian force. Rubio said US officials were working on possible language to secure a United Nations mandate or other international authorization for the force in Gaza because several potential participants would require one before they can take part. He said many countries had expressed interest, and decisions need to be made about the rules of engagement. He said such countries need to know what they’re signing up for, including “what is their mandate, what is their command, under what authority are they going to be operating, who’s going to be in charge of it, what is their job?” He also said Israel needs to be comfortable with the countries that are participating. Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Israeli media has referred to the parade of American officials visiting their country to make sure the ceasefire stays on track as “Bibi-sitting.” The term, using Netanyahu’s nickname of Bibi, refers to an old campaign ad when Netanyahu positioned himself as the “Bibi-sitter” whom voters could trust with their kids.
Rebuilding in rubble
In Gaza City, Palestinians who have been trying to rebuild their lives have returned home to rubble. Families are scrounging to find shelter, patching together material to sleep on with no blankets or kitchen utensils. “I couldn’t find any place other than here. I’m sitting in front of my house, where else can I go? In front of the rubble, every day I look at my home and feel sorrow for it, but what can I do?” said Kamal Al-Yazji as he lighted pieces of sponge to cook coffee in Gaza City. His three-story house, once home to 13 people, has been destroyed, forcing his family to live in a makeshift tent. He said they’re suffering from mosquitos and wild dogs and they can barely afford food because their banknotes are so worn that shopkeepers won’t accept them. As Umm Muhammad Al-Araishi walked in the Gaza City neighborhood where she lived before the war, she was looking for a familiar landmark, the Rantisi hospital. But the hospital and the buildings around it were heavily damaged by Israel — which had declared the area a “combat zone” — to the point where little was recognizable. “I couldn’t find the place, I didn’t recognize where my house is, I didn’t recognize the whole neighborhood,” she said. Rubio said Friday that a conglomerate of up to a dozen groups would be involved in aid efforts in Gaza, including from the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations. However, he said there would be no role for the UN aid agency in Gaza, known as UNRWA. “The United Nations is here, they’re on the ground, we’re willing to work with them if they can make it work,” said Rubio. “But not UNRWA. UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas.”Earlier this week the International Court of Justice said that Israel must allow UNRWA to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territory. Israel has not allowed UNRWA to bring in its supplies since March. But the agency continues to operate in Gaza, running health centers, mobile medical teams, sanitation services and school classes for children. It says it has 6,000 trucks of supplies waiting to get in. The agency has faced criticism from Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who say the group is deeply infiltrated by Hamas.

US names career diplomat for Gaza ceasefire monitor
AFP/October 24, 2025
KIRYAT GAT, Israel: The United States named a veteran diplomat on Friday as the civilian lead in a body monitoring the Gaza ceasefire, seeking to push forward a durable end to the war. The State Department said that Steve Fagin, a career diplomat, will work alongside US Army Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, the military head already appointed to the hub set up after the October 10 ceasefire. The Civil-Military Coordination Center was set up in southern Israel on October 17 to observe the ceasefire for any violations and handle logistics including aid delivery into war-ravaged Gaza. Some 200 US troops were sent to the center, set up in a rented warehouse, where they work with soldiers from Israel and European countries, representatives of the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and personnel from the United Nations and aid groups. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the site, which is a short drive from Gaza, on Friday and called it a “historic” undertaking. “There’s going to be ups and downs and twists and turns, but I think we have a lot of reason for healthy optimism about the progress that’s being made,” Rubio said. Fagin has long experience in the Middle East. He has served since 2022 as ambassador to Yemen, managing relations at a turbulent time as the United States bombed Houthi rebels that have lobbed missiles at Israel in professed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. And it is just the latest time Fagin has taken a major concurrent position. He served for three months until recently as the top US diplomat in Baghdad while remaining ambassador to Yemen, a job in which he has been based primarily in Saudi Arabia.

Sick of tents, many displaced Gazans still cut off from home
AFP/October 24, 2025
AL-ZAWAYDA, Palestinian Territories: His house in Gaza was destroyed by the war, but Hani Abu Omar still dreams of returning now that a ceasefire has taken hold. However, like thousands of others, the 42-year-old Palestinian remains stuck in a tent with his family because it is too dangerous to go home. Abu Omar’s house lies beyond the “Yellow Line” — the boundary behind which Israeli troops have pulled back under the October 10 truce.The line stretches from north to south, across several towns and housing blocks. Yet residents told AFP they were unclear about its exact location, which the army has begun to mark out with yellow concrete blocks. “Some young men from our family risked their lives, they went to inspect the destruction in our area and told us that my house was destroyed,” Abu Omar told AFP from the encampment in Al-Zawayda where he lives. Still, he said, “I wish I could go back to Beit Lahia,” as “living here in the tents is unbearable.”“The conditions aren’t suitable... and we’re suffering from skin diseases and lack of water.”Israeli forces’ withdrawal beyond the Yellow Line has left them in control of around half of Gaza, including the territory’s borders, but not its main cities. Several incidents have been reported since the ceasefire began in which the military said its troops had fired at individuals who approached or crossed the line. At Abu Omar’s white plastic tent — one of scores at the encampment in central Gaza — a few blankets were stretched out in front of the entrance to provide some semblance of privacy. Residents prepared food in pots placed directly on the sand, where barefoot children sat. Nearby, in a row of tents stretching for hundreds of meters, a woman baked bread in a makeshift oven made of cinder blocks.
Overcrowded camps -
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting and bombing have returned to northern Gaza since October 10, often struggling to find their homes amid the ruins left by the war triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But elsewhere, thousands of others are unable to go back to their homes, with the Israeli army regularly calling on people not to approach troops deployed in the area. Only 10 percent of people displaced within the Gaza Strip “reside in collective centers, including UNRWA-designated emergency shelters,” said a statement Thursday by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. “The majority remain in overcrowded, makeshift sites, many of which were set up spontaneously in open or unsafe areas,” it added. Gaza’s civil defense agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, urged displaced people on Friday to secure their tents properly and to avoid taking refuge in buildings at risk of collapse. “Tents don’t protect anyone, they are useless. They don’t protect us from the cold or heat,” said displaced Palestinian Sanaa Jihad Abu Omar. “Imagine one tent for eight people. Life here is extremely difficult.”Following the ceasefire, more than one million hot meals a day are being distributed in the Palestinian territory, OCHA said. In north Gaza, six UN-supported bakeries have resumed bread production, and over the last couple of days, around 600,000 diapers, 11,000 jerry cans, 5,800 household hygiene kits and 3,000 buckets were distributed to displaced people, it added. “It’s true some goods have been brought in and some goods have even become cheaper. But still, we have no money to buy anything,” said Abu Omar. “There’s no work and no income. How can we buy things?“

Rubio says more countries ready to recognize Israel
AFP/October 24, 2025
KIRYAT GAT, Israel: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that more countries are ready to normalize relations with Israel, but the decision would await a broader regional agreement. Rubio, who was touring a US-led multinational center in Israel aimed at coordinating a ceasefire in Gaza, said that a sustained end to the war would encourage more countries to join the so-called Abraham Accords, under which a number of Arab countries normalized ties with Israel in 2020. “We have a lot of countries that want to join” the accords, he said. “I think there are some countries you could probably add right now if you wanted to, but we want to do a big thing about it, and so we’re working on it,” Rubio told reporters on a visit to Israel.“So, I think that would be great, and I think that could be a byproduct of achieving some of this,” he said, referring to the Gaza ceasefire. Rubio did not mention specific countries, saying that they needed to address their domestic audiences first, but said “there’s some bigger than others.” Saudi Arabia had been in talks with the United States on normalizing ties with Israel, in what would be a historic milestone as the kingdom is home to Islam’s two holiest sites. But the kingdom stepped back on normalization after war broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023. Both US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu see the Abraham Accords, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco forge ties with Israel, as a crowning achievement.

Wife of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti asks Trump to seek his release
AFP/October 24, 2025
RAMALLAH: The wife of high profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, Fadwa Barghouti, appealed to US President Donald Trump to help release the popular leader from his Israeli jail, her son Arab told AFP. “Mr President, a genuine partner awaits you — one who can help fulfil the dream we share of just and lasting peace in the region. For the sake of freedom for the Palestinian people and peace for all future generations, help release Marwan Barghouti,” lawyer Fadwa Barghouti said in a statement. Marwan Barghouti, from Hamas’s historic rivals Fatah, was among the Palestinian prisoners Hamas had wanted to see released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, according to Egyptian state-linked media.

WHO pleads for sick Gazans to be allowed to leave
AFP/October 24, 2025
GENEVA: The UN’s health agency pleaded Friday for thousands of people in desperate need of medical care to be allowed to leave Gaza, in what it said would be a “game-changer.”The World Health Organization has supported the medical evacuation of nearly 7,800 patients out of the Gaza Strip since the war with Israel began two years ago — and estimates there are 15,000 people currently needing treatment outside the Palestinian territory. But a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has not sped up the process — the WHO has been able to evacuate only 41 critical patients since then.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, called for all crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt to be opened up during the ceasefire — not only for the entry of aid but for medical evacuations too. “All medical corridors need to be opened,” he said, particularly to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as happened routinely before the war. “It is vital and is the most cost-effective route. If that route opened, it would really be a... game-changer.”Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, he told journalists in Geneva that two evacuations were planned for next week, but he wanted them every day and said the WHO was ready to take “a minimum of 50 patients per day.”At the current rate, he said evacuating the 15,000 people needing treatment — including 4,000 children — would drag on for a decade or so. The WHO says more than 700 people have died waiting for medical evacuation since the war began. The UN health agency has called for more countries to step up and accept Gazan patients. While over 20 countries have taken patients, only a handful have done so in large numbers. Peeperkorn said only a fraction of Gaza’s health system remained in service — just 14 of 36 hospitals are even partially functional for a population topping two million.

Spain probes steelmaker bosses for alleged trading with Israeli arms firm
AFP/October 24, 2025
MADRID: Spain’s top criminal court said Friday it had opened an investigation for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide into executives at the steelmaker Sidenor for trading with an Israeli arms company. Spain, one of the fiercest critics of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, said it had stopped exchanging weapons with the country after the conflict started with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The embargo formally became law this month as part of measures aiming to stop what Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls a “genocide” in the devastated Palestinian territory. Sidenor’s chairman Jose Antonio Jainaga and two other executives are being investigated for alleged smuggling and complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide for selling steel to Israel Military Industries, the Audiencia Nacional court said.The Spanish firm sold the metal without requesting the government’s permission or registering the transaction, and knew the material “was going to be used for the manufacturing of weapons,” the court said in a statement. It said the company itself was not being investigated because of whistleblower employees who contributed to the complaint and helped “prevent the continuation of the allegedly criminal activity.”The investigating judge has summoned the three suspects to testify on November 12 in the case, initiated after a complaint by a pro-Palestinian association. Sidenor did not respond to an AFP request for comment. The 2023 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Palestinian militants also abducted around 250 hostages, with the remaining captives still alive returned during a fragile truce that began this month. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 68,000 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers credible.

Israeli man sentenced to 5 years for illegally selling Greek Cypriot land in breakaway north
AP/October 24, 2025
NICOSIA: A court in Cyprus on Friday sentenced an Israeli businessman to five years for developing and selling luxury apartment complexes in the breakaway northern part of the divided island without permission of the Greek Cypriots owners of the land. The case is one of several where Cypriot authorities seek to bust developers and realtors who illegally make money off Greek Cypriot properties in the breakaway north — lands that their rightful owners cannot access because they are located in the Turkiye-backed region. The criminal case also underscores the deeply contentious property rights in Cyprus, which was split in 1974 when Turkiye invaded in the wake of an Athens junta-backed coup aiming at uniting the island with Greece. Some 160,000 Greek Cypriots subsequently fled the north where Turkish Cypriots declared independence that only Turkiye recognizes. At the time, around 45,000 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, where the internationally recognized government is seated, moved to the north. Cyprus’ internationally recognized government in the south has no control over affairs in the breakaway north. Decades later, Greek Cypriots that left the north are demanding that their right to their property are respected in numerous rounds of United Nations-mediated talks that have failed to heal the rifts.
The Aykout case
Israeli businessman Shimon Mistriel Aykout, 75, who also holds Portuguese and Turkish citizenship, was arrested in June 2024 as he crossed from the north into the Greek Cypriot part of the island. Last week, he pleaded guilty to 40 counts of building and selling apartments in the north. The three-judge panel said it was compelled to hand down a tough sentence because of the seriousness of the crime. Between 2014 and 2024, Aykout headed the Afik Group of Companies that developed some 400,000 square meters (4.3 million square feet) of Greek Cypriot-owned properties in four villages in the north. Cypriot authorities estimate the combined value of the development exceeds 38 million euros ($44 million.) Aykout’s supporters have campaigned for his release both in Israel and the United States on health grounds, saying he suffered from prostate cancer. The court rejected arguments for him to be released for medical examination abroad, saying Cypriot medical facilities are more than adequate. The court said the sentence takes into account time that Aykout had served in police custody.
A ‘clear message’ to all
After the sentencing, prosecuting attorney Andreas Aristides told reporters that Cyprus’ ethnic division does not diminish the rights of the lawful owners of property in the north. The court’s decision sends “a clear message ... that if you buy, build or otherwise use land in the occupied areas that belongs to Greek Cypriots, you’re committing serious criminal acts,” he said. Simos Angelides, a lawyer in Nicosia, Cyprus’ capital, said Friday’s ruling and similar cases have “triggered panic” in the north’s booming real estate and construction industry and “shattered the illusion of legal impunity.”The message is simple: “Do not exploit stolen property, as you may soon have an arrest warrant in your name,” Angelides, who was not involved in the Aykout case, told The Associated Press. The EU’s top court and the European Court of Human Rights have affirmed Greek Cypriots’ rights to property ownership in the north. But the ECHR has also backed the establishment of a Turkish Cypriot property commission to which Greek Cypriots can apply to either be compensated for their property or reclaim it.
Other cases
Over the last year, Cyprus has prosecuted another Israeli, a Ukrainian, a German and two Hungarians in similar cases. Of them, two Hungarian women who earned commissions as real estate agents in the north were sentenced in May to 36 months and 15 months, respectively. The other cases are still pending. Turkish Cypriot authorities have reacted angrily to the prosecutions. Tufan Erhurman, a center-left politician elected as Turkish Cypriot leader this week, has said that the issue of Greek Cypriot property in the north can only be resolved through negotiations. Cafer Gurcafer, head of the Turkish Cypriot Contractors’ Association, warned that investors could scatter since as much as 85 percent of privately owned property in the north could become entangled in similar prosecutions. The case of five Greek Cypriots arrested on spying charges after crossing into the north in July is widely seen as retaliation for the prosecutions. A month before their arrest, Turkish Vice President Cevded Yilmaz said attempts to harm the Turkish Cypriot economy through politically motivated legal means would “not be tolerated.”Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides stresses that the judiciary is independent but that Aykout’s guilty plea vindicates his government’s policy to shine a light on illicit property exploitation in the north.

UN agencies warn of escalating catastrophe in Sudan as millions face hunger and displacement
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 24, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: With Sudan midway through the third year of a civil war, four major UN agencies issued an urgent appeal on Friday for a scaled-up humanitarian response in the country, where millions of people continue to face hunger, displacement and the collapse of essential services. Speaking during a joint virtual briefing, the International Organization for Migration’s deputy director general for operations, Ugochi Daniels, said the situation was now “the world’s worst displacement crisis.”More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, she added, and her organization has registered 9.6 million internally displaced persons and 4.3 million people displaced across borders. Daniels said 2.6 million people who fled to other countries have now returned to Sudan. They include 1 million in Khartoum alone, 94 percent of whom originally came from other parts of the country. She called for the immediate restoration of key infrastructure and public services, and direct support for vulnerable returnees, host communities and internally displaced persons. “Humanitarian, development and peace actors must work together,” she said, echoing a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the “immediate cessation of hostilities, the protection of civilians, unhindered humanitarian access and simplified procedures for aid delivery.”Kelly Clements, the deputy high commissioner of UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, described the devastation and trauma she witnessed and heard about during recent visits to Port Sudan and Khartoum. “We heard horrific stories of rights violations, the fear, the utter destruction of infrastructure and services … but also the resilience of the people,” she said. Since the conflict between rival military factions began in April 2023, about 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes for other parts of Sudan or across borders, Clements noted, which is equivalent to about one in three of the population.
“Their biggest concerns are basic services that aren’t available … they are worried about their security,” she said. Clements also highlighted Sudan’s continuing generosity, saying: “Despite the war and the challenging context, Sudan continues to host nearly 900,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.”Ted Chaiban, the UN Children’s Fund’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said the toll of the crisis is heaviest on youngsters. “What I saw was alarming,” he said. “Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, the conflict is escalating, and children are paying the highest price every day.”
About 1.4 million children are in areas where there is the risk of famine or famine is already present, he added. In North Darfur alone, 150,000 children are likely to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year. In addition, 14 million children are out of school, Chaiban said, which is “four out of every five children in Sudan,” and at least 350 cases of grave violations against children, including killing and maiming, have been verified in North Darfur in the past six months alone. The World Food Programme’s assistant executive director, Valerie Guarnieri, highlighted the operational challenges the organization faces in its attempts to reach those most in need, even as it expands its reach.She said that in September alone, it reached 1.8 million people in famine-risk areas, covering more than 85 percent of the assessed population, up from less than 20 percent previously. “Humanitarian access remains a critical issue, … in Al-Fasher, El-Dugli and Dilling it remains severely constrained,” she said. The four agencies together called for urgent and sustained international support for their work in Sudan — including funding, improved humanitarian access, and renewed peace efforts — to enable them to deliver full humanitarian and development responses.

Turkiye appoints ambassador to Syria
AFP/October 24, 2025
ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Friday appointed an ambassador to Syria, whose new rulers it has supported since they came to power in December, a diplomatic source told AFP. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan named his deputy, Nuh Yilmaz, as Turkiye’s ambassador to Damascus, the source said. Until now, Turkiye had been represented in its southern neighbor by a charge d’affaires. The appointment of a close associate of the foreign minister is being interpreted as an important diplomatic signal. Yilmaz has served as deputy foreign minister since May 2024, said the ministry. Like Fidan, Yilmaz hails from the National Intelligence Organization and is fluent in English, having held several posts in Washington and taught in the United States. Ankara and Damascus had severed diplomatic ties under Syria’s toppled ruler Bashar Assad. Since December, the two countries have been strengthening their ties and cooperation, both economically and militarily.

Seven Yemeni UN workers detained in Sanaa: Houthi security source
Arab News/October 24, 2025
The internationally recognized Yemeni government in Aden condemned the new arrests
DUBAI: Several Yemenis working for the United Nations in the militant-held capital Sanaa have been detained on accusations of spying for Israel, a Houthi security official told AFP Friday, in the latest arrests targeting the world body’s staff. Earlier this week, 20 UN staff including 15 foreigners were released after being held in their compound since a raid last week-end. The militants have harassed and detained UN staff and aid workers for years, accusing them of spying, but they have accelerated arrests since the start of the Gaza war. “Seven United Nations employees, all of them Yemenis, have been arrested from late last night until this afternoon on charges of spying for Israel,” a security source in Sanaa told AFP. Another Houthi source confirmed UN employees had been arrested but did not specify how many. The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The internationally recognized Yemeni government in Aden — which opposes the Houthis — condemned the new arrests, labelling them an escalation. The Houthis, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, have frequently fired at ships in the Red Sea and at Israeli territory during the two-year Gaza war, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has launched numerous retaliatory strikes, including a major attack in August that killed the Houthis’ premier and nearly half of his cabinet. Earlier this month, militant leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi accused UN employees of having a hand in the attack without offering evidence. The UN has rejected the claim. In mid-September, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen was transferred from Sanaa to the interim capital Aden.

Erdogan says US, others must press Israel to abide by Gaza ceasefire
Reuters/October 24, 2025
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the United States and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales. NATO member Turkiye, one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, has joined the ceasefire negotiations as a mediator after largely indirect involvement. Its increased role followed a meeting last month between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump at the White House. “As Turkiye, we are doing our utmost for the ceasefire to be secured. The Hamas side is abiding by the ceasefire. In fact, it is openly stating its commitment to this. Israel, meanwhile, is continuing to violate the ceasefire,” Erdogan told reporters on his return flight from a regional Gulf tour. “The international community, namely the United States, must do more to ensure Israel’s full compliance to the ceasefire and agreement,” he said, according to a transcript of his comments shared by his office on Friday.“Israel must be forced to keep its promises via sanctions, halting of arms sales.”Ankara has said that it would join a “task force” to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire, that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed, and that it will play an active role in the reconstruction of the enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip. Asked about Netanyahu’s comments, Erdogan refrained from his usual criticism of the Israeli leader and appeared to soften his earlier commitment to taking a role on the field in Gaza, saying talks on the issue were still underway. “Talks are continuing on the task force that will work in Gaza. The modalities of this are not yet clear. As this is a multi-faceted issue, there are comprehensive negotiations. We are ready to provide Gaza any form of support on this issue,” he said. He also reiterated a previous call for Gulf countries to now take action on financing efforts to rebuild Gaza, saying nobody could single-handedly complete this task. Relations between former allies Israel and Turkiye have hit new lows during the Gaza war, with Ankara accusing Netanyahu’s government of committing genocide, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.

Turkish court expected to rule on case that could oust opposition leader
Reuters/October 24, 2025
ANKARA: A Turkish court dismissed a case seeking to oust the main opposition party’s leader and annul its 2023 congress, a decision that relieves some pressure on President Tayyip Erdogan’s rivals after an unprecedented year-long legal crackdown. The case in Ankara against the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its chairman, Ozgur Ozel, was seen as a test of the country’s shaky balance between democracy and autocracy. The court ruled that the case, which claimed irregularities in the 2023 CHP congress, no longer had any substance. The court referred to the party having re-elected Ozel as leader in an extraordinary congress last month. The verdict boosted Turkish assets, which had crashed in March when a separate court in Istanbul jailed pending trial the city’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the party’s presidential candidate and Erdogan’s chief political rival.
The main Borsa Istanbul index was up more than 4 percent after the verdict and the lira strengthened against the dollar.
OZEL IN SPOTLIGHT AFTER ISTANBUL MAYOR’S ARREST
Ozel, 51, the CHP’s combative and hoarse-voiced leader, has risen to prominence since Imamoglu’s arrest, leading dozens of big anti-government street rallies. Had the court ruled to oust Ozel, who was first elected leader at that 2023 congress, it could have thrown the opposition into further disarray and infighting and boosted Erdogan’s chances of extending his 22-year rule of the big NATO member country and major emerging market economy.The centrist CHP, which denied the charges against it, is level with Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted, conservative AK party (AKP) in polls. The next presidential election is set for 2028 but would need to come earlier if Erdogan aims to run again, given that he faces a term limit. Separately, hundreds of CHP members and elected leaders, including Imamoglu, face an array of corruption-related charges in a broader, ongoing crackdown that it calls politicized and anti-democratic. Erdogan’s government rejects this, saying the judiciary is independent

Turkiye in talks with Qatar and Oman to buy used Eurofighter jets, Erdogan says
AP/October 24, 2025
ANKARA: Turkiye is negotiating with Qatar and Oman to acquire used Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets as part of its effort to bolster its air force capabilities, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments released Friday. Turkiye aims to purchase dozens of Eurofighters and other advanced jets as a stopgap measure to strengthen its fleet until its domestically developed fifth-generation KAAN fighter jet becomes operational. In July, Turkiye and United Kingdom signed a preliminary agreement for the sale of Eurofighter Typhoons, which are produced by a consortium made up of the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. However, reports indicate that the Turkish government is also seeking to source secondhand jets from Gulf nations to meet its immediate needs. “We discussed the ongoing negotiations with the Qatari and Omani sides regarding the purchase of Eurofighter warplanes,” Erdogan told journalists Thursday during a flight returning from a Gulf tour that included Qatar and Oman. “The talks on this technically detailed matter are progressing positively,” he said, according to a transcript released Friday. During his three-day tour of Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, Erdogan oversaw the signing of several agreements, including in the defense sector, his office said, without providing details. Turkiye, a member of NATO, is also pursuing the country’s return into the US-led F-35 fighter jet program, from which it was removed in 2019 following its acquisition of Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. The US had cited security risks to the F-35 program. Erdogan raised the issue of Turkiye’s reentry into the program during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House last month. Turkish officials have stated that the country plans to acquire a total of 120 fighter jets — 40 Eurofighters, 40 US-made F-16s and 40 F-35s — as a transitional fleet until the KAAN is expected to enter service in 2028 at the earliest.

Iraq faces elections at a delicate moment in the Middle East
AP/Arab News/October 23, 2025
BAGHDAD: Iraq is weeks away from parliamentary elections that will set the country’s course during one of the Middle East’s most delicate moments in years. While the ceasefire in Gaza may have tamped down regional tensions, fears remain of another round of conflict between Israel and Iraq’s neighbor, Iran. Iraq managed to stay on the sidelines during the brief Israel-Iran war in June. Meanwhile, Baghdad faces increasing pressure from Washington over the presence of Iran-linked armed groups in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of a group of pro-Iran parties but has since sought to balance Iraq’s relations with Tehran and Washington. The Nov. 11 vote will determine whether he gets a second term — rare for Iraqi premiers in the past.
Who’s missing from the elections
A total of 7,768 candidates — 2,248 women and 5,520 men — are competing for 329 parliament seats. The strongest political factions running include Shiite blocs led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, cleric Ammar Al-Hakim, and several linked to armed groups; competing Sunni factions led by former parliament speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi and current speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadan i; and the two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The contest is just as notable for who is absent. The popular Sadrist Movement, led by influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, is boycotting. Al-Sadr’s bloc won the largest number of seats in the 2021 elections but later withdrew after failed negotiations over forming a government, and it continues to stay out of elections. In the suburb known as Sadr City on Baghdad’s outskirts, a banner posted on one street read, “We are all boycotting upon orders from leader Al-Sadr. No to America, no to Israel, no to corruption.”The Victory Coalition, a smaller group led by former Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, also announced a boycott, alleging corruption in the process. Meanwhile, some reformist groups emerging from mass anti-government protests that began in October 2019 are participating but have been bogged down by internal divisions and lack of funding and political support.
Vote-buying and political violence
There have been widespread allegations of corruption and vote-buying. Political analyst Bassem Al-Qazwini described these elections as “the most exploited since 2003 in terms of political money and state resources.”A campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was talking about alleged illegal conduct, asserted that almost all candidates, including major blocs, are distributing money and buying voter cards, with the price of a card going as high as 300,000 Iraqi dinars (around $200). The Independent High Electoral Commission asserted its commitment to conducting a fair and transparent process, saying in a statement to The Associated Press that “strict measures have been taken to monitor campaign spending and curb vote-buying.” It added that any candidate found guilty of violating laws or buying votes will be “immediately disqualified.”Campaigning has been marred by political violence. On Oct. 15, Baghdad Provincial Council member Safaa Al-Mashhadani, a Sunni candidate in the Al-Tarmiya district north of the capital, was killed by a car bomb. Two people were arrested on suspicion of the killing, the First Karkh Investigative Court said Thursday. It did not name the suspects but said the crime was believed to be “related to electoral competition.”Aisha Ghazal Al-Masari, a member of parliament from the Sovereignty Alliance to which Al-Mashhadani belonged, described the killing as “a cowardly crime reminiscent of the dark days of assassinations,” referring to the years of security vacuum after Iraq’s former autocratic leader, Saddam Hussein, was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The role of militias
Political parties linked to Iran-backed militias are leveraging their significant military and financial influence. They include the Kataib Hezbollah militia, with its Harakat Huqouq (Rights Movement) bloc, and the Sadiqoun Bloc led by the leader of the Asaib Ahl Al-Haq militia, Qais Al-Khazali. The Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of militias that formed to fight the Daesh group, was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016 but in practice still operates with significant autonomy. Al-Sudani told journalists recently that armed factions that have transformed into political entities have the constitutional right to participate in elections. “We cannot prevent any group from engaging in politics if they renounce arms. This is a step in the right direction,” he said. However, several militias with affiliated political parties participating in the elections are still active and armed. The US State Department said in a statement that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Al-Sudani on Monday and “highlighted the urgency in disarming Iran-backed militias that undermine Iraq’s sovereignty, threaten the lives and businesses of Americans and Iraqis, and pilfer Iraqi resources for Iran.”
Al-Sudani seeks another term
Al-Sudani has positioned himself as a pragmatist focused on improving public services. Polling shows that Iraqis are relatively positive about the country’s situation. Al-Mustakella Research Group, affiliated with Gallup International Association, found that over the past two years, for the first time since 2004, more than half of Iraqis polled believed the country is heading in the right direction. In the latest poll, in early 2025, 55 percent of Iraqis surveyed said they had confidence in the central government. However, only one Iraqi prime minister, Maliki, has served more than one term since 2003. Ihsan Al-Shammari, professor of strategic and international studies at Baghdad University, said that the premiership “does not depend solely on election results but on political bloc agreements and regional and international understandings” to form a government. He added that disagreements over control of state institutions that have arisen between Al-Sudani and some leaders in the Shiite Coordination Framework bloc that brought him to power “may hinder his chances of a second term.”Some Iraqis said they don’t have high hopes for the country, no matter what the election outcome. Baghdad resident Saif Ali said he does not plan to vote, pointing to lagging public services. “What happened with regards to electricity from 2003 until now? Nothing,” he said, referring to regular power cuts. ”What happened with water? Drought has reached Baghdad. These are the basic services, and they are not available, so what is the point of elections?”

US imposes sanctions on Colombia president and family members over drug trade allegations
The Associated Press/24 October/2025
The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade, sharply escalating tensions with the leftist leader of one of the closest US allies in South America. The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti. Petro “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate the trafficking of drugs into our nation.”The move ramps up a growing clash between the Republican US president and Colombia’s first leftist leader, notably over deadly American strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off South America. This week, the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled. And in an escalation of military firepower in the region, the US military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday. The US last month added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The penalties were expected after Trump recently said he would slash assistance to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports, referring to Petro on social media in recent days as “an illegal drug leader.”“He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He better watch it, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”After Trump accused him of having ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would resort to the US court system to defend himself. “Against the calumnies that high-ranking officials have hurled at me on US soil, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the US courts,” Petro wrote on X without naming Trump but citing a news report about his comments. A day earlier, Petro’s anti-drug policy was the subject of a meeting between him and the US chargé d’affaires in Colombia, John T. McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy on Thursday. Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which moves away from a repressive approach and prioritizes reaching agreements with growers of coca leaf — the raw material for cocaine — to encourage them to switch to other crops, pursuing major drug lords and combating money laundering. He has said his government has achieved record cocaine seizures and questioned UN figures showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production. The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares (625,000 acres) in 2023, according to the latest report available from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. That is about triple the size of New York City. The Trump administration has surged military ships and planes to Latin America to target traffickers accused of funneling drugs to the US Petro has pushed back against the strikes that have killed at least 37 people since they started last month, with the latest two targeting vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a coastline. Petro has repeatedly feuded with Trump this year. Petro initially rejected US military flights of deported migrants, leading Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the UN General Assembly in New York because he told American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 24-25/2025
Question: “If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him?”
GotQuestions site/October 24/2025
Answer: This is a two-part question. The first part is “Did God know Satan would rebel?” We know from Scripture that God is omniscient, which literally means “all-knowing.” Job 37:16; Psalm 139:2–4, 147:5; Proverbs 5:21; Isaiah 46:9-10; and 1 John 3:19–20 leave no doubt that God’s knowledge is infinite and that He knows everything that has happened in the past, is happening now, and will happen in the future.
Looking at some of the superlatives in these verses—“perfect in knowledge”; “his understanding has no limit”; “he knows everything”—it is clear that God’s knowledge is not merely greater than our own, but it is infinitely greater. He knows all things in totality. If God’s knowledge is not perfect, then there is a deficiency in His nature. Any deficiency in God’s nature means He cannot be God, for God’s very essence requires the perfection of all His attributes. Therefore, the answer to the first question is “yes, God knew that Satan would rebel.”
Moving on to the second part of the question, “Why did God create Satan knowing ahead of time he was going to rebel?” This question is a little trickier because we are asking a “why” question to which the Bible does not usually provide comprehensive answers. Despite that, we should be able to come to a limited understanding. We have already seen that God is omniscient. So, if God knew that Satan would rebel and fall from heaven, yet He created him anyway, it must mean that the fall of Satan was part of God’s sovereign plan from the beginning. No other answer makes sense given what we’ve seen thus far.
First, we should understand that knowing Satan would rebel is not the same thing as making Satan rebel. The angel Lucifer had a free will and made his own choices. God did not create Lucifer as the devil; He created him good (Genesis 1:31).
In trying to understand why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel, we should also consider the following facts:
1) Lucifer had a good and perfect purpose before his fall. Lucifer’s rebellion does not change God’s original intent from something good to something bad.
2) God’s sovereignty extends to Satan, even in his fallen condition. God is able to use Satan’s evil actions to ultimately bring about God’s holy plan (see 1 Timothy 1:20 and 1 Corinthians 5:5).
3) God’s plan of salvation was ordained from eternity past (Revelation 13:8); salvation requires something to be saved from, and so God allowed Satan’s rebellion and the spread of sin.
4) The suffering that Satan brought into the world actually became the means by which Jesus, in His humanity, was made the complete and perfect Savior of mankind: “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered” (Hebrews 2:10).
5) From the very beginning, God’s plan in Christ included the destruction of Satan’s work (see 1 John 3:8).
Ultimately, we cannot know for sure why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel. It’s tempting to assume that things would be “better” if Satan had never been created or to declare that God should have done differently. But such assumptions and declarations are unwise. In fact, to claim we know better than God how to run the universe is to fall into the devil’s own sin of promoting himself above the Most High (Isaiah 14:13–14).
GotQuestions.

'I Got That White Girl': The War Over Racism, America's Ultimate Taboo
Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/October 24, 2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22000/iryna-zarutska-murder
The attack, lightning-fast and captured on surveillance video, shocked many, not merely because it was yet another terrible homicide, but because it has forced Americans to confront the failure of institutions meant to protect them -- the innocent -- as well as the cultural paralysis that prevents ordinary people from intervening, and the ideological narratives that try to erase both motive and responsibility. Multiple reports relate that as he exited the train after the murder, he said, "I got that white girl." These words, if confirmed by law enforcement, speak to a motive. At a minimum, they reflect the lens through which many now see such events -- not only as homicidal acts by dangerously unstable people, but as anti-white racist attacks that our culture will bend over backwards not to name.
[A] responsible system would never have put him back among commuters in the first place.
Zarutska's murder -- and the murders of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Kayla Hamilton, and, most recently, Logan Federico, among others -- were preventable. They happened because a constellation of decisions — judicial, bureaucratic, cultural — favored the ideology of leniency and the comfort of excuses over the duty to protect the innocent. "Bang! Dead. Gone. Why? Because Alexander Devante Dickey — who was arrested 39 Goddamn times, 25 felonies — was on the street," Stephen Federico, Logan Federico's father, testified before the US House Judiciary Committee.
These youngsters are ignored by the political class to a degree that is almost criminal itself – after all youngsters do not vote. There never seem to be sufficient funds seriously to address problems of mental health. What our leaders, sadly, appear to be building are conveyor belts from probation to homicide.
It is not cruel to confine a dangerous, mentally ill man to a secure hospital. It is cruel to return him to a city train with a knife in his pocket and a world of demons in his head.
One can care about mental health while also insisting that dangerous people be confined. One can care about civil liberties while also admitting that leniency can kill.
In elite discourse, naming or even speaking of anti-white hatred is now the ultimate taboo. It violates the moral arithmetic of a worldview that assigns all blame in a single direction.
[T]he public are entitled to request that, when in doubt regarding to whom to afford compassion -- the suspect or the public -- in an ideal world it would be both, but in the real world, there is a case to be made for protecting the public.
If compassion for the accused is not balanced by protection for the public, it is complicity.
This double standard is not, regrettably, a figment of partisan imagination. It is a feature of a media ecosystem in which narrative precedes fact. The victims who count are those who confirm the story that powerful institutions already want to tell. Everyone else is an inconvenience. In the case of Zarutska, the media's hedging confirmed a suspicion deeply rooted in the American mind: that in the newsroom's moral calculus, and in a reverse-racism, some lives are still more equal than others.
These reforms are not revolutionary. They are restorative. They assume what America once took for granted: that the state's first duty is for the "common defense;" that rights are matched by responsibilities, and that the innocent come first. Zarutska's murder has helped the country to remember what it had been taught to forget: that civilization is earned, every day, by people who make themselves responsible for one another. If and when Brown said, "I got that white girl," he did more than admit hatred. He exposed the obscene double standard at the heart of elite discourse. For years, we were told that speech could be violence, that silence could be violence, that thoughts could be violence — unless one could "relativize" the crimes away. This lie should now be at an end.
The murder in August of Iryna Zarutska has forced Americans to confront the failure of institutions meant to protect them -- the innocent -- as well as the cultural paralysis that prevents ordinary people from intervening, and the ideological narratives that try to erase both motive and responsibility.
On the evening of August 22, 2025, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, boarded the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina, on her way home from work.
She had fled a war to find safety. She believed America would be a haven where a young woman could rebuild her life, learn English, and contribute honestly. Minutes later, she lay dying on the floor of that car, stabbed multiple times, bleeding out. The attack, lightning-fast and captured on surveillance video, shocked many, not merely because it was yet another terrible homicide, but because it forced Americans to confront the failure of institutions meant to protect them -- the innocent -- as well as the cultural paralysis that prevents ordinary people from intervening, and the ideological narratives that try to erase both motive and responsibility. The suspect, identified by authorities as Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., was no stranger to police or courts. He had been arrested repeatedly over more than a decade — at least fourteen times — for crimes including robbery, burglary, assault, theft and more. He had a long-documented history of mental illness, including schizophrenia, and a recent paper trail of court-ordered psychiatric evaluations that somehow never materialized into protection for the public. In a prior case, a magistrate had released him on nothing more than a written promise to appear, despite a record that should have alarmed anyone.
Multiple reports relate that as he exited the train after the murder, he said, "I got that white girl." These words, if confirmed by law enforcement, speak to a motive. At a minimum, they reflect the lens through which many now see such events -- not only as homicidal acts by dangerously unstable people, but as anti-white racist attacks that our culture will bend over backwards not to name.
How could a repeat offender, who bears responsibility in a system that routinely values "equity" over innocent life, be free? Why do bystanders not intervene? Why is there such a stark divergence between "progressives" and "conservatives"?
Zarutska came from Ukraine, a country where air-raid sirens and funerals had become part of the daily soundtrack after Russia's invasion. Like many of her generation, she did what courageous people do: she moved forward. She found work in Charlotte, studied English, and apparently spoke about her future with the matter-of-fact resolve of someone determined to make good on the promise of a new country. She had training in art and restoration, which hints at the kind of person she was: someone who repaired what was broken.
She was also the face, like other girls and women needlessly murdered, often by people who should not have been here in the first place -- of America's better angels. The US is a nation that opens its doors to the persecuted. The brutality of Zarutska's murder violates that vision. It is one thing to read that a hardened gang member with a long rap sheet is killed in a dark alley by another thug. It is quite another to watch a young refugee, seated peacefully in a public space, attacked without warning by a man who should have been unable to reach her — because a responsible system would never have put him back among commuters in the first place.
Zarutska's murder -- and the murders of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Kayla Hamilton, and, most recently, Logan Federico, among others -- were preventable. They happened because a constellation of decisions — judicial, bureaucratic, cultural — favored the ideology of leniency and the comfort of excuses over the duty to protect the innocent.
"Bang! Dead. Gone. Why? Because Alexander Devante Dickey — who was arrested 39 Goddamn times, 25 felonies — was on the street," Stephen Federico, Logan Federico's father, testified before the US House Judiciary Committee.
The surveillance video from Zarutska's murder is devastating in its simplicity. There is no argument, no visible provocation, no mutual escalation. The killer rises, produces a small knife, and strikes with stunning speed. Zarutska collapses. The suspect departs. The entire sequence takes seconds. The camera does not editorialize, "contextualize" or "both-sides" anything. It simply shows.
The reaction across the country to these images did not resemble the visceral shock that follows civilizational crimes. The difference here is intimacy. This is not war abroad; it is peace at home. It is not a chaotic riot; it is an everyday commute. It is not a confrontation between adversaries; it is the unilateral butchery of a woman who did nothing but sit in the wrong place at the wrong time. A girl, lying murdered on the floor of a train, seemed almost "normal." The public has been anesthetized.
Why did no one intervene? We see people recoil, shift away, hover, stare. We see a few tentative steps, a delayed attempt at aid. We also see what is called the "bystander effect"— the tendency in a crisis to freeze, to wait for someone else to step forward, to try to absorb the unreality of the moment. The people who failed to act were not cowards. The event was not only unexpected and fast, but also a culture that discourages moral judgment and often punishes decisive action will, in moments like these, produce paralysis.
The second shock was the suspect's reported words as he exited: "I got that white girl." They are not on the official silent surveillance clip but appear in contemporaneous posts that accompany the video and in subsequent reports. Those words, if as witnesses and reports indicate, frame the murder not as random madness, but as an act laced with racial hate —but an inversion of the narrative that American elites have formalized for years. They also explain the frantic effort, in some quarters, to minimize, relativize, or "de-racialize" what happened. If race cuts both ways, the entire ideological scaffolding of selective outrage collapses.
The killer, Brown, is not an unknown quantity. His adult life reads like a case study in public-safety malpractice. The facts — long rap sheet, violent prior crimes, mental-health red flags — were in the open. In recent months, he had been arrested for misusing the 911 emergency system with delusional claims; in another case, he appeared before a magistrate who released him on a written promise to return to court. A judge later ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. The evaluation was delayed and the order ultimately canceled without being completed. What matters is that the evaluation did not happen. The judicial system released a man with a track record of instability and violence where he could wander among the public, riding trains, stewing in fantasies, and waiting for the next target of opportunity.
If one were to write a manual titled "How to Guarantee the Next Preventable Murder," it would read like this:
Ignore the cumulative weight of a suspect's criminal history.
Treat mental illness as a reason to avoid confinement rather than as a trigger for it.
Embrace a philosophy that confuses "mercy" with evasion and "equity" with abdication.
Send the accused to a psychiatric evaluation without ensuring completion.
Let him back into society on a promise and a prayer.
Some will object that due process and civil liberties require patience, compassion, and, above all, avoidance of "pre-judging." The question, however, is not whether to abolish rights; the question is whether public safety is a legitimate state interest when the warning signs are as bright as the sun. A society that denies public safety out of ideological scruple is not civilized; it is decadent.
The Motive the Ruling Class Cannot Admit
The words attributed to the suspect as he left the train — "I got that white girl" — in one way confirm what many Americans seem to have sensed instantly: that race was part of the mental world in which this murder occurred. No one claims those words explain everything. We do not know, for example, how Brown's delusions, rage and personal history intertwined in the moments before the attack. But it is intellectually dishonest and morally shameful to pretend that explicit racial language is irrelevant. Precisely because many elites have spent years arguing that hate speech and "microaggressions" constitute violence, they now cannot turn around and say that explicit racial celebration of a murder means nothing.
Critics of attributing blame immediately tried to attack the evidence: no audio on the official surveillance clip; posts are "unverified"; witnesses could be mistaken; the phrase is a "right-wing myth." Yet, as subsequent commentary and reporting in conservative media make clear, multiple sources treated the quote as credible. Unless we are prepared to say that the only acceptable truth is the one that flatters politically correct narratives, we must take seriously that several members of the public seem to have heard the suspect say those words; and public anger is built, in part, on the conviction that America's institutions will do anything to avoid admitting anti-white hatred exists.
Confirmations will come or they will not. We should be cautious in what we claim as proven. But the possibility exists that there may be a double standard in which only certain victims count; only certain hatreds are named, and only certain lives deserve national mourning. The murder of Charlie Kirk a few weeks later appears to have been motivated by policies concerning transsexuality, not race.
The Bench: Who Put These Judges There?
Turning to the judiciary, the question arises: who nominates and appoints the local judicial officers who made the decisions that freed this man? In many states, the answer varies. But across many jurisdictions, judges are not elected but are political appointees. The result is a hybrid system in which legal culture—especially in large cities—leans toward the ideological fashions of the day.
For the last decade, those fashions have included:
Cashless bail or "release on recognizance" as default, even for repeat offenders;
A prosecutorial posture that treats jail as a last resort and crime as a symptom of inequality;
A judicial demeanor that prizes therapeutic language over physical deterrence;
An institutional allergy to public shaming of poor decisions — unless the accused is a white policeman or was appointed by "conservatives."
Within this climate, a judge who lets a known repeat offender walk free based on a promise, or who orders a psychiatric evaluation without requiring its completion, is simply doing what the legal culture has told him is "virtuous": lowering the cultural footprint that forbids "criminalizing mental illness." The result is a bench populated by people who confuse compassion with negligence. They may genuinely believe they are building a fairer, gentler system. In many respects, some children may not be the recipients of ideal parenting -- sometimes any parenting, apart from the street -- or of mental health care. These youngsters are ignored by the political class to a degree that is almost criminal itself – after all youngsters do not vote. There never seem to be sufficient funds seriously to address problems of mental health. What our leaders, sadly, appear to be building are conveyor belts from probation to homicide.
The judiciary does -- or does not -- answer to the public. If a judge repeatedly prioritizes ideology, no matter how well-intended or compassionate, it would be better for the physical and mental health of everyone else if that judge were held accountable. Legislatures might revise standards for pretrial detention involving violent "priors" and active mental health flags; prosecutors, under such conditions, might seek deterrence: incentivizing the offender -- in a serious way -- not to commit further criminal acts.
The Psychiatric Loop: When Mercy Becomes Evasion
The line between criminal responsibility and psychiatric incapacity is among criminal law's most difficult conundrums. No serious person argues for ignoring mental illness. Some defendants are not competent to stand trial; some offenders genuinely do not understand what they do. But to cite mental illness as a reason to avoid secure confinement — especially when a defendant is violent and unpredictable — is to harm the innocent.
In these cases, if the system could move faster — if orders to establish mental competence could be enforced, the defendants evaluated promptly, and held for their own safety and the safety of others pending the outcome — more innocent people might still be alive. Instead, bureaucracy and ideology combined to produce a lethal delay. In the case of Zarutska, after the murder, the suspect was finally remanded for a full evaluation—sixty days at a state psychiatric facility -- a process that should have been initiated far earlier.
Regardless of the eventual finding, the public are entitled to request that, when in doubt regarding to whom to afford compassion -- the suspect or the public -- in an ideal world it would be both, but in the real world, there is a case to be made for protecting the public. The threshold for secure evaluation of violent, delusional repeat offenders should be lower than the threshold for their release — not the other way around.
It is not cruel to confine a dangerous, mentally ill man to a secure hospital. It is cruel to return him to a city train with a knife in his pocket and a world of demons in his head.
The Bystanders: From Courage Culture to Liability Culture
Why did so few help? Why did so many not transform, in the first seconds after the attack, into a collective surge? The simplest answer is fear. The suspect had a weapon; the strike was fast; the shock was overwhelming. But there also seems to be a problem of cultural programming. We seem to have taught generations that intervention is impolite, if not suspect. Physical courage may invite liability. Quick action could be condemned as "escalation." Additionally, because our elites have spent years telling citizens that the worst sin is to be on the "wrong side of virtue," many now choose inaction over the risk of being judged. It is not always so. A society that celebrates duty, honor and responsibility produces different reflexes. An older America, or a current Israel, might show men and women leaping to restrain the attacker or taking command with the kind of everyday heroism that does not count "likes" or litigate exposure. The citizens on that train seemed simply to be products of a moral climate that has replaced virtue with liability.
A culture that wants to recover courage must re-teach it. That means public campaigns on bystander intervention, widespread first-aid training, and legal reforms that protect good-faith actors from ruinous lawsuits. It also means celebrating, not stigmatizing, those who step into danger for strangers. In a moment like the murder of Zarutska, seconds matter. Courage is a trained instinct.
The Progressive Reaction: Euphemism as a Shield
Among progressive commentators, the dominant response was familiar: "do not politicize," "avoid racializing," "focus on mental health," "remember that surveillance video has no audio," "crime is down," "root causes." Much of this is not wrong -- in the abstract. One can acknowledge that the clip lacks audio while also acknowledging that multiple reports of the suspect's words exist. One can care about mental health while also insisting that dangerous people be confined. One can care about civil liberties while also admitting that leniency can kill. Why do progressive elites react this way? Perhaps because this case is devastating to their narratives and the way they regard themselves as "virtuous." The victim is a young white refugee who loved America. The suspect is a black man with a long criminal record, released repeatedly by a system that preaches compassion for the accused and indifference to victims. The event flips the script on decades of selective outrage. The bystanders' passivity exposes the spiritual emptiness of a culture that scorns responsibility, displeasure or having to protect things worth protecting and the ability to evaluate what those are. So many reach for their arsenal of euphemisms, hoping to sedate the nation back to sleep. Some activists went further, scolding citizens for their anger and warning of "backlash." Others spotlighted unrelated causes— "equity in mental health," "poverty reduction" — as if any of these would have stood between Zarutska and the knife. Perhaps most grotesque were those who implied that even mentioning the suspect's alleged words was an act of bigotry. In elite discourse, naming or even speaking of anti-white hatred is now the ultimate taboo. It violates the moral arithmetic of a worldview that assigns all blame in a single direction.
The Conservative Response: Law, Order and the Return of Moral Memory
On the "right," the reaction fused grief with fury — and an agenda. Conservatives emphasized four core demands:
Accountability for the judicial decisions that put a dangerous man back on the street: transparency, review, and removal where appropriate.
Statutory reform to ensure that repeat offenders with violent histories and active mental-health red flags were detained pending trial and routed swiftly into secure evaluation if competence were in doubt.
Restoration of policing and transit security, including police officers on trains, rapid-response protocols, and intelligence surveillance
Cultural renewal: an unapologetic call to revive civic courage, duty, and the presumption that the innocent must be protected even if it offends academic theories or media sensibilities.
The conservative argument is not complicated. In any society committed to the rule of law, the first duty of the state is to protect the innocent. All other duties are subordinate. Budgets, bureaucracies, and slogans mean nothing if a young woman cannot ride a train without being slaughtered by a man who should have been nowhere near people. If compassion for the accused is not balanced by protection for the public, it is complicity.
The Numbers and the Narrative: Why "Equity" Cannot Keep You Safe
Supporters of progressive criminal-justice reforms point to charts and data purporting to show that "crime is down," that "violent incidents are statistically rare," and that "bail reform does not increase recidivism." If felonies are suddenly reclassified as misdemeanors, of course, it will look as if "crime is down." Honest analysts on both sides, however, know how fragile such claims can be. Crime trends vary by city; definitions change; reporting lags. Even if one granted every statistical mercy to reformers, the moral reality would remain unchanged: statistics do not bury the dead. The many atrocities that have taken place in the United States and Europe during the past few years should be enough to re-evaluate the legal assumptions that permitted them.
Moreover, "aggregates" disguise risk. The question is not whether "on average" someone released on his own recognizance will offend; the question is whether this person—with this record, these mental illnesses, these prior arrests—should have been released. No algorithm that downplays individualized risk to serve some ideological goal on paper is worth the blood that is spilled or the families that are crushed. Any legal system that cannot distinguish between a petty trespasser and a violent schizophrenic is not fit to govern a free people.
The Media Double Standard: Who Counts as a Victim? The coverage patterns around Zarutska's murder followed a now familiar arc. Initial silence from prestige outlets; denunciations of "politicization" when conservatives demanded answers; hedging about motive even as evidence of racial hatred spread; a pivot to mental-health talking points; and then, finally, a reluctant acknowledgment that the problem was not going away—especially once federal charges and high-level political reactions made it hard to ignore. Had the demographic roles been reversed, the public knows the arc would have been different: saturation coverage, solemn panel discussions, front-page editorials, and statewide protests coordinated within hours. This double standard is not, regrettably, a figment of partisan imagination. It is a feature of a media ecosystem in which narrative precedes fact. The victims who count are those who confirm the story that powerful institutions already want to tell. Everyone else is an inconvenience. In the case of Zarutska, the media's hedging confirmed a suspicion deeply rooted in the American mind: that in the newsroom's moral calculus, and in a reverse-racism, some lives are still more equal than others.
The Law That Must Change: Four Reforms
If this case is to mean anything beyond mourning, it must produce law. Not symbolic resolutions. Not hashtags. Law.
Pretrial Detention Standards for Violent Repeat Offenders:
Where a defendant has a demonstrable record of violent acts and active mental-health flags, the presumption should flip in favor of detention pending trial. Judges need to be empowered — and expected — to hold such defendants. Review boards, in fatalities, should audit release decisions and publicize their findings.
Enforceable, Rapid Psychiatric Evaluation Protocols:
If a court orders a competency evaluation for a defendant with a violent history, that order must be executed immediately in a secure setting, with strict deadlines and penalties for noncompliance. Evaluations cannot be open-ended; extensions require sworn justification; public-safety risk must govern more prominent placement.
Transit Safety and Rapid Response:
Major urban transit systems should combine camera coverage with human presence—trained officers at high-risk hours stationed on platforms and cars. A system for conductors to summon immediate assistance, hemorrhage-control kits, and citizen-training campaigns need to be required in schools.
Judicial Accountability and Transparency:
Release decisions in violent cases should be recorded, with written rationales and data-collection for independent review. Repeatedly negligent judges should face consequences with "teeth." Even though many judicial appointments are for life to avoid possible coercion or retaliation, public confidence in the bench cannot survive opacity.
These reforms are not revolutionary. They are restorative. They assume what America once took for granted: that the state's first duty is for the "common defense;" that rights are matched by responsibilities, and that the innocent come first.
Culture: Teaching Courage Again
Law without culture is a brittle shell. Even the best statutes cannot substitute for the moral formation of citizens. We must therefore ask, without embarrassment, how to teach courage. Schools can start by replacing abstract "anti-bullying modules" with practical ethics: scenarios that demand moral agency, drills for emergency response, first-aid training, and peer leadership. Faith communities, civic groups and employers can do the same. We have normalized inaction, and then wonder, when knives flash, why most people turn away.
Teaching courage also means praising it. In a healthy society, heroes are known to children by name. They are not only athletes and entertainers; they are ordinary men and women who risked themselves for strangers. Cities should honor such people publicly. The media could tell their stories. When courage is celebrated, it replicates itself. Finally, we must recover the language of virtue. Terms such as "honor," "duty," "sacrifice," and "nobility" have been mocked by decades of irony -- and probably cowardice -- but those do not stop knives. A train car can become a sanctuary only when the people inside it believe they are responsible for one another.
Why This Murder Is also a "Turning Point"
People call certain moments "turning points" not because policy changes overnight, but because consciousness does. The murder of Zarutska and others has shifted American consciousness in at least five ways:
It re-centers victims. For years, elite discourse has foregrounded the accused, the incarcerated, the "system-impacted." The murders of Zarutska and others bring the focus back where it belongs — on the innocent.
It exposes the lethal costs of judicial leniency. When a man with fourteen prior arrests and active delusions can ride a train with a knife, "reform" has become a parody of justice.
It forces a reckoning with anti-white hatred. The alleged words, "I got that white girl," strip away the fiction that racism runs only in one direction.
It breaks the hypnotic spell of euphemism. The images are too stark for "root-cause" poetry. People want law, order, and courage.
It realigns political will. Expect a surge of support for candidates who promise to detain violent repeat offenders, to hold judges accountable, to fund police, and to protect citizens without apology.
For "progressives," this might be devastating. Their entire edifice — built on selective empathy, linguistic policing and data games — cannot withstand a single video clip of a young refugee bleeding to death because to them, their theories take precedence. That may be why they try to deny reality, to bury the words, to change the subject. It does not work. The country has seen too much.
Memory and Meaning
There will be more funerals. There will be candles and flowers and friends speaking about smiles, kindnesses and dreams. Perhaps a scholarship will be founded. Perhaps a mural will go up, bright with hope. But the most meaningful memorial is not on a wall or plaque; it is in the laws we pass, the judges we appoint, the habits we teach, and the courage we recover. If we allow the old patterns to reassert themselves — if we let this murder and the others like it become merely entries in a bureaucratic ledger — then we will have betrayed the victims twice: first by failing to protect them, then by refusing to learn from their murders. If we truly act, however, the last chapter of their stories can yet be one of rescue -- of countless other lives the next time a man with a knife or gun sets his sights on a stranger.
No single event "ends" a political movement. But some events can redefine the battlefield. The murders of Zarutska and the other women are such events. The core claims of many over the past decade — about safety, about compassion, about truth — were weighed against blood and found wanting. The public apparently saw the real meaning of "bail reform": a knife in a commuter's neck, stealing from shops with impunity, children sent to rob the public in the streets since their handlers know minors receive light sentences, and so on. The real meaning of "de-stigmatizing" mental illness" is a paper order without a hospital bed. The real meaning of "do not politicize" is a command to swallow a lie. The real meaning of "equity" is a politics that counts lives differently depending on who the victim is.
Most devastating of all, the public saw the real meaning of courage versus cowardice. The first belongs to the ordinary citizen who places himself between danger and innocence. The second belongs to the ideologue who places theory between truth and justice. Zarutska's murder has helped the country to remember what it had been taught to forget: that civilization is earned, every day, by people who make themselves responsible for one another. If and when Brown said, "I got that white girl," he did more than admit hatred. He exposed the obscene double standard at the heart of elite discourse. For years, we were told that speech could be violence, that silence could be violence, that thoughts could be violence — unless one could "relativize" the crimes away. This lie should now be at an end. The road back from here begins with naming reality, continues through law and accountability, and ends in a culture where a train car is safer not only because a security officer stands on the platform, but because citizens are determined to stand up for one another. If this country chooses that road, we will have kept faith with those who believe in us. Until then, let us tell the truth without apology and, without delay, set our hands to the work that could have saved the victims and might, some day, save you. May this work be the memorial that Zarutska and the other victims deserve. **Pierre Rehov, who holds a law degree from Paris-Assas, is a French reporter, novelist and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of six novels, including "Beyond Red Lines", " The Third Testament" and "Red Eden", translated from French. His latest essay on the aftermath of the October 7 massacre " 7 octobre - La riposte " became a bestseller in France.As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed 17 documentaries, many photographed at high risk in Middle Eastern war zones, and focusing on terrorism, media bias, and the persecution of Christians. His latest documentary, "Pogrom(s)" highlights the context of ancient Jew hatred within Muslim civilization as the main force behind the October 7 massacre.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

The legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank: a vital question that keeps cropping up
Fadi Farhat/The Arab Weekly/October 24/2025
It would appear that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention does apply and that the West Bank is occupied territory which does not belong to Israel and the settlers are part of a system of population transfer.
The UK and France have recently recognised Palestine as a state on the basis of 1967 borders (before the onset and conclusion of the Six-Day War) along with the majority of states across the world which had already done so at different phases. However, one outcome of such recognition from these states is the idea, at least from the perspective of those recognising states, that over 600,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank now live in Palestine.
Thus, the presence of Israeli ‘settlements’ (for want of a better word because, equally, one understands that such a term can be dehumanising to families and children growing up in such areas) in the West Bank remains an issue of the ground. Settlements are not static but thought to be expanding and their legality under International Law has been a contentious issue. This article attempts to explain and to outline the various legal issues, themes and the problems of legal interpretation in relation to the central legal provisions relating to the settlements in the West Bank. As will be seen, there are competing positions and approaches to the legal framework. Much of the legal discourse rests around Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) that an occupying power (Israel) is strictly prohibited from forcibly transferring the civil population of an occupied territory (in this case, the West Bank).
The first paragraph of Article 49 states;
Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.
The last paragraph of Article 49 states;
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. The Israeli position, at the outset, is that the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 does not apply as the West Bank is not ‘occupied’ territory but ‘disputed’ territory and that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention only applies to ‘occupied territory’ by an ‘occupying power’.In this regard, Israel points out that it did not gain territory in 1967 as a result of an ‘offensive’ war or conflict on its part. Instead, it [Israel] was attacked by its neighbours in 1967 (as was the case in 1948 and in 1973) and was involved, involuntarily, in a ‘defensive’ conflict in which it gained this territory as a result of defending itself from an existential threat. Furthermore, Israel would also point out that the territory of the West Bank, even pre-1967, was under Jordanian control rather than under the control of an independent or sovereign state and, therefore, Jordan, if anything, could be regarded as an occupying power such that the framework in the Fourth Geneva Convention would not apply.
This line of argument, put forward by Israel, also seeks to closely draw on the wording of Article 2 of the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 which refers to an armed conflict by a “High Contracting Party”. The argument is that Palestine, lacking independence at the time, was not and is not a High Contracting Party and the West Bank was under Jordanian control where Jordan was the aggressor in the 1967 conflict. There are several other legalistic arguments emanating from Israel but the above provides a concise flavour of the Israeli position.
However appealing these arguments may seem from a free-standing position, they have been rejected or have fallen on deaf ears as the UN Security Council has described and has held that the West Bank is “occupied territory”. Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Israel, itself, has described the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria) as territory held “in belligerent occupation”. Lastly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its advisory opinion of July 2004 has also held that Israel occupies the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) as ‘occupied’ territory. On this basis, it would appear that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention does apply and that the West Bank is occupied territory which does not belong to Israel and the settlers are part of a system of population transfer.
However, that is not the end of the matter. Article 49 refers to the concept of a “forcible transfer”. Israel would then point to the settlements as not amounting to “forcible transfers” of its civilian population (or of the Palestinian population). This line of argument is based on the point that many of the Israeli settlers have, in fact, chosen to live in the West Bank and were not encouraged to do so or directly told to do so by the Israeli government.
Instead, many Israeli settlers move into the West Bank from their own accord either by collective squatting or by purchasing the land from Palestinians at prices which, in the context of Palestinian living standards, are simply too good to turn down.
In other words, Israel is not forcing or using force against its own population to move into the West Bank nor is it forcing Palestinians (typically farmers) to sell their land to settlers.
The Palestinian counter arguments are as follows.
The first point to make is that the word ‘forcible’ should be interpreted broadly. Indeed, Article 6(e) of the Rome Statute, Elements of Crimes states that the word ‘forcible’…[…] is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment. This broad definition has already been applied in an International Tribunal namely the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the case of Prosecutor v Simić et al, 2003. Case number IT-95-9-T where the Tribunal stated; […] in assessing whether the displacement of a person was voluntary or not, [the Court] should look beyond formalities to all the circumstances surrounding the person’s displacement, to ascertain that person’s genuine intention.
A lack of genuine choice may be inferred from, inter alia, threatening and intimidating acts that are calculated to deprive the civilian population of exercising its free will.
Similarly, in Prosecutor v. Blagojević, 2005. Case number IT-02-60, it was also said;
Even in cases where those displaced may have wished, and in fact may have even requested, to be removed, this does not necessarily mean that they had or exercised a genuine choice. The trier of fact must consequently consider the prevailing situation and atmosphere, as well as all relevant circumstances, including in particular the victims’ vulnerability, when assessing whether the displaced victims had a genuine choice to remain or leave and thus whether the resultant displacement was unlawful.
In other words, when assessing whether there is a “forcible transfer” of any civilian population into an occupied territory, one has to apply a broad definition to the word “forcible”. The term is not confined to direct force applied to a transfer.
Legally, one has to examine all the circumstances as to whether an occupying power (i.e. Israel) has created an environment such that the local populace has been subjected to a coercive environment where, in effect, the economic and social conditions are that the local populace has no genuine choice or free will in any transaction (for example, the selling of land to settlers). Moreover, it is also pointed out that Israel has divided the West Bank into various zones and created several check points and restrictions on freedom of movement such that the local population lives in a coercive environment which is not socially and economically conducive. This environment, encapsulating a lack of stability, is such that Palestinians have no choice but to sell their land or, otherwise, do not have the logistical capacity to prevent squatters from taking land or, otherwise, to enforce their rights. Thus, even if Israel is not instructing such squatters or settlers to act, its governance or division of the West Bank into various zones could be said to create the ideal conditions for the population transfer.
If this is true (i.e., that Israel has created such a coercive environment to remove genuine choice), Israel may point to the fact that the current environment of checkpoints and restrictions in the West Bank is necessary for its own security.
That may be a valid point on that discrete issue [of security] but that, in itself, does not mean that, in adopting such security measures as part of any right to self-defence, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention has not been violated if subsequent settlers are not stopped.
This is the core issue in relation to the overall debate as to the legality of the settlements in the West Bank. This is a legal question which cannot be readily answered without delving into a factual inquiry and examination as to day-to-day life within the West Bank.
Such an inquiry, of course, will be difficult as any inquirer (whether an individual or an organisation) will, undoubtedly be accused of some political bias or lack of impartiality by at least one side. And so, the debate (both legal and political) rages on.
**Fadi Farhat is a lawyer based in Britain.

Higher education at the top holds its worth — for now
Arnab Neil Sengupta/Arab News/October 24/2025
Across the world, people are debating whether college and postgraduate degrees are still worth the investment, especially with the slowdown in technology hiring and fears of unemployment caused by automation. Yet the evidence suggests that graduates from elite institutions continue to be more successful in finding jobs and building careers than others. Despite economic uncertainties and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence, higher education at the top end of the spectrum continues to hold its worth — for now.
As the landscape of work and learning keeps evolving, Tarek Fadlallah, the Dubai-based managing director and chief executive officer of Nomura Asset Management (Middle East), puts it this way: “You can never have too much formal education, even in the age of AI.”
That said, over the past year, job cuts in Silicon Valley and Europe have shaken confidence among young professionals. Across 2024–2025, more than 400,000 technology layoffs have been announced worldwide, even as firms across sectors ramp up hiring in AI and data roles. At the same time, AI-driven automation is altering traditional career paths. For proof, look no further than a few recent Wall Street Journal headlines: “UK economy faces rising risk of a ‘hard landing,’ says BOE’s Taylor” (Oct. 14); “Australia’s jobless rate jumps” (Oct. 15); “Eurozone industrial production swings back to decline” (Oct. 15); and “In a sea of tech talent, companies can’t find the workers they want” (Oct. 1). The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2025” expects 92 million jobs to be automated away, although it says 170 million new ones may be created by 2030 as AI, robotics and other technological advancements reshape tasks and roles. These roles, however, require digital and analytical skills that many universities still fail to teach adequately.
As a result, the opportunity gap between graduates from well-funded universities and those from ordinary ones keeps widening. Top-tier institutions — especially those with global reputations and active links to industry — still act as pathways to stable, high-paying jobs. But for many others, the return on investment is uncertain.At universities like MIT, Stanford University and Caltech, the employment rate among graduates is believed to be among the world’s highest. MIT alumni-founded firms are estimated to generate roughly $1.9 trillion in annual revenue, while Stanford-affiliated ventures are often cumulatively valued around $2.7 trillion — roughly the size of the world’s tenth-largest economy. In the UK, graduate recruitment among the top 100 employers fell by 14.6 percent in 2024, the steepest drop since 2009. Yet competition for these positions has only intensified, with applications up by almost 28 percent. This does not mean the graduate premium is disappearing; it is simply becoming more concentrated. Graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College and the London School of Economics still lead in securing jobs in law, finance and technology. In professional areas such as investment banking and corporate law, firms in London’s financial district typically offer total compensation for entry-level jobs exceeding £50,000 a year. Across Europe, employment statistics tell a similar story. Eurostat put the employment rate among graduates aged 20–34 in 2024 at 83–85 percent across the EU. Those with only secondary education remain far behind in both incomes and opportunities. The advantage of higher education — especially at the top — remains clear despite a changing job environment. In the US, the debate takes a different turn because of cost. Student-loan debt now totals $1.8 trillion, with the average borrower owing close to $39,000. About one in six American adults carries federal student-loan debt, creating a generation anxious about whether their degrees were worth it. Still, recruiters consistently favor candidates from leading institutions, particularly in business, engineering and computer science. Employer surveys and reports in 2024–2025 have emphasized AI, digital literacy and applied problem-solving, while calling for rapid curricular integration to better prepare graduates for a volatile world. Many smaller universities and community colleges, however, are struggling. Without strong connections to industry or sufficient endowments, they find it harder to justify rising tuition fees. Unless they adapt — by adding internships, vocational opportunities and more technical coursework — their graduates could end up repeating the experience of many Gen Xers in the US: burdened with loans that are impossible to repay but without the job security they expected. This concern is relevant in the Arab world as well, where a majority of the population is under 30. The Arab Youth Survey 2023 found that most young Arabs prize education and family, yet outside the GCC bloc more than half doubt they can find well-paying jobs at home. For them, investing in quality higher education — ideally from institutions with proven records of employability — is not a luxury but a necessity. An educated young population remains the strongest potential driver of long-term growth and stability in the region. It is true that some of the world’s biggest names in entrepreneurship — Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson — rose to extraordinary heights without completing college. But these are exceptions, not the rule. They possessed a mix of luck, timing and talent that cannot be easily replicated. For the overwhelming majority, a degree remains the best route to upward mobility. A recent CNBC report showed that American college graduates earn on average about two-thirds more than those with only a high-school diploma. The career trajectory may vary by field, but the correlation between higher education and higher earnings is undeniable. Higher education continues to be one of the most dependable ladders to success. The ladder may be narrowing, but it still leads upward for those who climb with focus and a sense of purpose.
Higher education, particularly at respected institutions, continues to be one of the most dependable ladders to success. The ladder may be narrowing, but it still leads upward for those with focus and a sense of purpose — and for those fortunate enough to be born and raised in relatively stable countries. For young people in the Gulf region and beyond, nationals as well as expatriates, the wisest choice is not to give up on advanced education because of temporary market trends, but to choose their field carefully and commit to lifelong learning.
“No matter what the job situation in certain fields right now, a good degree from an elite institution still counts. Highly educated people will still be needed to run companies, organizations and government departments and make key decisions,” Ramesh Venkataraman, a private equity investor and former partner in McKinsey & Company, told Arab News from New York. While acknowledging that job displacement will likely happen as a result of AI and automation, Venkataraman, who himself has degrees in engineering and international relations from IIT Kharagpur, Oxford and Princeton, said: “The ability to weigh multiple facts, analyses and other factors and make judgement calls will remain a uniquely human capability for a long time. AI can recommend but a human will have to make the ultimate call.”
Taken together, the trends and insights above point to a single conclusion: Economic cycles come and go, and new technologies disrupt entire industries from time to time. But the fundamental value of knowledge endures. As long as skill, innovation and critical thinking remain prized around the world, higher education at the top end of the spectrum will keep its worth. Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News. X: @arnabnsg
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Erdogan seeks strategic alignment on Gulf tour
Dr. Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/October 24, 2025
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan embarked on a Gulf tour this week that included three stops: Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. While Qatar is not an unusual destination given the close relations between Ankara and Doha, the visits to Kuwait and Oman had particular significance. In Kuwait and Oman, Erdogan reciprocated the visits of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq to Turkiye last year. The Kuwaiti emir’s visit came as part of a regional tour and was his first to a non-Arab country. Sultan Haitham’s visit to Turkiye was the first by an Omani sultan in nearly 40 years. In both visits, which had significant political and diplomatic weight, several agreements were signed and they certainly opened a new page in these states’ modest relations with Ankara. Erdogan visited these two nations to both reciprocate and solidify their evolving ties.
As an observer of Turkish-Gulf relations, I would argue that Turkish policymakers acknowledge that Ankara’s relations with Kuwait and Oman have yet to reach their full strategic potential. There is an understanding that each Gulf state has diverse interests and visions, which has led Ankara to develop distinct agendas with them. It is clear there is significant political will at the leadership level, which is crucial when it comes to the personalized nature of Turkish-Gulf relations.
There are still a lot of untapped areas in Turkiye’s relations with the Gulf nations. However, the rapidly changing regional dynamics, as well as the ongoing economic transformations in the Gulf states, are significantly affecting the pace of Turkish-Gulf ties.
Turkish policymakers acknowledge that Ankara’s relations with Kuwait and Oman have yet to reach their full potential
Three key aspects highlight the significance of Erdogan’s Gulf demarche.
Firstly, Erdogan’s tour came at a critical moment, just over a week after the Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect. At the regional level, Erdogan is looking for broader support from the Gulf states on Gaza and Syria. Ankara seeks Gulf support for the rebuilding of Gaza, even though Gulf states are likely to contribute through multilateral efforts rather than unilateral. On Syria, Ankara wants closer relations between the new Syrian administration and the Gulf capitals, including both political and economic engagement.
Secondly, there is the aspect of Turkiye’s relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council as a regional bloc. It seeks a free trade agreement with the GCC and consolidation of the strategic dialogue. To achieve this goal, stronger relations with each of the six members of the GCC are essential. Thirdly, it is important to look closely at the bilateral aspects of Erdogan’s visits to Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. The Kuwait and Oman visits were to open the door to a new era in Turkiye’s relations with these states. In this new era, if their cooperation is built on a strategic rather than a tactical foundation, relations could even reach the level Turkiye has achieved with Qatar. If there is alignment among the leaderships on this vision, a strategic shift in defense cooperation could also be solidified.
During Sheikh Mishal’s visit to Turkiye last year, the two sides agreed on defense cooperation through the implementation of a protocol on defense procurement. As former Kuwaiti ambassador to Turkiye Ghassan Al-Zawawi points out: “Turkiye has the potential to become a key player in Kuwait’s armament, particularly as its defense capabilities fit Kuwait’s geopolitical needs. What Kuwait requires in terms of armament is quite different from what other Gulf states need. A breakthrough in this area could also encourage progress in other sectors of the relationship.”
It was noteworthy that in Erdogan’s entourage, which included several ministers, one name stood out: Haluk Gorgun, the head of the Defense Industry Agency.
Ankara aims to replicate the positive momentum it has established with other Gulf states in its relations with Muscat
Turkiye’s relationship with Oman is progressing quietly but steadily — a reflection of Muscat’s silent diplomatic approach. When Sultan Haitham visited Turkiye, I wrote that “the visit indicates that Oman is adopting a step-by-step approach to its relationship with Turkiye — starting with boosting diplomacy, followed by closer trade and energy cooperation. This, in turn, could eventually pave the way for closer military and defense collaboration.” Since then, several initiatives have been launched at all levels: political, economic and cultural.
Oman is a crucial pillar in Turkiye’s GCC strategy. Ankara aims to replicate the positive momentum it has established with other Gulf states in its relations with Muscat. Like other GCC nations, Oman is currently diversifying its economic and military policies. Turkiye wants to capitalize on this.
Turkish companies are seeking to benefit from increased participation in both Oman’s and Kuwait’s economic projects. Within a year in 2023-2024, the number of Turkish-registered companies in Oman almost doubled, reflecting Turkiye’s growing role in Oman’s economic landscape. In the same vein, Kuwait is undergoing a transformation through its economic vision. The agreements on maritime transport, direct investment and energy collaboration signed between Turkiye and Kuwait during Erdogan’s visit reflect this shift.
With Qatar, the main aspect focused on Ankara-Doha joint mediation efforts. Doha is seeking the support of a key partner to strengthen its mediation efforts, but not only in Gaza. In Libya and Sudan, Qatar prefers to share the responsibility and Turkiye stands out as an important actor that it can rely on. Sunday’s Afghanistan-Pakistan ceasefire deal was a significant outcome of their joint mediation efforts.
Overall, Erdogan’s Gulf tour aimed to move Turkiye beyond mere political alignment toward a robust strategic alignment that encompasses defense cooperation, economic integration and unified political stances on regional issues. In other words, a new Gulf-centered regional order is emerging — one in which Turkiye is seeking to secure a prominent role by leveraging both its hard and soft power capabilities.
**Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz

What a Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Should Say
Michael Jacobson/The Washington Institute/October 24, 2025
Some of the administration’s counterterrorism actions have diverged from the strategy outlined during the president’s first term and from longstanding U.S. policy, raising important questions that should be addressed in the near future by a second-term CT document.
While the Trump administration has not yet released a second-term counterterrorism strategy, it has already taken major steps to reshape the U.S. government’s CT approach and the wider terrorism landscape, from designating drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) for the first time to revoking sanctions on Syrian jihadists, downgrading efforts to counter violent extremism, and driving an agreement to end the Hamas-Israel war. The previous Trump administration did not announce its counterterrorism strategy until its second year in office. This term, the White House should release the document sooner, which would enable the administration to explain its international CT vision and contextualize how and whether its actions abroad fit into this framework, especially amid dramatic changes in the Middle East over the past two years. This would also send a message that counterterrorism remains a national security priority. In particular, the international aspects of the next U.S. counterterrorism strategy should address the following factors. (Notably, questions about the administration’s domestic CT strategy are important as well but are beyond the scope of this PolicyWatch.)
The Middle East Is Still Central
In 2018, the first Trump administration’s CT strategy document proclaimed that “we are a nation at war,” pointing to global Islamist terrorist groups and Iran as the primary (though not sole) sources of international threats against the United States. Since then, the Middle East has been fundamentally reshaped with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the dramatic weakening of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. President Trump is now focusing heavily on the deal he helped broker to end the Hamas-Israel war, painting it as the dawn of a more peaceful and stable Middle East.
Although these developments are certainly promising, the administration’s second-term CT strategy must also recognize that the Middle East remains central to U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The threat of a resurgent Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is still significant and could be exacerbated by U.S. military drawdowns in both countries. Iran and its proxies and partners—including Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas—will undoubtedly attempt to rebuild and strengthen their military and terrorist capabilities, in part to destabilize U.S. and Israeli interests in the region.
The next counterterrorism strategy needs to lay out how Washington plans to mitigate these threats with fewer forces in the Middle East. Will the administration rely more heavily on nonmilitary tools, or will it simply reduce U.S. focus and involvement in the region?
Defining Counterterrorism—and Targeting Cartels?
The new strategy also needs to clearly explain what the administration views as the full scope of counterterrorism. As noted above, the president has broadened the U.S. government’s CT reach considerably by designating numerous drug cartels and gangs in Central and South America as FTOs. These actions raise a number of important questions:
Are Central and South America now front and center for U.S. counterterrorism efforts and resourcing after decades of being a secondary priority?
Will counterterrorism resources for the Middle East and other key regions be cut to accommodate these new priorities?
Will drug cartels and gangs in other parts of the world eventually fall under the terrorism umbrella, or will this approach be limited to the Western hemisphere?
Bureaucratically, will the U.S. counterterrorism community now take the lead against cartels and gangs, or will this responsibility remain with other entities?
Are all counterterrorism and military tools now on the table against cartels and gangs, as recent kinetic strikes in the Caribbean suggest?
The new strategy should also lay out what else will fall under the “international counterterrorism” rubric. The 2018 strategy highlighted the threats posed by Islamist groups, Iran and its proxies, and “terrorists motivated by other forms of extremism.” Current administration officials have made clear that Islamist groups and Iran remain high on the list, but they should clarify whether racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) remains a priority. Much of this work was launched during the previous Trump administration, including the State Department’s first-ever designations of REMVE entities in 2020 with the sanctioning of the Russian Imperial Movement. While the REMVE terminology itself may be problematic and overly vague, the transnational threat it describes does in fact exist, which the strategy should acknowledge.
U.S. Global Leadership and Diplomacy
At its core, the new counterterrorism strategy should make clear how it views the U.S. role in leading global CT efforts—a mantle that America has worn with considerable success since 9/11. The 2018 strategy acknowledged that the “United States will continue to lead and provide support to partners in the fight against terrorism,” though it cautioned that America “need not sustain the primary responsibility for counterterrorism activities around the world.”
The current administration has also demonstrated that it understands the vitality of U.S. diplomatic engagement on Middle East issues that affect the CT mission, particularly through its efforts to end the Hamas-Israel war and navigate the aftermath of the Assad regime’s fall. Will this sustained, high-level engagement be reserved for high-profile cases, or will it extend more broadly to U.S. counterterrorism policy throughout the region?
For example, the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State, an eighty-nine-member body established by Washington in 2014, is unlikely to remain effective without strong U.S. leadership. Given the potential for a global jihadist resurgence in Iraq and Syria—not to mention the current strength of such groups in Africa—the administration cannot afford to ignore these threats. The United States has also played a central role in the years-long diplomatic campaign to weaken Iran’s overseas terrorism capabilities, from successfully urging other governments to designate Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to establishing international forums focused on terrorist activity by Tehran and its partners and proxies. The new CT strategy should make clear that Washington—in particular the State Department—will continue to drive this international counterterrorism agenda.
Foreign Assistance
For decades, using foreign assistance and other means to build other countries’ counterterrorism capabilities has been central to U.S. policy. The State and Defense Departments have expended billions of dollars to help other governments detect, interdict, disrupt, and capture terrorists. Despite highly publicized failures like the Afghanistan security assistance mission, there have also been many success stories in which U.S. funding has helped local actors keep terrorist threats from reaching America’s shores.
The 2018 strategy recognized the importance of this line of effort, emphasizing the need to assist U.S. partners in bolstering their understanding of—and ability to handle—such threats. It also underscored that U.S. diplomatic engagement, development assistance, and security assistance were all essential tools in achieving these goals.
The current administration has exhibited a much more skeptical view of all foreign assistance. Accordingly, the new CT strategy should outline whether there are certain types of foreign assistance—particularly on the security front—that the administration values as essential components of the U.S. counterterrorism mission. Leaving other countries to handle these threats on their own is certainly not a good recipe for U.S. security, in part because it could come back to hurt the homeland.
This issue is particularly salient in the current context of heightened Gaza diplomacy, affecting plans for both reconstruction and security. President Trump’s twenty-point plan states that “a temporary International Stabilization Force” will “train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza” in consultation with Egypt and Jordan. Historically, the United States has been a major funder and trainer of Palestinian forces. The next CT strategy document should make clear whether the current administration is interested in continuing this role—and, if not, what specific international alternatives it proposes to fill the gap left by the absence of American assistance.
Countering Violent Extremism
With the elimination of the State Department’s CVE Office, the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the cancellation of many Department of Homeland Security grants, the next CT strategy will need to clarify whether counterradicalization programs and broader terrorism prevention efforts will be part of the administration’s CT agenda. The 2018 strategy prominently featured this line of effort. After noting that the United States had “not yet developed a prevention architecture to thwart terrorist radicalization and recruitment,” it warned that America “will be fighting a never-ending battle against terrorism” unless it took steps to better address these gaps.
To be sure, there are many valid criticisms of existing CVE and prevention efforts, including the difficulty of gauging and demonstrating success. Yet that is hardly a reason to give up on the entire CVE enterprise, and the next CT strategy should emphasize this point. In Gaza, the Trump peace plan calls for “deradicalization” and other CVE-type prevention and rehabilitation efforts, making it all the more vital to clarify the scope of such programs.
Conclusion
The Trump administration’s first nine months of counterterrorism actions suggest that it is adopting a markedly different approach compared to the president’s first term. Releasing its next CT strategy document sooner rather than later would help clarify the extent to which these changes represent a new direction, and indicate where officials see the counterterrorism fight headed over the next three years.
**Michael Jacobson recently rejoined The Washington Institute as a senior fellow in the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence after serving in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau from 2010 to 2025, most recently as director of strategy, plans, and initiatives.

Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 23 October/2025
JD Vance
What an amazing blessing to have visited the site of Christ's death and resurrection. I am immensely grateful to to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places. May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us, and bless our efforts for peace.

henri/@realhzakaria
Story of the Day
When the Syriacs came from Syria to join the Lebanese Forces in the war that the Arab Balestinians waged against Mount Lebanon, they were promised Lebanese citizenship. Empty promises, as always. Thousands died. We lost the war. And those who survived fled to Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany where most of the Syriacs live today.
Those who couldn’t escape were sent back to Syria by one of Lebanon’s former presidents (his name will soon be revealed), where Hafez al-Assad had them all executed.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Hezbollah accounts priding themselves for killing 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French paratroopers. What they don’t tell you is that these were deployed as peacekeeping force to protect the Lebanese and Palestinians after Israel ejected Arafat militia from Beirut.

Blitz@LebBlitz
What President Elias Sarkis said about President Camille Chamoun despite their differences:
"Camille Chamoun is a strange phenomenon, even though Fouad Chehab was a practicing Christian. Christians do not feel their identity except through Camille Chamoun. At every religious

Brother Rachid الأخ رشيد
After spending over 12 years in America, fleeing Egypt out of fear of El-Sisi’s regime, Bassem Youssef returns to Egypt only to sell the same old narrative: “America is full of hatred toward Muslims, and Christian Zionists in America are preparing for a massive war in the Middle East against Muslims.”