‘No One in Lebanon Wants to Normalize with Israel,’ says PM Nawaf Salam

Lebanon doesn’t want to normalize with Israel, pure and simple. Despite increasing pressure from the US administration, the government in Beirut is against any normalization moves with Israel.

“No one in Lebanon wants normalization with Israel,” says Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. “It is rejected by all Lebanese people,” he added.

The comments of the newly-elected Lebanese Prime Minister, made Wednesday, to a delegation from the Lebanese Press Editors Association, are trending on the social media.

“International and Arab diplomatic pressure on Israel to halt its attacks has not been exhausted,” noting that “no one wants normalization with Israel in Lebanon, which is rejected by all Lebanese,” as carried by the naharnet website.

Salam said Lebanon would not establish ties with Israel even though the latter still controls five border posts in Lebanon and which have “have no military or security value, but Israel holds them to keep pressure on Lebanon.”

Local media reports have emerged about US pressure on Lebanon to reach “an agreement that is less than normalization and more than an armistice” with Israel according to Anadolu.

A ceasefire was reached by the two countries at the end of last November after a fully-fledged war that began in September following months of cross-border fire.  

Israel has repeatedly violated the terms of the ceasefire since then with 1,250 violations, 100 deaths and 330 injuries as reported by the Lebanese authorities.

Israel was supposed to withdraw from Lebanon by 26 January, 2025, extended the deadline to 18 February and still refuses to comply maintaining a outposts at five border-points.

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25 Centimeters of Snow Fall on Lebanon

Lebanon has been hit by a snowstorm and heavy rains, in the worst weather conditions in a decade.

Snow covered several villages and towns in mountainous areas of the western Beqaa region in eastern Lebanon, the state news agency NNA reported on Thursday.

With snow accumulating up to 25 centimeters, several towns in the Rachaya district became isolated, NNA said.

Heavy rainfall was also reported in Lebanon’s coastal areas.

Municipal authorities and the army have deployed snowplows and heavy machinery to reopen several roads that were blocked by the snowstorm.

The Lebanese Meteorological Service said the country is experiencing cloudy weather that is causing the temperature to drop below the seasonal averages.

Several other Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Türkiye, are also experiencing severe weather conditions with heavy rains and snowfall, particularly in their mountainous areas according to Anadolu.

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Jordan, Trump and The High Stakes of Politics

The recent remarks by US President Donald Trump suggesting the displacement of Gaza’s residents to Egypt and Jordan as a “practical solution” for Gaza’s reconstruction carries significant risks. This proposal not only overlooks the fundamental complexities of the issue, from the acceptance of displacement by Gaza’s residents to the logistical feasibility of relocating populations and securing the consent of all involved parties, but also reveals that forced displacement appears to be Trump’s primary solution, one that the region may have to contend with for years to come.

It is essential to remember that we are observing Trump in the early phases of his political return. He is eager to present himself as a strong and decisive leader capable of imposing solutions, even if they appear coercive. However, as with many theoretical ideas that seem simple at first glance, the real challenge lies in their practical implementation.

We are living through an unprecedented era. The events following October 7 have fundamentally altered the region. Gaza is witnessing destruction on a scale it has never seen before. Amid this devastation, Israel appears to be betting on worsening the humanitarian crisis, hoping to make life in Gaza unbearable for its residents. This coincides with difficulties in finding realistic reconstruction solutions or even implementing humanitarian relief efforts that adequately respond to the scale of the disaster. 

Israel’s strategic vision is focused on achieving demographic displacement in Gaza and redrawing its geographic landscape. These goals might seem attainable if the crisis continues, and the humanitarian catastrophe deepens. What is alarming, however, is that proposing Jordan as an option in this context may implicitly lay the groundwork for considering it a destination for displaced Palestinians from the West Bank as well, should this theory of forced displacement extend beyond Gaza. 

Indeed, Israel is actively pursuing this scenario by seeking to reshape the geography of the West Bank through dismantling densely populated areas, such as the refugee camps in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm. This objective aligns with the vision of the Trump administration, which supports Israel’s ambitions under the framework of “Judea and Samaria.” Neither Egypt nor Jordan has had sufficient opportunity to directly engage with the US administration to present alternatives or explain the security, economic, and political risks associated with these proposals. 

Jordan’s strategic response should focus on warning against these scenarios while presenting viable alternatives. Highlighting the potential shocks these steps could inflict on a key ally like the United States is crucial. Additionally, Jordan has several cards to play, particularly in the economic domain. These include regional energy projects, development initiatives, and the reconstruction of Syria. Such endeavours could offer the US tangible benefits across multiple fronts, forming the foundation for alternative approaches. 

In short, navigating Trump’s looming flood of proposals requires a nuanced understanding of American perspectives and avoiding direct confrontation whenever possible. At the same time, Jordan must strengthen its position with robust Arab support. Elevating strategic relations with Saudi Arabia is particularly crucial, given its dominant role in the current and upcoming phases and its centrality to Trump’s economic and political ambitions, including regional peace efforts. 

Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington may signal a new escalation in the region. The Gaza conflict remains unresolved, and tensions in the West Bank and Lebanon persist. If the conflict extends further to Iran, a broader escalation could stretch from Iraq to Iran, potentially resulting in the imposition of forced displacement as a grim humanitarian reality, especially if violence escalates once again in Gaza and intensifies in the West Bank.

Dr Amer Al Sabaileh is a professor and a columnist at the Jordan Times

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Israel’s War on Gaza Cost it $42 Billion

The cost of the war for the Israeli occupation, until mid-January 2025, was 150 billion shekels (about $ 42 billion). That is an average of 300 million shekels (about $84 million) per day, according to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth.

The newspaper reported there are large gaps between the cost of fighting in Lebanon, the cost of the Gaza Strip, and the “days of intense fighting” (i.e. attempts to confront Iranian missiles).

According to it, the heaviest cost in security expenditures is “funding the reserve army,” which amounts to 45 billion shekels (more than $12 billion).

A high-ranking source in the Israeli Ministry of Finance previously stated the huge new budgets allocated for 2025 to rebuild the northern and southern settlements are “frozen.”

The source told Yedioth Ahronoth that “the use of these budgets will not be possible until the final approval of the government budget.”

The source added the failure to approve the government budget for 2025 “is already causing significant damage to the economy, while the concern in the Finance Ministry now is that Israel will be run for an entire quarter on an interim budget, with the budget for each of the months of January, February, and March equal to 1/12 of the original government budget for 2024.”

However, “the Finance Ministry’s accountant general decided to allocate a smaller budget, for fear that there would be a need to finance additional months with an interim budget, and to create a reserve aimed at preventing disruption to the budgets of vital services for Israelis.”

In the same context, a senior government economic source also expressed to Yedioth Ahronoth “real concern about the possibility that the government budget will not be approved by the deadline set by law, March 31.”

“If that happens, it will be a disaster,” the source said, adding that “the government’s failure to run the full budget required during the war, with a huge deficit and special security tasks that cannot be implemented, will cause enormous damage to the economy and security,” as stated in Al Mayadeen.

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