Middle East Press On: Türkiye, Morocco, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Hamas, and Gaza: New Age Islam's Selection, 25 February 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
25 February 2025
1. Türkiye-led alliance to end regional terrorist organizations: Daesh, PKK/YPG
2. ROPES in Morocco: Israelis and Palestinians found hope beyond conflict
3. Syria’s new leadership faces a defining test
4. Ideologically, Hamas's deal cult cannot tolerate the Jew
5. Pave new paths towards transforming the partnership between Israel and diaspora
6. Hamas’s hostage releases are modern-day slave auctions
7. Gaza rises from the rubble
8. Lebanon and a lifetime of assassinations
9. Lebanon caught between hope and apprehension
10.Arduous moments for Lebanon … and maybe the region
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Türkiye-Led Alliance To End Regional Terrorist Organizations: Daesh, Pkk/Ypg
By Sibel Düz
Feb 25, 2025
During a recent diplomatic engagement, Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan underscored Türkiye’s commitment to fostering a regional counterterrorism framework independent of global hegemonic influence during his visit to Baghdad. Subsequent statements from Fidan revealed that a preliminary agreement had been reached for a joint cooperation mechanism involving Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Türkiye. The inaugural meeting of this quadrilateral alliance, initially centred on combating Daesh, is set to convene in Jordan with the participation of high-ranking officials, including the ministers of Foreign Affairs and National Defence, alongside the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
By championing a regional initiative, Türkiye aims to establish an autonomous problem-solving mechanism, thereby expanding its diplomatic latitude while diminishing the reliance on external actors. This approach aligns with the broader geopolitical recalibration observed among key regional states – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Türkiye – toward prioritizing endogenous stability and strategic autonomy.
Daesh imperative
The deliberate prioritization of Daesh as the initial focal point of this alliance is no coincidence but a meticulously calculated strategy. While Daesh’s operational presence in Syria has waned in critical zones such as the Badiya Desert and Deir el-Zour, it retains mobility in southern Deir el-Zour and Hasakah – regions forming a vital transit corridor between Iraq and Syria. Intelligence assessments indicate a concentrated terrorist presence near the Iraqi border, highlighting the potential resurgence of the terrorist group. Furthermore, Daesh continues its assault on Syria’s oil infrastructure, aiming to disrupt governance mechanisms, induce economic destabilization and replenish its financial resources.
In Iraq, Daesh has adopted a strategic recalibration, favouring lower-frequency but high-impact operations. This tactical shift underscores the group’s enduring operational capacity despite a reduced public footprint. The evolving security dynamics in both Iraq and Syria suggest that Daesh is not in retreat but rather consolidating its forces for future offensives, thereby persisting as a latent yet formidable threat.
Elimination of PKK/YPG
Consequently, the shared objective of countering Daesh serves as a unifying force for Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Türkiye, providing a common strategic imperative that underpins the alliance. Moreover, this regional initiative holds the potential to alleviate the financial burden borne by the international coalition, effectively undermining the rationale for continued U.S. military entrenchment in Syria. Should this framework succeed, it could facilitate the long-elusive withdrawal that U.S. President Donald Trump had advocated but was unable to implement due to institutional resistance. A potential U.S. military disengagement would, in turn, recalibrate the regional balance of power, diminishing the strategic leverage of actors such as Israel and the PKK/YPG, both of whom have lobbied for sustained American involvement in the region.
Türkiye’s longstanding efforts to neutralize the PKK/YPG and its affiliated entities have yielded tangible results, particularly through enhanced security coordination with Iraq’s central government. However, the persistent PKK entrenchment in Sinjar and disputed territories remains a challenge. Despite this, the outlawing of PKK-affiliated groups has significantly eroded the organization's political influence. Concurrently, Daesh sleeper cells continue to pose a latent threat in Iraq’s Anbar and Mosul provinces. The elimination of these nonstate armed actors is paramount for Iraq’s internal security, the restoration of public order and the attraction of foreign investment, which hinges on the establishment of a stable governance environment.
Calculations of Syria, Jordan
From Syria’s perspective, the consolidation of political legitimacy necessitates demonstrable governance efficacy, particularly in addressing security threats that imperil public order. A cooperative security framework led by Türkiye would not only provide Syria with indispensable military and intelligence support but also curtail the influence of extra-regional actors over its internal affairs. This alignment would enhance Syria’s bargaining position vis-a-vis the PKK/YPG, potentially expediting a resolution to longstanding territorial and security disputes.
The PKK/YPG is experiencing growing strain as a result of the U.S.' decision to halt financial assistance and outline a withdrawal strategy from Syria, significantly reducing the YPG’s authority and economic resilience. This development follows recent clashes with the Türkiye-supported Syrian National Army (SNA) and ongoing discussions between the YPG and the Syrian government. The cessation of U.S. aid has disrupted various sectors, particularly in YPG-administered territories, where humanitarian efforts have been suspended, worsening conditions in displacement camps such as al-Hol and al-Roj. Confronted with financial and diplomatic challenges, the YPG is being pushed toward more comprehensive negotiations with Damascus. Predictably, this scenario will hasten the YPG’s integration into Syria’s state institutions, potentially requiring compromises on resource control, border security and regional administration. Furthermore, losing critical leverage, including authority over Daesh prisoners and refugee camps, diminishes the YPG’s negotiating strength, making reconciliation with Damascus increasingly inevitable.
Recently, a prominent YPG commander revealed that the YPG, along with the "Syrian Democratic Council" ("MSD") and the so-called Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), has agreed to incorporate its security apparatus into the Syrian army, marking a step toward rapprochement. The agreement involves restoring government service institutions, enhancing living standards and fostering closer ties with the Damascus administration. Additionally, eliminating foreign fighters from YPG forces and facilitating the return of displaced individuals have been designated as priorities. This decision reflects an attempt to reinforce stability and consolidate Syria under the newly established leadership of President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The YPG’s so-called leader, Mazloum Abdi, has signalled readiness to coordinate security transfers and expel foreign fighters, demonstrating a growing inclination to meet Damascus’ conditions. While complete integration remains under discussion, the overall trend suggests that the YPG is increasingly pressured to accept a unified national framework due to shifting regional and global dynamics.
For Jordan, ensuring border security is of paramount importance. As a front-line state directly affected by Daesh’s cross-border activities, Jordan stands to benefit significantly from this multilateral security cooperation. The alliance could also mitigate the risk of renewed refugee inflows stemming from potential instability in Syria. Additionally, Jordan’s participation serves to neutralize adversarial narratives suggesting that “Türkiye exploits the Daesh threat as a pretext for targeting Kurdish groups.”
Broader security architecture
Although the operational details of this alliance remain fluid, it is evident that its scope will extend beyond the containment of Daesh. A broader strategic alignment will likely foster collaboration on multiple security concerns. While the Syrian administration has yet to initiate direct confrontations with the YPG, ongoing negotiations indicate a complex political calculus. The potential cessation of U.S. support for the YPG, the transfer of Daesh detainees held in YPG-controlled facilities, the reintegration of Arab-majority territories into the Syrian state structure, and the consolidation of Syria’s unitary governance model all represent critical considerations for the evolving security landscape. By institutionalizing coordination, this quadrilateral framework could significantly curtail the YPG’s ability to leverage Daesh detainees as a bargaining tool, thereby fortifying Syria’s negotiating position and paving the way for a sustainable resolution.
The proposed quadrilateral cooperation model represents an ambitious attempt to institutionalize a regional security framework with far-reaching implications. Whether this initiative will materialize into a durable mechanism remains contingent on its implementation, operational scope, and adaptability to emerging challenges. As developments unfold, the trajectory of this alliance will be a critical subject for close observation, with potential repercussions extending beyond the immediate theatre of the Middle East.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/turkiye-led-alliance-to-end-regional-terrorist-organizations-daesh-pkkypg
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Ropes In Morocco: Israelis And Palestinians Found Hope Beyond Conflict
By Einat Levi
February 25, 2025
Earlier this month in Morocco, a young Palestinian woman and Israeli man wandered into the large market at Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech. They stood together in front of a juice stand.
The vendor greeted them and turned to the girl, asking her where she was from. “I am from Palestine,” she answered, and he showered her with love, saying, “We love Palestine!” He then turned to the young man, who responded, “I’m from Israel,” and the vendor, without hesitation, responded, “We love Israel too!”
That fairytale moment took place when 30 Israeli and Palestinian students joined their MENA counterparts in Morocco for an experiential educational program organized by ROPES, providing participants with the opportunity to learn about the MENA region, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and the Middle Eastern peace process.
The Regional Organization for Peace, Economics & Security (ROPES) is a US-based nonprofit NGO, founded in 2017 to connect forward-thinking Israeli and Palestinian emerging leaders with peers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Beyond the academic content delivered by a select group of academics, a major goal of the program was to rebuild trust among the participants. This aim turned into an immersive emotional and spiritual journey through Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, and Essaouira.
Throughout the program, moments of light and grace emerged, not only when we agreed with one another but especially when the shared space that we had co-created was able to accommodate disagreements, fear, anger, sorrow, blame, and longing for a normal life.
We momentarily set aside the media and social platforms and focused on interpersonal learning, on casual conversations on breaks or on the bus, and on what happened in between.
Over time, we managed to release at least part of the enormous burden we all carry, due to our various realities, and simply be human beings, each with a face and a name.
The decision to hold the program in Morocco was not arbitrary. We could easily have held it in Cyprus or Germany, as is the case with many other peacebuilding initiatives, benefiting from shorter flight times and reduced costs. Nevertheless, we chose to conduct the program in a Muslim country in the westernmost part of the MENA region.
This decision highlights Morocco’s important role as an ideal location for trust and confidence building between Israelis, Palestinians, and other inhabitants of the region.
Morocco is perfect for this role
Morocco’s qualifications for this role are based on it having been a beacon for shared life for Muslims and Jews for centuries, as well as on the status of King Mohammed VI of Morocco as the chair of the Jerusalem Committee under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the good relations Morocco maintains with both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as with other regional actors.
And so it was. In these difficult days, Morocco provided a pleasant and gentle oasis of kindness, welcoming faces, and comforting Moroccan dishes, and small gestures that brought us back to our common humanity.
Apparently, the sight of young Israelis and Palestinian together – as well as with others from the region – did not leave those whom we encountered indifferent. From the lecturers and speakers to hotel staff, market vendors, and others we interacted with, everyone was filled with hope at such an unusual sight against the backdrop of regional crisis.
Particularly moving was the encounter between the program participants and the members of the Mimouna Association which had been established in 2007 by students in Morocco to bring Muslims and Jews closer together; and to preserve Jewish heritage as part of Morocco’s cultural diversity.
On the second part of the journey, we made the long trip to the city of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, where we met the king’s advisor, André Azoulay.
He is an example of Jewish leadership not only in Morocco but in the entire Arab and Muslim world. Conversing with him was one of the significant highlights of the program.
When Azoulay spoke of his Jewish identity as a duty to care for others, rather than dividing the group into separate identities, he exemplified a spirit of solidarity and mutual responsibility.
Azoulay explained that he kept his “Jewishness” alive by being more than ever committed to the two-state solution. “I do justice to my Moroccan fundamental Jewish values by giving a chance to whoever I interact with to enjoy the same justice, the same dignity I expect for myself.”
Between visits to Bayt Dakira and Dar Souiri, as well as welcoming the Shabbat at the Slat El-Atiyah synagogue, we transitioned from the mundane to the sacred.
On Friday evening, we held an interfaith dinner at the Zaouia Al-Qadiriya, a religious center of one of the prominent Sufi orders in Morocco.
Together, we sang parts of Andalusian music and the Jewish songs of “bakashot” (requests), a verse in Arabic followed by another in Hebrew and so on – as is customary in the Matrouz tradition [Judeo-Arabic artistic and musical concept] a practice for multiculturalist co-creation, rooted in the Golden Age of Andalusia, a history shared by us all and an integral part of Moroccan culture.
Our eye-opening experiences during the program in Morocco illustrated what can be achieved, thus amplifying our hope for a future in which MENA can become a region of peace and coexistence.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-843594
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Syria’s New Leadership Faces A Defining Test
By Salem Alketbi
February 25, 2025
The new Syrian administration has quickly gained legitimate authority and widespread recognition both regionally and internationally. This rapid acceptance reflects a strong desire from Arab and international parties to open a new chapter with Syria.
They aim to ensure the stability of this major Arab country, preserve its unity and cohesion, and serve the interests of the Syrian people.
In return, the world expects the Syrian administration to pass important trust tests and prove it has a national agenda completely unrelated to its past. The new leadership must demonstrate good intentions and sever any lingering links with terror elements that threaten regional and global security.
From their first hours in power, the new Syrian leadership has shown clear awareness of their sensitive position. They fully understand the critical need to rebuild their public image and present themselves differently from past negative perceptions.
The administration also recognizes the real danger of exploitation or deliberate undermining of Syria’s new relationships. They took decisive action when they confronted the dangerous January 25 Revolutionaries group that emerged from Damascus to threaten Egypt’s national security.
The group called on Egyptians to “overthrow the regime,” raising serious concerns about the exploitation of Syria to gather anti-Egyptian terror elements. Egypt paid heavy human and material costs until it succeeded in eliminating the persistent terrorism that has caused severe losses since 2011.
While no one denies the new Syrian administration’s previous ties to extremist organizations, the substantial support they have received confirms the sincere desire of regional and global powers to move forward.
This new relationship requires respecting essential priorities and clear red lines. Closing the troubled chapter on the past and preventing terror organizations from using Syrian territory to threaten neighbouring countries and the wider world stands foremost among these requirements.
Recent regional experiences since the chaotic events of 2011 show that terror organizations often hide more sinister plans than they reveal. Any responsible country finds it hard to overlook potential threats, regardless of apparent size.
Strong international reactions took place when a prominent Jaish al-Fatah member openly threatened Egypt from Damascus. The Syrian authorities quickly recognized this imminent danger and acted with transparency, announcing the inciter’s swift arrest while not specifying further punitive measures.
The real danger from these mercenary elements comes not from their individual capabilities, but from their extensive external connections and constant readiness to receive operational orders from hidden entities with their own dangerous agendas.
Will Syria become a hostile threat to Israel?
These covert connections explain the sudden and unpredictable movements of these organizations across regional borders in recent troubled years. The new Syrian administration has repeatedly declared that Syria will not become a hostile threat to any country, including Israel.
They offer this necessary reassurance during this sensitive rebuilding phase. They must also address the hard challenge of old comrades who violate their official public position. The new leadership has unique, detailed knowledge about these elements from their time fighting Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime.
They know their exact locations, sophisticated weapons, and complex networks. Addressing this extremely complex security challenge is an urgent top priority for building genuine trust with Arab countries and the cautious international community.
The recent high-level ministerial meeting in Riyadh, attended by the new Syrian Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, demonstrates Saudi Arabia’s determined leadership in correcting past diplomatic mistakes with Syria.
Arab nations see a highly favourable opportunity to welcome Syria back to the regional fold. The important Arab initiative began shortly after Assad’s unexpected fall, with remarkably little hesitation this time.
This situation has created a crucial opportunity for Syria to capitalize on strong Arab support while respecting firm red lines – particularly regarding national security, territorial sovereignty, and preventing any terror presence.
This careful consideration is the fundamental key to securing immediate support, expediting comprehensive reconstruction, and enabling the safe return of millions of displaced Syrians.
The landmark Riyadh conference provided unprecedented Arab backing and called for the urgent lifting of crippling economic sanctions on Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa and his senior colleagues now bear the enormous responsibility of maintaining this positive momentum and fulfilling their public promises.
They must implement their international obligations in line with the extensive goodwill they have received from both regional partners and the global community.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-843589
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Ideologically, Hamas's Deal Cult Cannot Tolerate The Jew
By Micah Halpern
February 25, 2025
The arrival of coffins carrying the two red-haired cherubs forced me to once again ask what I asked after October 7. What motivates people to act with such brutality, with such ruthlessness?
The murders of brothers Ariel and Kfir reflect a pre-modern medieval behaviour toward an enemy. Our modern conceptions cannot imagine the mindset that could facilitate and activate the kidnapping and then the coldblooded murder of infants.
Hamas and the others like them have been indoctrinated to believe that all Israelis and all Jews are sub-human. And as sub-human, Jews should be killed – much like vermin and other irritating animals.
Killing Jews is a path to solving a larger problem. We have seen this before – that is how the Nazis successfully trained their murderers to participate in the mass murder process.
To better dehumanize Jews, the Nazis shaved their heads and transformed them into living skeletons, what they derisively termed “muscle men” with dysentery and body lice. The Nazis created an environment where Jews could not clean themselves. Where Jews did not have toilet paper. It was all a part of their Final Solution.
In the eyes of the murderers, the Jews were not due even the smallest modicum of decency – that would have transformed them, once again, back into human beings. Similarly, Hamas and the others were able to brutally murder the Bibas children.
Still, the more vexing question is, how do Western educated students and faculty support such behaviour? It boils down to one simple answer. There are, in this world, people – even among the educated elite – who hate Jews so much that they can justify any act, no matter how cruel or barbarous, against the Jew and Israel.
It is not that these Jew-haters who show their support for Hamas on university campuses across the United States and Europe are so pro-Palestinian – it is that they are so anti-Jew.
They justify their actions by explaining that Israel did X or didn’t do Y. They rationalize that there is no other option for the Palestinians – they live in a ghetto. They say they wish that they had the strength to do what Hamas is doing. They call it standing up against an oppressor.
In other words, they support killing Jews by any means.
JUST MURDER Jews; murder as many as possible. Murder them and then celebrate their murder. On US campuses, the piece d’resistance is the massive celebrations of the murders.
And that explains why there is such excitement, such enthusiasm in pro-Hamas rallies. It explains why, after October, 7 – there was glee that Jews were murdered. That is why students and faculty embraced Hamas and posted outlandish statements on their social media accounts. They were unabashed supporters; they felt no shame.
Many of those who celebrate Hamas are anti-Western. They are composed of two distinct ideological groups: modern-day Marxists who yearn for the fall of Western society and Islamists who want Islamic society to eradicate Western values and Western culture.
Israel represents everything that is abhorrent to these groups. They feel comfortable endorsing the murderers, their murder and the subjugation of Jews.
That is why, despite knowing full well that the average person living in the West is repulsed by the idea of kidnapping and murdering infants and children, these educated Marxists and Islamists are not the least bit embarrassed to embrace the ideology of the mass murder of innocents.
Hamas’s murder rampage on October 7, and the games they play with the kidnapped and their dead bodies, empowers their supporters across the world. The brutal terrorist group’s supporters in the US claim that their support for Hamas is freedom of speech.
Still, there are limits to freedom of speech, even in the United States of America. Among those limits – you may not give material support to a terrorist or a terrorist organization. Not even a single dollar.
So why the Jews?
It is what Jews and Israel represent. Jews represent life, success, happiness, and creativity. Israel represents a bright and exciting future, a rebuilding, and a renaissance. Hamas and others cannot tolerate that vision.
These haters of Jews have created a cult that celebrates all that Israel and Jews are not. They celebrate murder, kidnapping, destruction, darkness, and death. Ideologically, they cannot tolerate the Jew.
Hamas and their supporters will be defeated. Israel and the Jewish people will defeat the death cult – because hate, evil and destruction are no match for happiness, for life and for creativity.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-843591
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Pave New Paths Towards Transforming The Partnership Between Israel And Diaspora
By Roi Abecassis
February 25, 2025
A snowy February hit New York while we were at the World Zionist Organization’s (WZO) shluchim (teaching emissaries) conference in New Jersey. On the last day, the local news channel announced a “Snow Day,” meaning all schools would close and parents and children would have to stay home.
A school principal, who received instructions to close his school, had planned to hold a festive reception that day for the school’s Israeli shliach. The emissary had just returned from Israel after war-intensive IDF reserve duty, having left his family and his role at the school.
The principal (after some phone calls and a little pressure) managed to obtain special permission from the district supervisor, and the school opened during the Snow Day just to hold the reception for their hero from Israel.
The school gymnasium was packed when the shliach, dressed in his IDF uniform, entered to the now infamous tune of “Even in the Dark Hours of the Night.” The entire teaching staff, eyes sparkling, gave him a guard of honour, applauding and welcoming him with warm hugs.
He then rushed to his waiting students and joined their singing with great emotion. This is just one story that illustrates how Jews around the world identify so strongly with the State of Israel.
Since October 7, there has been a renewed closeness between Diaspora Jewry and Israel. Issues that previously created division – such as the Western Wall arrangement, the Law of Return, and judicial reform – have been pushed aside in favour of renewed partnership between parts of the Jewish people in Israel and abroad.
It is commonly said that the rise of global antisemitism strengthens our shared fate, but besides that, one can see an awakening and renewed search for Jewish identity and meaning among Diaspora Jewry, as well as a closer connection to the State of Israel.
IN A REPORT published in September 2024, the Jewish People Policy Institute presented a complex picture of the Jewish people’s situation after October 7. By most metrics, the Jewish people are struggling. However, according to three metrics specifically addressing Diaspora Jewry, things are improving:
Cohesion of the Jewish people: There is a renewed closeness of Jewish people in Israel and abroad. A study determined that 8 out of 10 Jews from Israel agree with the statement, “All Jews, in Israel and the Diaspora, have a shared future.”
Identity and identification: There is a significant increase in the number of Diaspora Jews who identify with the State of Israel and show increased involvement in Jewish activity in their community.
A Rosov Consulting study led by Dr. Alex Pomson dealt with, among other things, responses from American Jews regarding their relationship with Israel after October 7. Some 36% said their relationship remained the same, compared to 46% who said they now feel more connected to Israel.
Jewish demographics: The institute’s report found that the Jewish population in Israel grew by 1.4%, there was positive migration to Israel, and the natural growth rates of the population increased.
There was also a significant increase in opening immigration files – 318% in France and 46% in the US, for example. (It is still difficult to know the correlation between opening immigration files and actual immigration.)
Dr. Daniel Gordis, a research fellow at the Shalem Center, points to two crises experienced by the Jewish world in the post-October 7 period. First, Israeli society is experiencing a crisis of loss of confidence in the Zionist enterprise that promised “never again” after the Holocaust.
Second, American Jewry is experiencing a crisis in feeling that the Jewish population in the Diaspora is in safe territory and Jewish life is not under threat. With the emergence of anti-Semitic incidents all over the world, this feeling has been significantly undermined.
The conclusion arising from both crises is that this tragic day bonded World Jewry with the story of the State of Israel.
LAST WEEK, Dr. Gordis spoke at a strategic thinking conference in Jerusalem involving leading Israeli organizations dealing with Jewish education in the Diaspora. Participants gathered to discuss the educational opportunities arising after October 7. For example, how can we capitalize on the renewed closeness between Diaspora Jews and the State of Israel?
The conference was jointly led by the Education Department of the WZO and the Pincus Fund and was attended by representatives from the Jewish Agency, UnitEd, and the ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the Lookstein Centre, and more.
At the conference, Dr. Micah Goodman proposed a new narrative that the State of Israel can offer Diaspora Jewry. He described Israel as a society that successfully balances individual achievement with collective responsibility.
This unique hybrid model combines technological innovation and personal growth – exemplified by the IDF’s military advances – with deep social cohesion, demonstrated through national mobilization and mutual support. The ongoing campaign to free the hostages further illustrates this collective commitment to shared values and sacrifice.
According to Goodman, few societies are capable of offering such a path. There is a built-in assumption that the State of Israel has a unique story to offer Diaspora Jews who want to identify with it.
Participants agreed there has been a new awakening and search for meaning, manifested in the desire to return and connect to a shared story that can revitalize every Jewish life with meaning and purpose. Values such as self-sacrifice and mutual responsibility, as well as dealing with identity questions about an individual’s relationship to Judaism and to Israel, are all a platform for the search for meaning, which expresses a deeper, growing desire to belong to a larger story.
What does this shared story contain?
Well, different answers were raised. Is the shared story of the Jewish people the “love” that needs to be rekindled? Has the time come to offer expressions of commitment to the State of Israel by creating programs that include “hands-on” missions to express that long-standing connection?
Or perhaps the call is to retrace the Zionist story back to its original roots – roots that do not begin with Herzl and the Zionist Movement but were planted more than 4,000 years ago, with God’s call to Abraham the Hebrew, “Go forth to your land and your birthplace.”
These recent findings demonstrate how our reality has presented us with a historic opportunity. We must pave new paths to leverage this moment in time for a renewed connection to an ancient story, the transformative partnership between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-843584
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Hamas’s Hostage Releases Are Modern-Day Slave Auctions
By David Christopher Kaufman
February 25, 2025
Another weekend, another grotesque spectacle in Gaza, as Hamas releases yet its latest handful of Israeli hostages as part of its fragile ceasefire agreement with Israel expected to expire next week.
Like with the many Saturdays before, Hamas paraded a trio of Israelis – Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen – onto makeshift platforms emblazoned with multilingual propaganda declarations and decorative nationalistic flags.
As cheering crowds looked on, the trio were then forced onto the stage, made to smile and wave as heavily armed terrorists milled about, before finally being led to freedom by the Red Cross officials so glaringly impotent during their more than 500 days of captivity.
The Hamas display has been likened to everything from a ghoulish circus to a hint of what women accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials era might have endured.
But to me – an American Jew who is also African-American – the Hamas production feels like nothing less than a slave auction in America’s South during the years prior to the Civil War.
There are many parallels between America’s slave era and these horrifying Hamas happenings. The most obvious is race – slavery was a crime perpetrated by whites against blacks, with blackness the defining characteristic of this power dynamic.
Slaves were marked for chattel servitude because they were black – something that even two or three generations of miscegenation could not undo. One drop of blackness and you were black – stripped of all rights and fated to working the fields.
The same thinking applies to Hamas and Jews and Israelis. As they sat on Hamas’s impromptu dais forced to perform as the crowds eagerly inspected the Zionist captives, Shem Tov, Wenkert, and Cohen were reduced to little more than their sheer corpus – much like the slaves of the antebellum South.
They’re there solely to be prodded and picked over, booty from a bloody conquest – October 7 in the case of Gaza and Hamas, the Middle Passage during the era before emancipation. The trio were there in central Gaza because they were Jews.
Humas as mere currency
Most crucially, in the case of both slavery and Hamas’s hostage strategy, humans exist as mere currency – their only function to be bargained and traded as part of an evil end game.
For slave owners, the goal was cheap labour to fuel fallow cotton and tobacco plantations. In Gaza, kidnapped Jewish bodies are held captive and abused, to be traded for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Unlike during the slave era – which required workers who could actually work – even dead Jews hold value for Hamas. Lots of value, as evidenced by the four corpses traded for hundreds of Palestinian criminals this week, including murdered children Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
The last 16 months of global anti-Israel protests and surging antisemitism have revealed Jews and Israelis vulnerable to violence and peril almost unimaginable before Hamas’s October 7 invasion.
But I could have imagined it. Having spent my life contending with racism, I’ve never lacked the ability to imagine the horrors humans are capable of inflicting upon one another.
For me, what Jews now endure in America is nothing less than the racism blacks have known for centuries. Indeed, as I wrote earlier this month, America’s Jews now exist as “America’s ‘new’ blacks.”
The slave-auction-like atmosphere that has accompanied each week’s Hamas hostage release only reaffirms this belief – aided and edified by pliant media like the BBC, for which justifying Hamas barbarism knows no limits.
Like blacks in the American South and Israelites in biblical Egypt, dozens of Jews remain captive in Gaza – chained like slaves and awaiting their conversion into currency.
As the first phase of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel comes to an end, so, too, might the weekly hostage “auctions” that have been among its most defining optics.
Most Israelis, of course, pray this exodus from slavery to freedom will continue into phase two. One can only shudder when imagining the diabolical displays Hamas is already planning.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-843585
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Gaza Rises From The Rubble
February 24, 2025
Despite the immense destruction in Gaza and the devastated streets and buildings that have become ruins, Palestinians are trying to return to life, affirming their refusal to surrender to Israel’s efforts to force them off their land.
Shops with damaged walls and cracked facades have reopened, cafes are filled with patrons, taxis are back on the shattered streets, and police have been deployed to manage traffic on the ruined roads.
In the streets of Gaza City, a falafel vendor stands among the wreckage of his shop, preparing sandwiches, while a famous pastry shop displays its goods despite a shortage of raw materials. Ice cream, which has always symbolised the Gaza summer, is once again cooling the hearts of children who have grown up to the sound of bombings. Gaza is telling the world: “We will live despite the pain, and we will rebuild despite the destruction.”
Through its systematic destruction, the Israeli occupation aimed to turn Gaza into an uninhabitable enclave, but Gazans continue to cling to their land.
Among the destruction, children can be seen playing and workers are rearranging their goods. It is a lesson in resilience and determination that the people of Gaza present to the world: that life is stronger than death.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250224-gaza-rises-from-the-rubble/
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Lebanon And A Lifetime Of Assassinations
Ghassan Charbel
February 24, 2025
A journalist can occasionally be plagued by a certain subject during their career. It seems I have been cursed with the issue of assassinations. I was very close to danger during one assassination and was on the other end of the phone when another figure was assassinated.
Add to that the fact assassinations are never too far away in Lebanon, disappearing for a while before emerging to claim a man with a project or a man who is hindering one. I only grew more intrigued with assassinations when I visited Iraq, Libya and Syria, each with their own stories to tell.
In mid-March 1977, I was at the beginning of my career at Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper. I was visiting an uncle in the town of Mazraat El-Chouf, near Mokhtara, the stronghold of the Jumblatt family. At one point during the visit, my uncle’s neighbor and friend Suleiman Abou Karroum started anxiously shouting for us to come over. Arriving at his house, he told us with a shaky voice: “They killed Kamal Jumblatt.” That was a seismic event in Lebanon at the time.
Abou Karroum shut his windows and told his sons and relatives to guard the house against any attacks. Throughout the coming hours, Abou Karroum would assure us that everything was going to be fine, but the look of concern on his face said otherwise. At that point, we did not know that anyone who was not being protected by their Druze neighbour was being killed. It was said that some 53 people — including my uncle and six members of his family — were killed that night. His house was located no more than 100 meters from where we were. We were safely escorted out of Abou Karroum’s house two days later.
Several years later, Walid Jumblatt would recount to me how he spent that night trying to dissuade his father’s grieving supporters from carrying out reprisals, telling them that their Christian neighbours had nothing to do with his father’s assassination, which was actually carried out by Syrian intelligence.
More than three decades later, and after having lunch with Walid Jumblatt in Mokhtara, I headed to Mazraat El-Chouf. I asked around about Abou Karroum in the hope of thanking him for protecting us. My search led me to an old man in his 90s who was working in his garden. He embraced me as he fought back tears. One man kills his neighbour because he does not look like him. Another man protects his neighbour who does not look like him. I decided that the majority of the Lebanese people are like the latter.
Another harsh lesson in assassinations came in early March 1980, when I was summoned by An-Nahar’s editor-in-chief, Francois Aql, who told me that renowned journalist Salim Al-Lawzi, the editor-in-chief of Al-Hawadeth magazine, was lying in the morgue at the American University of Beirut hospital. Along with a colleague, we were instructed to head to the morgue to identify him. There, an officer barred us from entering and an argument ensued, during which we reminded him of our right to see our colleague. He eventually complied and opened the drawer where Al-Lawzi lay. We noted the evidence of terrible torture on his fingers for daring to write what he did. Several years later, the demands of my job would have me interview his presumed killer. May God forgive me.
On Sept. 14, 1982, I was at my office at An-Nahar when an explosion rocked the Achrafieh district in Beirut. A bomb had just killed newly elected President Bachir Gemayel and his project for the country. Years later, I would meet with former President Amin Gemayel, who appeared to be worn down by several wounds, most notably the assassinations of his son, minister and MP Pierre, and his brother Bachir.
On Feb. 14, 2005, I was interviewing a Syrian official about the US invasion of Iraq and Damascus’ strained ties with Rafik Hariri. When I left the meeting, I found a string of phone messages that said Hariri’s convoy had been targeted in an explosion and that he had been assassinated. That night, I was supposed to pen from Damascus an article about this extraordinary man and to send from there the headline of the front page of Al-Hayat newspaper. The months and years to come would be flooded by assassinations and funerals.
A terrible lesson from assassinations. On Oct. 19, 2012, a dear friend told me that he believed that Col. Wissam Al-Hassan, head of the intelligence bureau in the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, was in London and that I should invite him to lunch or dinner. I was not in the habit of telephoning Al-Hassan, given his busy schedule, but we used to get together in London or Beirut whenever both of us were in town.
I telephoned Al-Hassan but before we could get our greetings out of the way, the line suddenly cut. I tried to call him over and over again but got no response. I expected him to call me back. After about 20 minutes, my friend told me that Al-Hassan had been targeted in a bomb attack. Apparently, he had secretly returned to Beirut, where his killers were waiting for him. The intelligence bureau found his telephone and identified my number as his last caller.
For decades, the newspapers I have worked for — including Asharq Al-Awsat, which I am proud of belonging to today — have covered the funerals of men I interviewed and whose lives were claimed by assassinations. Sunday’s funeral of Hezbollah Secretaries-General Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine reminded me of assassinations. Israel assassinated these men to assassinate their projects.
Lebanon is a difficult tale. Every Lebanese citizen has shed tears over an assassination that remains in their memory. Every Lebanese citizen has been to a funeral, whose pain they will pass on to their children. Can the tears shed by the divided Lebanese be reconciled? Can they live together in a normal house that is not damaged by assassinations?
How difficult it is to be an Arab journalist in this part of the world. How difficult it is to endure a lifetime going from one assassination to another.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591449
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Lebanon Caught Between Hope And Apprehension
Mohamed Chebaro
February 24, 2025
The Lebanese capital, Beirut, nowadays fills visitors with hope, as well as apprehension. The hope is embedded in a sense of renewal, following January’s election of a president free of interference from Syria, Iran or Hezbollah and their so-called axis of resistance, which for decades has been holding the country to ransom under the pretext of confronting Israel and the Western agenda for the Arab Middle East.
This sense of hope is evident in people as they talk about their new president, Joseph Aoun — another general, but no relation to his pro-Hezbollah predecessor, Michel Aoun — and his promise to revive the ethos of a neutral Lebanon, a state willing to serve all its people under the banner of “Army, People, State.” The banner favoured by Hezbollah, “Army, People, Resistance,” had previously dominated the political and popular narratives of the country for more than two decades.
Another reason for the renewed sense of hope in the country is the appointment of a new head of government. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, a former judge at the International Court of Justice, has assembled a Cabinet that breaks with the previous political elite’s practice of filling the government with corrupt cronies.
Salam’s government might be hard for many members of the nation’s parliament — and their supporters and clients in all communities across the country — to stomach. In particular, it has created further disquiet among the Shiite community, which has for decades formed the backbone of the popular support for Hezbollah’s military and political operations.
The feeling of apprehension is evident from the welcome you get once you land in Beirut, as you are never certain if you will be able to leave the airport safely. Hezbollah-affiliated mobs have often staged protests, burned UN vehicles, dumped trash and erected barricades at Rafic Hariri International Airport because, they say, the Lebanese government refuses to allow Iranian airlines to land there.
The sense of apprehension increases when you see Hezbollah flags lining streets across the country, alongside banners commemorating the deaths of many of the group’s commanders and leaders, while claiming victory and a willingness to continue the struggle. The apprehension comes from the fact that everyone, even Hezbollah’s strongest supporters, knows that things have changed, the war has been lost and it remains unclear who will foot the bill to rebuild the villages in the south that were destroyed during the group’s most recent conflict with Israel.
Some Hezbollah supporters have even blamed the government, unjustly, for not rushing to rebuild and provide assistance in the south, despite knowing full well that successive governments backed by Hezbollah bankrupted the state and drove away vital foreign aid, as well as the support on offer from Arab and international communities. This happened as a result of corruption and their rejection of any efforts to implement economic reforms that would have provided the transparency required to reassure international donors and give them the confidence needed to provide funding for this stricken country and its crippled financial and economic systems.
The feelings of apprehension also sometimes triumph when you see that Lebanon’s army has been slow to implement the ceasefire agreement reached between Hezbollah and Israel through completing its deployment south of the Litani River. Its mandate seems to be unclear. Will it merely remove Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure from the areas south of the Litani, or is it supposed to oversee the disarming of the militia that has morphed into a state within the state over the last three decades with help from the deposed Assad regime in Syria, as well the Iranian government and its notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?
Again, one feels apprehensive when watching the Lebanese return to their villages, farms and businesses only to find them completely destroyed by a war many people in the country believed was entirely avoidable. More than two months of full-blown fighting before the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27 left villages close to the border with Israel completely destroyed. In addition, the conflict took a heavy toll on the southern suburbs of Beirut and parts of eastern Lebanon close to Baalbek, another Hezbollah stronghold that was flattened.
Meanwhile, the new leaders of the country continue their talks with the US and France in an effort to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanon, denouncing the continued presence of Israeli troops in five strategic locations as an “occupation.” The UN has condemned the failure of Israeli forces to completely withdraw as a violation of a Security Council resolution. One fears that the continuing Israeli presence could be a trigger for further confrontations between soldiers and villagers, as the latter return to their destroyed homes and businesses, thereby providing a pretext for Hezbollah to rebuild, reboot and renew its base of support and, ultimately, engage in another war.
Lebanon continues to oscillate between two extremes. On one side, there are high hopes for the future among a large segment of the population, who believe that, with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah as a force is massively diminished. This gives the new leadership in Lebanon a golden opportunity to regain control of the state and its machinery to implement reforms and rebuild the country for the good of all its people.
On the other side, there remains the lingering fear that feelings of frustration and a sense of being vanquished might motivate some Hezbollah supporters to turn their guns on the government, the new presidency and their own people. This would create greater domestic insecurity, disrupting efforts to rebuild the nation free from the shackles of foreign influence and interference and ultimate return control of this hijacked country to its own people.
Visitors to Lebanon quickly deduce that the truce with Israel remains fragile. This fragility plays into the hands of the Israeli authorities, which are determined not to allow any repeat of the attacks on settlements close to the border with Lebanon, which forced the occupants to abandon their homes for more than 16 months. It also plays into the hands of Hezbollah, which, though diminished, remains unwilling to accept defeat, lay down its arms, bow out and allow Lebanon to be ruled by its legitimate institutions.
It is time to seize the chance to build a free and fair Lebanon for all. Not one oscillating permanently between hope and apprehension.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591445
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Arduous Moments For Lebanon … And Maybe The Region
Eyad Abu Shakra
February 24, 2025
Lebanon has rarely been through such critical moments since February 2005. Even if it is relatively peaceful, the period ahead will be uncertain and unsettling for the Lebanese. The chemistry of the region is changing and the assumptions that could once be taken for granted are collapsing faster than we could have anticipated before our eyes. The setbacks of Iran’s project in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have been severe by every measure.
Lebanon is taking centre stage at the moment ... as both locals and foreigners on Sunday gathered to bid farewell to Hezbollah’s former secretaries-general, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, in a mass funeral that is likely to be the final chapter of one historical phase and the beginning of another that will be no less fraught with challenges.
The major source of contention here is that the party’s leaders, its popular base and its regional sponsors are not showing any signs that they have acknowledged the irreconcilability between an armed militia, whatever its banner, and the state sovereignty of countries that are supposed to be independent, such as Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
In Lebanon specifically, Israel’s war machine exploited Hezbollah’s war in support of Gaza, going much further than it had in 2006, when the group had sparked a conflict (again) without consulting the “state.”
Whether the party, its leadership and its media admit it or not, Hezbollah has been defeated both militarily and politically. Despite this major setback, the vast majority of Lebanese have avoided gloating and schadenfreude at the expense of Hezbollah or its base.
However, the party has not shown them the appreciation they deserve. Instead, media outlets affiliated with Hezbollah and its self-proclaimed advocates continue to hurl accusations of “treason,” “Zionism,” “dishonour” and “attempts to humiliate the party” (through Israel) at anyone who reiterates the call to build a state under Lebanon’s new president and reformist government.
Indeed, “internalized Zionism” has become the go-to accusation among talking heads and mouthpieces who are unwilling to give the country a chance to recover and embark on a constructive path. The path envisioned does not exclude or erase anyone, as shown by the process through which the new Lebanese government was formed.
Going back to the current state of play. First, it was an extremely fanatical Israeli government, rabidly hostile to any genuine peace that could allow for viable coexistence that inflicted this severe setback on Hezbollah and, behind it, Iran. Whether in Lebanon, the West Bank or Gaza, Israel has always bet on suppressing moderate patriotic voices and undermining their attempts to build states, while turning a blind eye to the rise of more hard-line alternatives to ensure a pretext for evading its obligations to ensure a just peace.
Second, the fanatics currently running Israel do not merely enjoy the unwavering support of Republicans in Washington. We have also seen the Republican leadership go to great lengths in encouraging Tel Aviv’s Likudists and settlers, egging on their displacement projects, first in Gaza and now in the West Bank.
Third, as Israel continues to press forward, the executive orders are gaining pace in the US. The confusion in Europe and NATO, following Washington’s recent positions on Ukraine, Canada and global trade, leave the international community powerless as it tries to wrap its head around the ramifications of these developments. Consequently, there is little hope for any mechanism capable of curbing the destructive excesses that threaten moderation and credibility, on every level, in the foreseeable future.
Fourth, the current regional and international climate has left the Arab world in apprehensive anticipation of what the coming days could bring, amid several influential players’ efforts to maintain as much of the initiative as possible with regard to questions of collective security, Palestinian rights and the containment of extremism. Recent Arab initiatives may, in fact, present an opportunity. Not only could they stop the backsliding, but these efforts could also lay the common ground that leaves a lasting impact even after the current phase of tension and uncertainty.
Moreover, Arab diplomatic efforts could help us take a step forward if they adhere to a clear set of principles. It is well understood that no one takes the deep-rooted Palestinian struggle — a conflict that has fuelled the Arab-Israeli wars for more than 70 years — lightly. However, genuine resolutions to this conflict now seem more marginal than ever before, especially if the principles of international relations that had once been robust continue to erode.
The spike in racism, particularly hostility toward immigrants, Muslims and Arabs, is dangerous. It casts a heavy shadow over political life in Western democracies. Meanwhile, the geopolitical boundaries of Europe, which were last redrawn at the end of the Cold War — with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the breakup of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and the reunification of Germany — are no longer guaranteed.
Even the borders of North America, once considered an island of stability, are now uncertain, while NATO is no longer a reliable security umbrella safeguarding Western security from an adversary that has, quite suddenly, become a preferred ally.
In East and South Asia, it remains unclear how the US and Russia — former adversaries that have apparently become allies — will approach the two Asian giants, India and China. Meanwhile, in Africa, where the problems are piling up and foreign interventions and risky ventures abound, considerations vary and diverge and interests often clash.
In conclusion, if all these issues have filled the global agenda, then we Arabs must, at the very least, build the bare minimum of genuine common ground needed to confront the looming regional storms. Chief among these storms is the alarming exacerbation of Israel’s ambitions, Iran’s expected retaliation to the setbacks it has endured over the past two years and the role that Turkiye could potentially play, especially given everything Ankara has already achieved in Syria and the signals it has sent regarding its intentions on the Palestinian front.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2591442
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/turkiye-palestine-israel-hamas-gaza/d/134716
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