JUDGE SCOLDS KNOW IT ALL FANI WILLIS AND LOVERBOY.

 JUDGE SCOLDS KNOW IT ALL FANI WILLIS AND LOVERBOY.

JUDGE SAYS TO FAT FACE WILLIS YOUR TESTIMONY WAS PATHETIC. THE CASE CAN NOT GO ON AS IS. WILLIS YOU LIBERAL LYING NUTJOB GET RID OF LOVERBOY. OR ELSE THE CASE IS HISTORY. (AL MY WORDS IN THIS SENTENCE).

Fulton County DA Fani Willis case against Trump can continue if she or special prosecutor Wade remove themselves, judge rules-Trump co-defendant Michael Roman accused Willis of misconduct for her “clandestine” relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she appointed as special counsel.Judge says Fani Willis can stay on Trump case — with conditions-March 15, 2024, 8:50 AM EDT-By Blayne Alexander, Dareh Gregorian and Charlie Gile.

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge ruled Friday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should not be disqualified from prosecuting the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and several co-defendants — with one major condition.Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found the "appearance of impropriety" brought about by Willis' romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade should result in either Willis and her office leaving the case — or just Wade, whom she'd appointed to head the case.The choice is likely to be an easy one: If Willis were to remove herself, the case would come to a halt, but having Wade leave will ensure the case continues without further delay.The judge said the prosecution "cannot proceed" until Willis makes a decision.Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement that, “While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade.”“We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place,” he added.Willis's office did not immediately comment on the ruling.The judge found there was no "actual conflict" brought about by the relationship, a finding that would have required Willis to be disqualified. "Without sufficient evidence that the District Attorney acquired a personal stake in the prosecution, or that her financial arrangements had any impact on the case, the Defendants’ claims of an actual conflict must be denied," the judge wrote. “This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing. Rather, it is the undersigned’s opinion that Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices — even repeatedly — and it is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it,” he added.The judge did, however, also find “the prosecution is encumbered by an appearance of impropriety.”“As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed,” he wrote. “As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”McAfee also suggested he was skeptical about Willis and Wade's testimony that they did not start dating until after he was appointed to the case. He said "reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA (Special Assistant District Attorney) testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it."The decision is a partial victory for Willis and leaves open the possibility the case could be tried before the 2024 presidential election. Had Willis been disqualified outright, the case would have had to go to a different prosecutor, who would be tasked with catching up on a case that Willis spent over two years building.The ruling by McAfee comes after a lawyer for one of Trump’s co-defendants in the election interference case, former Trump White House and campaign staffer Michael Roman, filed a motion for Willis to be disqualified and the criminal case to be dismissed because of her allegedly “improper” personal relationship with Wade.That attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, said, “While we believe the court should have disqualified Willis’ office entirely, this opinion is a vindication that everything put forth by the defense was true, accurate and relevant to the issues surrounding our clients' right to a fair trial. The judge clearly agreed with the defense that the actions of Willis are a result of her poor judgment and that there is a risk to the future of this case if she doesn’t quickly work to cure her conflict."Roman's filing alleged Willis skirted the rules to appoint Wade, and that she benefited financially from his appointment, which has earned his office over $600,000 to date. He also claimed they were romantically before Wade's appointment.Willis and Wade later acknowledged they’d been in a relationship, but maintained it began after he was appointed special prosecutor in November 2021.The judge signed off on an evidentiary hearing on Roman’s claims last month and warned, “Disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”In an extraordinary hearing that stretched over three days during a two-week period, Willis and Wade both took the stand and testified that they’d dated for a little over a year after he was appointed, and that she did not profit from his work. They both said while Wade would sometimes charge plane tickets for Willis to his credit card, she’d repay him with cash or by picking up other bills.In his ruling, McAfee questioned Willis' judgment."Even if the romantic relationship began after SADA Wade’s initial contract in November 2021, the District Attorney chose to continue supervising and paying Wade while maintaining such a relationship. She further allowed the regular and loose exchange of money between them without any exact or verifiable measure of reconciliation. This lack of a confirmed financial split creates the possibility and appearance that the District Attorney benefited — albeit non-materially — from a contract whose award lay solely within her purview and policing," he wrote.He also questioned some of Wade's testimony about why he had claimed he hadn't been in a romantic relationship with anyone else in a court filing in his ongoing divorce case. "Wade’s patently unpersuasive explanation for the inaccurate interrogatories he submitted in his pending divorce indicates a willingness on his part to wrongly conceal his relationship with the District Attorney," McAfee wrote.Lawyers for Roman had brought in two witnesses to back their claims about the timing of Willis and Wade's relationship, including a former friend of Willis’ named Robin Yeartie and Wade's former law partner and divorce lawyer, Terrence Bradley.The judge found while Yeartie's testimony "raised doubts about the State’s assertions, it ultimately lacked context and detail." As for Bradley, who Roman lawyer Ashleigh Merchant has said was the source of their misconduct claims, the judge said he was "unable to place any stock" in his testimony."His inconsistencies, demeanor, and generally non-responsive answers left far too brittle a foundation upon which to build any conclusions," the judge wrote.Bradley had told Merchant in a text message that Wade and Willis' relationship had "absolutely" started before Wade's appointment, but testified on the witness stand he'd just been speculating.The judge said "neither side was able to conclusively establish by a preponderance of the evidence when the relationship evolved into a romantic one," but "an odor of mendacity remains."He also criticized a speech Willis delivered at Big Bethel AME Church in mid-January, after Roman had filed his disqualification motion. In the speech, she criticized an unnamed "they" who were "attacking" the lone Black special prosecutor she'd appointed to the case — Wade, who she did not name either.Willis "ascribed the effort as motivated by 'playing the race card.' She went on to frequently refer to SADA Wade as the 'black man' while her other unchallenged SADAs were labeled 'one white woman' and 'one white man.' The effect of this speech was to cast racial aspersions at an indicted Defendant’s decision to file this pretrial motion," McAfee wrote.Attorneys for Roman and Trump had argued the comments were made to taint the potential jury pool for the case, and were also grounds for disqualification.McAfee said he "cannot find that this speech crossed the line to the point where the Defendants have been denied the opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial, or that it requires the District Attorney’s disqualification. But it was still legally improper. Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into."Both Trump and Roman have pleaded not guilty in the case, which alleges they conspired with others to overturn the election results in the state.Blayne Alexander is an NBC News correspondent, based in Atlanta.

France's Macron: Europe's security at stake in Ukraine-Reuters-Fri, March 15, 2024 at 12:09 p.m. EDT-Polish PM Tusk and France's President Macron meet with German Chancellor Scholz in Berlin

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that France and its allies will continue to support Ukraine as long as it takes."Europe's security is at stake in Ukraine," Macron said.Macron was speaking ahead of talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin on Friday on the issue of supporting Ukraine.(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)

Will AI save humanity? US tech fest offers reality check-By Julie JAMMOT-Austin (AFP) Mar 15, 2024

Artificial intelligence aficionados are betting that the technology will help solve humanity's biggest problems, from wars to global warming, but in practice, these may be unrealistic ambitions for now."It's not about asking AI 'Hey, this is a sticky problem. What would you do?' and AI is like, 'well, you need to completely restructure this part of the economy'," said Michael Littman, a Brown University professor of computer science.Littman was at the South By Southwest (or SXSW) arts and technology festival in Austin, Texas, where he had just spoken on one of the many panels on the potential benefits of AI."It's a pipe dream. It's a little bit science fiction. Mostly what people are doing is they're trying to bring AI to bear on specific problems that they're already solving, but just want to be more efficient.""It's not just a matter of pushing this button and everything's fixed," he said.With their promising titles ("How to Make AGI Beneficial and Avoid a Robot Apocalypse"), and the ever presence of tech giants, the panels attract big crowds, but they often hold more pragmatic objectives, like promoting a product.At one meeting called "Inside the AI Revolution: How AI is Empowering the World to Achieve More," Simi Olabisi, a Microsoft executive, praised the tech's benefits on Azure, the company's cloud service.When using Azure's AI language feature in call centers, "maybe when a customer called in, they were angry, and when they ended the call, they were really appreciative. Azure AI Language can really capture that sentiment, and tell a business how their customers are feeling," she explained.- 'Smarter than humans' -The notion of artificial intelligence, with its algorithms capable of automating tasks and analyzing mountains of data, has been around for decades.But it took on a whole new dimension last year with the success of ChatGPT, the generative AI interface launched by OpenAI, the now iconic AI start-up mainly funded by Microsoft.OpenAI claims to want to build artificial "general" intelligence or AGI, which will be "smarter than humans in general" and will "elevate humanity," according to CEO Sam Altman.That ethos was very present at SXSW, with talk about "when" AGI will become a reality, rather than "if."Ben Goertzel, a scientist who heads the SingularityNET Foundation and the AGI Society, predicted the advent of general AI by 2029."Once you have a machine that can think as well as a smart human, you're at most a few years from a machine that can think a thousand or a million times better than a smart human, because this AI can modify its own source code," said Goertzel.Wearing a leopard-print faux-fur cowboy hat, he advocated the development of AGI endowed with "compassion and empathy," and integrated into robots "that look like us," to ensure that these "super AIs" get on well with humanity.David Hanson - founder of Hanson Robotics and who designed Desdemona, a humanoid robot that functions with generative AI - brainstromed about the plus and minuses of AI with superpowers.AI's "positive disruptions...can help to solve global sustainability issues, although people are probably going to be just creating financial trading algorithms that are absolutely effective," he said.Hanson fears the turbulence from AI, but pointed out that humans are doing a "fine job" already of playing "existential roulette" with nuclear weapons and by causing "the fastest mass extinction event in human history."But "it may be that the AI could have seeds of wisdom that blossom and grow into new forms of wisdom that can help us be better," he said.- 'Not there yet' -Initially, AI should accelerate the design of new, more sustainable drugs or materials, said believers in AI.Even if "we're not there yet... in a dream world, AI could handle the complexity and the randomness of the real world, and... discover completely new materials that would enable us to do things that we never even thought were possible," said Roxanne Tully, an investor at Piva Capital.Today, AI is already proving its worth in warning systems for tornadoes and forest fires, for example.But we still need to evacuate populations, or get people to agree to vaccinate themselves in the event of a pandemic, stressed Rayid Ghani of Carnegie Mellon University during a panel titled "Can AI Solve the Extreme Weather Pandemic?""We created this problem. Inequities weren't caused by AI, they're caused by humans and I think AI can help a little bit. But only if humans decide they want to use it to deal with" the issue, Ghani said.juj/arp/tjj

Nasrallah assures Iranians Hezbollah will fight alone if war with Israel breaks out-Lebanon’s terror leader assured Quds Force’s Esmail Qani last month that Iran won’t be drawn into possible full-scale war-By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 2:42 pm-MAR 15,24

With ally Hamas under attack in Gaza, the head of Iran’s Quds Force visited Beirut in February to discuss the risk posed if Israel next aims at Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an offensive that could severely hurt Tehran’s main regional partner, seven sources said.In Beirut, Quds chief Esmail Qaani met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the sources said, for at least the third time since Hamas’s deadly October 7 onslaught on southern Israel, which triggered Israel’s offensive aimed at eliminating the terror group.The conversation turned to the possibility of a full-scale Israeli offensive to its north, in Lebanon, the sources said. As well as damaging the Shiite terror group, such an escalation could pressure Iran to react more forcefully than it has so far since October 7, three of the sources, Iranians within the inner circle of power, said.Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, causing loss of life and widespread damage with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.At the previously unreported meeting, Nasrallah reassured Qaani he didn’t want Iran to get sucked into a war with Israel or the United States and that Hezbollah would fight on its own, all the sources said.“This is our fight,” Nasrallah told Qaani, said one Iranian source with knowledge of the discussions.Calibrated to avoid a major escalation, the skirmishes in Lebanon have nonetheless pushed tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Hezbollah attacks have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.Hezbollah has named 244 members to have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 41 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.In recent days, Israel’s counter-strikes have increased in intensity and reach, fueling fears the violence could spin out of control even if negotiators achieve a temporary truce in Gaza.Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated in February that Israel planned to increase attacks to decisively remove Hezbollah fighters from the border in the event of a temporary Gaza ceasefire, although he left the door open for diplomacy.In 2006, Israel fought a short but intense air and ground war with Hezbollah that was devastating for Lebanon.Israeli security sources have said previously that Israel does not seek any spread of hostilities, but added that the country was prepared to fight on new fronts if needed. An all-out war on its northern border would stretch Israel’s military resources.Iran and Hezbollah are mindful of the grave perils of a wider war in Lebanon, two of the sources aligned with the views of the government in Tehran said, including the danger it could spread and lead to strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations.The US lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and has sought for years to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program. Israel has long considered Iran an existential threat. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.For this story, Reuters spoke to four Iranian and two regional sources, along with a Lebanese source who confirmed the thrust of the meeting. Two US sources and an Israeli source said Iran wanted to avoid blowback from an Israel-Hezbollah war. All requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.The US State Department, Israeli government, Tehran and Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment.The Beirut meeting highlights strain on Iran’s strategy of avoiding major escalation in the region while projecting strength and support for Gaza across the Middle East through allied armed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, analysts said.Qaani and Nasrallah “want to further insulate Iran from the consequences of supporting an array of proxy actors throughout the Middle East,” said Jon Alterman of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, responding to a question about the meeting.“Probably because they assess that the possibility of military action in Lebanon is increasing and not decreasing.”Already, Tehran’s carefully nurtured influence in the region is being curtailed, including by Israel’s offensive against Hamas along with potential US-Saudi defense and Israel-Saudi normalization agreements, as well as US warnings that Iran should not get involved in the Israel-Hamas war.In Israel’s sights-Qaani and Nasrallah between them hold sway over tens of thousands of fighters and a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles. They are the main antagonists in Tehran’s network of allies and proxy militias, with Qaani’s elite Quds Force acting as the foreign legion of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.While Hezbollah has publicly indicated it would halt attacks on Israel when the Israeli offensive in Gaza stops, US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein said last week a Gaza truce would not automatically trigger calm in southern Lebanon.Arab and Western diplomats report that Israel has expressed strong determination to no longer allow the presence of Hezbollah’s main fighters along the border, fearing an incursion similar to Hamas’s massacre on October 7, when terrorists killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 253 hostages.“If there is a ceasefire in (Gaza), there are two schools of thought in Israel and my impression is that the one that would recommend continuing the war on the border with Hezbollah is the stronger one,” said Sima Shine, a former Israeli intelligence official who is currently head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies:A senior Israeli official agreed that Iran was not seeking a full-blown war, noting Tehran’s restrained response to Israel’s offensive on Hamas.“It seems that they feel they face a credible military threat. But that threat may need to become more credible,” the official said.Washington, via Hochstein, and France have been working on diplomatic proposals that would move Hezbollah terrorists from the border area in line with UN Resolution 1701 that helped end the 2006 war, but a deal remains elusive.‘First line of defense’A war in Lebanon that seriously degrades Hezbollah would be a major blow for Iran, which relies on the group founded with its support in 1982 as a bulwark against Israel and to buttress its interests in the broader region, two regional sources said.“Hezbollah is in fact the first line of defense for Iran,” said Abdulghani Al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank in Yemen.If Israel were to launch major military action on Hezbollah, the Iranian sources within the inner circle of power said, Tehran may find itself compelled to intensify its proxy war.An Iranian security official acknowledged, however, that the costs of such an escalation could be prohibitively high for Iran’s allied groups. Direct involvement by Iran, he added, could serve Israel’s interests and provide justification for the continued presence of US troops in the region.Given Tehran’s extensive, decades-long ties with Hezbollah, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to put distance between them, one US official said.Since the Hamas massacre in Israel, Iran has given its blessing to actions in support of its ally in Gaza: including attacks by Iraqi groups on US interests. It has also supplied intelligence and weapons for Houthi operations against shipping in the Red Sea.But it has stopped well short of an unfettered multi-front war on Israel that, three Palestinian sources said, Hamas had expected Iran to support after October 7.Before the Beirut encounter with Nasrallah, Qaani chaired a two-day meeting in Iran in early February along with militia commanders of operations in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, three Hezbollah representatives and a Houthi delegation, one Iranian official said.Revolutionary Guard’s Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami was also present, the official said. Hamas did not attend.“At the end, all the participants agreed that Israel wanted to expand the war and falling into that trap should be avoided as it will justify the presence of more US troops in the region,” the official said.Shortly after, Qaani engineered a pause in attacks by the Iraqi groups. So far, Hezbollah has kept its tit-for-tat responses within what observers have called unwritten rules of engagement with Israel.Despite decades of proxy conflict since Iran’s 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic has never directly fought in a war with Israel, and all four Iranian sources said there was no appetite for that to change.According to the Iranian insider, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not inclined to see a war unfold against Iran, where domestic discontent with the ruling system last year spilled over into mass protests.“The Iranians are pragmatists and they are afraid of the expansion of the war,” said Iryani. “If Israel were alone, they would fight, but they know that if the war expands, the United States will be drawn in.”

Suspected attack by Houthis strikes a ship in Red Sea, crew reportedly safe-Security firm says tanker with armed guards aboard had a ‘near miss’ Thursday off the coast of Yemen; ship had been Israel-affiliated but changed owners in February-By Jon Gambrell Today, 1:16 pm-MAR 15,24

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a tanker in the Red Sea early Friday, causing damage to the vessel while the crew was reported unharmed, authorities said.The attack off the port city of Hodeida comes as part of the rebels’ campaign against shipping over Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship reported being “struck by a missile.”“The vessel has sustained some damage,” the UKMTO added. It described the crew as being “safe” and said the ship was continuing on its way, suggesting the damage wasn’t severe.The private security firm Ambrey also reported Friday’s attack and said the tanker with armed guards aboard had a “near miss” on Thursday off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. It said the ship had been Israel-affiliated but changed owners in February.The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack — it typically takes the rebels hours to acknowledge their assaults. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said an “important announcement” would be coming later Friday afternoon from the rebels.The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end its offensive in Gaza.The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war. The rebels have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.The assaults on shipping have raised the profile of the Houthis, who are members of Islam’s minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962.A report Thursday claimed the Houthis now had a hypersonic missile, potentially increasing that cachet and putting more pressure on Israel after a truce deal failed to take hold in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Hypersonic missiles also would pose a more serious threat to American and allied warships in the region.Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked the first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which later sank after drifting for several days.

They are the equivalent of al Qaeda or the Islamic State' With Iraq on his mind, US ‘savior-general’ points at a way to victory in Gaza-Hamas must be destroyed, argues ex-general and CIA director David Petraeus in Tel Aviv, and then Israel must pivot to a counterinsurgency-By Lazar Berman-Today, 11:32 am-MAR 15,24

As the campaign to eliminate Hamas stretches into its sixth month, a storied American general credited with changing the course of the Iraq War now sees a clear path to victory for Israel in Gaza.Thus far, though, the approach is one that Israel refuses to countenance. General David H. Petraeus, who commanded the 2007-8 “surge” of troops in Iraq as head of the Multi-National Force-Iraq and later directed the CIA, says Israel must pivot to a counterinsurgency approach if it wants to keep Hamas from returning to power in Gaza.“This is inescapable,” he told The Times of Israel on the sidelines of last week’s Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv.Insurgency, which became especially prominent after World War II, as local forces fought to overthrow colonial rule against conventional militaries, describes a campaign by “irregular forces to change an existing political order. These forces typically mingle with civilians to hide from the forces defending the political order.”To defeat an insurgency, Petraeus champions an approach known as counterinsurgency — or COIN. “Population-centric” rather than “enemy-centric,” the strategy focuses on winning over the public to separate them from the insurgents.In COIN, killing the enemy only helps if it increases security for the population to create space to develop legitimate economic and political institutions. But if eliminating insurgents breeds more new fighters than it destroys, then doing so is counterproductive.When Petraeus took over the Allied effort in Iraq in February 2007, the insurgents seemed to be well on their way to victory. In Baghdad, sectarian violence was killing up to 150 people a day. The outgoing commander, General George Casey, wanted to cut his losses, steadily reducing the US presence and giving the reins to Iraqi forces.Throughout his 19-month tour, Petraeus managed to drastically change the trajectory of the war.“You have to get the big ideas right,” Petraeus said.Moving to a population-centric approach was his big idea. He surged in more than 20,000 troops, and moved soldiers off large bases to operate among and provide security for the population.Before the surge, US Special Forces commander Stanley McChrystal told Petraeus, “Boss, we’ve been banging away every single night in Ramadi and Fallujah, two to three operations a night. And the situation has gotten worse.”“You’re exactly right,” responded Petraeus, “because you have to clear and hold and build.”“The foundational concepts of counterinsurgency are that you clear an area, you hold it, and you hold it in a very significant manner,” Petraeus explained in Tel Aviv. “You wall it off. You create gated communities, as we call it,12 or 13 of them in Fallujah alone. You use biometric ID cards because you’re trying to separate the enemy, the extremists, from the people. That’s the fundamental idea.”The COIN approach produced undeniable results during Petraeus’s time in Iraq. US deaths dropped from a high of 126 in May 2007 to an average of less than 11 a month after June 2008. Civilian deaths also plummeted, from 1,700 to 200 a month in the same time frame.For that effort, historian Victor Davis Hanson included him in his book, “Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost — From Ancient Greece to Iraq. ”Petraeus wants to see Israel move toward that strategy in Gaza.But first, he says unequivocally, Hamas must be defeated.They have to be destroyed, just as we had to destroy the core al Qaeda.“Hamas is irreconcilable,” he said. “This is a very, very fundamental idea. Some will debate it. I think it is not debatable. I think they are the equivalent of al Qaeda or the Islamic State.”“They have to be destroyed, just as we had to destroy the core al Qaeda and how we helped the Iraqi security forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces destroy the Islamic State,” he said.For now, with IDF troops still involved in heavy fighting in Khan Younis, and yet to tackle Rafah, Petraeus recognized that the campaign is still a classic unit-on-unit fight.But Petraeus, like many friends of Israel, is worried about what will happen in Gaza after Hamas’s military structure is blasted apart.“When you have destroyed Hamas as a military organization, there will still be remnants, there’s still individual terrorists, insurgents, extremists, call them what you will.”Secured, gated neighborhoods-In February, Hamas began to resurface in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces a month before, deploying police officers and making partial salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City. Thousands of Hamas terrorists remain in northern Gaza, and the IDF has had to return to neighborhoods it captured previously.Petraeus called for secured, gated neighborhoods, where locals provide basic services: “It’s to keep them from having Hamas reinfiltrate themselves into their communities, which at this point they presumably no longer want, especially once they get basic services.”A Palestinian poll from late November and early December showed Hamas enjoying 42 percent support in Gaza, up slightly from 38% three months before.A major drawback of the COIN approach, especially for Israel, is that it is manpower- and time-intensive.In “The Western Way of War,” a work that influenced Petraeus’s thinking as a young man, the historian Hanson argued that because ancient Greek hoplites were also farmers, they sought short, bloody, and decisive engagements to get back to the harvest. This shaped, in Hanson’s thinking, how the West approaches war.It is an apt description of Israel’s classic doctrine, which seeks to win as decisively and quickly as possible to allow its reservists to return to their jobs.Israel could theoretically surge back in tens of thousands of troops by recalling the reservists who fought in the months after October 7. But they were released for a reason — they have jobs and studies to get back to, not to mention the strain long reserve services places on young families.Petraeus recognizes the challenges.“It takes a very substantial number of forces to do the hold, to conduct hold operations,” he acknowledged. “But if those aren’t conducted, then you end up with the enemy reconstituting.”Not all US experts see the counterinsurgency model as relevant to the current fight in Gaza.“You don’t fight a counterinsurgency against an enemy army,” argued John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute in the prestigious US military academy West Point.“You fight a war against an enemy army. Yes, Hamas is a designated terrorist organization, but Hamas was also a political group with a military that owned terrain. Hamas was a military organization that sent over a brigade force to invade Israel. Israel declared war.”Earlier in his trip, Petraeus had been invited by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and ministry director-general Eyal Zamir for a long conversation on the war. Petraeus was impressed by the discussion.“They recognize that reconstitution is the challenge,” he said. “They understand these dynamics.”However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been reticent to lay out detailed plans for the post-Hamas future of Gaza, fearing this could lead to fractures in his hard-right coalition.In mid-February, he presented to the cabinet a plan that calls for installing “local officials” unaffiliated with terrorists to administer services in the Strip instead of Hamas, for Egyptian cooperation to end smuggling into Gaza, for Arab countries to fund reconstruction of the Strip, and for the shuttering of UNRWA.It also calls for Gaza to be demilitarized and for its population to be “de-radicalized.”The plan was received coolly in Washington.‘Fiendishly difficult’ While the White House has warned that a major Israeli operation in Rafah would be a “disaster” and a “red line” — at least under the current circumstances — Petraeus doesn’t see any option other than an offensive in the southern Gaza city at some point.“Benny Gantz, my old comrade and friend, is exactly right when he said that you don’t send the fire department to extinguish 80% of the blaze,” he quipped, referring to comments the war cabinet minister made in Washington. “You have to deal with all of it.”Israel has said it will evacuate the residents of the city, which lies along the Egyptian border but has yet to approve the military’s operational plan or publicly announce where civilians will go.Petraeus called US concerns over the civilians sheltering around Rafah “legitimate.”At the same time, he shares Israeli concerns about the opportunity for Hamas to use the movement of civilians northward as cover to regroup.Despite sharp criticism from Washington and other capitals over the growing civilian toll in Gaza, Petraeus recognized “the lengths that the IDF has gone to in order to try to get civilians out of the way; text messages, leaflets, other communications, to try to minimize that.”Petraeus added that he was “reassured” by his conversation with Gallant on Israel’s plans to get civilians out of harm’s way.Looking at the ongoing ground campaign against Hamas, Petraeus called it “more difficult and more challenging than anything that we ever did.”“This is the most fiendishly difficult context for urban operations since 1945 at least,” he argued. “You have 350 miles of very well-developed tunnels, subterranean infrastructure, factories, headquarters, all these different facilities underground. You have high rises that have to be cleared. You’ve got to clear every building, every floor, every room, every cellar, every tunnel.”The IDF has lost 249 soldiers in the ground offensive in Gaza.“You have an enemy who doesn’t wear a uniform in most cases,” Petraeus continued, “who uses civilians as human shields, still holds over 130 hostages, which obviously complicates a very complex situation.”It is believed that 130 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 11 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.Saudi deal back on the table-After multiple commands in the Middle East — and a post leading the CIA — Petraeus knows personally many of the players in the region, including Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince.The Biden administration has been working to secure a landmark deal that will see a normalization in ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The kingdom and other Arab countries are seeking steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the potential agreement.A normalization deal is “by no means off the table with the Saudis,” said Petraeus, “but obviously there is an even greater emphasis now on a commitment to the two-state solution.”He said that a Palestinian state was “issue number one, two and three” when he met the Saudi king in the mid-2000s. “And then it sort of fell off the table.”Since October 7, said Petraeus, “this has returned very significantly to the public consciousness and the kind of arrangement that the Saudis would like to reach. I think that becomes an even more prominent condition than it was before 10/7.”Israel has an opportunity for a game-changing deal with Saudi Arabia, in Petraeus’s telling.With Hamas in its tunnels, there is also an opportunity for Israel to replace the terror group on the ground with a new authority to run Gaza’s affairs.Petraeus believes in grabbing opportunities with both hands.When he commanded the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, Iraq, he recognized that the local economy depended on the renewal of trade with Syria, but he didn’t have the authority or time to start trade negotiations between the two countries.Instead, he took the initiative and ordered his troops to unilaterally open up the crossing on the Iraqi side, and trade started again on its own.“You have to jump through windows of opportunity and exploit windows of opportunity while they’re open,” Petraeus said of his decision, “and not study them until they start to close, and then you try to wriggle through and force them back open.”

Hostages' families urge cabinet to seize moment-Hamas offers exchange of women, children, elderly hostages for up to 1,000 prisoners-Proposal, which Netanyahu rejects as ‘ridiculous,’ would include release of female soldiers in first stage, leading up to permanent deal to end war, see IDF withdraw from Gaza-By Reuters, Jessica Steinberg-and ToI Staff Today, 10:01 am-MAR 15,24

Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the US that includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters.Hamas said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, the elderly, and ill hostages, in exchange for the release of 700-1000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the proposal. The release of Israeli “female recruits” is included.According to the latest proposal, Hamas said it would agree on a date for a permanent ceasefire after the initial exchange of hostages and prisoners, and that a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would be agreed upon after the first stage.The group said all detainees from both sides would be released in the second stage of the plan.Ahead of a of the war cabinet on Friday to deliberate on the possibility of finalizing a hostage deal following Hamas’s offer, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night accused the terror group of continuing to dig its heels in with “ridiculous demands.”His office said an update on the status of the indirect negotiations would be presented to both the war cabinet and the larger security cabinet on Friday.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum appealed to the war cabinet to agree to a deal.“For the first time, we can envision embracing them again, please grant us this right,” the families of the hostages said in a statement.They called on the prime minister and war cabinet not to postpone the deal and to save all 134 “daughters and sons who were cruelly taken, solely for being Israelis,” said the families. “For the first time, we can envision embracing them again. Please grant us this right.”Egypt and Qatar have been trying to narrow the differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian crisis has one-quarter of the population in the battered Gaza Strip facing famine.Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi stressed his aim to seek such a deal Friday and warned against the danger of an Israeli incursion into the city of Rafah, where an estimated 1.5 million people have sought shelter next to Gaza’s border with his country.“We are talking about reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, meaning a truce, providing the largest quantity of aid,” he said in a message recorded during a visit to the police academy.This would include “curbing the impact of this famine on people, and also allowing for the people in the center and the south to move towards the north, with a very strong warning against incursion into Rafah,” he said. “We warned of what is happening, that aid not entering would lead to famine.”In February, Hamas received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris that included a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one — a similar ratio to the new ceasefire proposal.Talks appeared to break down late last week as Hamas demanded that Israel end the war and withdraw all troops in Gaza, rather than the six-week pause and partial withdrawal Jerusalem had already agreed to. Israel agreed to hold talks based on the Paris proposal but has stressed that any break in the fighting would be temporary, committing to its long-held goal of not ending the war until it destroys Hamas.Hopes had risen in recent days, though, with a senior Arab diplomat telling the Times of Israel earlier this week that talks were advancing after Qatar put heavy pressure on Hamas to soften its demands, warning that its leaders residing in Doha could be deported if they didn’t adapt their approach in the negotiations.Late on Thursday, Hamas said it presented to mediators a comprehensive vision of a truce based on stopping what it called Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and withdrawing Israeli forces.A senior Israeli official told the Walla news site that Hamas’s demands were still too high, but “there is something to work with.”Representatives of about 20 families were invited for a personal meeting with Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on Thursday night, after not meeting with the prime minister for more than six weeks. The families told the prime minister that the meetings with him and members of the war cabinet were “vital” and asked that they take place regularly and frequently, after weeks of asking for meetings and noting their far more frequent meetings with US administration officials.The families emphasized that it is the prime minister’s “responsibility and commitment to secure the release of all the hostages, both the living and the murdered,” they said in a statement and told him their sense of feeling invisible in the process of a hostage deal.Domestic pressure for a deal has ramped up in recent weeks from both the supporters of hostages’ families and anti-government activists. On Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in separate rallies for a hostage deal and against Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv, with some protesters briefly blocking a main highway.War erupted on October 7 when Hamas sent thousands of terrorists from Gaza into southern Israel, where they carried out an unprecedented rampage, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253 others.It is believed that around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of 32 people, after 105 of the hostages were freed during a week-long truce in November.International mediators are desperate to broker a pause in the fighting after some six months of war that have left the Strip in ruins, with over 1 million Gazans displaced, hunger rampant, and vital humanitarian relief slow to reach civilians for a variety of reasons. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says over 31,000 people have been killed, though it does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, and the numbers cannot be independently verified.The UN has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza are on the brink of famine and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access for aid.Lazar Berman and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Hamas starves Gazans as a war tactic-As humanitarian aid efforts are ramped up via land, air and sea, the IDF must decide how many of its soldiers to divert to protecting the convoys – while becoming targets themselves-By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Haviv Rettig Gur-Today, 9:14 am-MAR 15,24

On Tuesday, aid for 25,000 people reached Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time in weeks, according to the UN World Food Program.“With people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day and we need entry points directly into the north,” tweeted the UN agency after the aid’s successful entry.Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed that a convoy of six aid trucks entered the northern Gaza Strip through a new military road. The route, stretching from the border near the southern community of Be’eri to the coast of the Strip, is used by the Israel Defense Forces to carry out operations in northern and central Gaza.The successful delivery of the aid was “part of an experimental pilot in order to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid,” said COGAT.UN World Food Program chief Cindy McCain said on Monday that WFP had paused aid deliveries for three weeks “for the safety of our staff and due to the complete breakdown of law and order.”As Gazan gunmen raid aid trucks and abscond with necessary supplies, what is Israel’s legal obligation to protect the convoys? This week, as humanitarian aid is being brought into the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur — what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

Police gird for possible 1st Ramadan Friday violence as Hamas calls to ‘defend Al-Aqsa’Thousands of officers deployed to Old City, where worshipers have been urged by Gaza’s terror leaders to barricade themselves inside flashpoint mosque; 50,000 due for midday prayers-By ToI Staff Today, 8:59 am-MAR 15,24

Thousands of police were deployed Friday across the Old City of Jerusalem in case of disturbances after Hamas called on Palestinian worshipers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan.Police said that in addition to the 3,000 officers and Border Police soldiers, police commissioner Kobi Shabtai, Jerusalem district commanders, and Shin Bet security officials would visit the several command posts set up in the Old City, where they would receive real-time updates on the situation.In a statement Thursday, Hamas called on followers to “participate urgently in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque against the aggression that lurks in these critical times.”In past years during Ramadan, Palestinians have barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is situated on the Temple Mount, some with explosives and rocks. Police operations to clear them out have often resulted in violence.Last year, two consecutive nights of clashes between officers and Palestinians at the mosque sparked barrages of rocket fire from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.This year’s Ramadan comes amid tinderbox tensions stemming from the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the group’s shock October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.Terror groups have called on Palestinians to come to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to confront Israel over the war in Gaza.Police officers scuffled with some attendees at the Temple Mount entrance on Sunday, the first night of Ramadan, but the holy site has been relatively peaceful since.On Thursday, police quickly denied claims on social media that barriers being set up aimed to block entry to the Temple Mount. Police have warned that terror groups are trying to spread false information about the site to stir up violence.“In practice, there is no blocking of the gates of the Temple Mount, which is open for the entry of worshipers from all gates. This is maintenance work (replacing old fences with new ones) at the security posts,” police said.Officials from the Jordanian-backed Islamic trust that administers the Al Aqsa Mosque compound told Haaretz that evening prayers have attracted relatively large crowds of worshipers compared to previous years and that 50,000 were expected to arrive for midday prayers on Friday.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged last week that the number of worshipers allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in the first week of Ramadan would be the same as in previous years and that no restrictions would be imposed on Arab Israelis, overruling the wishes of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultranationalist firebrand who oversees the Israel Police.COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, has ruled that Palestinian residents’ access to the site for Friday’s prayers will be limited to men over 55, women over 50, and children under 10.The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest shrine in Islam, making the site a central flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.