English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 09/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed meto bring good news to the poor
Luke 04/14-21: “Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed meto bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 08-09/2022
Happy & Blessed Mathers Day To All Mothers/Elias Bejjani/May 08/2022
Lebanese in 48 countries vote in parliamentary elections
More Lebanese expats vote in national election
Lebanese Abroad Vote in Parliamentary Elections
Lebanese in 48 countries voting in parliamentary elections
Aoun visits Foreign Ministry, hopes for 'easier' expat voting process in future
Bou Habib says all will vote in Dubai amid scenes of long queues
Al-Rahi lauds expat voting process, urges heavy turnout
'Berlin has become Shiyyah', Berri loyalists chant in Germany

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 08-09/2022
Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’
Syria President Assad visits Iran for meetings in rare trip
Israel Captures Palestinians who Killed 3 in Elad
Israeli forces kill Palestinian at West Bank barrier, officials say
Iran Helps Nicaragua ‘Neutralize’ Effects of US Sanctions
Iranian MP: Nine Mln Families Living Below Poverty Line
Iraq Signs Contracts with US, France to Import Advanced Weapons
Erdogan Plans to Repatriate a ‘Million Syrian Refugees’
Sudan Islamists Struggle to Choose Turabi's Successor

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 08-09/2022
New Views of Moderation, Resistance and the Holocaust in the Middle East/Najat Al-Saied/Gatestone Institute./May 8, 2022
The Next Front in the Ukraine War Will Be on the Black Sea/James Stavridis/Asharaq Al-Awsat/May 08/2022
Will Our Region be Dragged into The Ukrainian War?/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharaq Al-Awsat/May 08/2022
The Iranian regime’s real intentions/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 08/2022
Iranian resistance warns Iran’s primary goal is to build a nuclear weapon/Hanania/Arab News/May 08/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 08-09/2022
Happy & Blessed Mathers Day To All Mothers
Elias Bejjani/May 08/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/74768/elias-bejjani-happy-blessed-mathers-day-to-all-mothers/
Today while in Canada we are happily and joyfully celebrating the Mothers’ Day, let us all pray that Almighty God will keep granting all mothers all over the world the needed graces of wisdom, meekness and faith to highly remain under all circumstances honoring this holy role model and to stay as Virgin Merry fully devoted to their families.
For all those of us whose mothers have passed away, let us mention them in our daily prayers and ask Almighty God to endow their souls the eternal rest in His heavenly dwellings.
In Christianity Virgin Merry is envisaged by many believers and numerous cultures as the number one role model for the righteous, devoted, loving , caring, giving, and humble mothers.
The Spirit Of My mother who like every and each loving departed mother is definitely watching from above and praying for all of us. May Almighty God Bless her spirit and the Spirits of all departed mothers.
In all religions and cultures all over the world, honoring, respecting and obeying parents is not a favor that people either chose to practice or not. No not at all, honoring, respecting and obeying parents is a holy obligation that each and every faithful individual who believes in God MUST fulfill, no matter what.
Almighty God in His 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 ) made the honoring of both parents (commandment number five) a holy obligation, and not a choice or a favor.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you”. (Exodus 20:12)
Reading the Bible, both the Old and New Testament shows with no doubt that honoring parents is a cornerstone and a pillar in faith and righteousness for all believers. All other religions and cultures share with Christians this holy concept and obligation.
“Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 5:16)
“You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:3).
Back home in Lebanon we have two popular proverbs that say:“If you do not have an elderly figure in your family to bless you, go and search for one”. “The mother is the who either gathers or divides the family”
How true are these two proverbs, because there will be no value, or meaning for our lives if not blessed and flavored by the wisdom, love and blessings of our parents and of other elder members.
He who does not honor the elderly, sympathize and empathize with them, especially his own parents is a person with a hardened heart, and a numbed conscience, who does not know the meaning of gratitude.
History teaches us that the easiest route for destroying a nation is to destroy, its cornerstone, the family. Once the family code of respect is belittled and not honored, the family is divided and loses all its Godly blessings.
“Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls” (Luke 11-17)
One very important concept and an extremely wise approach MUST apply and prevail when reading the Holy Bible in a bid to understand its contents and observe the Godly instructions and life guidelines that are enlisted. The concept needs to be a faith one with an open frame of mind free from doubts, questions and challenges.
Meanwhile the approach and interpretation MUST both be kept within the abstract manner, thinking and mentality frame, and not in the concrete way of interpretation.
We read in (Matthew 15/04: “For God said, Respect your father and your mother, and If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death).
This verse simply dwells on The Fifth Biblical Commandment: “Honor your Father and Mother”. To grasp its meaning rightfully and put it in its right faith content one should understand that death in the Bible is not the death of the body as we experience and see on earth. DEATH in the Bible means the SIN that leads to eternal anguish in Hell.
The Bible teaches us that through His crucifixion, death and resurrection, Jesus defeated death in its ancient human, earthly concept. He broke the death thorn and since than, the actual death became the sin. Those who commit the sin die and on the judgment day are outcast to the eternal fire. Death for the believers is a temporary sleep on the hope of resurrection.
Accordingly the verse “If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death”, means that those who do not honor their parents, help, support and respect them commit a deadly sin and God on the Judgment Day will make them accountable if they do not repent and honor their parents.
God is a Father, a loving, passionate and caring One, and in this context He made the honoring of parents one of the Ten Commandments.
In conclusion: The abstract and faith interpretation of Matthew 15/04 verse must not be related to children or teenagers who because of an age and maturity factors might temporarily repel against their parents and disobey them.
Hopefully, each and every one of us, no matter what religion or denomination he/she is affiliated to will never ever ignore his parents and commit the deadly SIN of not honoring them through every way and mean especially when they are old and unable to take care of themselves.
Happy Mothers’ Day to all mothers

Lebanese in 48 countries vote in parliamentary elections
The Arab Weekly/Agencies/May 08/2022
Thousands of Lebanese living in nearly 50 countries began early voting Sunday in the country’s closely watched parliamentary elections, days after a similar vote was held in 10 predominantly Muslim nations. About 195,000 Lebanese had registered to vote Sunday in 48 countries including the Arab Gulf countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, European Union member states and several African nations. The national vote in Lebanon takes place May 15. Among those voting, Sunday are many Lebanese who fled the country over the past two years during a historic economic meltdown. The downturn has been blamed on decades of corruption and mismanagement by the political class that has been running the small nation since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. The country’s political system has been under the control of the powerful pro-Iran Hezbollah party. Parliamentary elections are held once every four years and the last vote in 2018 gave majority seats to the Hezbollah and its allies. The vote this year for the 128-member legislature is the first since the economic and financial crisis began in October 2019 leading to nationwide protests. It is also the first vote held since the massive Aug. 4, 2020 blast at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and caused widespread damage in the capital. Little change was expected from the vote as mainstream political parties and politicians remained strong going into the vote while opposition figures are fractured. Some parties are hoping to strip the parliamentary majority from Hezbollah, which is expected nonetheless to maintain its hold on Lebanese politics. The vote this year comes as a powerful Sunni leader, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, suspended his work in politics and called on Sunnis not to vote. Critics have warned this may help Hezbollah’s Sunni allies to win more seats as Hariri’s boycott call is likely to divide and demobilise Sunnis.
Local media outlets have reported that Hariri has come under pressure from Saudi Arabia to convince his supporters to get out and vote to prevent Hezbollah from benefiting from the vacuum. A registered 194,348 voters will cast their ballots at 192 polling stations around the world, many of them at Lebanese diplomatic missions. During Friday's vote, 59.45% of the registered 30,929 voters cast their ballots, according to Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib. Lebanon’s parliament is equally divided between Christians and Muslims. The new legislature will elect a new president after President Michel Aoun’s term ends in October. After official results are out following next week's vote in Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati will become a caretaker administration until the president calls for consultations with newly elected legislators to name a new prime minister. Mikati, who is not running for parliament, could be chosen again. According to Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the President is a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister is a Sunni and the parliament speaker is a Shia. Cabinet seats are also equally divided between Muslims and Christians.More than 70% of the country’s 6 million inhabitants, including 1 million Syrian refugees, now live in poverty as a result of the economic crisis, which was described by the World Bank as one the world's worst since the 1850s.The crisis made tens of thousands lose their jobs while the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value since the meltdown began.

More Lebanese expats vote in national election
Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 08/2022
President Aoun hopes ‘elections will end smoothly, without problems or objections’
Expat voting reportedly weaker than 2018 elections
BEIRUT: The second round of Lebanese expat voting took place on Sunday, with overseas voters from 48 countries heading to the polls as the country hopes for a break in the political impasse. Given the different time zones, it was difficult to monitor votes in each continent. However, young expats who recently left Lebanon expressed great enthusiasm in voting for the forces of change over the ruling parties. A total of 194,348 Lebanese expats were registered to vote on Sunday, but turnout trickled in relatively weakly, but the enthusiasm many had shown in the first round of expat voting on Friday ensured optimism remained high. Turnout is low compared to the last national elections in 2018. The weak voting rate has even been reflected in some countries where voters have explicitly expressed affiliation with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.
President Michel Aoun visits the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Supplied) Expats living in countries that have a Sunday weekend voted on Sunday, while those living in the 10 Arab and Muslim countries that have a Friday weekend were the first to vote on Friday. The third and final stage will take place on May 15, with the Lebanese voting at home.
At midnight on Saturday, Beirut time, the polls opened in Australia, where the number of registered voters was 20,602. The polling process in the UAE kicked off at 6:00 a.m., with 25,066 registered voters living in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Polls then opened in European and African countries. As soon as the polls closed in Australia at 3:00 p.m. Beirut time, the polls opened in Canada, the US, Brazil and Venezuela. Speaking from the operations room designated to monitor the elections via the Internet, which is linked to all polling stations around the world, Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib announced that the turnout in Australia had reached 54 percent an hour before the polls closed. The queues at the Lebanese General Consulate in Dubai stretched for over 1 km, as voters waited for hours under the scorching sun to cast their votes, while the turnout in Abu Dhabi hit 65.2 percent at 3 p.m. Beirut time. In 2018, expat turnout in the UAE exceeded 66 percent.
The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections reported some violations, such as voters taking selfies or pictures of the lists they were voting for behind the isolators. It added that isolators in some polling stations in Australia were exposed. Delegates for candidates observed the voting process in different countries. In African countries and Germany, supporters of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement flocked to polling stations to campaign for their parties. Meanwhile, voters in Australia complained about different polling stations being assigned to several members of the same family, forcing them to take relatively long trips to cast their votes.
In Turkey, 999 Lebanese expats registered to vote overseas, with 323 in Russia, 696 in Romania, 528 in Greece and 840 in Cyprus. A total of 27,813 voters were registered in France, 233 in Ireland, and 6,535 in Britain.
In Germany, 16,171 voters were registered, 2,601 in Switzerland, 2,128 in Italy, 1,226 in Spain, 965 in the Netherlands, 706 in Denmark, 282 in Austria, 215 in Poland, 200 in Luxembourg, and 221 in Hungary.
In Zambia, 410 expats were registered, 405 in South Africa, 2,580 in Nigeria, 848 in Gabon, 653 in DR Congo, 518 in Benin, 332 in Angola, 228 in Cameroon, 248 voters in Morocco, 6,070 in Côte d'Ivoire, 532 in Guinea, 1,012 in Ghana, 724 in Sierra Leone, 707 in Senegal, 458 in Togo, 376 in Liberia, 317 in Mali and 293 in Burkina Faso. Meanwhile, President Michel Aoun visited the operations room in Beirut where he was briefed on how elections abroad are being monitored. Speaking to the press, Aoun hoped that “the elections will end smoothly, without problems or objections and for things to improve in the upcoming elections so that they would be easier and at a lower cost than today, by using a code to vote and not having to fly in ballot boxes.”Many foreign diplomats also visited the operations room to inspect the electoral process. The EU’s Election Observation Mission’s deputy, Jarek Domanski, said: “The mission’s 16 teams are monitoring the progress of the electoral process, and they are distributed over 13 European countries.”Domanski noted: “The teams that will undertake the same task next Sunday will include about 170 observers. The mission team will monitor the numbers of ballot boxes coming from abroad in order to match them when the counting process begins on May 15.”

Lebanese Abroad Vote in Parliamentary Elections
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Lebanese in more than 40 countries voted in a national election on Sunday, days after a similar vote was held in 10 nations. Just under 200,000 Lebanese living overseas are eligible to participate in the vote for the 128-member legislature, the first since the 2019 financial collapse and port blast that killed more than 215 people and destroyed large parts of Beirut in August 2020. Voters in Lebanon will cast their ballots on May 15. Observers expect large numbers of expatriates to vote for candidates from a coalition of activists and independents who gained prominence during 2019 protests against the political elites that have held power for decades. Lebanese Foreign Minister Abadallah Bou Habib said turnout in Dubai had hit 15% in just two hours, with the queue of voters outside the Lebanese consulate stretching for nearly a kilometer despite sweltering heat. During Friday's vote, 59.45% of the registered 30,929 voters cast their ballots, according to Bou Habib. Lebanon’s parliament is equally divided between Christians and Muslims. The new legislature will elect a new president after President Michel Aoun’s term ends in October.

Lebanese in 48 countries voting in parliamentary elections
Associated Press/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Thousands of Lebanese living in nearly 50 countries began early voting Sunday in the country's closely watched parliamentary elections, days after a similar vote was held in 10 predominantly Muslim nations. About 195,000 Lebanese had registered to vote Sunday in 48 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, European Union member states and several African nations. The vote in Lebanon takes place on May 15. Among those voting Sunday are many Lebanese who fled the country over the past two years during a historic economic meltdown. The downturn has been blamed on decades of corruption and mismanagement by the political class that has been running the small nation since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Parliamentary elections are held once every four years and the last vote in 2018 gave majority seats to Hizbullah and its allies.
The vote this year for the 128-member legislature is the first since the economic and financial crisis began in October 2019 leading to nationwide protests. It is also the first vote held since the massive Aug. 4, 2020 blast at Beirut's port that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and caused widespread damage in the capital. Little change was expected from the vote as mainstream political parties and politicians remained strong going into the vote while opposition figures are fractured. Western-backed mainstream parties are hoping to strip the parliamentary majority from Hizbullah.
The vote this year comes as a powerful Sunni leader, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, suspended his work in politics. Some have warned this may help Hizbullah's Sunni allies to win more seats. Local media outlets have reported that Hariri has come under pressure from Saudi Arabia to convince his supporters to get out and vote to prevent Hizbullah from benefiting from the vacuum. Saudi Arabia and Hizbullah backer Iran are regional rivals. A registered 194,348 voters will cast their ballots at 192 polling stations around the world, many of them at Lebanese diplomatic missions.
During Friday's vote, 59.45% of the registered 30,929 voters cast their ballots, according to Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. Lebanon's parliament is equally divided between Christians and Muslims. The new legislature will elect a new president after President Michel Aoun's term ends in October. After official results are out following next week's vote in Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Najib Miqati will become a caretaker administration until the president calls for consultations with newly elected legislators to name a new prime minister. Miqati, who is not running for parliament, could be chosen again. According to Lebanon's power-sharing system, the President is a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister is a Sunni and the parliament speaker is a Shiite. Cabinet seats are also equally divided between Muslims and Christians. More than 70% of the country's 6 million inhabitants, including 1 million Syrian refugees, now live in poverty as a result of the economic crisis, which was described by the World Bank as one the world's worst since the 1850s. The crisis made tens of thousands lose their jobs while the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value since the meltdown began.

Aoun visits Foreign Ministry, hopes for 'easier' expat voting process in future
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
President Michel Aoun on Sunday visited the Foreign Ministry to inspect its monitoring of the second round of expat parliamentary elections that got underway in the morning in 48 countries. Stressing the importance of electoral megacenters, which were not utilized in this year’s elections, Aoun told Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib that what it has been doing to facilitate the elections is “not an easy job.”“We hope things will improve in the next elections by becoming easier than today, seeing as there is a possibility to have a voting code and the results would come without boxes and in a less costly way for the state,” the President added. “I congratulate you and I hope the elections will end without any problems or objections,” he went on to say.

Bou Habib says all will vote in Dubai amid scenes of long queues
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib reassured Sunday that “polling stations in Dubai will not be closed before all Lebanese present in the consulate cast their votes,” amid scenes of long queues of voters who lined up in scorching heat. Media reports said one of the lines outside the consulate stretched for around 1.5 kilometers. Despite the long wait, most voters however appeared enthusiastic to take part in the electoral process. Lebanon's National News Agency meanwhile reported that voter turnout had reached 42% in Abu Dhabi and 27% in Dubai around 1pm Beirut time.

Al-Rahi lauds expat voting process, urges heavy turnout
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lauded “the role of the government, the concerned ministers and the employees of embassies and diplomatic missions for the proper management” of expat parliamentary polls, which got underway in the morning in dozens of countries. “We have seen the Lebanese women and men heading to polling stations with pain, anger and hope showing on their faces,” al-Rahi added in his Sunday Mass sermon. “Ahead of the polling day in Lebanon, we call on all citizens to turn out heavily in the elections because this is the moment of change, or else they will regret it later,” the patriarch added.

'Berlin has become Shiyyah', Berri loyalists chant in Germany
Naharnet/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Supporters of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Amal Movement on Sunday turned out heavily in Lebanon’s expat parliamentary elections in Germany. “O Nabih be at ease, Berlin has become Shiyyah,” Berri supporters are seen chanting in videos and on live television, referring to the Beirut southern suburb of Shiyyah, which is a stronghold of Berri and his Amal Movement. The Amal Movement also enjoys a strong presence in Germany, especially in the capital Berlin.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 08-09/2022
Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’
Daily Beast/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.“I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.”Never mind that the 85-year-old pontiff is unable to walk after tearing a ligament in his knee (for which he says he will soon have surgery), or that Putin won’t even answer his calls. Francis repeated comments he has made in general audiences and in other interviews that the war is nothing more than a giant opportunity for a “trade in arms” and that it is still ongoing because of the constant shuttling of weapons to Ukraine. He has spoken twice by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but mostly to urge him not to fight back. He also went to the Russian embassy to the Holy See days after the invasion began to “register his concerns” about what was happening. “I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done.”
Whether the Italian journalists didn’t ask—or whether he didn’t answer— there was no mention about what would happen if Ukrainians were not fiercely fighting back, whether it would mean a full annexation of the entire country, millions of deaths, or empowering an already insatiably power-hungry Putin.
Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything possible to stop the war.” The pope then said that in a state visit to Rome by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he was told “the Russians have a plan, that everything will end on May 9” without giving any further explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end of World War II. The one person Francis will not meet is Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, who the pope fears is becoming “Putin’s altar boy.” Francis said he spoke with him on the phone for 40 minutes on March 15. “And I told him: I completely fail to understand this,” he said. “Brother, we are not state clerics; we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God.” --- Daily Beast

Syria President Assad visits Iran for meetings in rare trip
AP/May 08, 2022
Assad: Strong relations between Iran and Syria serve as bulwark against US and Israeli influence in Middle East
The Tehran visit marked Assad’s first trip to the Iranian capital in over two years
TEHRAN: Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian and Syrian media reported, marking his second trip to major wartime ally Iran since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011.
Nour News, a website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported that Assad met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi. It said the leaders praised the strong ties between their nations and vowed to boost relations further. Assad was reported to have left Tehran for Damascus later on Sunday. “Everybody now looks at Syria as a power,” Khamenei told Assad in the meeting, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. “The respect and credibility of Syria is now much more than before.” Assad, for his part, said that strong relations between Iran and Syria served as a bulwark against American and Israeli influence in the Middle East. “America today is weaker than ever,” Syrian state news agency, SANA, quoted Assad as saying. “We should continue this track,” he added, praising Iran’s help in Syria’s “fight against terrorism.” In an apparent reference to a recent string of deadly attacks in Israel by Palestinian assailants, Assad also said that the Palestinian cause has again captured the world’s attention “because of the sacrifices of the Palestinian resistance.” Iranian media published photos of Assad shaking hands warmly with Khamenei and grinning beside Raisi. Assad has rarely traveled abroad since his government’s crackdown on Syria’s civil unrest in 2011 led to a devastating civil war and made him a global pariah. He has visited key patrons Russia and Iran, and made his first trip to the United Arab Emirates since the conflict earlier this year. Tehran has given the Syrian government billions of dollars in aid and sent Iran-backed fighters to battle alongside his forces — assistance that, along with Russian air power, has helped turn the tide in Assad’s favor. The Tehran visit marked Assad’s first trip to the Iranian capital in over two years. The visit was not announced beforehand. Police were out in force at major thoroughfares and intersections in Tehran on Sunday.

Israel Captures Palestinians who Killed 3 in Elad
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Israeli police said Sunday that forces captured two Palestinians who killed three people in a stabbing attack last week and fled the scene. The two attackers went on a stabbing rampage in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad on Thursday, Israel's Independence Day, killing three and wounding at least four others before bolting. The stabbing was the latest in a series of deadly assaults deep inside the country in recent weeks. It came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions were already heightened by violence at a major holy site in Jerusalem sacred to Jews and Muslims. A joint statement by police, the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency said the men, identified as 19- and 20-year-old Palestinians, were caught near a quarry not far from Elad following a search that began Thursday by special forces and commando units using helicopters and other means. Images in Israeli media showed masked security forces confronting the men, who appeared to be beneath a green shrub in a rugged patch of land. As forces scoured the area looking for the men, police called on the public to avoid the area, and urged Israelis to report suspicious vehicles or people to them. Police said the attackers were from the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which has re-emerged as a militant bastion in the latest wave of violence — the worst Israel has seen in years. Several of the attackers in the recent violence have come from Jenin. At least 18 Israelis have been killed in five attacks since March, including another stabbing rampage in southern Israel, two shootings in the Tel Aviv area, and a shooting last weekend in a West Bank settlement. Nearly 30 Palestinians have died in violence — most of whom had carried out attacks or were involved in confrontations with Israeli forces in the West Bank. But an unarmed woman and two apparent bystanders were also among those killed and rights groups say Israel often uses excessive force.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian at West Bank barrier, officials say
Reuters/May 08, 2022
JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian near the barrier with the occupied West Bank on Sunday, while in Jerusalem a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli border police officer, adding to an upsurge in violence that has raised fears of a slide back into a wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The attacks came hours after Israeli forces caught two Palestinians who had snuck into Israel and killed three people in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Elad on Israel’s Independence Day last Thursday. Israel’s army said that the shooting of a Palestinian on Sunday occurred after “soldiers spotted a suspect who attempted to illegally cross the security fence” in the area of the West Bank town of Tulkarm. “The soldiers operated to stop the suspect in accordance with standard operating procedures, using live fire,” according to an army spokesperson. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the man was killed.
After the stabbing in Jerusalem on Sunday, police said border police officers at the scene shot the Palestinian attacker and that he and the victim were being treated for their wounds. Separately, the killing of three people in Elad on Thursday had led to a three-day manhunt by Israeli forces for two axe-wielding assailants who had run through the town, some 15 km (nine miles) north of Tel Aviv. The two men were captured on Sunday in a forest near Elad, the Israeli army said. They have been identified by Israel as residents of a village near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank.
Photos of the two, who appeared to be unhurt, and of Israeli security men with guns pointed at their hiding place, were carried by Israeli news websites after they were taken into custody. Since March Palestinians and members of Israel’s Arab minority have killed 18 people, including three police officers and a security guard, in attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have mostly targeted civilians. Israel has carried out arrest raids in Palestinian towns and villages which have often sparked clashes and brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year to at least 41.
The casualties include armed members of militant groups, lone assailants and bystanders. Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, praised the Elad assault. It said the attack was a response to Israeli actions at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Over the past month, Palestinians and Israeli police have repeatedly clashed at the sensitive complex. Palestinians and Jordan, the custodian of the site that is the third-holiest in Islam, accuse Israel of not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on non-Muslim prayer there, which Israel denies. The compound is Judaism’s holiest site and the vestige of two ancient Jewish temples. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in a 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state.

Iran Helps Nicaragua ‘Neutralize’ Effects of US Sanctions
Washington - Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Iran has pledged to supply Nicaragua with fuel, participate in oil exploration and consider investing in a refinery to “neutralize the effects of US and European sanctions and encroachments.” These sanctions target dozens of public sector officials and figures close to Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega who face charges related to corruption and human rights violations. This came at the end of a visit by an Iranian government delegation, led by Oil Minister Javad Owji. “We will do everything in our power to ensure the delivery of fuel to Nicaragua,” AFP quoted a Spanish translation of Owji’s statements during a live-streamed ceremony. Nicaragua imports fuel from its ally Venezuela, which is currently experiencing an economic and social crisis. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to the surge in global oil prices, has exacerbated the situation in the country, in light of US sanctions that make some of its transactions more difficult. Ortega said discussions tackled key issues related to oil. “Petrochemical and oil projects were proposed, as well as improving and modernizing refineries and developing production in oil and gas fields.” The two governments signed an agreement to develop oil exchanges and a contract to provide oil-derived products, without specifying its value. Owji said the projects include the possibility of investing in a refinery in the “Bolivar’s Supreme Dream” industrial complex, which was launched by Ortega’s government in 2007 and includes a Venezuelan investment. The project’s implementation has stopped due to economic challenges in Caracas. The minister expressed hope to continue the project’s implementation through an Iranian-Nicaraguan-Venezuelan joint investment. Nicaragua’s government said the complex includes a fuel storage and distribution facility, which was completed with a $432 million-worth investment. The project’s second phase requires an investment of more than $3.6 billion to construct a refinery. Washington and Brussels have been calling for the release of more than 40 opposition figures, including seven former presidential candidates who were arrested before the November 2021 elections, in which Ortega won a fourth consecutive term. Venezuela and Iran bolstered their ties after Washington imposed sanctions on their oil exports and against several government officials from both countries.

UN Rapporteur Visits Iran To Gather Information On Human Rights
Nicosia - Tehran/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Human rights groups on Friday warned Tehran will try to use an upcoming visit to Iran by a UN expert in order to avoid accountability for its human rights violations. Alena Douhan, the special rapporteur focused on the impact of unilateral sanctions, is scheduled to visit to Iran from May 7 to 18 to discuss human rights issues. It will be the first such visit to the country by a special rapporteur since 2005. The UN Human Rights Council established the Special Rapporteur’s mandate in September 2014 following concerns by the UN human rights system and the international community about the negative impact of unilateral sanctions on the human rights of the civilian populations around the world. “I am looking forward to engaging with the Government and non-governmental counterparts, national and international, in a spirit of dialogue, cooperation and impartiality, with the view to gather first-hand information on the impact of unilateral coercive measures on the full realization of all human rights in the country,” Douhan said according to a UN press release. She added that her visit will aim at covering all walks of life and sectors affected by such measures, including secondary sanctions and sanctions over-compliance. Douhan’s mission comes during a stalemate in talks between Iran and world powers to revive a 2015 agreement which gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program. In 2018 then-US president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, which then began rolling back its own commitments. But a group of 11 human rights groups warned in a statement Friday that Iran’s government will try to “instrumentalize” the visit “in a cynical attempt to deflect attention from its well-documented record of human rights violations.”The statement was signed by groups including United for Iran, Article 19 and Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “The visit comes after 17 years of denial of access to any of the 14 UN human rights monitors that have requested to visit the country,” it said. The statement added that by inviting the only expert whose mandate is to look at external actors’ liability for rights violations in the country, Iranian authorities exploit this visit in an inconspicuous attempt to blunt scrutiny of its record of non-cooperation with the UN human rights system. Douhan said she will pay particular attention to the adverse effects on the most vulnerable segments of society, including in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For their part, the rights groups said Iran has a history of blatant rights violations, and that legitimate concern over the impact of sanctions cannot and must not overshadow the Iranian authorities’ responsibility for failing to ensure access to health, work, education, internet and adequate living standards for all in Iran. “The international community must not be fooled, and Iran should not be rewarded for its attempt to avoid accountability,” they added.

Iranian MP: Nine Mln Families Living Below Poverty Line
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 7 May, 2022
Around nine million Iranian families are living below the poverty line, revealed an Iranian lawmaker at a time President Ebrahim Raisi is facing multiple warnings from conservative allies that a hike in prices could lead to possible popular protests in the country.
Mohammad Hassan Asfari, a member of parliament, blamed all Iranian parties for the current situation facing the country, criticizing the lifting of government support for the import of food commodities. “When we want to solve economic woes from people's pockets, poverty would spike in severity every day,” he said in a press interview. The lawmaker noted that economic struggles “cannot be solved with promises and words.” He also downplayed the reported increase of up to 57% in workers’ salaries, doubting its ability to help resolve the problem of poverty. He revealed that 9 million Iranian families are now living below the poverty line, adding that “the majority of families are waiting to receive aid from the Imam Committee and the Welfare Organization.”Meanwhile, the Student Basij, a subgrouping of the Basij militia that is itself a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), issued a stark warning to hardline President Raisi. “We strongly inform you that society is not prepared for such a sudden increase in prices at this level,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. “The turmoil in the markets in recent weeks, and especially the shocking decision by the Agriculture Ministry to increase the price of flour for industrial producers, could have social consequences and lead to unrest.” Earlier this week, well-informed Iranian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the country's top authorities issued “secret directives” to the security services and the judiciary to be on alert for the next three months. The orders come in anticipation of public protests with the rise in food prices and fears of the collapse of the Vienna nuclear deal negotiations.

Iraq Signs Contracts with US, France to Import Advanced Weapons
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Iraq's Ministry of Defense signed contracts with the United States and France to import advanced weapons and strengthen artillery, the state news agency (INA) reported on Sunday citing a senior military commander. He added that long-range artillery weapons had proved efficient in fighting ISIS recently, and that new cannons are part of deals with European countries. The report did not elaborate on types of weapons or mention many other details on the contracts.

Erdogan Plans to Repatriate a ‘Million Syrian Refugees’
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Turkey has announced a plan to return a million Syrians to their homeland, supported by national and international civil organizations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is making the necessary preparations for a comprehensive project that allows the voluntary return of one million Syrians to 13 regions.
Turkey intends to provide mosques, schools, hospitals, bakeries, and "all the needs of daily life and self-sufficient economic infrastructure, from agriculture to industry," Erdogan said. The project is coordinated with Turkish and international non-governmental organizations and 13 local councils. Making the remarks in a video message to a Turkish-sponsored residential construction project in Idlib, Erdogan said some 500,000 Syrians have already returned to "safe regions" in their home country in recent years. Some 57,000 homes already house 50,000 families, and another 50,000 are to be built in Idlib.
Last week, Turkish media affiliated with the government said it plans to return Syrian refugees to their country, referring to the plans to encourage "voluntary return" and scure housing and services that guarantee the return of Syrian refugees. A Turkish newspaper revealed a plan to return 1.5 million Syrian refugees to their country within 15 to 20 months, noting that the Turkish government has completed all the studies necessary to build 200,000 homes with Qatari funding. The newspaper noted that the talks between Turkey and the Syrian regime aim to discuss two main issues, the refugees and the problem of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, the most significant component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Hurriyet daily revealed details of the Turkish plan to ensure a stable life and encourage the voluntary return of refugees. As part of councils established in the safe havens protected by Turkish soldiers, more than 12,000 local security guards have been trained, and nearly 3,000 consultants have been appointed to town and neighborhood administrations. An urban security and management system has been established in Afrin, Ras al-Ayn, Azez, Al-Bab, and Tell Abyad. A judiciary communication system is also being tested in those cities and towns. A new public hospital will be added to the health system, including eight public hospitals, 33 private hospitals, 106 health centers, 42 emergency health units, ten mobile health vehicles, and 76 ambulances.
Some 50,000 locals have been employed in the newly-built industrial zones. Farmers have been provided seed and fertilizers. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was possible to cooperate with the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, on terrorism and migrants without recognizing him. Cavusoglu stressed that his country supports the unity of the Syrian territory, noting that the Syrian army has recently started fighting the People's Protection Units, the most significant component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which he said "plans to divide Syria." The Turkish minister said that his country had started a new stage to "voluntarily and safely" return refugees to Syria in cooperation with Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. Turkey hosts more than 3.7 million Syrians, and the Syrians' issues have topped the country's main agenda ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for June 2023. Several parties and officials, even within the ruling Justice and Development Party, have increased pressure on the government to begin the safe return of Syrians to their homeland. Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed that his country is closely following developments in northern Syria and will not allow the establishment of a terrorist corridor on its southern borders. Akar added that there is no difference between the Kurdistan Workers' Party and its extension in Syria, the People's Protection Units. He added that Turkey would continue to fight the terrorists regardless of who supports them, in reference to the United States, which supports the SDF as an ally in the war against ISIS.

Sudan Islamists Struggle to Choose Turabi's Successor
Khartoum - Mohammed Amin Yassin/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 8 May, 2022
Sudan's Islamist parties, the National Congress and the Popular Congress parties, will soon begin a new chapter in their conflict. The new development comes two weeks after Islamist parties, except the Popular Congress, signed a new political charter to establish the "Broad Islamic Current." The National Congress Party (NCP) is led by former President Omar al-Bashir, while the Popular Congress Party (PCP) is chaired by Ali al-Hajj, who is in prison. The two parties have a long history of rivalry and competition after Bashir overthrew the "godfather" of the Islamist movement in Sudan, Hassan al-Turabi, in 1999.
The designated Sec-Gen of the Popular Congress Party, Al-Amin Abdel Razek, criticized at a meeting a top National Congress leader, whom he did not name. However, the audience chanted the name of Ali Karti, who has been living outside Sudan since December 2018.
Abdel Razek accused the NCP official of plotting to overthrow Ali al-Hajj from the Popular Congress Party and hinted that he led to his imprisonment in Kober Central Prison in Khartoum. Hajj is on trial for participating in the planning and implementation of the June 30, 1989 coup, along with Bashir and dozens of military and civilian leaders who participated in planning to seize power that year. Abdel Razek pointed out that NCP leaders are toying with the country's fate, and they make political decisions. He asserted that the PCP would not be part of any military rule, calling for political pluralism and peaceful power transfer. NCP official Amin Hassan Omar said that the broad Islamist trend is a consensus between various Islamist forces which have agreed on a "joint work program." Omar declared that his party was open to anyone who wished to work with others in the Islamist movement, adding that it is continuously developing. He indicated that the general idea is to reach out to all the Islamists and agree with them, adding that the party will work differently with Sufi orders and the right-wing currents. A source told Asharq Al-Awsat about a fundamental conflict between Islamist currents, pointing out that NCP's Karti wants to control the Broad Islamic Current. The source, who preferred not to be named, said a group affiliated with NCP's Hajj turned against him, which he viewed as treason. The source pointed out that the conflict is old but resurfaced with the emergence of the Broad Islamic Current, adding that NCP and PCP officials are competing for its leadership. Deputy head of the Reform Now Movement Hassan Rizk said that recent developments could not be referred to as a "struggle" between the NCP and the PCP. Rizk explains that the disagreements are between those who want to unite Islamist trends and all the components of the Islamist movement and those who reject it. He asserted that the Islamist movement must unite because "the enemy does not differentiate between NCP or PCP." Rizk added that the Islamists wanted to unite the Islamist trend, except for the PCP, which was part of NCP and participated in all stages of the establishment of the new Islamist body.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 08-09/2022
New Views of Moderation, Resistance and the Holocaust in the Middle East
Najat Al-Saied/Gatestone Institute./May 8, 2022
The real danger lies not only in denying that the Holocaust took place, but, worse, in rewriting history, especially by those who oppose peace and stability. Their main motive seems to be to perpetuate hatred and hostility so that the conflict -- their raison d'être and possibly also their careers -- remains continuous and immortal.
The real dispute in the Middle East is actually between two axes: an Axis of Moderation and an Axis of Resistance (to moderation, non-violence, normalization and peace).
Nothing, it seems, infuriates extremist groups or the Axis of Resistance more than bringing them face-to-face with such historical facts, and being able to cast aside all doubt about everything that is going on in Israel and that has been so maliciously and falsely reported
If matters were more peaceful and normal, everyone could go there and see the reality for themselves. This suppression of the truth seems, in fact, the main reason that so many are against normalization and fostering relationships between people across cultural and political divides: they want their own people to see only their version of reality.
Mohammad Dajani, a former Palestinian professor at Al-Quds University, had a different experience: he still lives in the midst of the conflict. His life is at risk because of the pragmatic position he chose: to solve the conflict rather than to perpetuate it.
[The Abraham Accords] made the voice of the Axis of Moderation louder and bolder. Supporters of the Axis of Resistance can no longer embarrass supporters of the Axis of Moderation, as they have done in the past, simply by accusing them of treason, or for doing nothing for the Palestinians or the Palestinian cause.
Peace cannot be built as long as extremism and ideological terrorism exist, and there can be no independent Palestinian state if generations are raised on violence and hatred in the absence of reason and logic.
Through the new Abraham Accords, which differ from previous models in that they actively promote peace and prosperity for the civil society, there is finally a glorious opportunity for people to see for themselves the reality of the Holocaust, for example, and better understand the dangers of radicalism, intolerance and racism to their own societies.
This year, His Excellency Ahmed Obaid AlMansoori, the Emirati founder of the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, led this history-making delegation from the UAE to Poland along with Eitan Nichloss, the newly-appointed ambassador of the International March of the Living in the Gulf States. Such delegations that expose people to historical evidence and facts that counter the radicals' manipulation of history, could go a long way to having a refreshingly positive influence in helping to solve the conflict still underway in the Middle East. Pictured: The Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. (Image source: أمين علوان/Wikimedia Commons)
For the first time in history, a delegation of journalists, academics and influencers from across the Arab and Muslim world -- including citizens from states that have not yet signed peace agreements with Israel, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon – came to see first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust and to promote education and awareness of them in their societies.
The delegation was organized by Sharaka, a grassroots organization based in Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, and made up of young social activists from Israel, the Arab Gulf States and others in the region who are dedicated to promoting warm ties and citizen-diplomacy. The group learned about the pre-WWII Jewish community, about the Holocaust, including touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland, and then took part in the International March of the Living, also there, an annual event in which thousands march in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
"It's an historic achievement to bring together this courageous group of leaders from around the Middle East to learn about and witness the history of the Holocaust and spread awareness of it to their countries and societies. It is through such engagements that we can truly build warm peace and understanding," noted the co-founder and CEO of Sharaka, Amit Deri. He said that the idea to participate in the March of the Living, which takes place annually on Israel's Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, came after the Abraham Accords were signed, on a trip to Israel in December 2020 for young Arab leaders.
Paradoxically, until recently, before the Abraham Accords were signed, talking about the Holocaust was effectively taboo in the Arab world. Holocaust denial is still common and the organization of visits to concentration and extermination camps is routinely condemned. The real danger lies not only in denying that the Holocaust took place, but, worse, in rewriting history, especially by those who oppose peace and stability. Their main motive seems to be to perpetuate hatred and hostility so that the conflict -- their raison d'être and possibly also their careers -- remains continuous and immortal. The real dispute in the Middle East is actually between two axes: an Axis of Moderation and an Axis of Resistance (to moderation, non-violence, normalization and peace).
The Axis of Resistance is ideological and does not concern states or their boundaries. It is led by the Iranian regime, its affiliates from Arab countries and extremist groups and militias such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Muslim Brotherhood. This axis is opposed to all solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict except for the elimination of Israel, and is outspokenly eager to fan the flames of hatred and disinformation, seemingly in the hope of bringing about Israel's destruction, the sooner the better. The Axis of Moderation, conversely, is pragmatic, political, pro-statehood and is represented in particular by the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan. This axis has endeavoured to find solutions to conflicts; it will come as no surprise then that most of these countries have signed peace agreements with Israel or seem disposed to.
As a senior Saudi journalist, Abdulaziz Al-Khamis, one of the participants in the delegation, said:
"We must unite to protect our generations from hatred by showing the truth of the Holocaust through the educational system and by highlighting it in the Arab media. Why is it shameful to focus on the Holocaust in our educational curricula and in our Arab media? Unfortunately, denying the truth of the Holocaust plays into the hands of extremist Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and others."
Dr. Nir Boms, a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, who also participated in the delegation, agreed with Al-Khamis and clarified:
"Our region has seen so much hate and lives taken, with lives still being lost. It is up to us to bring some understanding and tolerance as an alternative. This message is our lesson from the March of the Living. It is the most important legacy we can share from here."
"Because of the conflict," added Dan Feferman, Sharaka's director of global affairs and a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. "for too long the Arab world has denied the Holocaust, claiming it's a conspiracy and a tool used by the Jews to justify things related to Israel. This delegation must educate the Arab and Muslim world about the Holocaust."
Nothing, it seems, infuriates extremist groups or the Axis of Resistance more than bringing them face-to-face with such historical facts, and being able to cast aside all doubt about everything that is going on in Israel and that has been so maliciously and falsely reported
If matters were more peaceful and normal, everyone could go there and see the reality for themselves. This suppression of the truth seems, in fact, the main reason that so many are against normalization and fostering relationships between people across cultural and political divides: they want their own people to see only their version of reality.
Rawan Osman, a Syrian who grew up in Lebanon and now lives in Germany, said she was afraid when she first saw ultra-Orthodox Jews in her neighbourhood of Strasbourg. It was not because she believed that the Jews were enemies, she said, but because the strict anti-normalization laws under which she had had been brought up in Syria and Lebanon, which forbid any contact with Israelis or Jews, had left their mark.
Mohammad Dajani, a former Palestinian professor at Al-Quds University, had a different experience: he still lives in the midst of the conflict. His life is at risk because of the pragmatic position he chose: to solve the conflict rather than to perpetuate it. It was not easy for him to join this delegation; he was urged, for his own safety and that of his family, not to attend. In the past, for his pro-peace stance, his car has been torched by extremists; his family still can be targeted.
Dajani explained that the situation under Palestinian Authority rule is bad. Textbooks, for example, do not include any mention of the Holocaust, and the word is often used on social media either to deny that it ever existed or to or call it fake. Dajani originally joined Fatah (the PLO), he said, to "liberate" Palestine, but when Jewish doctors and soldiers gave life-saving medical care to his parents, he said, he began to see the humanitarian situation from the other side. In March 2014, Professor Dajani courageously took a group of 27 Palestinian students to Auschwitz; upon their return, the Palestinian media and activists accused Dajani of being a "collaborator" or "agent" of the Israeli authorities, and threatened his employment at the university. After a few weeks of threats, he submitted his resignation, which was accepted. "My letter of resignation to Al-Quds University," he said at the time, "was a kind of litmus test to see whether the university administration supports academic freedom and freedom of action and of expression as they claim or not."
In recent years, however, especially since the signing of the Abraham Accords, the situation has changed. They made the voice of the Axis of Moderation louder and bolder. Supporters of the Axis of Resistance can no longer embarrass supporters of the Axis of Moderation, as they have done in the past, simply by accusing them of treason, or for doing nothing for the Palestinians or the Palestinian cause.
The Axis of Moderation and the states involved in the Abraham Accords are trying to strengthen relations between people and enrich their historical and cultural knowledge. A year ago, a permanent Holocaust memorial exhibition, the first of its kind in the Arab world, was opened at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. It included survivor testimonies, photographs and objects from that time.
This year, His Excellency Ahmed Obaid AlMansoori, the Emirati founder of the exhibition and museum, led this history-making delegation from the UAE to Poland along with Eitan Nichloss, the newly-appointed ambassador of the International March of the Living in the Gulf States. Such delegations that expose people to historical evidence and facts that counter the radicals' manipulation of history, could go a long way to having a refreshingly positive influence in helping to solve the conflict still underway in the Middle East.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year was marked in many cities across the Arab world -- from Manama to Abu Dhabi to Rabat. The US Embassy in Cairo co-sponsored the city's first-ever official Holocaust commemoration. In 2020, His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Al-Issa, the secretary general of the World Muslim League, led a delegation of Muslim religious leaders to Auschwitz; they repeated the words "Never again" and performed a prayer for the six million Jewish victims.
Peace cannot be built as long as extremism and ideological terrorism exist, and there can be no independent Palestinian state if generations are raised on violence and hatred in the absence of reason and logic. Through the new Abraham Accords, which differ from previous models in that they actively promote peace and prosperity for civil society, there is finally a glorious opportunity for people to see for themselves the reality of the Holocaust, for example, and better understand the dangers of radicalism, intolerance and racism to their own societies.
**Dr. Najat Al-Saied is the Media Affairs and Academic Director of Sharaka and Adjunct Professor at AUE specialized in political media and communication. She can be reached at: najat@sharakango.com
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Next Front in the Ukraine War Will Be on the Black Sea
James Stavridis/Asharaq Al-Awsat/May 08/2022
On the surface, the tiny Ukrainian navy, just 5,000 active-duty sailors and a handful of small coastal boats, appears to be significantly overmatched by Russian maritime forces.
The Kremlin’s Black Sea fleet consists of over 40 frontline warships. The Russians seem poised to cut off the Ukrainian economy from access to the sea — essentially re-creating the Anaconda strategy US President Abraham Lincoln used in the 19th century to choke off the Confederacy.
But Russian success is hardly guaranteed, as the Ukrainians are proving as surprisingly stalwart at sea as they have been on land, already pulling off a handful of successful engagements against Russia’s naval forces.
What does the maritime component of the Ukrainian war look like in the months ahead?
Just over a decade ago, I visited the Crimean port of Sevastopol and had lunch with the Ukrainian chief of naval operations, Viktor Maksimov. We were able to walk out onto the bridge wing of his flagship and surveil the Russian navy just up the waterway.
This was before the 2014 invasion of Crimea by the Russians, but even then, the Ukrainian admiral correctly said: “Sooner or later, they will come for this port. And their fleet is much stronger than ours.”
At the time, I discounted the idea of a full-fledged invasion, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has now proved me wrong twice. Sevastopol is very much in Russian hands, and it affords them a distinct advantage in potential combat at sea.
The Russians have over three dozen capable combatant ships with immediate access to the crucial waterways of the northern Black Sea, and at least partial control over 60% of Ukraine’s coastline from Crimea through the Sea of Azov to the Russian mainland. Ukraine has lost its major warships, which were seized or destroyed in 2014, and has to take a guerrilla approach. So far, it is playing a weak hand very well.
The shocking sinking last month of Russia’s Black Sea flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was a good example of how the Ukrainians are going to approach war on their coast. They used an indigenously produced short-range cruise missile, the Neptune, and caught the Russians off guard. A failure of the Russian air-defense system, coupled with poor damage control, led to the loss of the ship, its heavy cruise-missile battery and (according to the Ukrainians) hundreds of its crew of around 500.
Last week, the Ukrainians announced they used Turkish-manufactured drones (which are appearing more and more frequently on battlefields globally) to sink two Russian patrol boats.
The upshot of both the strike on the Moskva and the sinking of the two gunboats is that the Ukrainians intend to contest control near the coast. Western hardware will be essential of course — the UK.has pledged to deliver hundreds of antiship Brimstone missiles this month — but so will real-time intelligence and targeting. In war at sea — where ships cannot hide behind terrain features, obviously — this is crucial. The battle of Midway in World War II, for example, turned in America’s favor almost entirely on the ability of US intelligence to direct the outmanned naval force. The Russians will have to come up with new strategies. This might include using the sea as a “flanking zone” to come around the lines of the Ukrainian defenders on land, similar to the bold move by General Douglas MacArthur in landing at Inchon on the Korean peninsula in 1950.
Another possibility would be blockading Ukraine’s most vital port, Odesa, to try to sever the Ukrainian economy from global markets. Third, the Russians will likely try to provide intense supporting fire from the sea against Ukrainian targets ashore — they recently demonstrated the ability to launch a land-attack cruise missile from a submarine, for example.
To counter, the Ukrainians can take a page from their land forces, which have been destroying Russian tanks and armored vehicles by the hundreds using relatively inexpensive weapons provided by Western allies. The US Navy’s SEALs have a good range of capabilities to disable shipping, and some of these systems should be made available to the Ukrainians. President Joe Biden’s proposed $33 billion assistance package for Ukraine includes coastal-defense hardware. And other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, such as Norway, have very good coastal systems they could provide.
It’s worth considering an escort system for Ukrainian (and other national) merchant ships that want to go in and out of Odesa. This would be similar to the Operation Ernest Will escorts provided to merchants during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. (I participated in those as operations officer on a US cruiser).
The West could also give training in anti-ship warfare to the Ukrainian navy outside the country, perhaps in nearby Constanta, Romania. (The Romanians recently began providing an outlet for Ukrainian goods from that port.) At the high end of the confrontation/risk spectrum, the allies might consider a humanitarian maritime mission to evacuate civilians (or even Ukrainian military forces) from the doomed city of Mariupol. Designating this a humanitarian effort would make it difficult for Moscow to attack the ships taking part, but they should be appropriately armed combatants prepared to defend the mission.
The vast Black Sea is mostly international waters. NATO warships are free to travel nearly wherever they want, including into Ukraine’s territorial waters and its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Conceding those waters to Russia makes no sense. Instead, look for them to become the next major front in the Ukraine war.

Will Our Region be Dragged into The Ukrainian War?
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharaq Al-Awsat/May 08/2022
The recent Russian-Israeli escalation over statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and claimed that Adolf Hitler was of Jewish origin, is a bad indicator for our region.
Despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and conflicting reports emerged about whether he apologized for his foreign minister's statements, this escalation may drag the Middle East into war in Ukraine.
Any Russian-Israeli clash over the crisis in Ukraine may plunge our region into new crises, the parties to which may be Syria, the Iranian regime, and thus Hezbollah, as well as Hamas. The latter has recently dispatched a delegation for talks in Moscow.
This issue is not about the Israeli interest, in terms of the Gaza or Lebanon fronts and the disruption of Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, Iran and its militias in Syria. There’s a fear of a lurking threat that will exclusively benefit Iran.
In fact, the outbreak of a war from the Gaza or Lebanon front, or an escalation from the Syrian border, would mean less pressure on Iran, which is constantly targeted by Israel for its attempt to obtain a nuclear bomb. Consequently, any war of attrition for Israel would represent an opportunity for Iran to foster extremism again in the region, refurbish the lie of resistance and opposition, and give the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a chance to serve its agenda in the Middle East.
Any proxy war will certainly have a great impact on the region, from Iraq to Yemen, Lebanon to Syria, and of course Gaza. It may be easy to ignite a war, but difficult to predict its consequences and its end.
Whoever reads the Israeli press understands that the Israelis are worried about the Russian escalation, through Minister Lavrov’s statements. However, the issue is bigger than Israel, and should concern all sane people in the region, for a war in Gaza now, for example, would be a major burden on Egypt. The danger of such wars now - amid the faltering negotiations in Vienna on the nuclear file – is their ability to ignite wider conflicts, especially in the event of a strategic mistake, or the opening of several fronts simultaneously. Any war of this scale, at this particular timing, would be catastrophic, as international law has lost its value and real traditional diplomatic ties between most of the parties, especially the relations of the United States and the West with Russia, have been totally eroded. Added to this is the evident tension in relations between Iran and most of the countries in the region, which makes it difficult for traditional diplomatic efforts to defuse any dangerous explosion that would follow the Russian-Israeli escalation.
Accordingly, the Russian-Israeli clash cannot be viewed as a passing crisis that ended with a phone call between the Russian President and the Israeli Prime Minister. It is certain that Minister Lavrov’s statements were not a slip of the tongue, nor a moment of emotion, but rather a well-thought-out and clear message to the Israelis.
Thus, caution is necessary in our region.

The Iranian regime’s real intentions
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 08/2022
For decades, some scholars, analysts and politicians have debated whether the Iranian regime’s nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes or for developing nuclear weapons. By examining the evidence carefully, it ought to become crystal clear that developing nuclear weapons has always been part of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Putting aside the regime’s clandestine activities over the past three decades, some Iranian leaders have rather surprisingly revealed secrets about Tehran’s nuclear activities. For example, on Nov. 29, 2021, the former head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, was the first Iranian official to admit that he was part of a program designed to develop nuclear weapons: “When the country’s all-encompassing growth began involving satellites, missiles and nuclear weapons, and surmounted new boundaries of knowledge, the issue became more serious for them.”
The second Iranian official to admit that Iran’s nuclear program has always had a military dimension is former Iranian Prime Minister Ali Motahari. He stated on April 20, 2022, when speaking to Iscanews in Tehran, that Iran was interested in obtaining nuclear weapons from the beginning. He pointed out that a country planning to have a nuclear program for peaceful purposes never starts with uranium enrichment, instead it creates reactors first. In other words, starting with uranium enrichment is a mistake if a country wants to secretly develop nuclear weapons: “To do enrichment directly creates the illusion that we want to make a bomb.” He added: “From the very beginning, when we entered the nuclear activity, our goal was to build a bomb and strengthen the deterrent forces but we could not maintain the secrecy of this issue, and the secret reports were revealed by a group of hypocrites.”
“Hypocrites” is a plural word often used by the Iranian regime to refer to the opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The group did reveal Iran’s nuclear activities on several occasions, which made it extremely difficult for the theocratic establishment to hide its secret activities.
The organization first revealed Iran’s clandestine nuclear activities at two major sites, Natanz and Arak, in 2000. Due to the NCRI’s connections in Iran, its information is said to have a high level of credibility. Frank Pabian, an adviser on nuclear non-proliferation matters at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, previously told the New York Times that the NCRI is “right 90 percent of the time.”
Furthermore, in 2017, additional critical information about Iran’s nuclear activities was disclosed by the NCRI. Former US President Donald Trump followed up by saying Tehran was “not living up to the spirit of the agreement.” Michael Anton, a former spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said at the time that his colleagues were “carefully evaluating” the NCRI information. The NCRI report stated: “Reliable information ... shows that the ‘nerve center’ of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons project, responsible for designing the bomb, has been continuing its work. Following the ... nuclear deal reached in 2015, not only has the unit remained in place and its activities not subsided, but it is now clear that in some fields its activities have even expanded.”
It is suspected that the Iranian regime carries out the military dimension of its nuclear program at the military site Parchin. Tehran has not allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect or monitor many of its nuclear-related sites. Tehran has disguised their true nature by labeling some of them military sites or conventional research centers. During the 2015 nuclear talks, Iran was determined that Parchin be beyond IAEA inspection.
It is incumbent on the international community to stop the regime from achieving the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons.
To back their claim that Iran’s nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes, the Iranian leaders refer to a fatwa issued by Ali Khamenei banning development of nuclear weapons. But this religious statement by Khamenei is most likely a cover-up.
As former IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei said: “I was told by a number of people, including President Mubarak of Egypt, that according to Shiite theology it is sometimes acceptable to deceive for the right cause. The concept is called taqqiya (dissimulation), meaning to protect oneself or those under one’s care from harm. I made it clear to our Iranian counterpart that regardless of the origins of this behavior, their denials and ongoing cover-ups had deeply hurt their credibility with the international community. From the outset they had dug a hole that would undermine their own diplomatic endeavors, what I referred to as starting out with a confidence deficit.”
In a nutshell, it should have become clear that Iran’s nuclear program has a military dimension. It is incumbent on the international community to stop the regime from achieving the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Iranian resistance warns Iran’s primary goal is to build a nuclear weapon
Hanania/Arab News/May 08/2022
Gobadi said the resistance to Iran’s brutality continues to grow, not only outside of Iran under the leadership of the NCRI but also inside
CHICAGO: Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon and is using negotiations with the West to give them more time to achieve that goal, according to Shahin Gobadi, the spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
A thermal nuclear scientist who first joined the resistance while a college student at UCLA 40 years ago, Gobadi, 60, said the NCRI, which is based in Paris, works with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The PMOI/MEK operates inside Iran taking great risks to expose Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Gobadi said.
Without the PMOI/MEK resistance, Gobadi said, the world would never have known the true depth of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and how far it had advanced towards building a nuclear weapon.
“The Iranian resistance, mainly the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, have been the key factor, the key player that has brought the issue of the Iranian nuclear program to the international attention,” Gobadi said.
“If it were not for the Iranian resistance activities through the more than 120 press conferences and revelations regarding the secret Iranian nuclear sites, projects, facilities, the world would have been totally caught off guard regarding the mullahs’ secret drive to acquire nuclear weapons and by now the world would have been faced with a predicament of the worst regime being equipped with the worst weapon. Actually, this has been a part of our struggle of the past three decades through our vast human network inside regime, the vast network of the Mojahedin, the MEK, inside Iran taking huge risks to expose the various aspects of the mullahs’ drive to acquire nuclear weapons.”
During an interview on “The Ray Hanania Show” broadcast on Wednesday May 4, 2022, Gobadi said the resistance to Iran’s brutality continues to grow, not only outside of Iran under the leadership of the NCRI but also inside with everyday citizens protesting and engaging in significant disruptions.
“The protests and disruptions,” Gobadi said, “have been on the rise particularly during the past four years. Since January 2018 there have been eight nationwide uprisings in Iran against the regime. And in some of them like in November 2019, it caught on so quickly throughout the country, it spread to some 200 cities with people chanting ‘Down with Khamenei the Supreme Leader and down with the whole regime’.”
The mullahs, he said, responded by massacring more than 1,500 civilian protesters.
“But even that has not stopped people from coming to the streets. Or in 2021, in 21 nationwide protests and strikes teachers, who constitute more than 1 million people, have come to the streets. And also, after that, there has been a remarkable surge in the activities of the resistance which is affiliated to the Mojahedin, the MEK and their activities have been on a constant rise,” Gobadi said.
Gobadi said that everyday Iranian people “are standing up” and fueling “the continued rise of the resistance,” which makes the mullahs much “more vulnerable and much more worried” about their future.
“Since 1981 some 120,000 political activists, over 100,000 from the main resistance movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the principal resistance organization, have been executed by the theocracy simply for standing firm for secular government and gender equality,” Gobadi said.
“And that includes tens of thousands of women, which is an amazing aspect of our resistance in Iran. Hundreds of thousands of others have been imprisoned and severely tortured.”
Gobadi cited many incidents of resistance inside Iran. In January, the resistance disrupted 25 of the Iran regime’s television radio channels broadcasting chants of “Death to Khamenei and “Hail to Rajavi” — who is the leader of the resistance. The same month, they set fire to statues of Qassem Soleimani in several provinces.
On April 25, more than 100 computer servers of Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture were disrupted. In the past few weeks, resistance units have repeatedly broadcast anti-regime slogans in busy locations, in large cities and in shopping malls.
Gobadi said the Iranian mullahs have not only been brutal in their response against their own people, 70 to 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line but, just as importantly, the regime is “the primary source” of international terrorism.
He called it “foolhardy” to believe a brutal regime like Iran would abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, even if the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is approved and the US removes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list. Iran sees the negotiations as “appeasement,” he said, rather than preventing them from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“An agreement that does not close the regime’s path to a nuclear drive is not going to stop the drive. If the West holds firm, the regime has no choice but to concede to the West. Unfortunately, that was not the desire at the time, particularly of the Obama administration,” Gobadi said.
“And look what happened. The mullahs took billions of dollars and it all ended up in the coffers of the regime’s leaders, Khamenei in particular, or the IRGC’s top brass, or has helped to prop up the regime’s surrogates and terrorist groups in the region to increase the regime’s capability of missile program ... and, the regime never, never, never gave up its nuclear weapons program.”
“Well, by far, they are the most active state sponsor of terrorism for years and years. Their tentacles have reached as far away as Europe, the US and even Latin America. Needless to say Europe, the Middle East. It’s very shocking.”
On the restoration of the JCPOA, Gobadi said, “We think such an agreement in and of itself is no guarantee that the regime does not get nuclear weapons.”
*The Ray Hanania Radio Show is broadcast on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News live every Wednesday at 5 PM EST in Detroit on WNZK AM 690, in Washington D.C. on WDMV AM 700. It is rebroadcast on Thursdays at 12 noon in Chicago on WNWI AM 1080.