On this Friday of prayer, attention was drawn to Karak in Jordan and Hebron in the West Bank. In the former, a church was the scene of a terrorist attack targeting a funeral and a procession of mourners, resulting in fatalities and injuries. This represents an assault on faith-based values and principles, in an act that has neither religion nor homeland. Meanwhile, Hebron—the city nestled in the southern occupied West Bank, about whose heritage poets have woven verses echoing its legacy and telling the interloper that there is no place for him there— witnessed an attack at its western entrance targeting an Israeli military checkpoint. The
occupation forces killed the two perpetrators of the attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to declare readiness to carry out a large-scale military operation in the West Bank. This Israeli escalation comes on the eve of internal elections in which Netanyahu is trying to save himself by resorting to tightening the belts of war on all fronts. After an electoral tour using warplanes over the Iranian border, all of Netanyahu's moves are channeled into the electoral stream, from his announcement of reviewing a large-scale operation in the West Bank that would be unprecedented since 1967, threatening that he will choose the timing of its implementation, to the announcement by the Israeli army that it is conducting maneuvers in the north and center simulating multi-front defensive scenarios. The multi-fronts will remain open to various possibilities tied first to the dates of the Israeli elections and second to the US elections. According to their timing, US President Donald Trump's statements move, the latest of which is that he might end the Iran issue very quickly, calling it a failed state. This statement came coupled with a statement by US Envoy Tom Barak, who said in response to a question that Trump might attack Iran this weekend. These high-ceilinged statements might find their way down from the tree after the November 3 elections, at which point diplomatic settlements will become viable upon the timing of the receding of military options. Preparations for establishing mobile settlements have already begun from the Istanbul heptagonal meeting, which includes the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, in addition to Britain, France, and Germany, with the aim of discussing hot issues to pave the way for peace. As for Lebanon—resting on the region's barrel, weighed down by explosive shipments—its skies are crowded with heavy clouds. Following the stumble of the Tampa tour and with the continuation of Israeli attacks in the south through repeated airstrikes extending from Al-Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, Wadi Al-Hujair, Kfar Tebnit, and Zawtar Al-Sharqiya all the way to Al-Qantara, Lebanese attention is anticipating the course of southern conditions in connection with the deadline for the end of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. According to diplomatic sources, European efforts, particularly on the French track, are still active on the path of searching for alternative solutions, including what might result from a French-Italian consensus aimed at trying to persuade the Americans and avoiding a vacuum in the south during a sensitive phase in which the region's solutions and anticipated settlements are being formulated.