English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  October 26/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The Talents Parable/As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 25/14-30/:”‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.”His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 25-26/2025
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/Elias Bejjani/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
Lebanon to end daylight saving time, clocks to be set back one hour
Salam's Wife Suffers Accident in the Vatican
Israeli Army Announces Assassination of 'Radwan' Commander... and a Raid on Nabatiyeh Results in a Martyr and an Injured Person
Lebanon Says One Killed in Israeli Strike on Vehicle
Qamati: Resistance's Weapon is a Red Line... and Lebanon Faces Daily Aggression from Israel
Ortagus in Israel Prior to Lebanon Visit as Part of De-escalation Efforts
Egyptian Security Envoy, Ortagus, and Barak Head to Beirut: The Situation is Extremely Dangerous
Lebanon’s 2026 elections: Candidates face steep rise in registration fees
Lebanon tightens tax collection and security fees to boost state revenue
PM Salam visits historic Maronite monastery in Rome
Roberto Montoya describes PM Salam’s Vatican visit as “positive” ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s trip to Lebanon
Lebanon’s Last Chance: Disarm Hezbollah or Risk Collapse/Amal Chmouny/This is Beirut/October 25/2025
Kill the Woman/Amine Jules Iskandar/This is Beirut/October 25/2025
On Hezbollah’s Disarmament, Israel Will Not Compromise/David Schenker/National Interest/October 25/2025
We want the 128 MPs… and leave the 6 for yourselves!”/Lebanese expatriate in USA, Pierre Maroun/Facebook October 25, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 25-26/2025
US staging drone flights over Gaza to monitor ceasefire: Report
Second phase in Gaza starts to take shape as US seeks ‘stabilisation force’, Palestinians discuss administration
US names career diplomat for Gaza ceasefire monitor
Rubio Vows Return of All Hostage Bodies Still Held in Gaza
Rubio: Gaza Security Force will Be ‘Made Up of Countries that Israel is Comfortable with’
Hamas, Fatah Seek Understandings to Overcome Gaza Deal Hurdles
Yemen's Houthis Detain 2 More UN Workers, Including Woman in Critical Condition
Iran Declares Major Lender Bankrupt
Syria Signs Landing Deal for First International Submarine Cable with Medusa
Trump meets Qatar emir, PM during stop en route to Asia
Trump aims to clinch deal with China’s Xi during Asia trip
Pakistan Defense Minister Warns of 'Open war' with Afghanistan if Peace talks fail

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 25-26/2025
Question: “If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him?/GotQuestions site/October 24/2025
Middle Powers along the Middle Corridor/Eric Rudenshiold/National Interest/October 25/2025
Gaza Needs an International Peacekeeping Force Now/Seth J. Frantzman/National Interest/October 25/2025
The United Nations Has Become the Dictators' Club: Chooses Tyrants Over the Oppressed/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 25/2025
Sudanese Women… Victims of War’s Brutality/Osman MirghaniAsharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Venezuela: Bolivarian Roses for Machado/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 25 October/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 25-26/2025
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.

Lebanon to end daylight saving time, clocks to be set back one hour
LBCI/October 25/2025
Clocks in Lebanon will be set back one hour at midnight on Saturday, marking the official end of daylight saving time and the return to standard winter time.

Salam's Wife Suffers Accident in the Vatican
Nidaa Al-Watan/October 26, 2025
The wife of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Sahar Baasiri, suffered a fall accident today after her visit with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican. She sustained a fractured shoulder, which necessitated her transfer to the hospital.

Israeli Army Announces Assassination of 'Radwan' Commander... and a Raid on Nabatiyeh Results in a Martyr and an Injured Person
Janoubia/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
The Israeli army claimed, in a statement issued today, Saturday, that it had assassinated a commander in Hezbollah's "Radwan" Force during shelling that targeted the town of Jibshit in southern Lebanon. Earlier, the Public Health Ministry's Health Emergency Operations Center announced in a statement that an Israeli strike targeted a car in the town of Harouf – Nabatiyeh district, resulting in the fall of one martyr and the injury of one citizen. This escalation comes amid the continuation of daily Israeli aggressions against Lebanese territories, with the Israeli occupation maintaining its presence at a number of border points in the South, and the ongoing violation of the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024.

Lebanon Says One Killed in Israeli Strike on Vehicle
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Lebanon's health ministry said that one person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli strike that hit a vehicle in the country's south, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. In a statement, the ministry said that an "Israeli enemy strike on a car in Haruf, Nabatiyeh district" killed one person and wounded another.The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident, according to AFP. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah. The Israeli military has intensified its attacks over the past week, killing two people in two strikes on Friday. The military said it killed a Hezbollah "logistics commander" in the first strike and a member "who was involved in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah's military capabilities" in the second. A series of Israeli raids on south and east Lebanon killed four people on Thursday, including an elderly woman, with the military stating its targets included a weapons depot, a training camp, and military infrastructure. 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. Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.

Qamati: Resistance's Weapon is a Red Line... and Lebanon Faces Daily Aggression from Israel
Janoubia/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
Mahmoud Qamati, Vice President of Hezbollah’s Political Council, affirmed today, Saturday, that the party will not surrender its weapon under any circumstances, stressing that this weapon "represents strength for the nation and a symbol of Lebanon's sovereignty." Qamati stated that Israel is assaulting Lebanon daily, noting that "all forms of American and European pressure will not change the party's firm stance in defending Lebanon." He added that Hezbollah is committed to International Resolution 1701, while "Israel has not adhered to it despite the American and French sponsorship of the agreement," asserting that the repeated Israeli violations "prove the continuous aggressive intentions against Lebanon."
European sources had revealed to "Sky News Arabia" yesterday, Friday, that a comprehensive Israeli strike against Lebanon might be only a matter of time, noting that "it is not yet clear whether Israel will deal with the Lebanese state as a complicit party or one incapable of control." This verbal escalation comes amid an unprecedented increase in the pace of Israeli raids that have hit various areas of Lebanon, from the South to the far Beqaa.

Ortagus in Israel Prior to Lebanon Visit as Part of De-escalation Efforts
Janoubia/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
Information from LBCI TV channel reported that the US envoy, Morgan Ortagus, is currently in Israel, holding a series of meetings with Israeli officials within the framework of US efforts to de-escalate the situation in the region. According to the information, Ortagus is scheduled to visit Lebanon next Monday, and is expected to participate in a meeting of the "Mechanism" committee on Wednesday, which is dedicated to following up on field developments and coordinating on de-escalation. The sources also revealed that the visit schedule includes meetings with a number of Lebanese officials to discuss ways to reduce tension and restore stability on the southern border.

Egyptian Security Envoy, Ortagus, and Barak Head to Beirut: The Situation is Extremely Dangerous
Al-Modon/October 25, 2025 (Translated from Arabic)
Amidst an increasingly complex political scene, and against the backdrop of international and regional pressure, attention turns to Beirut early next week. Information indicates that a high-level Egyptian security envoy will arrive carrying a message to the three presidents stating that "the situation has become extremely dangerous," while American and regional activity intensifies regarding Lebanon. The data confirms that the US envoy Morgan Ortagus, who is in Israel where she will hold meetings on Sunday "to discuss how to deal with Hezbollah's weapon," will arrive in Beirut on Monday to participate in a meeting of the "ceasefire monitoring committee." Tom Barrack is also expected to visit Lebanon at the end of the month, in the context of "continuous pressure on the Lebanese state to withdraw Hezbollah's weapon, and a warning of Israeli escalation."
An Israeli Report
In a related context, security and media circles in Israel and Lebanon are living with questions about the future of Hezbollah following the harsh strikes over the past year, which led to "the killing of its most prominent field commanders, and the isolation of its former Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah from decision-making circles and the field," which prompted some observers to say that "the party has lost its eyes on the front," according to circulating descriptions. According to an extensive report published by the Israeli website "Makan," Nasrallah "lived in a state of confusion and loss of contact with military leaders in his final weeks," after a series of assassinations targeted senior officers of the party, including "Talal Abdullah, Ibrahim Aqil, Wissam al-Tawil, and Muhammad Naama Nasser," who "was leading the Aziz Unit." A Lebanese cleric close to the party was quoted as saying that "contradictory reports reached him from the field, and that field commanders awaited decisions that were not issued at critical moments," which led to "the loss of the initiative." The report quoted a senior Israeli security official as saying that Israel "succeeded in isolating Nasrallah from his senior commanders and cutting the communication arteries between him and the front," which "led to the erosion of the command and control system within the party, and the commission of fatal errors that ended in his death," according to the claim. The report added that Nasrallah "based his calculations on the conflict remaining within the deterrence equation since 2006," but "the events after October 7 reversed the equation," with "Israel expanding the scope of its operations into the Lebanese interior, and destroying missile systems and command headquarters."
During the period between January and July 2024, the report states that the party received "qualitative strikes": "The assassination of Wissam al-Tawil, commander of the Radwan Unit in January, the targeting of Sami Talal Abdullah, commander of the Nasser Unit in June, the killing of Muhammad Naama Nasser, commander of the Aziz Unit in July, followed by a qualitative operation that killed Fouad Shukr in July, and the assassination of Ibrahim Aqil in September." The strikes also targeted "commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," including "General Reza Mousavi in Damascus in December 2023."
The report indicated that the "Pager operation" carried out by the Mossad in September paralyzed "the communication network between the party's leadership," creating "chaos inside the operations rooms and great confusion in decision-making," and that "some field units did not receive orders for days," amidst questions about "the role and support of Iran during that period."As for Nasrallah's end, the report says it occurred "on September 27, 2024," when he "left his bunker to attend the funeral of the drone unit commander Muhammad Surour," before "heading to the southern suburb [Dahiyeh] accompanied by Iranian General Abbas Nilforoushan." Israeli F-15I and F-16I planes then executed "a concentrated raid using 83 one-ton bombs," which "destroyed the party's main headquarters and led to their deaths along with a number of commanders," according to the claim.
The report quoted Lebanese sources as saying that "the shock among the party's supporters was enormous," and that "questions were raised about the absence of Iranian support at that moment."Despite this, the report believes that "Hezbollah has not been erased yet," as it "still retains thousands of missiles and drones and a large stockpile of Iranian weapons," with estimates that "Tehran has sent about one billion dollars since the end of military operations." However, "the organization is going through its weakest stage since its founding, and its rebuilding requires a long time and significant financial and logistical capabilities," while Israeli circles warn that "neglecting the diplomatic path may allow the party a gradual return to the field." These alleged facts coincide with a wave of diplomatic visits and pressure on the Lebanese state, and, according to informed sources, warn of a phase of "harsh political approach" accompanying any security arrangements or ceasefire understandings.

Lebanon’s 2026 elections: Candidates face steep rise in registration fees
LBCI/October 25/2025
Lebanon’s current electoral law has been criticized for its inequities, not only in the size of electoral districts—ranging from five seats in Saida-Jezzine to 13 in Chouf-Aley—but also for the significant disparities in spending limits for candidates across districts.
For reference, in the 2018 parliamentary elections, each candidate was allowed a spending limit of 150 million LBP, plus an additional 150 million for those running on a list, and an extra 5,000 LBP per registered voter in larger districts. According to Mohamed Chamseddine, a researcher at the International Information Institute, the spending limits applied in the 2022 elections are expected to remain in effect for 2026 unless the parliament approves changes.
However, while the spending limit remains the same as in 2022, the candidacy fee for the upcoming 2026 elections has been adjusted under the 2024 budget. The fee, which was 30 million LBP in 2022, has been raised to 200 million LBP for 2026. It is important to note that the candidacy fee is paid to the state treasury and is nonrefundable, regardless of the number of votes a candidate receives.

Lebanon tightens tax collection and security fees to boost state revenue
LBCI/October 25/2025
Lebanon’s ongoing financial and economic crises have further strained the state, its institutions, and employees, particularly regarding salaries, wages, and the provision of essential services. As a result, the country is in a constant search for revenue sources that can meet its needs while maintaining a balance between expenditures and income. One key measure is the strict collection of corporate taxes. Companies are required to submit their value-added tax (VAT) declarations by October 20 and payroll tax declarations by October 15. The Ministry of Finance emphasized that, unlike in previous years, no extensions will be granted, as no circumstances currently justify a delay. Companies that comply with the deadlines and maintain proper accounting records will face no penalties. However, late filings incur a 10% monthly fine on the declared amount, in addition to a 3% collection fee.
This strict enforcement is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in liquidity for the state treasury, supporting the 2026 budget plan, which aims for a balanced budget. Timely tax collection is considered crucial for maintaining equilibrium between revenues and expenditures. In parallel, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) have increased revenue through service fees for activities such as event security at horse races, sports facilities, schools, auditoriums, theaters, and private institutions, as well as cash transport and institutional protection. The Cabinet approved raising the fees for these services from LBP 1,500 per U.S. dollar to LBP 89,500 per dollar. The revenue generated will be used to improve the living and social conditions of ISF personnel and officers.

PM Salam visits historic Maronite monastery in Rome
LBCI/October 25/2025
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited the Monastery of St. Antonius the Great of the Maronite Mariamite Order in Rome. Salam toured the monastery’s historic library, reviewing its valuable collection of manuscripts, printed works, and papal documents.
He was later hosted by the monastery’s superior in honor of his visit, along with his accompanying delegation.

Roberto Montoya describes PM Salam’s Vatican visit as “positive” ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s trip to Lebanon
LBCI/October 25/2025
Vatican affairs expert Roberto Montoya described Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s visit to the Vatican as “positive” in an interview with the National News Agency. He said, “I closely followed the Italian and international press covering the reception of the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for the Lebanese Prime Minister and former International Criminal Court judge Nawaf Salam, known for his integrity. Most of my colleagues accredited to the Holy See also highlighted Salam’s meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations.”According to a statement from the Vatican Press Office, “During the friendly talks at the Secretariat of State, satisfaction was expressed with the good bilateral relations, and shared anticipation was noted for the apostolic visit of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, 2025. The meeting also addressed the hopes of the Lebanese people for reforms and stability in the country, extending to the regional context, with mutual wishes for a comprehensive peace soon across the Middle East.”

Lebanon’s Last Chance: Disarm Hezbollah or Risk Collapse
Amal Chmouny/This is Beirut/October 25/2025
Lebanon’s long‑simmering debate over Hezbollah’s disarmament has sharpened into a defining confrontation between state sovereignty and a foreign‑backed militia. In Washington, the issue is becoming the centerpiece of US regional policy. For President Trump’s administration, Hezbollah’s disarmament is not merely a security objective but a strategic necessity—one that underpins efforts to contain Iran’s influence, safeguard Israel, and salvage Lebanon’s failing institutions.
Washington’s Deadline Diplomacy
After incremental pressure, US officials now see the coming months as critical. Ambassador Tom Barrack, the administration’s de facto envoy to Lebanon, has made it clear that Washington’s patience is exhausted. “If Beirut continues to waver,” he warned recently, “Israel may feel compelled to act unilaterally.” The remark crystallizes the new reality: Beirut’s hesitation is being interpreted as defiance. Behind closed doors, US agencies are implementing a hybrid approach that mixes hard security measures with conditional aid. The emerging roadmap ties prospective financial aid and investment access to concrete disarmament steps and the Lebanese Armed Forces’ assertion of exclusive authority. Washington’s language reflects the recalibrated tone of US policy. Military experts characterize the LAF as well-intentioned but under-equipped, signals waning American confidence. The position taken by the US emphasizes a clear stance on Hezbollah and Iran, setting a line that leaves no space for Lebanese ambiguity: For Washington, disarming Hezbollah is no longer a request; it’s a prerequisite for bilateral trust and financial recovery.
Hezbollah’s Waning Power
US pressure comes as Hezbollah itself faces internal stress. Once buoyed by Iranian funding and domestic support, the organization confronts financial shortfalls, declining popularity, and the gradual erosion of its “resistance” myth. Economic hardship and war fatigue have exposed the limits of its claim to national legitimacy. Recent intelligence assessments suggest Tehran’s capacity to sustain Hezbollah has diminished amid its own crisis of sanctions and revenue loss. In Lebanon, resentment grows over Hezbollah’s political dominance as unemployment and inflation soar. For the first time in decades, regional planners in Washington see an opening: Hezbollah’s strength remains challenging, but its vulnerabilities are multiplying.
The Latin American Factor
The organization’s expanding footprint in Latin America has become the latest evidence of strategic decay. Once framed within an ideological front against the West, Hezbollah’s Latin American operations now signal economic desperation. Congressional hearings and Security Council briefings detail narcotics and money‑laundering networks stretching across Venezuela, Colombia, and the tri‑border sector. During a Senate hearing titled “Global Gangsters: Hezbollah’s Latin American Drug Trafficking Operations,” Senator John Cornyn captured Washington’s growing conclusion: “This is not just about the Middle East anymore. Hezbollah’s actions have globalized Lebanon’s crisis.” The statement reflected a bipartisan recognition that Hezbollah’s criminalization—its shift from ideological militancy to transnational organized crime—has transformed it from a regional to a global security threat. The corollary is clear: so long as Hezbollah operates under Lebanon’s flag, international partners will treat Lebanon as an accessory to its activities.
The Price of Paralysis
The diplomatic fallout for Lebanon is severe. Multilateral institutions and Western governments increasingly view their financial system through a lens of high‑risk exposure. The association with Hezbollah complicates bailout negotiations and deters private capital. Each revelation of illicit revenue or arms trafficking erodes diplomatic credibility and makes it harder for even sympathetic states to justify a financial rescue. Legislation like the “No Hezbollah In Our Hemisphere Act,” now advancing through Congress, aims to tighten global coordination against Hezbollah networks. If enacted, it would encourage Latin American governments to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, expanding sanctions to encompass linked businesses and charities. The implications for Lebanon’s already fragile economy could be devastating.
Washington’s Calculation
For the United States, this moment represents both a pressure point and an opportunity. Senior administration officials describe a narrow window in which sustained diplomatic and economic leverage might compel action without military escalation. The strategy reflects a broader shift: treat financial isolation as the new instrument of disarmament. Barrack has framed the policy in existential terms. Lebanon, he argued, is confronting its final chance to define itself as sovereign. Failure to act could provoke unilateral Israeli measures or trigger a breakdown in what remains of the US‑Lebanese partnership. Behind the warning lies a clear ultimatum: disarm Hezbollah or forfeit the state’s last reserves of international credibility. Whether such expectations are realistic is a separate question. The Lebanese political class remains fragmented, Hezbollah retains coercive leverage, and external actors—from Iran to France—pursue conflicting agendas. Yet in Washington’s calculus, the absence of progress will accelerate Lebanon’s isolation. In the words of one senior diplomat, the time for ambiguity has ended. Lebanon can purge its contradictions—or be consumed by them.

Kill the Woman
Amine Jules Iskandar/This is Beirut/October 25/2025
Kill the woman, deprive her of her bodily nature and spiritual depth, destroy the family, and create the ideologically perfect individual: unattached, unmoored, easily influenced, vulnerable and malleable, and above all, stripped of any openness to transcendence.
At the root of society lies the family, and at the root of the family lies the woman. Society is built on this basic unit, the household, which provides security and solidarity, shapes values and transmits heritage. This nucleus of social cohesion, for all humanity, is precisely what liberal and globalist ideologies have been targeting. To turn the human person into an isolated, vulnerable, and therefore malleable individual, it is necessary to strip him of every social attribute.
From Feminism to Wokism
The deconstruction of the family proceeds through the abolition of the authority embodied by the father, the castration of the masculine, and the removal of the woman, mother and center of the household. Without these two pillars of parenthood, the family collapses, dragging society down with it. The mother carries what Hannah Arendt called human continuity and the natural spheres of rootedness – family, tradition and natality – which made her a target once Western men were subdued. Pierre Manent similarly warns of the threat to the masculine, the feminine and the family, which he sees as the essential bridge between the individual and the city. Radical feminist theories, taken to an extreme, turned against women not to protect them but to deny their very existence. These theories call for an attack on scientific truths. Biology has become, for what Jean-François Braunstein describes as the “woke religion,” a genuine obstacle to the freedom of identity. Nadia Geerts, herself a Republican, secular and universalist feminist, denounces wokeism for denying biological reality in an effort to erase the very category of “woman” in the name of inclusivity.
Women are humiliated and reduced to the status of eternal victims. They are devalued by what Pierre Valentin calls a form of implicit misogyny. Élisabeth Badinter, another figure of universalist feminism, sees this confinement of women to the role of perpetual victims as a regression of individual freedoms. This logic of systematic confrontation between the sexes absolutizes identities, undermining the idea of a free and autonomous subject. It is a mixture of resentment and guilt that led Jordan Peterson to describe wokeism as a “postmodern moral tyranny.”
Equality
Yet the absolute equality of women and men is unquestionable. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (cf. 2334) affirms that “man and woman have the same dignity and are of equal value.” However, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in 2004 under John Paul II, clarifies that this equality of dignity does not imply static equality, for “the feminine specificity is different from the masculine specificity.” These two realities do not simply complement each other from a physical or psychological perspective, but also, as the Compendium emphasizes, from an ontological one.
For it is in the encounter between the two that the consciousness of being emerges. This ontological dimension is also acknowledged by non-radical feminists such as Sylviane Agacinsky, who sees sexual difference as a doorway to otherness and, in turn, to mutual recognition.
The ideologies of the post-Christian West have turned their attack on the human person. In The End of Christendom, Chantal Delsol shows that the aim is to shape a new kind of human being, stripped of transcendence. The denial of woman is part of this effort to create a neutral human being, without nature, roots or communal structures. We are witnessing the invention of the perfect creature, detached, deprived of discernment and politically malleable. Such a being would form a fragmented and docile population, unable to resist or show solidarity, and entirely delivered to the logic of the market and ideological institutions.
As a natural extension of the West, Lebanon is not spared from this grim reality. Its society, which traditionally looked to the Holy Family centered on Mary as an example, is itself falling apart. The country is under attack by ideologies that target its universities and media through numerous NGOs, cloaked in appealing names and the guise of inclusivity.
Family
Women must be safeguarded if the family – and therefore society as a whole – is to be preserved as a place of communion, solidarity and the transmission of values and knowledge. Without the family, society becomes nothing more than an aggregate of individuals, without continuity, memory or a future.
In its 2004 Compendium, the Church’s Social Doctrine emphasizes the central role of the family as a nucleus and as “the prototype of every social order,” describing it as “the first vital cell of society.” It affirms “the priority of the family over every other community and even over the reality of the State.” The family provides the first notions of truth and goodness and “contributes in a unique and irreplaceable way to the good of society.” Its value goes beyond the legal or economic sphere, extending to the cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious dimensions. Through the generations that compose it, and especially through its elders, the family transmits both the spiritual heritage and the cultural legacy of the nation. The importance of the family’s role serves as a safeguard against both individualistic and collectivist excesses, for it places the person “at the center of attention as an end and never as a means.” For this reason, the Church’s Social Doctrine suggests that society and the State serve the family, rather than the other way around.
The Counter-Civilization
The family serves as the guardian of the culture of life in the face of what the Church’s Social Doctrine calls the destructive “counter-civilization,” promoted by ultra-liberal, globalist and wokeist ideologies. Through the values it embodies and transmits, it resists what Jordan Peterson calls the “general leveling” that denies biological, psychological, cultural and social differences. The family stands as a bulwark against nihilism, self-hatred and the tendencies toward civilizational suicide. The family brings harmony to the world, and woman brings humanity to it. Postmodern and post-Christian ideologies work to turn women into administrative or political abstractions, causing what Nancy Huston rightly describes as a “disenchantment of the world.”Kill the woman, deprive her of her bodily nature and spiritual depth, destroy the family, and create the ideologically perfect individual: unattached, unmoored, easily influenced, vulnerable and malleable, and above all, stripped of any openness to transcendence. The disintegration of the family, which serves as the fundamental unit of the social body, inevitably brings it down. The question of the woman, the mother and the family strikes, so to speak, at the heart of the modern anthropological crisis.

On Hezbollah’s Disarmament, Israel Will Not Compromise
David Schenker//National Interest/October 25/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148530/
There will be no peace, no sovereignty, and no reconstruction for postwar Lebanon absent the confiscation of Hezbollah weapons.
At the Sharm El-Sheikh signing ceremony, US President Donald Trump touted the Gaza ceasefire as a “new beginning for an entire beautiful Middle East” and predicted the imminent expansion of the Abraham Accords. The Israel-Hamas truce isn’t going well, but just hours after Sharm, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun announced that he was open to negotiations with Israel, raising hopes that Beirut might be next to board the peace train. Regrettably, the optimism is premature. A resumption of war with Hezbollah is more likely.
A Fragile Ceasefire in Lebanon Is Tested
Israel and Lebanon signed onto their own ceasefire to end the Hezbollah-Israel war in November 2024. Like Gaza, that agreement also isn’t faring particularly well. In the deal, Beirut committed to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, throughout the state. Today, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is collecting weapons and dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in the south of the country, but Beirut is balking about undertaking its obligations in the north.
Since the ceasefire began, Israel has been targeting Hezbollah operatives and arms caches, striking Lebanon on an almost daily basis. Absent progress on disarmament, Israel will resume its campaign against Hezbollah in full.
Israel’s devastating military strikes in September-October 2024 severely degraded the militia. Hezbollah subsequently acquiesced to the ceasefire and its neutering in the south. Yet the group rejects its disarmament north of the Litani River. In the face of this opposition, the process stalled. Washington’s special envoy, Tom Barrack, traveled to Lebanon in August to press Beirut to move forward. Under pressure, in early September, the LAF delivered a secret plan for Hezbollah disarmament to the cabinet. The LAF reportedly would complete the south by the new year and then shift to the north. It’s now becoming apparent, however, that the LAF and the Government of Lebanon aren’t planning on disarmament.
For the LAF and some in government, stripping Hezbollah of its arms is just too risky. In August, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem threatened a resumption of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war if the government persisted in its efforts to confiscate Hezbollah’s weapons. Just days earlier, in a deadly reminder of what the militia is capable of, six LAF soldiers were killed while clearing a Hezbollah arms depot near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, an explosion now deemed to have been a boobytrap.
If it wants to stay relevant, the United Nations needs to focus more on its original purpose as a forum for conflict resolution rather than global policymaking.
Aoun Finds a New Approach
Fearing civil war, Aoun pivoted to a new approach. Rather than disarming Hezbollah, Aoun started talking about “containing” the group’s weapons north of the Litani. As Aoun said when he initially floated the idea of negotiations, “weapons are not the main issue; it is the intention to use them that matters.” Given Hezbollah’s predilection for using these weapons against Israel, and Aoun’s heady inaugural address pledge to work to “ensure the state’s right to hold a monopoly on weapons,” the backtracking is profoundly disappointing.
Instead, Aoun is trying to leverage negotiations to end Israel’s continuous military strikes on Hezbollah targets and a complete withdrawal from Lebanese territory. Israel and Lebanon have long engaged in indirect talks, with both United Nations and US mediation. Discussions succeeded in defining maritime boundaries and undoubtedly would have been helpful in resolving disputed land borders. Direct talks hold the potential of laying the foundations for more normal—if not peaceful—contacts between the professional militaries of both states.
While direct negotiations with Beirut are an appealing prospect for Jerusalem, in the post-October 7 world, Israel no longer tolerates armed Iranian proxies on its borders. Not surprisingly, a week after the offer was proffered, Israel rejected the overture. A day later, Israel again targeted Hezbollah weapons and personnel in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Future
Nearly a year since the signing of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, Beirut continues to equivocate about its obligations vis-à-vis Hezbollah. To be sure, there are good reasons for doing so, not the least of which are Hezbollah’s prodigious track record of murdering its domestic adversaries and concerns about civil war. Yet there will be no peace, no sovereignty, and no reconstruction for postwar Lebanon absent the confiscation of Hezbollah weapons.
Aoun is not alone in his reticence to challenge Hezbollah. Fearing destabilizing violence, some Lebanese are calling for a more gradual approach to encourage the organization to morph into merely a political party. Yet there is little indication that’s of interest to Hezbollah. The militia is currently at its weakest point, but left intact, it will all but certainly reconstitute. In any event, it’s far from certain that the militia would attack its fellow countrymen in the LAF if it moved to confiscate the arms. Fratricide would only further erode Hezbollah’s diminished standing.
Tom Barrack recently wrote, “If Beirut fails to act, Hezbollah … will inevitably face major confrontation with Israel.” Sadly, despite the hopes ushered in by a promising new Lebanese government and a diminished Hezbollah, Barrack is right. Israel is prepared to negotiate and make concessions to Lebanon on a broad range of issues. Jerusalem gave away the store on the 2022 Maritime Agreement, acceding to nearly all of Beirut’s demands. When it comes to Hezbollah disarmament, however, there will be no compromise.
*About the Author: David Schenker
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/on-hezbollahs-disarmament-israel-will-not-compromise
**David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, 2019-21.

We want the 128 MPs… and leave the 6 for yourselves!”
Lebanese expatriate in USA, Pierre Maroun/Facebook October 25, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148539/
Lebanese emigration is not just a story of nostalgia for the homeland, but a story of success and excellence. The Lebanese diaspora has proven its capacity for creativity, distinction, and leadership in all fields — from the American continent to Africa, and from Europe to the Gulf and Australia. Nevertheless, the question remains: Why is the expatriate still treated as a second-class citizen? And why is their political right limited to six symbolic seats, even though they are the backbone of the Lebanese economy?
The Diaspora is a Political Force That Must Be Heard The Lebanese expatriate is not asking for a favor, but demanding their natural right as a full partner in national decision-making. It is their right to participate in the election of all 128 Members of Parliament, not to have their representation reduced to six symbolic ones. Their voice is the voice of reform, and the voice of the modern Lebanon that dreams of a state of law, justice, and accountability.
The Diaspora is a Pillar of the National Economy The remittances of Lebanese abroad range between $6 and $8 billion annually — a lifeline for the depleted economy. If a fair and transparent legal environment is provided, expatriates can rebuild the national economy in industry, agriculture, technology, and energy. The expatriate is not a financial support fund, but a comprehensive rescue project for Lebanon.
The Diaspora is a Civilized and Social Model The Lebanese abroad lives by the values of citizenship, transparency, and respect for the law. They have learned to overcome sectarianism and divisions, and to succeed through joint action. This model is what Lebanon needs today — by involving the diaspora in politics and administration, not by marginalizing and excluding them.
The Final Message Lebanon needs all its children, at home and abroad. We want a just homeland that embraces everyone, not a state that only remembers us during crises and for remittances. We want the one hundred and twenty-eight MPs… and you take the six! Because the diaspora is not an adornment on the map, but a true partner in shaping Lebanon’s future.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 25-26/2025
US staging drone flights over Gaza to monitor ceasefire: Report
Arab News/October 25, 2025
LONDON: The US military is operating surveillance drones over Gaza to monitor the status of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the New York Times reported.
The operation is part of a larger effort to ensure that the two parties abide by the terms of the ceasefire agreement, military officials said. With Israel’s consent, the drones have been used to monitor ground activity in Gaza, two Israeli military officials and a US defense official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity. The drone operators are based at the new Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel. The center was launched last week by US Central Command. The US has previously flown reconnaissance missions over Gaza in order to locate hostages, but the latest mission highlights a desire to attain independence from Israeli operations, the NYT reported. The Israel-Hamas truce was brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt, and has been strained by recent bouts of violence in Gaza and delays over the exchange of bodies from both sides. Trump administration officials this week said there are concerns within the US government over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu potentially exiting the deal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured the Civil-Military Coordination Center on Friday, saying: “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.”The center pledged to “help facilitate the flow of humanitarian, logistical and security assistance from international counterparts” into Gaza. Timothy Hawkins, a captain and spokesman for Central Command, told Israeli channel i24 this week that the center “includes an operations floor that enables us to monitor in real time what is happening on the ground in Gaza.”Daniel B. Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel, said: “If there was total transparency and total trust between Israel and the US there wouldn’t be a need for this. But obviously the US wants to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding.”

Second phase in Gaza starts to take shape as US seeks ‘stabilisation force’, Palestinians discuss administration
The Arab Weekly/October 25/2025
The second phase of post-war Gaza has started to take shape with US top diplomat Marco Rubio voicing hope Friday of soon putting together an international force to police the ceasefire in Gaza, and Palestinian factions agreeing that a committee of independent technocrats would run the post-war territory. The US secretary of state visited Israel on the heels of Vice President JD Vance as part of an all-out effort by the United States to persuade both Hamas and Israel to respect the truce. Rubio said it was critical for the deal to create “the conditions for the stabilisation force to come in as soon as it possibly can be put together”.He expressed optimism for a durable end to the two-year Gaza war as he met Israeli, US and other Western forces monitoring the ceasefire. The deal, spearheaded by President Donald Trump, calls for an international force to oversee security after Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas. On Friday, Rubio visited the Civil-Military Coordination Centre, where some 200 US soldiers have deployed, and called it a “historic” undertaking.
The United States named a veteran diplomat on Friday as the civilian lead in a body monitoring the Gaza ceasefire. Steve Fagin, a career diplomat, will work alongside US Army Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, the military head already appointed to the hub set up after the October 10 ceasefire. One of its central missions of the centre will be the creation of a US-backed international force for the enclave. While the US has ruled out sending its own soldiers into Gaza, it could draw on troops from Egypt, Indonesia and Arab Gulf countries. The international force is a key part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war. But there are many obstacles ahead, ranging from whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops to Israel’s concerns about the make-up of the force. Another challenge is that Palestinian militant group Hamas has so far not committed to disarming and, since a tentative ceasefire took hold two weeks ago, has embarked on a lethal crackdown against groups that have tested its grip on power.Asked about the presence of an international force, a Hamas spokesperson said it was a “sensitive issue” that would require “thorough discussion” before the group took a position. Rubio confirmed that Israel would enjoy vetoes on the force’s composition, amid reports Israel has objected to Turkey’s participation. “There’s a lot of countries that have offered to do it. Obviously as you put together this force, it will have to be people that Israel is comfortable with,” he said. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority state, has said it is ready to send troops to Gaza. The US top diplomat also said discussions were ongoing about what the rules of engagement would be for the force and whether it would operate under a United Nations mandate. Officials briefed on the talks said there had been an appeal to countries to join the force, but many were wary of promising support without knowing what the force will look like. One proposal was for two forces: one securing the border between Israel and Gaza and another operating inside the enclave, according to diplomats with knowledge of the discussions. Some European countries want thousands of Palestinian Authority security forces from the Israeli-occupied West Bank that have been trained in Egypt and Jordan to operate inside Gaza, with a smaller number of international troops, the diplomats said.
Under this plan, some European police could act as observers inside Gaza, working directly alongside the Palestinian forces, but it was unclear which countries would be involved.
The US plan was for the international force to move in gradually, starting with the southern Gaza area of Rafah that is under Israeli control.
The arrival of an international security force may unlock reconstruction funds — US officials vow none will go to Hamas-held areas.
Palestinian talks
The main Palestinian factions, including Hamas, said Friday they had agreed during a meeting in Cairo that a temporary Palestinian committee of independent technocrats would take over the running of Gaza. The committee would “manage the affairs of life and basic services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions”, according to a joint statement published on Hamas’ website. The statement also urged a meeting of all forces and factions to “agree on a national strategy and to revitalise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.
Hamas is not part of the PLO, which is dominated by its longtime rival Fatah. Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, has already made it clear that it does not wish to govern the post-war territory, but it has pushed back against the insistence that it disarm its fighters. “We have agreed on the arrangements for the second phase of managing Gaza, affirming that it will be under Palestinian administration, with no separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement on social media. “The upcoming meetings will address the relationship with the occupation, the fate of the resistance’s weapons and discussions regarding the presence of international forces,” he added. In Gaza on Friday, families were still trying to return to their ruined homes — in many cases only to find they lie in areas controlled by Israeli forces beyond the so-called “Yellow Line”.Israel’s Gaza offensive has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry. Fighting has died down since the October 10 ceasefire, but aid flows are still restricted. H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, was sceptical that enough countries would commit troops to make the force work.Hellyer said most would be reluctant to commit troops if they were expected to fight Hamas, while Arab countries would be reluctant to take part unless there was a major push to create a Palestinian state. Unless Hamas agreed to cooperate in disarming, then “no country is going to want to risk their troops getting into a military quagmire”, Hellyer said. The Trump administration has been increasingly firm with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but the Israeli premier has sought to downplay any perception of tension with his most crucial military and diplomatic backer.

US names career diplomat for Gaza ceasefire monitor
Agence France Presse/October 25/2025
The United States named a veteran diplomat 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 U.S. Army Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, the military head already appointed to the hub set up after the October 10 ceasefire. The Civil-Military Coordination Centre 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 U.S. troops were sent to the centre, 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 Huthi 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 U.S. diplomat in Baghdad while remaining ambassador to Yemen, a job in which he has been based primarily in Saudi Arabia.

Rubio Vows Return of All Hostage Bodies Still Held in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed Saturday to secure the return of all deceased hostages still held in Gaza, as he met with the families of two captives during his visit to Israel. "We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in the captivity of Hamas," Rubio said on X. "Today I met with the families of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra. We will not rest until their -- and all -- remains are returned," he said, hours before wrapping up his three-day visit to Israel, AFP reported. The Israeli campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, welcomed Rubio's remarks. "Thirteen hostages need to come home. Thirteen families need closure," the group said on X, thanking the US secretary of state. "Please don't stop -- until the last hostage is released," it added. Chen, a dual Israel-US national and a sergeant in the Israeli army, was working at the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas and its allies attacked on October 7, 2023. The military announced his death five months later in March 2024. It said Chen, 19 at the time of the attack, died in combat and his body was taken to Gaza. Neutra, 21 at the time of the attack and also a US-Israeli national, was a volunteer soldier killed on October 7. Raised in New York, Neutra came to Israel to experience the country of his parents, his mother Orna Neutra told AFP in November 2023. He later enlisted for military service as most young Israelis do. Under the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on October 10, all 20 living hostages have been freed by Palestinian militants. Remains of 15 deceased hostages have also been returned to Israel, while the bodies of 13 others remain in Gaza. In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, along with dozens of Palestinian bodies, as part of the deal. The ceasefire has largely halted hostilities but on Sunday Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes that left dozens of Gazans dead, according to the territory's health ministry. Israel said its troops came under attack, resulting in the death of two soldiers, after which it launched the strikes. Later, Israel reinforced the ceasefire.

Rubio: Gaza Security Force will Be ‘Made Up of Countries that Israel is Comfortable with’
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved Friday to reassure Israel over the planned international security force for Gaza, stressing that there is no alternative to President Donald Trump’s cease-fire plan and that Washington is working to ensure its success. Speaking at the US-Israel Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, Rubio acknowledged the difficulties in implementing the Gaza agreement but expressed optimism about the progress being made. He described the coordination of the cease-fire and preparation for the stabilization force as “a historic mission,” noting that Washington and its partners are focused on maintaining the truce, facilitating aid deliveries, and preparing for the deployment of the multinational force into Gaza. Rubio made clear that the composition of this force will be shaped around Israeli concerns. “There’s a lot of countries that have offered to do it,” he said. “Obviously, as you put together this force, it will have to be people that Israel is comfortable with.”When asked specifically about Türkiye’s participation, he reiterated that the force “will consist of countries that Israel accepts.”The Secretary of State warned that if Hamas refuses to disarm, “it would constitute a breach of the agreement, and the necessary measures will be implemented.” He praised Israel for meeting its commitments, saying: “We hope to create conditions that prevent Hamas control. This won’t happen next week, but we want people to feel safe - free from the fear of Hamas.”Rubio emphasized that Washington is committed to ensuring Hamas does not govern Gaza in the future, pointing out that “there’s still an armed terrorist group on the other side of the cease-fire line, and we’ve seen them act against their own people.”He stressed that a sustainable peace cannot exist “as long as there’s a force that threatens Israel’s security.” He also said no decision has been made on a potential role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza’s governance. Rubio tied the cease-fire to broader regional diplomacy, saying more countries are ready to normalize relations with Israel under a wider regional agreement. “A sustainable end to the war will encourage more countries to join the Abraham Accords,” he said. “We have a lot of countries that want to join.”
He dismissed the significance of the recent Knesset vote regarding annexing parts of the West Bank, calling it “a very stupid political stunt” aimed at embarrassing US Vice President J.D. Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Suffice it to say, we don’t think it will happen,” he remarked. Rubio also reaffirmed Washington’s stance on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, saying: “UNRWA cannot have a role in Gaza. It is a subsidiary of Hamas.”In response, the agency said its presence “remains vital,” citing a recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that affirmed there is no alternative to its role in supporting Gaza’s civilian population. In a related development, the US State Department announced the appointment of Ambassador Steven Fagin as the civilian head of the Civil-Military Coordination Center overseeing the implementation of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza. Fagin, a veteran diplomat currently serving as US ambassador to Yemen, will work alongside Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, who was named the center’s military commander earlier this week.

Hamas, Fatah Seek Understandings to Overcome Gaza Deal Hurdles
Cairo: Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
A meeting between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas in Cairo has rekindled speculation about the possibility of reaching consensus on managing the next phase in the Gaza Strip, particularly amid discussions over the terms of a ceasefire agreement. The agreement, which Egypt has been pushing forward, includes a second phase tied to local and international security arrangements as well as administrative and disarmament measures. Analysts who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat said the deal could be “within reach” if Hamas and Fatah finalize their understandings and Palestinian factions unite behind a single vision, noting that in such a scenario, “Israel would find it difficult to obstruct implementation.”A Palestinian source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that Thursday’s Cairo meeting between the Fatah and Hamas delegations, held under the auspices of Egyptian intelligence, was “positive” and witnessed “convergence in viewpoints, particularly regarding the administration of Gaza and the handover of authority.”The source added that Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian Authority’s vice president who took part in the talks, would brief President Mahmoud Abbas to shape a unified stance before a broader dialogue among factions expected in Cairo in the coming days. “The understandings between the two movements will help ensure the success of that dialogue,” the source said. Egypt's Al-Qahera News confirmed on Thursday that the Hamas-Fatah meeting was held to discuss post-war arrangements in Gaza. Neither faction issued details about the outcomes of their talks, which coincided with a series of meetings held by Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad with several Palestinian factions, according to the channel. The Quds News Network reported that the factions attending those talks included Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front-General Command, the Democratic Front, the Palestinian National Initiative and the Democratic Reform Current. A final statement released Friday following a separate meeting of several Palestinian factions in Cairo said participants had discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian cause and the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza, which includes “security and administrative arrangements.”
The statement added that the talks were part of preparations for a “comprehensive national dialogue aimed at protecting the national project and restoring unity.” The factions agreed to support and continue implementing the ceasefire terms, hand over Gaza’s administration to a temporary committee of independent figures from the enclave and establish an international committee to oversee funding and reconstruction. They also reaffirmed their commitment to “the unity of the Palestinian political system and the independence of national decision-making.”The statement said the factions would take all necessary measures to maintain security and stability across Gaza, stressing the importance of a UN resolution authorizing the deployment of temporary international forces to monitor the ceasefire. They also called for “an urgent meeting of all Palestinian forces and factions to agree on a national strategy and activate the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” though no date was set. Egyptian strategic affairs expert Dr. Khaled Okasha said “a new spirit” was emerging among the factions as they recognized “the gravity of the moment and the need for a different approach to shape a unified national vision capable of facing challenges on the ground through flexibility and joint action.”He added that this was exactly what Cairo sought to achieve in the current round of talks: pushing for Palestinian-Palestinian understandings. “Both Fatah and Hamas now have enough flexibility to engage more maturely, after the painful experience the Palestinian body politic endured over the past two years,” Okasha said, adding that Egypt’s extensive efforts were likely to succeed as they did with the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement. Palestinian political analyst Dr. Ayman al-Raqab said Cairo had succeeded in creating “a new Palestinian dynamic” that could lead to a broader consensus ahead of the expected dialogue. He added that the Hamas-Fatah meeting “provides a foundation for that dialogue and its anticipated outcomes toward a comprehensive vision for Palestinian unity.”

Yemen's Houthis Detain 2 More UN Workers, Including Woman in Critical Condition
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Houthi militias intensified their crackdown against the United Nations in Yemen on Saturday, detaining two additional workers, UN officials said. The militias detained the two female workers of the World Food Program from their homes in Sanaa, the officials said. Their whereabouts remained unknown, they said. One of the two women was in critical condition after she gave premature birth and her baby died earlier this month, one of the officials said. The woman is a sister of another worker with the UN food agency who was briefly detained earlier this month, the official said. The woman's brother, who suffers from kidney failure, was released by the militias due to his deteriorating health condition, the officials said. Saturday’s detentions were the latest in a series of events now forcing the world body to reassess how it operates in the country. The Houthis detained two others and raided the homes of several UN staffers on Thursday and Friday. The Houthis have repeatedly raided UN offices and earlier this month they seized assets, including communications equipment. They detained over two dozen UN workers before allowing 12 international workers to leave Yemen on Wednesday, according to the UN. At least 55 UN staff members are currently detained by the Houthis, as well as many workers with other non-government and civil society personnel from various diplomatic missions.

Iran Declares Major Lender Bankrupt
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Iran declared one of the country's largest private banks bankrupt with its assets absorbed by the state, official media reported Saturday, in a rare move in the country grappling with international sanctions. Founded in 2012, Ayandeh Bank had a network of 270 branches across the country, including 150 in the capital Tehran alone. But it had more recently been crippled by debt, with accumulated losses amounting to the equivalent of about $5.2 billion and roughly $2.9 billion in debts, according to the ISNA news agency. On Saturday, queues of customers could be seen outside a former Ayandeh Bank branch in Tehran, with police also present, an AFP journalist reported. The state-owned Melli Bank has absorbed the assets of the now-defunct Ayandeh Bank, following a decision by the Central Bank, which has given assurances that depositors will be able to recover their savings. "The transfer from Ayandeh Bank to Melli Bank is now complete," said Melli director Abolfazl Najarzadeh on state television on Saturday. On Thursday, Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said Ayandeh Bank customers had "nothing to worry about". In September, the United Nations reimposed tough sanctions on Iran. The move came after months of tense diplomacy aimed at reviving nuclear talks derailed since June, when Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. The sanctions are a "snapback" of measures frozen in 2015 when Iran agreed to major restrictions on its nuclear program under a deal negotiated by former US president Barack Obama. The United States already imposed massive sanctions when President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in his first term.

Syria Signs Landing Deal for First International Submarine Cable with Medusa
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Syria's telecommunications ministry has signed an agreement for the landing of the first international submarine cable to the country with Barcelona-based Medusa Submarine Cable System, state-run Ikhbariya TV reported on Saturday. The submarine cable system is intended to connect 12 countries across North Africa and southern Europe, according to Medusa's website. It will also serve as a corridor connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean and to the Red Sea, according to Reuters. After 14 years of civil war and decades of Western sanctions, Syria's infrastructure shortfalls include poor internet connectivity. Many users have to use costly mobile data instead of a wireless connection to get basic tasks done online. Syria's new rulers aim to make rapid progress in improving public services after toppling Bashar al-Assad last December. A senior Syrian official and a second official told Reuters in June that the government was in talks with regional telecoms companies Zain, Etisalat, STC and Ooredoo for an about $300-million project to develop Syria's fibre-optic communications network.

Trump meets Qatar emir, PM during stop en route to Asia
Agencies/25 /2025
US President Donald Trump met Saturday with the emir and prime minister of Qatar -- a key ally in preserving the fragile Gaza peace deal -- during a refueling stop on his way to Asia, officials said. The Qatari leaders boarded Air Force One when it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the regional headquarters for the US military and thousands of American troops. Trump said the duo had played a crucial role in the Middle East peace process, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had been his “friend to the world.” Trump is traveling to Asia for the first time since retaking office in January, with two regional summits and a face-to-face meeting with China’s Xi Jinping and other leaders on the agenda. Qatar has played a key mediating role in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since the outbreak of the war, and is among the guarantors of the fragile peace deal, along with Egypt, the United States and Turkey. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss the highly sensitive next steps in the deal, including the establishment of a security force in Gaza and the fate of Hamas.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has also been a key negotiator since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Trump aims to clinch deal with China’s Xi during Asia trip
Reuters/25 October/2025
US President Donald Trump will test his deal-making capabilities on a trip to Asia, a region battered by his trade policies, while doubts hang over his highly anticipated meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. Trump, who left Washington on Friday night, is set for a five-day trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first to the region and longest journey abroad since taking office in January. The Republican leader hopes to pile up trade, critical mineral and ceasefire deals before turning to the toughest challenge, a face-to-face with Xi on Thursday in South Korea. Trump is also working to maintain the signature foreign policy achievement of his second term, a fragile ceasefire he helped to negotiate in the Israel-Gaza conflict, while the Russian war in Ukraine and a trade war with China continue. US and China trade threats on minerals, technology Washington and Beijing have hiked tariffs on each other’s exports and threatened to halt trade in critical minerals and technologies. The trip was formally announced by the White House on Thursday. Details remain in flux, including the meeting between leaders of the world’s two largest economies.
Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore terms of trade that existed before Trump’s second-term inauguration in January, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Instead, talks between the two sides to prepare for the meeting focused on managing disagreements and modest improvements. An interim agreement could include limited relief on tariffs, an extension of current rates, or China committing to buy US-made soybeans and Boeing airplanes. Beijing reneged on similar promises in a 2020 deal with Trump. Washington could let more high-end computer chips flow to Beijing, which in turn could loosen controls on rare earth magnets that have angered Trump.
Or, nothing could come of the talks.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump-Xi talk would be a “pull-aside,” suggesting nothing formal. Trump later told reporters the two would have “a pretty long meeting,” allowing them to “work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together.”
China has not confirmed a meeting is planned. Trump set to visit three countries, meet world leaders. Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Biden administration official, said Trump’s Asia policy has been defined by intense pressure on countries’ trade policies and defense spending. “The high-level question on this trip is really, who does the United States stand with, and what does it stand for,” she said. Trump is expected at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which starts Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. En route to Malaysia, Trump was due to make a refueling stop in Qatar, where he would briefly meet its emir and prime minister on board Air Force One, according to a White House official. Qatar has been a mediator in the conflict in Gaza. In Kuala Lumpur, he could oversee the signing of a ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia. The deal would formalize an agreement that ended the worst fighting in years between the two countries in July. After that stop, Trump will head to Japan to meet Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected prime minister. Takaichi is expected to affirm plans by her predecessor to increase military spending and to make $550 billion in Trump-directed investments in the United States. Then, in Busan, South Korea, Trump plans to meet Xi ahead of an international trade summit. Trump is set to return to Washington before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ forum begins, according to the schedule announced by the White House on Thursday.
Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of some 155 percent from November 1 if they cannot strike a deal. That would almost certainly provoke a reaction from Beijing and end a truce that paused tit-for-tat hikes. Beyond trade, the two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan, a long-running US-China irritant, and Russia, a Chinese ally subject to expanded sanctions over the Ukraine war. “There’s no intent from the US side to discuss other issues,” aside from China’s trade, export controls and its purchases of Russian oil, according to a US official, who said Trump would be prepared to reiterate previous responses if Xi raised other topics. Before departing the White House on Friday for the trip, Trump told reporters he expected the Taiwan issue to be raised during his talks with Xi. Trump also said he will likely raise the issue of releasing Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Lai is serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong under Beijing-imposed national security laws. “It’s on my list. I’m going to ask ... We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
Will trade talks with Canada resume?
It was unclear if Trump would try to resume trade negotiations with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is also traveling in Asia, after Trump abruptly cut off talks. The two would probably seek each other on Wednesday at a dinner with other leaders, another official said. Trump told reporters that he did not plan on meeting with Carney and said he was “satisfied with the deal we have.”Trump is also trying to close trade deals with Malaysia and India, while shoring up a deal that has been struck with South Korea. US and South Korean relations have been strained by Seoul’s concerns over the $350 billion investment Trump has sought in US companies and deportations of the country’s foreign workers. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung wants Trump to pursue peace with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. US officials considered, but never confirmed, a trip to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, according to another person familiar with the discussions. Another US official said on Friday that no Kim-Trump meeting was on the schedule for the trip. Trump said contacting North Korea’s secluded society is challenging and told reporters: “If you want to put out the word, I’m open to it. You know, they don’t have a lot of telephone service.”

Pakistan Defense Minister Warns of 'Open war' with Afghanistan if Peace talks fail
Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
Pakistan's defense minister said on Saturday he believes Afghanistan wants peace but that failure to reach an agreement during talks in Istanbul would mean "open war," days after both sides agreed to a ceasefire following deadly border clashes. The talks in Istanbul, which began on Saturday and are expected to continue into Sunday, mark the latest attempt by Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent a relapse into violence after the worst border fighting since the Taliban's 2021 takeover of Kabul, Reuters reported. The talks are meant to devise a mechanism to enforce the Doha ceasefire longer term. Khawaja Muhammad Asif said there had been no incidents in the four to five days since it was agreed, and both sides were complying with the truce. "We have the option, if no agreement takes place, we have an open war with them," he said in televised remarks from Pakistan. "But I saw that they want peace." The clashes erupted earlier this month after Islamabad demanded that the Taliban curb militants it says are attacking Pakistan from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan. Pakistan launched airstrikes across the border and both sides exchanged heavy fire, killing dozens and prompting the closure of key crossings that remain shut. Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering militants who target Pakistani forces. The Taliban rejects the charge and says Pakistan's military operations violate Afghan sovereignty.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 25-26/2025
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.

Middle Powers along the Middle Corridor
Eric Rudenshiold/National Interest/October 25/2025
Central Asia’s “steppe children” are growing up and redefining world order in the twenty-first century.
The era of global affairs focused exclusively on great powers is ending. Not with a single dramatic event, but through a steady, quiet redistribution of agency across the world. Nowhere is that shift more visible—or more surprising—than in Central Asia. For years, Central Asia (Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) was perceived as a chessboard, a fly-over zone, a periphery. Today, it is becoming something quite different—a cluster of enfranchised middle powers.
The rise of Central Asia’s middle powers is forcing us to rethink what “great power competition” even means. The five countries of this region—each in its own way—are now shaping regional dynamics instead of being shaped by them. They no longer see or define themselves by the interests of their large neighbors—Russia and China, but instead pursue bilateral and coordinated regional agendas that first serve their own interests.
Central Asia’s Coming of Age
Each nation in the region is practicing a form of “multi-vector” diplomacy that maintains open lines of communication with global capitals, including Washington, Moscow, Beijing, Brussels, Ankara, and Tehran. They regularly convene forums that attract global attention to critical regional issues, including cyber connectivity, security, water management, and environmental security. They perceive themselves as coming of age.
When Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time, the resulting international sanctions regime effectively closed Central Asia’s access to the northern transport corridor through Russian territory. This derailed much of the region’s trade. The resulting economic disruptions forced Central Asian leaders to make Darwinian decisions, reorient their commercial strategies, and adapt their diplomacy.
Middle Corridor Infrastructure as Strategy
What began four years ago as a logistical adjustment has become a strategic reorientation. Now bridging the Caspian and the Black Sea, Central Asia is becoming an energy and transport hub at the very center of Eurasia. Capitalizing on their central geographic location, Central Asian capitals are turning the tables on their large neighbors who seek to control regional transit and, by extension, the economies of the vast steppe.
However, by gaining direct access to global markets via the Middle Corridor, the region’s economies are creating supply chains and economic realities that are independent—that do some business with Beijing and Moscow, but on their own terms. These countries no longer see themselves as fragile objects of competition, but as emerging arbiters of it.
Central Asian countries have partnered with their South Caucasus neighbors, the United States, Europe, and Türkiye to coordinate customs reforms, build ports, digitize trade flows, and connect themselves directly to Europe and the Indo-Pacific. The Middle Corridor is no longer just a trade route. It is becoming a corridor of sovereignty—a symbol of how middle powers can use infrastructure as a strategic tool. By attracting substantial global investment to improve market access, Astana, Tashkent, and the region’s other capitals have learned that connectivity is power.
From Blocs to Webs
This remarkable turnaround reflects a broader evolution in multilateralism. For decades, international cooperation was best described as a wheel, with a great power at the hub and other states as spokes. Today, that structure is changing, as influence, authority, and power flow more horizontally. In the vacuum created as the United States, China, Russia, the European Union, and the rest of the world undergo relational realignments, dense, overlapping partnerships are forming between middle power states that fracture traditional relations. As a result, we now appear to live more in a web than a wheel.
A proliferation of small, focused, state-to-state partnerships reflects this new shape of global relations: pragmatic, flexible, situational. It’s less about “blocs” and more about balancing networks. Central Asia is a particular case in point. Through a series of cooperation frameworks (such as the C5+1 format) that separately link the region with a wide variety of countries, Central Asia has created unique agreements and mechanisms to engage with and benefit from traditional multilateralism. These frameworks are backed by robust summitry that connects the region’s leaders personally with their global peers in the quest to balance partnerships and diversify alliances and trade.
A Laboratory of Change
Membership in the Organization of Turkic States ties Central Asia to the west through cultural diplomacy and trade. Various other cooperation platforms still anchor regional coordination with China and Russia, but (as seen with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization) Central Asian participation comes at the cost of concretely addressing the region’s own interests—not just that of Moscow or Beijing. In that sense, Central Asia is not a periphery of great power politics; its elevation to a position of global influence makes it a laboratory for the future of multilateralism.
But there is both promise and peril in this new political environment. Just west of Central Asia, in the South Caucasus, where the real challenge today is not ending war, but building a durable peace after war. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict showed that external powers, whether Russian peacekeepers or Western mediators, could only do so much. Largely eschewing external engagement, Armenia and Azerbaijan came to terms with each other, seeking to secure lasting stability through their own agency.
The same lesson applies to Central Asia. Enfranchised middle powers carry new responsibilities: to manage disputes, to cooperate, and to prevent new sources of instability. Their sovereignty is strengthened not only by balancing great powers but by balancing one another.
Central Asia’s Multipolar Patchwork
This regional enfranchisement is part of a larger story across Asia. Across the continent, we see a concert of middle powers (ie, India, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, and now, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) all hedging, balancing, and innovating. Each seeks strategic autonomy, and none wants to choose sides. This is what the new multipolar Asia looks like—a patchwork of agency, not an axis of allegiance.
But there’s a risk in too much strategic autonomy, creating an environment with multipolarity but without multilateralism. Imagine a crowded and contested group of neighboring countries without shared rules. Here again, Central Asia offers a model in which states have shown that multi-vector diplomacy can be principled and not paralyzed, maintaining autonomy without isolation.
Four Lessons for a Shifting Order
For North America, Europe, East Asia, and elsewhere, long accustomed to leading global institutions, there are four considerations when seeking to understand middle power countries like those in Central Asia.
First, the old division between great powers and small states no longer prevails. Between them lies a growing class of middle actors who will increasingly determine how global competition plays out.
Second, middle power countries need to be engaged through dialogue and not directives. Partnerships like the C5+1 or the EU’s Global Gateway will succeed only if they respect local agency and work in partnership.
Third, connectivity should be treated as a strategy. Rail lines, ports, and digital corridors are not technical projects; they are the new instruments of statecraft.
Fourth and finally, it is time to move beyond containment thinking. Central Asia’s rise is not just about balancing China or Russia. It is about asserting sovereignty in the middle spaces of the world.
This is, in effect, a quiet revolution in self-determination, in which middle-power countries no longer see themselves as objects of great-power competition but instead define themselves by pursuing policies of their own making. With a new self-perception comes a de facto rebalancing of agency from great powers to nations with significant influence, major economies, and often greater flexibility to act. Central Asia’s rise into this grouping is fueled in part by its vast reserves of highly sought-after strategic minerals and rare earths, as well as its geostrategic location.
From Victims to Authors of Alliances
We are entering an age of strategic enfranchisement with power today developed through networks, partnerships, and newfound credibility. This makes the middle powers—especially those of Central Asia—essential to the future of order. They are small enough to remain pragmatic, but large enough to matter. They are learning to navigate a world of many centers—not as victims of competition, but as authors of cooperation.
Their rise compels us to rethink what great power competition even means. The world’s center of gravity is shifting, spreading, and flattening—from the Atlantic to the Caspian, from the Caspian to the Pacific. The challenge now is to embrace a multilateralism that reflects this reality—one that recognizes not just the great powers of the past, but also the middle powers of the future.
**About the Author: Eric Rudenshiold
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/silk-road-rivalries/middle-powers-along-the-middle-corridor
Dr. Eric Rudenshiold served for four years as the US National Security Council’s Central Asia Director under Presidents Trump and Biden. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Washington office of the Caspian Policy Center.

Gaza Needs an International Peacekeeping Force Now
Seth J. Frantzman/National Interest/October 25/2025
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/gaza-needs-an-international-peacekeeping-force-now
A multinational peacekeeping force will be severely tested by the current conditions in Gaza.
Arranging an International Gaza Peacekeeping force is a crucial step in the next phases of the peace plan agreed to on October 8. The White House appears to be committed to implementing its terms. This week, Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump family associate Jared Kushner visited Israel to ensure the ceasefire holds. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also arrived on a separate trip to deliver the same message.
Maintaining the ceasefire is essential to add momentum to discussions for building a peacekeeping force. Reports indicate that several countries may be interested in playing various roles. These include Egypt, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and some of the Gulf states. What matters now is not so much which countries have shown interest, but what concrete steps they will all take. Most would be cautious and reluctant to commit if they think the peace plan is falling apart.
Another bridge to cross: how many peacekeepers will deploy to Gaza? An Al-Arabiya report speculated that a 4,000-person force was possible. Some of the countries, like Pakistan, have experience deploying troops abroad either directly or as part of international coalitions or UN Peacekeeping missions. Nonetheless, international peacekeepers always face tough hurdles.
For instance, the UN role in Somalia in the 1990s could not prevent the outbreak of the infamous Battle of Mogadishu (of Black Hawk Down fame), in which US forces fought Somali militias. In southern Lebanon, the UN deployment has failed to accomplish its mission and keep Hezbollah disarmed or keep the peace. The list of other failures of international forces, from Haiti to the Congo, is very long. That doesn’t mean there are no successes; the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo is one success story whose lessons could help Gaza.
Gaza is currently divided into two zones. The IDF controls around 50 percent of the Strip, and Hamas appears to control the rest. There are also some Israeli-backed militias contending for control. Hamas seeks to demonstrate that it still holds power over the 2 million civilians in Gaza. However, it appears to be stepping back from the brutal executions it carried out in the days following the ceasefire.
The IDF-controlled area of Gaza may provide a beachhead to prepare an international force for the task of pacifying the Hamas-controlled zone. In addition, it might provide opportunities for investment and infrastructure development. This will be necessary for the international force to build capacity, rapport, and trust with civilians.
Some countries, such as Egypt and Qatar, have long experience in Gaza. Others, such as Indonesia, have supported humanitarian aid. It remains to be seen what role Turkey might play. Ankara has hosted Hamas and provided it with rhetorical support in the past. Jerusalem is skeptical that Ankara can play a positive role on the ground. However, Ankara’s experience with providing humanitarian aid in Syria and development in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq might be helpful in non-military roles.
The big question will come when the peacekeeping force enters Hamas-controlled neighborhoods. Can a multinational force remove Hamas and establish a new technocratic government? This will be necessary to create a peaceful future for Gaza.
There are examples of how this could work. In Mosul, the US-led international coalition backed the Iraqi army to rid the city of ISIS in 2017. Today, Mosul is a thriving city. Gaza could follow the Mosul model. However, this will take time and require the United States to keep the partner countries together and focused on the mission.
**About the Author: Seth Frantzman
Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is the acting news editor and senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post. Seth has researched and covered conflict and developments in the Middle East since 2005 with a focus on the war on ISIS, Iranian proxies, and Israeli defense policy. He covers Israeli defense industry developments for Breaking Defense and previously was Defense News’ correspondent in Israel. Follow him on X: @sfrantzman.

The United Nations Has Become the Dictators' Club: Chooses Tyrants Over the Oppressed
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 25/2025
The United Nations was founded on the promise of upholding peace, justice, and universal human rights. Today, however, it appears less like a beacon of morality and more like a stage for savagery and hypocrisy.
The UN is quick to condemn democratic nations such as the United States and Israel for defending their citizens and fighting terrorism, but goes out of its way to protect, coddle, and even elevate some of the world's most brutal and oppressive regimes — most notably Iran. The UN, which should be standing with the oppressed, is instead handing power and legitimacy to their oppressors.
It is as if the UN places arsonists in charge of the fire department and then acts surprised when the firehouse burns down.
The US should pay only for the programs it wants and get what it pays for, or at least, as US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has suggested, pay only commensurately for UN support. The US needs to stop smiling, drinking coffee with murderers -- and especially funding them -- and instead stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those fighting for freedom. Until that happens, the UN will remain what it has sadly become: an expensive, corrupt horror show at the expense of humanity's most courageous people.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) again appointed representatives from the Iranian regime in February, to serve as "human rights experts." The irony could not be more striking — or disturbing. How can a regime that suppresses free speech, executes political prisoners and imprisons women for not covering their hair now sit in judgment of others on human rights?
The United Nations was founded on the promise of upholding peace, justice, and universal human rights. Today, however, it appears less like a beacon of morality and more like a stage for savagery and hypocrisy.
The UN is quick to condemn democratic nations such as the United States and Israel for defending their citizens and fighting terrorism, but goes out of its way to protect, coddle, and even elevate some of the world's most brutal and oppressive regimes — most notably Iran. The UN, which should be standing with the oppressed, is instead handing power and legitimacy to their oppressors.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) – from which President Donald J. Trump mercifully withdrew the United States, again appointed representatives from the Iranian regime in February, to serve as "human rights experts." Iran's Afsaneh Nadipour was among seven individuals chosen to advise the UNHRC on global human rights issues. The irony could not be more striking — or disturbing. How can a regime that suppresses free speech, executes political prisoners and imprisons women for not covering their hair now sit in judgment of others on human rights? It is as if the UN places arsonists in charge of the fire department and then acts surprised when the firehouse burns down.
Appointing Iranians to the UNHRC was not a small bureaucratic matter — it has enormous consequences, both practical and symbolic. For the countless freedom fighters, women and dissidents in Iran who risk their lives every day to oppose tyranny, the UN's decision is a devastating betrayal. When an international body such as the UN elevates the very regime that tortures and murders these courageous people, it sends a clear message: You are on your own; the world will not stand with you. It tells every activist behind bars and every mother who lost her child in protests that the international community would rather shake hands and enjoy lunch with dictators than confront them.
This kind of moral blindness destroys credibility and weakens any legitimate human rights advocacy. It turns the UNHRC into a parody of its mission. Instead of amplifying the cries of the oppressed, it gives microphones to their oppressors. By giving a brutal regime a seat at the human rights table, the UN has not only insulted the victims of tyranny but also emboldened the tyrants themselves.
The Iranian regime is one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights, yet it now enjoys a place of honor at the corrupt UN. The statistics are horrifying. According to the UN and numerous human rights organizations, Iran has executed more than 1,000 people in just the first nine months of 2025—an "unprecedented execution spree" that observers of the UN have described as a campaign of state terror. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both accused Iran of weaponizing the death penalty to crush dissent, intimidate citizens and silence minority groups.
In 2024, Iran executed at least 975 people, the highest toll in nearly a decade. The regime has turned public hangings and secret executions into instruments of political control. The victims include protesters, ethnic minorities, and young people who dared to demand freedom during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement.
Women in Iran live under an especially brutal system of repression. They face arrest, lashes, and imprisonment for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab. The regime punishes those who speak out, silences journalists, and even, under Islamic law, allows child marriage. Iranian women's rights activists such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi remain in prison for the "crime" of advocating equality. Yet the UN, instead of sanctioning Tehran, has chosen to promote one of its representatives as a human rights advisor. This is not a joke — it is an insult to every woman who has been beaten, imprisoned or executed for wanting freedom.
The reaction to the UN's move was fierce. Some leaders, lawmakers, and human rights groups worldwide immediately denounced the decision. U.S. Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the appointments as "ludicrous," asking:
"How do you expect countries such as China and Iran to advise this organization on human rights? One is exporting terrorism and jailing women, and the other is throwing ethnic minorities in concentration camps."
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, called the promotion a shameless act:
"The U.N. elected Beijing's and Tehran's loyal agents as 'human rights experts'—without a ballot, without shame. These regimes persecute minorities, jail anyone who speaks freely, and rule through fear and censorship."
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American activist, described Iran's appointment as "a slap in the face to the courageous women of Iran," and emphasized that the UN is rewarding the same system that jails and tortures women for refusing to wear a headscarf.
Despite the backlash, the appointments remain in place.
You do not promote democracy and human rights by elevating the perpetrators of abuse. You do not end oppression by inviting dictators to sit on the UN Human Rights Council. Real progress comes only through accountability. The UN should be sanctioning brutal regimes, isolating them diplomatically, and putting maximum pressure on them economically and politically. It should be empowering and funding the voices of dissidents and activists, not the diplomats who crush them.
Instead, the UN has chosen the path of moral cowardice. It shakes hands with tyrants and smiles for the cameras while ordinary people are beaten, imprisoned and executed. This kind of hypocrisy does not just damage the UN's reputation — it gets people killed.
The United Nations, which is supposed to represent the conscience of the world, has become a mockery of justice and a platform for brutality. It condemns democracies for defending themselves, while embracing regimes that commit relentless atrocities. It preaches about human rights while handing out titles to the governments that violate them most. This is not neutrality — it is moral corruption.
The UN is an organization that clearly has not the slightest intention of living up to its founding ideals. Those countries funding it, especially the United States, must stop empowering tyrants and start holding them accountable. The US should pay only for the programs it wants and get what it pays for, or at least, as US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has suggested, pay only commensurately for UN support. The US needs to stop smiling, drinking coffee with murderers -- and especially funding them -- and instead stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those fighting for freedom. Until that happens, the UN will remain what it has sadly become: an expensive, corrupt horror show at the expense of humanity's most courageous people.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
**Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22001/united-nations-dictators-club
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

Sudanese Women… Victims of War’s Brutality
Osman Mirghani/Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
The world is undeniably in a period of turmoil and apprehension. The upheaval can be felt everyday, and they can be seen in the expanding map of conflicts. According to a report released this week by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, there are currently more conflicts in the world than there had been at any point since 1946. This evidently has grave consequences for international peace and security, and for the lives of millions of people. Since the report was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which obliges the international community to protect women and ensure their full participation in peace and security efforts, it focused on one horrific outcome of modern warfare: violence directed against women in conflict zones, as a deliberate and tragic feature of warfare. The report indicates that around 676 million women and girls today reside within 50 kilometers of a conflict zone, the highest number since the 1990s. Civilian casualties among women and children have quadrupled over the past two years, and sexual violence in war has increased by 87 percent in just two years. This is a clear sign that rape and sexual violence are no longer mere byproducts of war but deliberately weaponized violations.In 2023, documented cases of sexual violence in conflict areas rose by 50 percent compared to 2022, with 3,688 confirmed cases against women and young girls. The situation worsened further in 2024, with an additional 25 percent increase. These figures are not just statistics; they are muffled cries that speak to the collapse of moral and human values in a world where wars are waged upon women’s bodies.
Sudan’s name, of course, is not absent from this dark list. Over the course of the most violent and bloodiest war in its modern history, international and local reports have documented the widespread weaponization of sexual violence, accusing the Rapid Support Forces of committing mass rape and sexual slavery in several regions. Amnesty International points to systematic practices of individual and gang rape perpetrated by these forces, targeting women and even girls. UNICEF has documented 221 cases of child rape, among them 16 victims under the age of five, and four infants. What level of depravity could ever explain such sadism and barbarity?
All the reports highlight that documented cases represent only a small fraction of the catastrophe. Most cases are not spoken about due to fear of retaliation or social stigma, as well as a lack of access to specialized medical centers following the destruction of infrastructure and the spread of chaos. This forced silence deprives victims of justice and care, leaving perpetrators unpunished- a double crime against humanity. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s report is not only descriptive. It also highlights a painful paradox: conflicts are killing record numbers of women, but they remain excluded from peace negotiations. In 2024, for example, women were not included in 9 out of 10 peace processes around the world. Women made up only 7 percent of negotiators and 14 percent of mediators. And although studies confirm that women’s participation makes durable peace agreements twice as likely, political factions continue to insist on marginalizing half of society, even in efforts to end wars in which women pay the highest price.
The bleak picture presented by the report calls for urgent action on several fronts:
First – Humanitarian assistance must be increased. Access to medical and psychological care for survivors of violence must be broadened, and women must be provided safety when they are displaced. Second – There must be accountability for every belligerent who has committed or ordered these crimes. National and international justice cannot allow for impunity, which allows such practices to be repeated without fear. Third – It is time for women’s participation in peace processes to become the rule, not the exception. Processes that exclude women give rise to fragile and temporary peace. Women introduce a different dimension to these efforts, presenting a human perspective that is not shaped by the logic of violence and brute force. Violence against women in war is not merely an individual tragedy. It is a crime against the human conscience and the very idea of peace. Sudan presents one of the starkest examples of this moral collapse. It also reminds us that complacency in confronting such crimes turns conflicts into ticking time bombs that could explode again at any moment, perhaps with even greater brutality. When the body is violated in the name of war, the future of an entire nation is violated with it. Protecting women in times of war is therefore not merely a matter of “human rights,” but a measure of our humanity.

Venezuela: Bolivarian Roses for Machado
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/October 25/2025
As might have been expected the decision by the Nobel committee in Oslo to grant this year’s Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition activist Maria Corina Machado has raised a storm of controversy about an annual ritual that has been losing luster for years. Critics say the committee chose Ms. Machado, a staunch Trumpist, because it didn’t want to anoint her idol. At the same time choosing another “globalist left-winger” would have given some credibility to the charge that most Nobel prizes have become political trophies. One example: French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic advisor was named a winner in economics. Even in science categories prizes are distributed in a way to reflect geopolitics. In literature, the winner, at least for the past 30 years, has been a writer or poet with left-wing credentials and few readers outside the European champagne and caviar liberal elites. While that criticism may or may not be worth consideration, I think that the attacks launched on Ms. Machado, precisely from the same elites, are unfair.
To be sure Ms. Machado hasn’t done anything for peace in the way understood so far.
As the architect of several shaky ceasefires, between Israel and Hamas, between India and Pakistan, between Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda, and between Iran and Israel, Trump would have made a more credible peace prize laureate. One way out of the impasse created by ideology may be to rename the prize as Nobel Prize for Campaigner of the Year for political freedom and human rights. I know, such a long phrase may trigger even more controversy about what is meant by freedom and human rights. In the case of Machado, however, a case could be made to support her brave campaign to force an authoritarian regime to respect its own constitution by allowing free and fair elections according to the law of the land. Ms. Machado isn’t calling for revolution or then violent overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro’s “Bolivarian” regime.” All she is asking for is elections in the presence of international observers and a commitment by all contesting parties to accept the outcome. I first visited Venezuela in 1972 at a time it was ruled by an ersatz aristocratic elite that claimed imperial Spanish ancestry and regarded the “native” population as extras in a Cecil B DeMille extravaganza. So, when Hugo Chavez appeared on the scene to give a voice to those “extras,” I was among many who welcomed the change. It was after one of his earlier trips to Iran that I first met the flamboyant Hugo Chavez. With a few colleagues, we had invited him to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Paris, and the conversation that ensued touched on a range of topics.
However, two themes dominated.
The first was his “determination” to end poverty in Venezuela.
“There is no need for anyone to be poor in a country as rich as ours,” he asserted. “Give me four years, just give me four years!” The second theme was Chavez’s claim that the Catholic Church, prompted by “wealthy oligarchs,” was trying to sabotage his social revolution.
Well, Chavez had three times as many years and left Venezuela as poor if not poorer and certainly more divided than ever to Maduro whom he called “my bus driver.”Under Chavez and Maduro, Venezuela which has the world’s largest oil reserves, earned more than $1.5 trillion from oil exports. And yet it fell in a maze of budget deficit, public borrowing and hyper-inflation combined with corruption that seems to have become a way of life rather than an anomaly. What happened? What did Chavez and Maduro do with the unprecedented wealth that came to Venezuela under their stewardship?
Part of the answer may lie in the fact that Venezuela has headed the list of Latin American nations as far as flight of capital is concerned. Over the years, something like $170 billion was transferred by Venezuelans to foreign, mostly American banks. The Bolivarians also spent billions helping Cuba and distributing free or cut-price oil in several countries, including some areas of the United States. Venezuela ended up with a shortage of gasoline, seeking emergency imports from far away Iran. Somewhere along his trajectory, Chavez decided to cast himself as a “fighter against Yankee Imperialism.” Once that decision was made, all other considerations became secondary. The elimination of poverty could wait for another day. As for Bolivar’s philosophy, it could be twisted to suit the new “heroic discourse.”
Under Maduro anti-Americanism morphed into a neo-Bolivarian gospel that justified any excess in the “struggle against Yankee Imperialism,” including turning a blind eye to drug traffickers from the whole region to flood US markets in what Trump sees as “aggression by drugs” to justify military action against Venezuelan shipping. Chavez and Maduro set up something called the Bolivarian Alliance in Latin America. But the regimes he managed to attract, that is to say Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, are more of anachronistic Communist setups than Bolivarian constructs.
Bolivar insisted on the separation of religion and state. Bolivar was on the side of the poor people. Bolivar wanted Latin America to seek allies among Western democracies, not the potentates of the Orient. Bolivar wanted Latin America to compete with the United States by enhancing its own freedoms, improving its educational system, achieving economic growth, and developing its culture. Bolivar did not believe that seeking the destruction of the United States was a worthy goal for any sane person let alone a nation.
Ms. Machado is campaigning for a return of sanity to Venezuela’s politics, a nation that by the 1980s had embarked on the bumpy road to democracy, something that included Chavez’s election as the first “native” to become President of Venezuela and Maduro’s initial smooth and legal succession. Bolivar died and is buried in Colombia next door but never forgot Venezuela as the “jewel” in the crown of his long campaign for liberation. Had he been here today he would have sent a bouquet of roses to Ms. Machado for her non-violent but no less courageous fight for freedom.

Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 25 October/2025
Pope Leo XIV
The synodal journey calls all of us to listen more deeply to the Holy Spirit and to one another, so that our structures and ministries may be more agile, more transparent, and more responsive to the Gospel. #Synod

Eastern christians
https://x.com/i/status/1981646864425553984
Across Syria, Christians celebrate the Feast of the Cross with prayers, bonfires, fireworks, and joy Honoring Empress Helena’s discovery of the Cross in 326 AD, they light fires on hills and crosses on homes — a tradition still kept by Eastern Catholics and Orthodox today.

Hanin Ghaddar
WAR IS COMING…
All signs, the military escalation by the IDF on Hezbollah, the drones flying all over Lebanon, the military exercise held by the IDF north of Israel right on the border of Lebanon, among other red flags, all lead to one conclusion: that Israel is readying for another war on Hezbollah.
The question is - what is Lebanon going to do about it?
For a whole year, Lebanon has been stuck south of Litani, turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s efforts to rebuild itself, militarily and financially, and refusing to accept the new reality of regional dynamics. This state of denial has consequences, and Lebanon has to make a decision before it’s too late. War is coming, unless Lebanon’s leadership wakes up from denial and faces its responsibilities to its own citizens. What can be done? Start disarming Hezbollah in a more serious way - that is, north of Litani and the Beqaa, while targeting Hezbollah’s political and financial infrastructure. Unless we see serious effort in this regard, Lebanon will have to deal with the consequences of war, and eventually be forced to accept reality.

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
Until the British Mandate created, out of Turkish provinces, Palestine in 1920, the Province of Beirut, whose capital was the City of Beirut, extended all the way south to Nablus and as far north as Latakia. And the Arabs in the south Levant think before the British came, they had a thousands-of-years old nation called Palestine.

Dalia Ziada - داليا زيادة
I am starting a new position as the Washington, D.C. Coordinator & Research Fellow at
@ISGAP —the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
I have witnessed firsthand how radicalism, antisemitism, and hate have destroyed my native Egypt and much of the Middle East. I am determined to stop this same evil from taking root in the West, especially in the United States, the country that has given me my education, my career, and, most recently, a harbor when these forces of evil wrecked my ship.
In Washington, D.C., the center of international policymaking, I will utilize my two decades of professional and academic experience to work with a capable and dedicated team to inform legislators, policymakers, and the public with credible, research-based analysis, and to translate ISGAP’s world-class scholarship into actionable ideas that strengthen liberal democratic values and the global fight against all forms of ideological radicalism.
I am thrilled to join the ISGAP team at the forefront of the battle of ideas, which they have been leading with courage, clarity, and persistence for more than two decades in Oxford, Cambridge, Rome, New York, and now in Washington, D.C.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
I could write a book about this video, but for now: a Hezbollah woman (in Iran's Islamist chador) on a talk show told a Hezbollah TV anchor about a young Hezbollah couple: Boy took girl to Nasrallah's shrine, saying he lacked the means to take her to Iraqi shrines or Lady Zaynab in Damascus, so he proposed before Nasrallah's shrine with roses. The narrator, like the majority Westernized Lebanese, used the English word "simple" because she couldn't remember its Arabic equivalent. This substantiates my hypothesis: The non-Western world admires Western culture, despite the opposition of non-Western tyrants, who resist Western culture because liberty brings equality and representative government. Tyrants preach Cultural Relativism that allows their tyranny to continue. While this hijabi woman embraces identity politics (being veiled and loyal to Islamist Iran), her lifestyle mirrors the West. None of my Shia ancestors, including my father and uncles, proposed separately or knew their wives before engagement (technically marriage), which was the business of elders of both families.
Western civilization leads the world because of the law of evolution. Western civilization suits human needs more than the next competitor. Claims of Western decline and the rise of others are propaganda, often funded by attention-seeking Qatar.