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US Truce Efforts on Lebanon Fail Ahead of Election, Diplomatic Sources Say
Israeli tanks are being moved, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in the Golan Heights, Sept. 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
American efforts to halt fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah have failed after the US drafted an “unrealistic” ceasefire proposal and Israel‘s insistence on being able to enforce a truce directly, people briefed on the diplomacy told Reuters.
With no workable proposal on the table ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, the conflict could drag on for months, according to a Lebanese political source close to Hezbollah, two diplomats and a person briefed on the talks.
They all spoke on condition of anonymity. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to questions from Reuters.
A US official said talks between US envoys and Israeli officials on Thursday yielded better results than expected. A second US official described the meetings as “substantive” and “constructive” but said the US would not negotiate in public.
The State Department referred Reuters to comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Israel and Lebanon were moving toward understandings on what was required to end the conflict but more work was needed.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire for a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel says it has uncovered Hezbollah tunnels and weapons stores in south Lebanon, and that the terrorist group had planned an incursion into Israel even larger than the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
The US had drafted a 60-day truce proposal that would see Hezbollah pull back from Lebanon’s southern border, both sides cease attacks, and 10,000 Lebanese army troops deploy in the south, according to Israel‘s public broadcaster Kan.
But two diplomats told Reuters the diplomatic efforts had failed because that draft was not viable.
“It was totally unrealistic because of the onus it places on the Lebanese army to solve these problems,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A regional diplomat echoed those doubts, specifically pointing to elements of a “side letter” between the US and Israel published by Kan which gave Israel the right to take action against imminent threats to its security. The diplomat described this proposal as “unworkable.”
Lebanon’s government has not commented publicly on the draft, but officials told Reuters that Israel‘s insistence on “direct enforcement” of a deal would breach state sovereignty.
US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, who were in Israel on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire with Israeli officials, did not continue on to Lebanon for talks.
“After Hochstein’s attempt yesterday, that’s it. It seems only the battlefield will decide,” the Lebanese political figure close to Hezbollah told Reuters.
The US has struggled to break the deadlock in talks.
This week, Hochstein asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel to make headway, two sources told Reuters — a claim denied by Lebanon’s premier and Hochstein.
Netanyahu is facing pressure in Israel from the tens of thousands evacuated from northern areas to make sure that Israel would be able to ensure that any agreement was respected and that Hezbollah and other militias would not be able to return.
“It is essential, therefore, that Israel insists on retaining security freedom of action to enforce an agreement in Lebanon,” the conservative Israel Hayom daily said.
Netanyahu’s office said he told Hochstein on Thursday that Israel‘s main concern was not “this or that agreement on paper but Israel‘s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon.”
On Friday, Lebanese leaders blamed Israel for undermining any deal.
“Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel‘s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction,” Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said.
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and the main diplomatic channel used to mediate with it, said Israel had “wasted more than one opportunity” to reach a ceasefire.
In comments to pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Berri said Netanyahu had rejected a roadmap that Lebanon and Hochstein had been on board with, and said any diplomacy had been postponed until after Tuesday’s US presidential election.
“The most likely scenario now is that the Israelis will keep doing what they want to do — with no ceasefire,” the Western diplomat said.
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Protesters trapped students in a Calgary lecture hall during a talk by Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy
Demonstrators trapped Jewish students in a classroom at the University of Calgary (UofC) on Oct. 31, during a talk with Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy. Students had to evacuate the […]
The post Protesters trapped students in a Calgary lecture hall during a talk by Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Iran’s Quds Force Chief Pens Letter to New Hezbollah Leader Vowing Support to Destroy Israel
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, speaks during a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2022. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The head of Iran’s elite military force responsible for Iranian proxies and terrorist operations abroad has written a letter to Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, expressing unwavering support in their joint mission to destroy Israel.
“The Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] will remain alongside Hezbollah until the malignant Zionist tree [Israel] is uprooted and Palestine, along with holy al-Quds, is liberated,” Iranian Brigadier General Esmail Qaani wrote in the letter, according to Iranian and Lebanese media.
Another translation from Iran’s state-owned Press TV quoted Qaani — who leads the extraterritorial wing of the IRGC, an internationally designated terrorist organization — as saying to Qassem that “your brothers in the Quds Force will stand by Your Excellency and Hezbollah until the elimination and eradication of the evil lineage of Zionism and the freedom of Palestine.”
Qaani praised the appointment of Qassem as the new leader of Iran’s chief proxy in the Middle East and commemorated his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September after heading the Lebanese terrorist organization for decades.
“By the grace of God, the resplendent and struggle-filled path of the martyrs will continue with more speed and strength under the management and leadership of Your Excellency,” Qaani wrote. “You are a seasoned and honorable fighter, widely respected among the noble fighters in the resistance.”
The Iranian commander added, “I pray to Almighty God that this enlightened and Jihadi path of the martyrs will continue under your leadership with greater strength and resolve.”
Hezbollah officially named Qassem, 67, as its new secretary general on Tuesday. He was appointed as the terrorist group’s deputy chief in 1991 and has been one of its leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media.
Shortly after Qassem’s appointment was announced, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X/Twitter, “Temporary appointment. Not for long,” along with a photo of the new Hezbollah chief as an apparent threat.
The Israeli government wrote a similar message on its official Arabic account on X: “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors … There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force.”
Over the past several weeks, Israel has intensified its military operations against Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, where the terrorist group wields significant influence. Israel has significantly degraded Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpiles and killed much of its leadership, including not only Nasrallah but also others expected to replace him.
Hezbollah has been firing drones, missiles, and rockets at northern Israel almost daily since Oct. 8 of last year, one day after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — another Iranian proxy — invaded the Jewish state from the south and launched the ongoing war in Gaza.
About 70,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel amid the relentless Hezbollah attacks. Israel has vowed to do whatever is necessary, including military action, to ensure its displaced citizens can return to their communities.
Meanwhile, Qaani, 71, was reportedly questioned in recent weeks by Iranian authorities about apparent security breaches surrounding the killing of Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to the Middle East Eye, Iranian authorities have serious suspicions about a major security breach in Qaani’s office but do not seem to believe that Qaani was involved. The news outlet quoted sources as saying that Qaani’s “negligence” and “weak management” had “led to untrustworthy people entering his office,” adding that they may have been the cause of security breaches that led to Nasrallah’s death.
The Algemeiner could not independently verify these claims about potential breaches in Qaani’s office.
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‘Keep Heads Down’: Chuck Schumer Recommended Columbia Administration Not Pay Attention to Antisemitism Criticism
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds a press conference in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 23, 2024. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) advised the Columbia University administration to “keep heads down” in response to criticism they faced for their handling of surging antisemitism on campus, according to a new report from the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
“Universities’ political problems are really only among Republicans,” Schumer reportedly said, suggesting Democrats did not have a problem with the way administrators were handling antisemitism on campus.
The report sparked backlash against Schumer because in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct 7. attack on Israel, in which the Palestinian terrorist group killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, anti-Israel and oftentimes pro-terrorist activism exploded on college campuses across the US. In the weeks following last Oct. 7, dozens of videos of young people tearing down posters put up to cultivate awareness about the hostages went viral. Additionally, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country came out in support of the terrorist attack, framing it as legitimate resistance.
When asked, Schumer and his staff indicated they did not believe it was necessary for the university’s leaders to meet with Republicans,” the congressional report stated.
One of Columbia’s board of trustees co-chairs, David Greenwald, wrote in a message to the school’s president that “if we are keeping our head down, maybe we shouldn’t meet with Republicans.”
The more than 300-page report found “a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property.”
In a statement to the New York Post, Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said the report was not accurate.
“Sen. Schumer regularly and forcefully condemned antisemitic acts at Columbia and elsewhere, saying ‘when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line.’ He conveyed this point publicly and to administrators privately,” Roefaro said.
He added, “It’s worthy to note here that Republicans are citing words from someone who is not Chuck Schumer. That is called hearsay.”
This incident reportedly occurred a few months into the Israel-Hamas war, and before “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” began to pop up on campuses across the country during the spring, and another wave of scrutiny followed.
The Algemeiner documented dozens of statements at Columbia just within the first week of the movement that were explicitly pro-terrorist.
Some encampments had to be forcefully removed after protesters got violent, invaded school buildings, and/or resisted the police when asked to disperse.
The response by universities to all of this was lackluster, claimed the report, which concluded that there was “a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property.”
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