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US Enovy Hochstein: Delinking Lebanon, Gaza Conflicts ‘Key’ to Securing Ceasefire Deal
A man walks past rubble of destroyed buildings which was previously a market area, in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon, Nov. 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
JNS.org — US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein, who played a pivotal role in brokering this week’s ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, on Wednesday emphasized the importance of delinking Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah from the war against Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview with Channel 12 News, Hochstein said that “the real issue was the linkage that Hezbollah had made between Lebanon and Gaza, and being able to break that linkage, delinking the two conflicts, was the key to solving this one.”
However, in a Wednesday briefing for the American Jewish community, Hochstein said that the Lebanon deal could pave the way to a deal to release the hostages still being held by Hamas.
“The Lebanese deal here opens an opportunity on the hostage deal,” he said. “They [Hamas] wake up this morning at 4 am with Hezbollah, that used to be actively supportive of Hamas in the northern front, cutting a deal and ending that conflict.”
Hochstein in the Channel 12 interview also addressed reports that he had told Jerusalem and Beirut that it was “now or never” to get the deal done, denying that he used that language.
“I did say that there is a window of opportunity to do this now and either we did it — and I thought that all the conditions were there — and that if they did not want to do it now, they would have to wait for a new president to come in, which probably meant March or April, as a new administration doesn’t do things right away and that could come as an opportunity loss. So it was a moment of opportunity here,” he said.
He also addressed concerns about the agreement’s implementation, given the failures of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War and was supposed to disarm Hezbollah and force it north of the Litani River.
“I’ve been openly critical of Resolution 1701 […] because I thought it was very nice words but there was nothing that was set in place to enforce it, frankly, on either side […] so we were determined to be able to bring about a change in that, and created a mechanism here that will be chaired by the United States together with France and others, and bring in other allies who will support the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces],” he said.
While the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will be “part of” the enforcement mechanism, complaints of violations will not be going to UNIFIL for review, he said.
“The United States will have, one, the ability to share information quite immediately [regarding] a suspected violation on either side with the other party, being able to work with the LAF […] and other security services in Lebanon to investigate it, monitor it, dismantle it if necessary, discontinue it, and those are all things that we are now putting together, literally in these hours and day, to put this effort together,” he said.
“And we’re not going to stop; it’s not a temporary effort. It’s an enduring mechanism that will look at these violations and address them immediately,” he added.
He addressed former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett’s criticism that the agreement doesn’t go far enough in terms of establishing a buffer zone to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its terrorist infrastructure and forces along the border, and also concerns that the Iranian terror proxy has not been weakened enough.
“Hezbollah is weakened. It is degraded. And at some point, you have to say, what’s the point of degrading it [more],” he said.
He went on to say that a buffer zone and a ceasefire agreement were mutually exclusive.
“There are fantasy deals, that are utopia, where you get a ceasefire agreement with a security zone, etc…. but those won’t ever happen,” he said. “There will never be an agreement that also has Israel as an occupying force in another country. That country will not sign that deal. You have to choose. If you choose to have a dead zone or a demilitarized zone, then you’re there as an occupier and you are not there in agreement, which means that while you may have two, three kilometers inside Lebanon, or maybe even four or five, there is no agreement to stop shooting at Israel from longer ranges,” he added.
The US envoy also denied reports that the Biden administration had threatened not to veto a UN Security Council resolution if the deal wasn’t signed.
He said he had briefed President-elect Donald Trump’s senior national security advisers about the details of the ceasefire deal “because it’s very important for them to understand and support it, because they are going to have to carry it going forward and implement it as they take office in just a few weeks.”
The post US Enovy Hochstein: Delinking Lebanon, Gaza Conflicts ‘Key’ to Securing Ceasefire Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Watch: Washington Post Columnist Karen Attiah Confronted Over Pro-Hamas Social Media Posts, Called a ‘Terrorist’
Karen Attiah of the Washington Post. Photo: YouTube screenshot
An event celebrating anti-Israel writer Peter Beinart’s new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, went off the rails on Monday night after a woman confronted the moderator, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, for her social media posts made in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
On Monday night, a packed room of attendees huddled inside the Politics & Prose bookstore in northwest Washington, DC to listen to the duo chat about Beinart’s book, which details his thoughts about the ongoing war in Gaza and its impact on the American Jewish community. During the question-and-answer session following the discussion, Nyah Molineaux, an employee of the DC Department of Health, repudiated Attiah for liking a social media post which minimized Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel.
“I want to ask you a question,” Molineaux said. “How do you correspond or reconcile your Christianity when on October the 7th you [liked a retweet] that said, ‘What do you think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.’ You liked that retweet!” Molineaux yelled.
On Oct. 7, 2023, immediately following the slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel and abduction of 251 hostages, Attiah incited outrage after sharing a series of posts seemingly justifying the terrorist attacks. She reposted a tweet that stated, “Settlers are not the victims here and never will be.” On Oct. 8, the journalist also posted tweets defending the utility of “armed struggle” against oppression.
I just got out of the Peter Beinart/Karen Attiah anti-Israel book event in DC. A woman confronted Attiah for retweeting a post supporting the Oct. 7 attacks. Attiah said she does not regret it and blamed racism for the backlash, though the woman screaming at her was also black pic.twitter.com/MjkeS0dv5v
— Corey Walker (@CoreyWriting) February 25, 2025
The scene quickly descended into chaos as Attiah tried and failed to interject.
“I can answer your question,” Attiah said.
“No, no, no. I will explain to you what happened, so we can be very clear,” Molineaux continued, before referencing the systematic sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women and girls by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7 rampage.
“Rape happened,” Molineaux said. “How do you reconcile that with rape? How the hell do you reconcile that with a woman being raped? She was Shani Louk. Her body was taken apart. Is rape OK with you?”
“OK, that’s enough,” Attiah retorted, trying to deescalate the scene.
“No, rape is OK with you, you damn jihadi. It is OK with you to rape a Jewish woman,” Molineaux added.
A visibly uncomfortable Attiah requested the employees of the bookstore mute Molineaux’s microphone. An employee from the bookstore intervened and requested that the irate Molineaux leave the venue.
While being escorted out, Molineaux called Attiah a “terrorist” and a “coward” and said she deserves “every goddamn thing that happens to you.”
“You’re a jihadi, and you’re a f—king terrorist. That’s who the f—k you are. The state of Israel will stand, and if you want to f—king play around and play like Bin Laden, you will be treated as such,” Molineaux added.
Following the explosive confrontation, Attiah clarified that she has “no apologies” for her anti-Israel commentary following the Oct. 7 massacre and suggested that her critics harbor anti-black racial bias.
Attiah said she hoped the incident would serve as “an example of how violent the social media discourse is” regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “particularly if you are black.”
The Washington Post columnist did not mention that Molineaux was also black.
Beinart, the featured guest, silently grinned while sitting next to Attiah.
Earlier in the evening, Beinart, one of the most prominent critics of Israel in the West, suggested that the Jewish state might be committing a “genocide” in Gaza as revenge for the Oct. 7 slaughters. Although he clarified that he does not support the mass murder of Israelis that occurred, Beinart suggested that the Jewish state’s alleged record of anti-Palestinian oppression incited it.
The left-wing intellectual also asserted, without evidence, that the recognized death toll in Gaza is “far too low,” and that Israel has caused a famine in the war-torn enclave. He also unfavorably compared the Jewish state to apartheid South Africa, arguing that Israelis speak about Palestinians comparably to how Afrikaners spoke about black people.
On Tuesday, Beinart appeared to attack The Algemeiner on social media for covering the event and posting video from it, falsely accusing the publication without evidence of following the extremist movement of Kahanism.
At my book event last night, a Kahanite publication tried to create the impression that I justify Oct 7, even though I condemn it at length in my book. What they left out of their video is me condemning Oct 7 in that very exchange, as I have literally thousands of times.
— Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) February 25, 2025
As for Attiah, over the past 16 months she has launched an unrelenting barrage of criticism opposing Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Attiah criticized 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for adopting what she described as a pro-Israel stance during her campaign. The journalist also accused Israel of implementing “permanent occupation and apartheid” against the Palestinians and stated that it is “justified, moral, and necessary to be outraged at Israel’s behavior.”
Although Molineaux told The Algemeiner she is not Jewish, she said she felt inspired to defend Israel because she has Jewish first cousins. Molineaux also defended calling Attiah a “jihadist,” arguing that the Washington Post columnist has displayed hypocrisy by sympathizing with Hamas while simultaneously condemning extremist movements within Africa.
“As a Black woman it is abhorrent to me she is saying she is against Boko Haram in Nigeria but for Hamas in Israel. A jihadist is a jihadist,” Molineaux said.
The post Watch: Washington Post Columnist Karen Attiah Confronted Over Pro-Hamas Social Media Posts, Called a ‘Terrorist’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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World’s Oldest Known Holocaust Survivor Rose Girone Dies at Age 113 in New York
Rose Girone. Photo: Screenshot
Rose Girone, the world’s oldest known Holocaust survivor, died at the age of 113 years old on Monday in New York.
Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) announced the news on social media. The New Yorker celebrated her 113th birthday on Jan. 13. She reportedly died of old age, according to her daughter.
“Girone was always particularly outspoken about her experiences before and during the war,” Israel’s GPO said. “Today, and every day, we honor her memory and the memory of millions of other victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Never again.”
Girone was born in Poland in 1912, and then moved to Hamburg, Germany. In 1939, Girone’s husband was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. However, Girone, who was eight months pregnant at the time, managed to obtain visas to China for herself and her husband, and they escaped to Shanghai. She began knitting for a living during her time in Shanghai and when she eventually moved to New York, she opened her own knitting shop in Forrest Hills in Queens that was called Rose’s Knitting Studio. Girone sold knitting supplies and also taught knitting classes. She successfully ran the shop for 40 years, until selling it in 1980.
Girone lived in the Belair Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Bellmore since she was 109, according to the Long Island Herald. She was the oldest person living in New York, the fifth oldest in the US, and the 28th oldest in the world, the local publication noted.
Girone provided a testimony about her experience during World War II to The USC Shoah Foundation in 1996 and the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County in 2022.
The post World’s Oldest Known Holocaust Survivor Rose Girone Dies at Age 113 in New York first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Top Diplomat Says Little Hope for Real Change in Syria as Hamas, Islamic Jihad Open New Front
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks next to High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica as they hold a press conference on the day of an EU-Israel Association Council with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has dismissed any hope for real change in Syria despite the formation of a new government, calling for “realistic expectations” in Europe and labeling talks of regime transition as “ridiculous.”
During a meeting in Brussels of the EU-Israel Association Council, which oversees the European bloc’s relationship with the Jewish state, Sa’ar described the recently formed Syrian government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda terrorist known also as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani who led the overthrow of the Assad regime, as “a jihadist Islamist terror group from Idlib that took Damascus by force.”
“We are all happy that Assad is out. But we must have realistic expectations,” Sa’ar said during a press conference with EU officials on Monday, referring to long-time Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. “The Islamists speak softly. Just check how Iran spoke in 1979.”
Last month, Sharaa became Damascus’s transitional president after leading a rebel campaign that ousted Assad, whose brutal and authoritarian Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
The collapse of Assad’s regime was the result of an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al Qaeda affiliate.
According to an announcement made by the military command which led the offensive against Assad, Sharaa was empowered to form a temporary legislative council for a transitional period and the Syrian constitution was suspended.
“But everyone knows who al-Sharaa is. Not only are they [Syria’s new government] not inclusive, they are exacting vengeance on Alawites. They are harming the Kurds,” Sa’ar said on Monday, warning of the threat posed to not only Syria’s minority groups but also Israel, which shares a border with Syria.
“We will not compromise the security on our border. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are acting in Syria to create another front against Israel there,” Israel’s top diplomat continued, referring to the two main Iran-backed terrorist groups in Gaza.
Following Assad’s fall in December, Israel moved troops into a buffer zone along the Syrian border to secure a military position to prevent terrorists from launching attacks against the Jewish state. The previously demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War.
Syria’s new government and UN officials have called for Israel to withdraw its forces.
On Sunday, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not tolerate the presence of HTS or any forces affiliated with Syria’s new rulers south of Damascus and demanded the area be demilitarized.
“Take note: We will not allow HTS forces or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus,” Netanyahu said.
On Monday, Sa’ar also stated that Israel’s weakening of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah played a key role in Assad’s removal from power in Syria, presenting “an opportunity for positive change in Lebanon.”
“There is an opportunity for the transformation of Lebanon from Iranian occupation to the pragmatic Arab camp,” Sa’ar said. However, he warned that “money from Iran is being moved to Lebanon with the aid of Turkey, through Istanbul.”
The Association Council convened for the first time since its last meeting in 2022 amid ongoing tensions between the EU and Israel over the status of Jerusalem and the West Bank. The EU views Israel’s presence in these areas as illegal, a position Israel has opposed, while also advocating for Palestinian statehood, which the Israeli government rejects at this time.
During the meeting, Sa’ar referred to these tensions in EU-Israel relations, arguing that they should not affect the Association Council’s work.
“We proved over the past 16 months Israel is a pillar of strength and stability in the turbulent Middle East. We are the only democracy in the Middle East … We must work together to safeguard democracy, world order and stability,” Israeli foreign minister said.
“Our relations should not be held hostage to the bitter conflict we have with our Palestinian neighbors.”
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