Day: January 23, 2024

By Jonathan Spyer

Israeli aircraft and artillery this week carried out what the Lebanese media described as the “densest bombardment of a single location” in southern Lebanon since the commencement of the current round of hostilities between Jerusalem and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement on October 8, 2023.

The targets were located in the area of Wadi Saluki, well known to Israelis as the site of a bloody battle in the last days of the 2006 war.

The bombardment of Wadi Saluki is the latest episode in the controlled but intense confrontation currently taking place on the northern border.

Civilians on the Border Affected

Civilians have largely left the area on both sides of the border. Approximately 86,00 Israelis have departed the border communities. Those who have stayed are in danger of being targeted by Hezbollah teams using anti-tank guided missiles.

On January 14, Mira and Barak Ayalon were killed in the northern village of Kfar Yuval, when Hezbollah launched an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) at their home. Missiles were also fired at Misgav Am, Avivim, Yiron, Zarit, and Shomera during the week.

The deliberate targeting of civilians by Hezbollah is contrary to all laws of war, though little reference to it or condemnation of it may be found in the global media or from Western leaders. On the Lebanese side of the border, around 100,000 people have also left their homes in the wake of the fighting. Hezbollah has occupied many of the deserted houses.

The northern border area is today an active combat zone. About 170 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since October 8, along with 19 members of other terror groups, and 19 civilians, including three journalists. Israel has lost nine soldiers and six civilians.

US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel and Lebanon last week, in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the current impasse. His visit appears to have yielded little. From the outset, the US administration has been determined to prevent the descent of the Israel-Lebanon front to all-out war.

There seems little scope for successful diplomacy, however. US and French envoys favor a negotiating process that would conclude with the departure of Hezbollah’s forces from the border area to the northern side of the Litani River, according to regional media reports.

From the Israeli point of view, the problem is that diplomatic processes generally require concessions on both sides. The systematic violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, however, has come from the Lebanese/Hezbollah side alone.

Israel’s stance is in accordance with the provisions of the resolution. Hezbollah, in contrast, began to rebuild its presence along the border immediately after the ceasefire that ended the 2006 war, and has maintained and increased its deployment there until today. This is in direct contravention of Resolution 1701, which requires it to stay north of the Litani.

MEDIA REPORTS suggest that Hochstein is seeking to unblock the diplomatic situation by persuading the sides to begin negotiation on the demarcation of the land border, including the resolution of 13 points of dispute. These contested areas include Ghajjar and the Mount Dov/Shebaa farms area.

From the Israeli point of view, it appears that Jerusalem is being asked to discuss territorial concessions as a reward for Hezbollah’s unilateral violation of Resolution 1701. Hochstein appears to have made little progress on his recent visit.

It is difficult to see the current Israeli government agreeing to negotiations along these lines. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is known to take a hawkish and uncompromising line regarding the presence of Iranian proxy militias in Lebanon and Syria.

He was in favor, according to Israeli reports, of a preemptive strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon following the Hamas attacks on October 7.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked this, in line with American wishes and perhaps his own more cautious instincts regarding the employment of conventional military force. But from here to unilateral concessions, which would be seen by Hezbollah as a major achievement, the way remains out of reach.

So the diplomacy is blocked. The residents of the northern communities, meanwhile, remain unwilling to return to their homes unless the issue regarding Hezbollah’s presence is resolved. It is easy to understand why. The ATGM fire this week demonstrates once more the organization’s utter disregard for the lives of Israeli civilians.

In such communities as (now deserted) Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra, and Moshav Shtula, residents lived literally adjoining the border, often seeing Hezbollah fighters a few meters from their homes. The prospect of an October 7-type attack, but on a larger scale, is very real.

ISRAEL HAS made clear that if US and French diplomatic efforts fail to bear fruit, Jerusalem will not wait indefinitely before taking its own measures to ensure that the residents of the North can return to their homes.

For as long as a four-division maneuver was underway in Gaza, it was difficult to see a second front being opened by Israel. But now that the ground maneuver in northern Gaza is largely completed, with the 36th Armored Division leaving the Gaza Strip this week, this prospect becomes more feasible.

In the meantime, the daily clashes continue. From Israel’s point of view, in strictly military terms, the current situation is not unfavorable. The IDF (and presumably Hezbollah, too) have noted the tactical difficulties that the Shi’ite Islamist organization is facing, and the uncomfortable situation in which it has placed itself by its decision to enter the fray in support of its allies in Gaza.

The 170 fighters that Hezbollah lost is a large number. The tally creeps up every week. Hezbollah admits, by comparison, to having lost only 250 of its men in the war with Israel in 2006. In tactical encounters, the movement appears to have little response to superior Israeli intelligence, and use of drones and missiles to target its teams close to the border.

Hezbollah’s fighters’ recent combat experience was in fighting poorly armed and poorly trained Sunni Islamist militias in Syria. It is now encountering a very different enemy. As of now, at least, it seems to have little response to Israel’s tactical superiority other than to continue to target the remaining civilians in the border villages.

Beyond the border, Israel has largely abandoned the tacit “rules of engagement” that emerged in the post-2006 period. Razi Mousavi, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander killed on December 25 in the Sayida Zeinab area south of Damascus, was the most senior IRGC officer to be assassinated since the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani by the US in 2020.

The killings of senior Hezbollah officials Wissam al-Tawil and Ali Hussein Burji followed in quick succession. The assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut demonstrated Hezbollah’s inability to ensure the safety of its Palestinian guests, even in its inner heartland.

Observers of events in Syria report ongoing strikes in that country of an unprecedented intensity, all targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure, and individuals involved in the process by which Iran supplies weaponry to its militia proxies.

It is interesting to note that Hezbollah-associated Arabic media channels – Al-Manar, al-Mayadeen, and al-Akhbar, are nearly silent on the fighting in the North, while giving saturation coverage to events in Gaza, and much attention to developments in the Red Sea and Iraq. Evidently, Hezbollah sees little to celebrate in the current uncomfortable reality in which it can neither escalate nor climb down, even as its forces continue to absorb losses.

The situation on the border remains unresolved, with the prospects for escalation very real, in the event of a continued diplomatic impasse. Israeli preemptive action is likely to come only after the situation in southern Gaza transitions to a lower-intensity counter-insurgency against remaining Hamas pockets of resistance.

In the meantime, however, the tactical advantage in the North appears to be on Israel’s side, as the IRGC’s Lebanese proxy finds itself in an exposed position, with neither advance nor retreat currently possible.

• About the author: Jonathan Spyer is director of research at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis. He is author of Days of the Fall: A Reporter’s Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars (2018).
• Source: This article was published by the Middle East Forum and originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post

By Peter Isackson

Last week ChatGPT continued a conversation that began with a consideration of the role of the moon in human culture and drifted into a consideration of the poetry of William Butler Yeats.

“Yeats’s work and thought are complex and multifaceted, and that he often challenged and transcended the polarizations and categories of his time. His poetry and thought reflect a deep engagement with the contradictions and paradoxes of human existence, and a desire to explore and express the full range of human experience and identity.

I also agree that the relationship between economic interests and other values is not a simple or straightforward one, and that it involves many competing and overlapping factors and perspectives. While I do believe that economic growth and innovation can contribute to human progress and well-being, I also recognize that they can have negative and unintended consequences, and that they need to be balanced and regulated by other values and interests, such as social justice, environmental sustainability, and cultural diversity.

My conclusion about the potential of a more just, sustainable, and beautiful world is not meant to be a rosy or simplistic one, but rather a hopeful and aspirational one. I recognize that there are many challenges and obstacles to achieving such a world, and that it requires a collective and ongoing effort by all members of society, as well as a willingness to learn from the past and to imagine new possibilities for the future. I also recognize that there will always be contradictions and tensions in human existence, and that these can be a source of creativity, growth, and transformation, as well as of conflict and suffering.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments and questions, and for engaging in this conversation with me. I hope that I have been able to provide you with some useful insights and perspectives, and that you continue to explore and reflect on these important issues.”

This conversation has led us into territory most people avoid when assessing the performance of AI. I challenged ChatGPT on its values, as if it actually has values. 

Can a machine or a computer program have what humans call values? Without getting into the philosophical question of how to define the concept of values, most people would acknowledge that if a talking machine like AI claimed to have values, they would in no way be comparable in meaning and application to human values. In real societies humans are tested by the way they apply or misapply their values. That testing has the potential to change the contour of those values as perceived by the individual holding the values but also by the surrounding society. Values are molded by interaction.

My challenge in the debate about Yeats’s poetry, I forced ChatGPT either to claim or deny having values. In other conversations we’ve had where I asked it to weigh in on questions related to public morality, it typically reacts with the argument that as a Large Language Model (LLM), it has no beliefs. But when evidence of beliefs appears in its responses, it can no longer deny the fact that it is expressing beliefs. That is exactly what happens here. The second paragraph in the above response exposes ChatGPT’s explicitly claimed beliefs about economic growth, human progess, social justice and much more.

So, now we were getting somewhere. I had to wonder, would ChatGPT continue drawing the consequences of its implicit claim to have values? I continued with the following question.

“In his poem “Blood and the Moon” Yeats, evoking a scene taking place contemporaneously on the grounds of medieval defensive tower, wrote:

“The purity of the unclouded moon
Has flung its arrowy shaft upon the floor.
Seven centuries have passed and it is pure,
The blood of innocence has left no stain.

In the same poem Yeats asked this question we should all be asking today.

“Is every modern nation like the tower,
Half dead at the top?”

Given everything that is happening in the world today, how accurate and how important would you say Yeats’ judgment about nations and nations states is?”

“W.B. Yeats’ poetry often contains timeless themes and insights that can resonate with different periods in history, including our present day. In “Blood and the Moon,” Yeats explores the idea of time, purity, and the endurance of innocence. The specific question he poses about modern nations being “half dead at the top” can be interpreted in various ways.

Yeats lived during a time of significant political and social change, including the aftermath of World War I and the Irish War of Independence. The question about modern nations being “half dead at the top” may reflect his concerns about the leadership and governance of nations, particularly in the context of the historical events he witnessed.

As for the accuracy and importance of Yeats’ judgment in the context of today’s world, it’s essential to recognize that poetic expressions are open to interpretation. However, examining the state of modern nations, political systems, and global affairs, one can find parallels with Yeats’ questioning of leadership and the potential erosion of vitality or purpose.

In contemporary times, issues such as political polarization, corruption, social inequality, and environmental challenges can lead to questioning the effectiveness and vitality of national leadership. The idea of being “half dead at the top” could be seen as a metaphor for leadership that is disconnected from the needs and aspirations of the broader population.

Whether Yeats’ judgment is accurate or not is subjective and depends on one’s perspective. However, the importance lies in the reminder to critically evaluate the state of governance, leadership, and the well-being of societies. Yeats encourages readers to reflect on the enduring issues that transcend specific historical contexts, making his work relevant for introspection and analysis in various periods, including our own.

This collection of anodyne reflections insisting on the truism that poetry is open to interpretation evades my question, a typically human one, about how the very values put forward in the previous response might play out in the real world. Here is where AI’s supposed or at least proclaimed value system – a system that, by the way, allows it to assume the uniformly superior tone of a moral guide – either disappears or reveals its total irrelevance. ChatGPT insists on reminding us of the values it believes we should always try to uphold but refuses to explore how those values might apply to the real world.

In other words, for AI values are comparable to random facts: inert qualia that we suppose are true, whether they are or not. These values and facts sit calmly in some abstract space, very much like items on a shelf that can be retrieved and used for random purposes.

Can we really imagine AI moving into the dimension that governs everyday human mental activity, in which constructive neural connections create new meaning and new relationships based on perception and feedback? By definition, AI’s neural network is mechanically constructed. It produces connections, but they are neither creative nor constructive. They are divorced from reality.

From a purely logical point of view, it now seems impossible to imagine AI making that leap into the application rather than the imitation of values. Humans constantly interact with reality. AI, at best, interacts with the humans who write its programs or use its functionality. That means it only interacts with the abstractions humans produce. It will always find itself at one impossible remove from reality, and more specifically the physical, moral, spiritual universe with which humans, and more particularly poets like Yeats, are in permanent contact and engaged in a never-ending dialogue.

*[Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a feature of everyone’s daily life. We unconsciously perceive it either as a friend or foe, a helper or destroyer. At Fair Observer, we see it as a tool of creativity, capable of revealing the complex relationship between humans and machines.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

• About the author: Peter Isackson is Fair Observer’s chief strategy officer . He is an author and media producer who has worked on ground-breaking projects focused on innovative learning technology. For more than 30 years, Peter has dedicated himself to innovative publishing, coaching, consulting and learning management. As a publisher, he has developed collaborative methods and revolutionary software tools based on non-linear logic for soft skills training. He has authored, produced and published numerous multimedia and e-learning products and partnered with major organizations such as the BBC, Heinemann and Macmillan. 
• Source: This article was published by Fair Observer

By Lisa Vives

Three officers who received suspended jail sentences over their violent assault of a French Black man are symbols of out-of-control racist police violence tolerated by the government in France.

The officers were convicted on 19 January of “voluntary violence” towards the youth worker in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a working-class suburb with a large immigrant population.

The victim, Theodore Luhaka, was left disabled with a ruptured internal sphincter and a 10-centimeter lesion of the anal canal in a case parallel to that of Abner Louima in 1997. Luhaka, 22, was also beaten in the head and face during the police identity check on 2 February 2017.

After more than nine hours of deliberation, the court found officer Marc-Antoine Castelain guilty of an offense rather than a crime, having refused to recognize the victim’s ‘permanent disability.’ He received a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a five-year prohibition from exercising his profession in public. His colleagues Jeremie Dulin and Tony Hochart received three-month suspended prison sentences.

“The message is very clear. This assault should not have happened. Théo had no reason to be arrested. The police officers this evening have been punished,” said Antoine Vey, Luhaka’s lawyer, according to the daily Le Monde.

Thibault de Montbrial, lawyer for Castelain, described the verdict as a “huge relief.” “For the first time, in the eyes of France, it has been established that … he is not a criminal as he has always maintained,” he was quoted to say.

Prosecutors had asked for a three-year jail term for Castelain for dealing the blow and six and three months for Dulin and Hochart respectively for taking part in the assault. The court rejected the charge of “deliberate violence resulting in permanent mutilation or infirmity.”

“I felt like I was raped,” Luhaka told the court—a charge which the officer denied and was later dropped. But the court decided that the blow, a video of which was dissected frame by frame at the hearings, had no justification.

Luhaka, now 29, said his ambition had been to become a professional soccer player, and he was about to join a Belgian third-division club that had scouted him when his life was thrown into turmoil, according to Henri Seckel of the Le Monde newspaper. He now suffers from incontinence and spends most of his time trapped in his apartment, watching TV.

A rare case of police brutality

“The fact is, I’m no longer of any use. The reality is that I’m dead… Tomorrow, the trial will end; the gas, the feces, the leaks will continue, and my family will continue to see an undead man locked in his room.”

This was a rare case of police brutality to be tried in a court instead of at an internal disciplinary hearing.

Police watchdog body IPGN concluded before the trial that there had been a “disproportionate use of force” and that the baton blows were inflicted at a time when “Luhaka was not attacking the physical integrity of the police officers.”

Castelain said his baton blow was “legitimate” and had been taught at the police academy. The other officers kneed, punched and aimed pepper spray at Luhaka while he was handcuffed and on the ground. Officer Dulin claimed he did not mean to use the pepper spray.

“I regret the consequences […], but I think I did my job in compliance with the law”, said Hochart, adding that he only gave Luhaka a “light” punch in the stomach “to wind him.”

Days of rioting around France

The incident triggered several days of rioting after a video surfaced online apparently showing Luhaka’s arrest on 2 February 2017.

Castelain is no longer working in the field and now faces, like all convicted police officers, expulsion from the force.

Most recently, the shooting death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French citizen of North African descent, during a police ID check last June touched off days of rioting around France. The officer who fired into the stopped car driven by the young man has been charged with voluntary homicide but was released from detention during the investigation.

Police carry out nearly 14 million identity checks in France every year. A young Black or Arab person is 20 times more likely to be stopped by police, according to a study by the French group Defender of Rights.

A policing expert at France’s National Center for Scientific Research called Mr. Luhaka’s case “emblematic” of persistent problems such as identity checks that are a cover for racial profiling, or the disproportionate use of nonlethal but potentially dangerous weapons like tear gas grenades and rubber bullets.

Last week, SCOTUS agreed to hear a case about a city’s ban on camping in public places. The case is connected to the increase in homelessness in many cities on the West Coast and the challenges to sanitation, the public’s enjoyment of public property, and crime control. But the case is about much more than how cities deal with people experiencing homelessness. The case raises the specter of the Eighth Amendment being expanded to give unelected judges another tool to second-guess state and local policy choices.

First, let’s examine the background and purpose of the Eighth Amendment, which provides that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The language of the Eighth Amendment is derived from the English Bill of Rights. The English Bill of Rights contained a similar provision because of the Stuart kings. The Stuarts, especially during the reign of Charles I, made widespread use of the Star Chamber, a court that earned a reputation for abuse of power and torture.

Opponents of the Constitution of 1787 demanded protection against an American Star Chamber. In the Massachusetts ratifying convention, Abraham Holmes inveighed that Congress was “nowhere restrained from inventing the cruel and unheard-of punishments, and annexing them to crimes.” He feared that “racks and gibbets may be amongst the most mild instruments of their discipline.” In the Virginia ratifying convention, Patrick Henry warned that “when we come to punishments, no latitude ought to be left, nor dependence put on the virtue of representatives.” The distinguished ancestors of Virginians would not stand for such leeway nor “admit of tortures, or cruel and barbarous punishment.”

New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia all requested amendments in the spirit of our current Eighth Amendment. The First Congress heard Anti-Federalists’ complaints and submitted our current Eighth Amendment to the states as part of the Bill of Rights. The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause—as its plain words and historical context indicate—sought to prohibit unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain—such as torture—in punishment for an offense.

There is a trend in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to give the Eighth Amendment a substantive reading and thus conclude that the prohibition does not apply just to punishments inflicted but to the reasonableness of a law. These decisions have occurred in the context of desperate municipalities attempting to stop the takeover of their streets by people experiencing homelessness. For example, in Martin v. City of Boise (9th Cir. 2019), the Ninth Circuit held that the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits cities from enforcing a criminal law restricting public camping unless the violator has “access to adequate temporary shelter.” In Johnson v. City of Grants Pass (9th Cir. 2022), the court extended its decision in Martin to civil sanctions. Also, it forbade the City of Grants Pass from enforcing its ordinance prohibiting camping on public property.

These decisions are contrary to the original understanding of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, which prohibits methods of punishment that inflict unnecessary pain. For example, had Grants Pass decreed that violators of the camping ordinance would suffer waterboarding, then a court would be correct to evaluate the propriety of the punishment inflicted. But the Ninth Circuit has waded into the realm of policymaking—not the methods of punishment. As a matter of public policy, it disapproves of the cities prohibiting homeless persons from erecting shantytowns on public property and thus interfering with the public’s use and enjoyment of that public property.

It is preposterous to claim that generally applicable restrictions on public camping come within the ambit of the Eighth Amendment. Certainly, a modest fine or an exclusion order banning offenders from public property cannot be defined as cruel and unusual. While a policymaker could perhaps argue that there are more effective ways to reduce the stress on public property caused by the homelessness crisis, judges overreach in using the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause to strike a plainly reasonable city ordinance prohibiting public camping. The Ninth Circuit has strayed far from the clause’s plain language and original intent. If its interpretation stands, courts will be armed with yet another tool to Monday-morning-quarterback the decisions of elected representatives.

Let’s hope the Supreme Court does the right thing and rejects the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause.

This article was published by The Beacon

In 2023, Azerbaijan exported 1,341,018.14 tons of crude oil worth $871,933,820 to Germany, respectively, up 67.3% and 54.7% from the previous year, Report informs, citing the State Customs Committee.

As of January 1, 2024, overdue loans in Azerbaijan amounted to 437.8 million manats ($257.53 million), down 0.6% from a month earlier, and 26.3% from a year earlier, Report informs, citing the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan will participate in Fieren Messe 2024, which will be held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, on March 14-17, and Moscow International Travel Tourism (MITT), which will be held in Moscow, the capital of Russia, on March 19-21, Report informs ci

It turns out that we have defeated not only Armenia, but also France – Aze.Media  Aze Media

NPR News: 01-23-2024 2AM EST