A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For December 26-27/2019 Addressing the On Going Mass Demonstrations & Sit In-ins In Iranian Occupied Lebanon in its 71th Day
Compiled By: Elias Bejjani
December 27/2019
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on December 26-27/2019
Basil is a Mere Hezbollah Governing Tool/Elias Bejjani/December 26/2019
Evil Iranian Hezbollah Is Toppling Lebanon’s Banking Sector/Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
His Beatitude Patriarch Al Raei: Lukewarm confusing stances/Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Christmas Spirit: Forgiveness, Sacrifice and Reconciling/Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
The Actual Needed Christmas Spirit/Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Christmas And The obligations Of The Righteous/Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Salameh Says BDL to Inquire about Alleged Money Transfers
Hariri Slams ‘Devils of Politics, Merchants of Stances’
Kanaan Declares Budget Approval, Suspension of Defaulting Loans Penalties
Report: Diab Meets Berri away from the Spotlight to Discuss Govt. Formation
Heavy Rain, Strong Winds Pummel Lebanon
Storm Topples Wall, Graves in Old Jewish Cemetery in Beirut
Bad Weather Delays Repatriation of Refugees to Syria
Analysis/In Next Phase of Demonstrations, Lebanon Protesters Are Wielding the Ultimate Weapon/Zvi Bar’el/Haaretz/December 26/2019
German Parliament: Its Resolution to Ban Hezbollah is Just a Legal Charade – Part II/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2019
Lebanon is prepared to give Hassan Diab a chance. It has little choice/Michael Young/The National/December 26/2019
Israel’s next underground war/Yonah Jeremy BOB/Jerusalem Post/December 26/2019
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on December 26-27/2019
Basil is a Mere Hezbollah Governing Tool
Elias Bejjani/December 26/2019
All those Lebanese politicians, activists and even citizens who attack and criticize Mr. Jobran Basil and portray him as a decision-maker are actually Dhimmitudes, hypocrites and fear to name Hezbollah, who occupies and runs the country and totally controls its rulers including Mr. Basil who is an opportunist, power seeker and a mere governing tool no more no less. Lebanon is an occupied country
Evil Iranian Hezbollah Is Toppling Lebanon’s Banking Sector
Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Hizbullah’s cancer is systematically & wildly spreading and destroying all the structural foundations of Lebanon’s entity. This Evil Iranian Terrorist proxy has succeeded in toppling the Lebanese strongest fort that is the banking sector. Lebanon is an Iranian occupied country.
His Beatitude Patriarch Al Raei: Lukewarm confusing stances
Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Our Patriarch Al Raei as always adopts sharply the stance of the last person that he hears to. Today was not different. His beatitude is with both Hassan Dian and the Revolution. A Lukewarm position?
Christmas Spirit: Forgiveness, Sacrifice and Reconciling
Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
In case you did not yet reconcile with all those whom you have had problems with, it means you did yet welcome the birth of the Incarnate Lord, who is mere love, sacrifice, forgiveness and humility
The Actual Needed Christmas Spirit
Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
Inside each of an angel and a demon. With the birth of the Lord Jesus, let us bridle and silence Satan and leave the angel free to lead us to the paths of love and forgiveness
Christmas And The obligations Of The Righteous
Elias Bejjani/December 25/2019
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/81746/elias-bejjani-christmas-and-the-obligations-of-the-righteous-%d8%b0%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d9%88%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%a8/
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. (Luke 02/11)
Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 02/14)
The holy birth of Jesus Christ bears numerous blessed vital values and principles including love, giving, redemption, modesty and forgiveness.
Christmas is a role model of love because God, our Father Himself is love.
Accordingly and in a bid to cleanse us from our original sin He came down from heaven, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. (John15/12)
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John15/13)
Christmas is way of giving …God gave us Himself because He is a caring, generous, forgiving and loving and father.
Christmas embodies all principles of genuine redemption. Jesus Christ redeemed us and for our sake He joyfully was crucified, and tolerated all kinds of torture, humiliation and pain
Christmas is a dignified image of modesty ..Jesus Christ accepted to be born into a manger and to live his life on earth in an extremely simple and humble manner.
Let us continuously remind our selves that when our day comes that could be at any moment, we shall not be able to take any thing that is earthly with us for the Day of judgment except our work and acts, be righteous or evil.
Christmas is a holy act of forgiveness ….God, and because He is a loving and forgiving has Sent His Son Jesus Christ redeem to free us from the bondage of the original sin that Adam and Eve committed.
Christmas requires that we all genuinely pray and pray for those who are hurt, lonely, deserted by their beloved ones, feel betrayed, are enduring pain silently pain, suffer anguish, deprived from happiness, warmth and joy .
Christmas is ought to teach us that it is the duty of every believer to practice his/her faith not only verbally and via routine rituals, but and most importantly through actual deeds of righteousness….
Christmas’ spirit is not only rituals of decorations, festivities, gifts and joyful celebrations…But deeds in all ways and means by helping those who need help in all field and domains.
Christmas’s spirit is a calls to honour and actually abide by all Bible teachings and values.
In this realm we have a Biblical obligation to open our hearts and with love extend our hand to all those who are in need, and we are able to help him remembering always that Almighty God showered on us all sorts of graces and capabilities so we can share them with others.
Christmas is a time to hold to the Ten Commandments, foremost of which is “Honour your father and your mother”.
Christmas is a good time for us to attentively hear and positively respond to our conscience, which is the voice of God within us.
Christmas should revive in our minds and hearts the importance of fighting all kinds temptations so we do not become slaves to earthly wealth, or power of authority.
Christmas for us as patriotic and faithful Lebanese is a time to pray for the safe and dignified return of our Southern people who were forced to take refuge in Israel since the year 2000.
Christmas for each and every loving and caring Lebanese is a holy opportunity for calling loudly on all the Lebanese politicians and clergymen, as well as on the UN for the release of the thousands of Lebanese citizens who are arbitrarily and unjustly imprisoned in Syrian prisons.
Most importantly Christmas is a time for praying and working for the liberation of our dear homeland Lebanon, from the Iranian occupation.
No one should never ever lose sight for a moment or keep a blind eye on the sacrifices of our heroic righteous martyrs who willing sacrificed themselves for our homeland, identity, existence, and dignity. Our prayers goes for them on this Holy Day and for peace in each and evry country, especially in the chaotic and troubled Middle East. May God Bless you all and shower upon you, your families, friends, and beloved ones all graces of joy, health, love, forgiveness, meekness and hope.
Salameh Says BDL to Inquire about Alleged Money Transfers
Naharnet/December 26/2019
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said that legal measures will be taken to know the fate of sums of money allegedly transferred to Switzerland, amid an unprecedented economic and liquidity crisis gripping Lebanon. “All legal measures needed will be taken to know the fate of money transfers to Switzerland in 2019 and if they truly happened,” he said in remarks to reporters after an urgent meeting of the Budget and Finance Parliamentary Committee. The committee led by MP Ibrahim Kanaan convened in the presence of caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Salim Sfeir. Asked whether Lebanon is going to contact Switzerland to inquire on the issue, Salameh said: “We have to confirm first whether these remittances actually came out of Lebanon,” noting that inquiries will affect the “politically exposed, politicians and bank owners.”He assured that traces of transfers can not be hidden “nothing can be hidden,” he said. Reports say that public funds stolen in Lebanon were transferred by public figures to Swiss banks. The transfers reportedly approached 6.5 billion dollars. Lebanon has been rocked by unprecedented popular protests since October 17 over official mismanagement and corruption demonstrators blame for a deteriorating economy. In a country where the local currency is pegged to the US dollar and used in everyday transactions, banks have gradually restricted greenback withdrawals, causing a dollar liquidity crisis that has made imports increasingly difficult and expensive.
Hariri Slams ‘Devils of Politics, Merchants of Stances’
Naharnet/December 26/2019
Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday posted a tweet commemorating slain minister Mohammed Shatah, who was killed in a December 2013 car bombing in central Beirut. “Mohammed Shatah was the force of moderation and dialogue in the era of divisions and extremism and he was the symbol of loyalty and bravery during the difficult days,” Hariri tweeted. “We miss his wisdom, vision and the honesty of his stances and wittiness… On his commemoration day I plead to God to protect Lebanon from the devils of politics and the merchants of stances,” Hariri added.The caretaker PM and his al-Mustaqbal Movement have recently traded tirades with President Michel Aoun and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over the issue of the new government.
Kanaan Declares Budget Approval, Suspension of Defaulting Loans Penalties
Naharnet/December 26/2019
The head of the Finance Parliamentary Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan on Thursday announced that the committee has approved the 2020 state budget, slashing expenses worth LBP 1,000 billion from the draft devised by the government. “The surplus secured in the budget will provide the needed funds for the health care of 12,000 self-registered social security beneficiaries,” Kanaan said after a meeting for the committee with caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and Association of Banks chief Salim Sfeir. “We discussed the issue of cash withdrawals and we were not convinced with the answers of the banking sector and we will follow up on the issue in a manner that respects the right of the people to get their salaries,” Kanaan added. “The Finance Committee has recommended that it is necessary to facilitate bank transfers to students studying abroad in order to pay their tuitions and requirements,” the MP went on to say. Revealing that financial concerns pushed depositors to withdraw $6 billion from banks, Kanaan noted that a committee has been tasked with communicating with the central bank and its Special Investigation Commission to follow up on the issue of the suspected transfer abroad of $6.5 billion by a number of politicians. Moreover, Kanaan said the Finance Committee approved the suspension of penalties on “defaulting housing, agricultural and industrial loans” in the six-month period that follows the publishing of the budget in the official gazette. “We have approved increasing securities on deposits from LBP 5 million to LBP 75 million, which would positively affect and protect small depositors,” the MP added. “We have imposed inspection on all institutions and prior inspection on grants and loans,” Kanaan went on to say, noting that the committee has suggested “the direct transfer to the treasury of the revenues generated from the mobile telecom sector.”
Report: Diab Meets Berri away from the Spotlight to Discuss Govt. Formation
Naharnet/December 26/2019
Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab has reportedly met with Speaker Nabih Berri away from media spotlight to discuss the delayed formation of a new government, LBCI television reported on Thursday. Debt-burdened Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since former prime minister Saad Hariri resigned on October 29 in the face of nationwide protests. Demonstrators are demanding an overhaul of the political establishment which they deem corrupt and inept, insisting on a government of independents and experts with no ties to the country’s sectarian parties. Diab, an engineering professor designated last week to form a desperately-needed government, had asked protesters to give him a “chance” to form a cabinet of independent experts within four to six weeks. On Monday, reports said that Diab met with Hussein al-Khalil and caretaker minister Ali Hassan Khalil – the political aides of Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. “Diab had already entered the phase of choosing candidates, picking Shadi Masaad, Demianos Qattar and the ambassador Qabalan Franjieh to be part of his ministerial team,” the TV network said. It also noted that the nomination of Qabalan Franjieh was the reason that “infuriated” Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh.
Heavy Rain, Strong Winds Pummel Lebanon
Naharnet/December 26/2019
A stormy weather accompanied with rain and snow has been battering Lebanon since Wednesday damaging homes, blockading roads and flooding major highways. In the governorate of Akkar strong winds destroyed agricultural greenhouses and caused great damage to the region’s crops, the National News Agency reported. High sea waves stormed one of the houses of Hay el-Bahr along the Akkari beach and cracked its walls forcing its residents to evacuate, NNA added. Rainwater flooded the Sarba-Jounieh highway causing heavy traffic jam in the region, and flooded the parking lot in the Serail of Jounieh.A landslide has partially blocked the old sea road after Hamat tunnel en route to el-Heri. Vehicles were trapped in snow on mountainous roads mainly the one connecting Tarshish to Zahle. In the southern city of Sidon, heavy rain and wind disrupted navigation system and fishing. Sea waves were so high they reached the shore, said NNA. According to the meteorological department at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, the storm “Loulou” continues to hit Lebanon and reaches peak today and tomorrow at noon.
Storm Topples Wall, Graves in Old Jewish Cemetery in Beirut
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 26/2019
A severe storm, carrying heavy rain and strong winds, toppled an old wall and several graves at a Jewish cemetery in the Lebanese capital on Thursday. The cemetery in Beirut’s Sodeco district, which dates back to the early 1820s, is Lebanon’s only Jewish cemetery and has been closed to the public for many years. Heavy rain and winds toppled the cemetery’s stone wall, tumbling onto several graves and tombstones that came crashing down. The fallen tombstones with Hebrew writing on them could be seen from the main street where the wall had collapsed.
Lebanon once had a thriving Jewish community. As many as 15,000 to 22,000 Jews lived in Lebanon in the mid-1960s, but the various Arab-Israeli wars and Lebanon’s own 1975-90 conflict caused waves of emigration and today, almost none are left in the country.
The storm, which has been dubbed “Loulou,” has lashed Lebanon and also caused flooding and landslides in parts of the country while the first heavy snow fell on the mountains, forcing some road closures.
Bad Weather Delays Repatriation of Refugees to Syria
Naharnet/December 26/2019
The repatriation of a new batch of Syrian refugees from Lebanon has been postponed on Thursday because of bad weather, the National News Agency reported. Buses were expected to come from Syria to take a group of Syrian wishing to go back home, but the stormy weather and torrents that hit Lebanon on Wednesday prevented the buses from arriving to the northern city of Tripoli, NNA. Dozens of displaced Syrians had gathered in the Rashid Karami International Exhibition in Tripoli. The General Security Directorate oversees the voluntary return of refugees. Storm Loulou hit Lebanon Wednesday bringing snow to parts of Lebanon above 1,400 metres overnight. The storm led to wind speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour and a raging sea. Many towns are left with impassable roads, snapped trees and damaged homes.
Analysis/In Next Phase of Demonstrations, Lebanon Protesters Are Wielding the Ultimate Weapon
Zvi Bar’el/Haaretz/December 26/2019
‘Until there is a government we trust, there is nobody to pay taxes to’: Facing little room to maneuver, protesters are hitting the regime where it hurts the most
We won’t pay our taxes or bills until they give us back the money they took,” read a tweet from a Lebanese Twitter account called “We Won’t Pay” that was opened two weeks ago.
It represents a new phase in the civil revolt in Lebanon that began in October, whose casualties so far include Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned that month. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has tapped Hassan Diab to replace him.
It isn’t clear how long Diab will need to set up a government with a consensus of support, a process that in the past has taken months before the distribution of cabinet portfolios was complete. But the people behind the tax protest aren’t prepared to sit tight and wait patiently. They are calling on the Lebanese to stop paying their electricity and water bills, municipal taxes, fines and even their bank loans payments.
“Until there is a government that we trust that can manage the state’s money properly, there is nobody to pay these taxes to,” the Twitter account holders explained. They added the reassurance that the electric company doesn’t cut off service until two or three bills go unpaid. And it takes time before the debt gets referred to a collection agency.
The penalty for non-payment is no deterrent either. It’s the equivalent of $3, however high the outstanding debt is. That could also explain why Lebanon’s electric utility, which has become a symbol of waste and poor management, has debt estimated at about $2 billion. The power company, which is responsible for a hefty chunk of Lebanon’s entire government debt, isn’t only plagued by its failure to collect outstanding bills. Its other problems include bloated salaries, electricity theft, poor power line maintenance and unreliable power plants.
The government deficit
It’s no wonder that the power company, more than any other institution in the country, has become in the target of the protests. Every year the Lebanese government gives the power company about a billion and a half dollars, mainly to pay for the fuel it needs. That represents a significant portion of the country’s budget deficit.
According to a 2016 International Monetary Fund report, the government has supplied the utility with a sum equivalent to 40 percent of the national debt, which is 150 percent of Lebanon’s GDP. Those figures are enough to explain the impossible challenge that any Lebanese government faces.
It’s also clear why people who have to resort to pirated electricity or their own generators won’t pay the bills to a failing company that hasn’t been able to supply the country with sufficient power for over 30 years.
The electricity supply may be the most talked-about problem in Lebanon but it isn’t the only one. Lebanon placed 74th out of the 77 countries whose school students participated in PISA scholastic achievement testing. An in-depth analysis of the results by Dr. Ali Khalife of the Lebanese University’s education department reveals that just 40 percent of the students tested attained Level 2 out of six levels. The international average is 76 percent. And only a third of the Lebanese students tested attained Level 2 in reading comprehension.
Khalife places the blame on poor distribution of resources, inadequate budgets, outdated methods that have forced Lebanese students to handwrite their tests rather than submitting their answers digitally and built-in discrimination against poor regional schools compared to wealthy private ones.
The electricity problem can be solved with money. The education problem will require profound reform lasting years and a lot more resources than the government can provide.
Health care in crisis
And when it comes to the level of failure and neglect, the Lebanese public education system faces stiff competition from the public and private health care systems. Government hospitals haven’t received any funding in 2019 and are running out of drugs. Restrictions on the use of the dollar are holding up not only development plans but even repairs of medical equipment and the import of spare parts. In November, doctors and medical teams held a warning protest to bring the crisis to the public’s attention, but in the absence of a government, there is nobody to direct protests and complaints to.
It was only serious corruption discovered at a government hospital – exposing massive theft of funds by hospital administrators and the person responsible for medications there – that managed to spark media attention, but it’s probably not enough to spur the reforms the sector needs.
In addition to its chronic problems, Lebanon has paid an economic price for three months of protest and upheaval. Hundreds of restaurants and other businesses have shut down. Hotel occupancy dropped from 95% in prior years during the Christmas and New Year season to 30%. Some hotels have closed down entire floors and laid off staff.
Manufacturing plants requiring dollars to import raw materials have been barred by banks from transferring dollars abroad. Citizens can’t access their deposits and ATMs have no dollars.
The still non-existent government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab has no solutions for all of this. And things aren’t expected to improve any time soo
German Parliament: Its Resolution to Ban Hezbollah is Just a Legal Charade – Part II
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/December 26, 2019
Gatestone Institute wholeheartedly supports U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to ban Hezbollah in Europe. The Bundestag resolution, however, calls for an incomplete ban, which appears aimed at providing the German government with political cover that would allow Berlin to claim that it has banned the group even if it has not.
It is utterly implausible that Germany, one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in Europe, is unable to ascertain the organizational structure of Hezbollah within its own borders.
“Six months ago, the AfD presented a resolution in the Bundestag to ban Hezbollah, a resolution which you vehemently rejected and which since then you have blocked in caucus…. What is needed is the complete ban of Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s propaganda and terror financing in Germany must be stopped… This, by the way, is also demanded by the Bundestag’s Anti-Semitism Resolution, which expressly calls for the deportation of supporters of anti-Semitism. If this does not apply to supporters of Hezbollah, which wants to send Jews to the gas chambers, and wants to destroy Israel, then to whom could this apply?” — Beatrix von Storch MP, Alternative für Deutschland [AfD] party, to the Bundestag, December 19, 2019.
Von Storch noted that the Bundestag’s resolution, if implemented by the German government, would allow Hezbollah’s 30-plus German-based mosques and cultural centers — where the group raises funds and spreads anti-Israel propaganda — to continue to operate. Moreover, not one of the 1,050 known Hezbollah operatives now in Germany would be deported.
German member of parliament Beatrix Von Storch noted that the resolution, if implemented by the German government, would allow Hezbollah’s 30-plus German-based mosques and cultural centers — where the group raises funds and spreads anti-Israel propaganda — to continue to operate. Moreover, not one of the 1,050 known Hezbollah operatives now in Germany would be deported. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Gatestone Institute recently reported that a December 19 German parliamentary resolution, which claims to call for a complete ban in Germany of Hezbollah (Arabic for “The Party of Allah”), actually falls short of demanding a comprehensive ban of the terrorist organization. A senior US government official called the article “flat wrong”. If only it were.
Gatestone Institute wholeheartedly supports U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to ban Hezbollah in Europe. The Bundestag resolution, however, calls for an incomplete ban, which appears aimed at providing the German government with political cover that would allow Berlin to claim that it has banned the group even if it has not.
The Bundestag itself has issued a statement which states that it is calling for an activity ban (Betätigungsverbot) of Hezbollah, but not an organizational ban (Organisationsverbot) — an important distinction because the activity ban is legally weaker than the organizational ban.
The Bundestag claimed that it is not calling for a complete organizational ban of Hezbollah because the group’s structures in Germany are “not currently ascertainable.” The Bundestag’s statement in the original German clearly states:
“Hezbollah-related association structures, which could justify an organizational ban, are not currently ascertainable.” (“Der Hisbollah zuzurechnende Vereinsstrukturen, die ein vereinsrechtliches Organisationsverbot begründen könnten, seien derzeit jedoch nicht feststellbar.”)
The Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, explained:
“Hezbollah-related association structures, which could justify an organizational ban (vereinsrechtliches Organisationsverbot), are not ascertainable, despite efforts by the federal government since 2008. An organizational ban is therefore not an option due to the lack of a verifiable domestic organizational structure. However, we are free to pursue an activity ban (Betätigungsverbot) that we have also applied to other terrorist organizations that lack a demonstrable domestic organizational structure.”
It is utterly implausible that Germany, one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in Europe, is unable to ascertain the organizational structure of Hezbollah within its own borders.
More probable is that the German government, for political reasons, has decided to turn a blind eye to Hezbollah’s activities in Germany. In July 2018, the German foreign ministry, responding to a parliamentary query, claimed that banning Hezbollah in its entirety would jeopardize Germany’s ability to “maintain a political dialog with all of the relevant political forces in Lebanon.”
Apparently, the German government believes that maintaining a distinction between a political and military division of Hezbollah is for the benefit of Israel. In May 2019, the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported:
“In internal debates, the German foreign ministry said that it does not want to jeopardize its relations with Hezbollah, which sits at the government table in Lebanon. It has more fighters than the Lebanese state army. The German embassy in Beirut maintains good contacts with Hezbollah, which is always valuable when there is a need to mediate between Israel and the militia.”
The conservative party, Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), the third-largest party in the German parliament, refused to support the Bundestag’s resolution. Addressing the parliament on December 19, AfD MP Beatrix von Storch explained:
“Six months ago, the AfD presented a resolution in the Bundestag to ban Hezbollah, a resolution which you vehemently rejected and which since then you have blocked in caucus. Now, six months later, you collectively are rushing through the door that we have politically opened. If this would happen with more AfD proposals, Germany would be in a much better place….
“Nevertheless, your resolution has two central weaknesses. The first weakness is that you are asking for only an activity ban (Betätigungsverbot). We want a specific organizational ban (Organisationsverbot). According to the Crime Fighting Law (Verbrechensbekämpfungsgesetz) of 1994, the activity ban is the weaker legal means when compared to an organizational ban. There is no reason in the world why you would fight a terrorist organization with the weaker means and not the stronger. You are making a loud bark, but you are not biting.
“The second fundamental weakness of your resolution is your justification for using the weaker means. You write, and I quote, ‘Hezbollah-related association structures, which could justify an organizational ban (vereinsrechtliches Organisationsverbot), are not ascertainable.’ That is objectively false, as confirmed by the 2017 and 2018 annual reports of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV). The 2018 report states, and I quote, ‘In Germany, Hezbollah followers maintain organizational and ideological cohesion, among other things, in local mosque associations, which are primarily financed by donations.’ Do you even read your own intelligence reports? In case it is too long for you to read, it is located on page 214. Just check it!
“If you do not want to touch Hezbollah’s mosque associations, then this resolution is pure symbolism politics (Symbolpolitik), and symbolism politics cannot continue. What is needed is the complete ban of Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s propaganda and terror financing in Germany must be stopped. The mosque associations that exist must be disbanded, and most importantly, Hezbollah supporters must be deported. This, by the way, is also demanded by the Bundestag’s Anti-Semitism Resolution, which expressly calls for the deportation of supporters of anti-Semitism. If this does not apply to supporters of Hezbollah, which wants to send Jews to the gas chambers, and wants to destroy Israel, then to whom could this apply?
“Since 1996, we here in Berlin have been forced to tolerate Hezbollah’s annual hateful anti-Semitic spectacle, the so-called al-Quds Day [an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel]. This must end. We hope that you will have resolved this Hezbollah problem before the next al-Quds day [May 21-22, 2020]. Please address this issue. Merry Christmas.”
Von Storch noted that the Bundestag’s resolution, if implemented by the German government, would allow Hezbollah’s 30-plus German-based mosques and cultural centers — where the group raises funds and spreads anti-Israel propaganda — to continue to operate. Moreover, not one of the 1,050 known Hezbollah operatives now in Germany would be deported.
In any event, the main parties in the Bundestag appear to have reached a compromise among themselves to ban Hezbollah without really banning Hezbollah. Unfortunately, as even they admit, the German ban, if implemented, will not really be a ban.
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
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Lebanon is prepared to give Hassan Diab a chance. It has little choice
Michael Young/The National/December 26/2019
Two things can be said about the efforts of Hezbollah and its allies in the Amal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) to push through a Lebanese government that would protect their interests, under the premiership of Hassan Diab.
First, they apparently succeeded in imposing Mr Diab on a large part of the protest movement that had been in the streets since October 17. And second, while the protesters may have taken a wait-and-see approach, Mr Diab does not enjoy support among his Sunni community. Having been named by several of the political parties associated with Lebanon’s economic mismanagement, he will struggle to implement the structural reforms needed for the country to emerge from its financial crisis.
While Mr Diab began forming his government last Saturday, the signs are that he would like to lead a government mainly of experts, even if named by the political parties. While this will not satisfy the demand of the protest movement for a government of independent technocrats, for now it could buy the parties in power time to breathe. With the economic situation deteriorating, people are inclined to give Mr Diab a chance.
The Lebanese have few alternatives. The political crisis that started last October had dragged on for more than two months when Mr Diab was named. In the interim, the economy had come to a standstill as banks, in order to survive, imposed unofficial capital controls while severely reducing the amount of money people could withdraw from their accounts. The outcome was that many businesses, unable to operate effectively, laid off workers, provoking a rise in unemployment at the worst conceivable time.
What Mr Diab intends and what will happen are two different things. Both Hezbollah and Amal indicated this week that they wanted more overt political participation in the government. Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker and Amal leader, would like to see all political parties in government, including those that have refused to join it. Evidently, the protest movement’s demands simply did not register with the speaker.
Mr Diab’s designation had come as domestic and international pressure built up to form a government. What delayed matters is that the former prime minister Saad Hariri had sought to corner Hezbollah and its allies by showing them that they could not avoid naming him to head a new government. This he sought to use as leverage to bring in a team of technocrats of his choosing, without major political figures.
His efforts led to a standoff, particularly between Mr Hariri and the head of the FPM, Gebran Bassil, one of the politicians most hated by the protest movement. Mr Hariri wanted to keep both Mr Bassil and major Hezbollah figures out of the cabinet, while Hezbollah and the FPM underlined that if they were outside, Mr Hariri would have to join them. They wanted a government of both politicians and technocrats.
Mr Hariri’s hardball tactics almost worked when Hezbollah showed a willingness to allow him to form a government, without setting as a condition that Mr Bassil needed to be in it. This led to tensions between the party and the FPM, opening the way to Mr Hariri’s designation as prime minister. The process collapsed, however, when a key Christian ally of Mr Hariri, the Lebanese Forces, refused to endorse him. Without Christian cover, Mr Hariri withdrew from the race, leaving Hezbollah hanging.
Mr Diab’s designation had come as domestic and international pressure built up to form a government
Hezbollah was no less keen than other parties to see a government in place. While the party has claimed it can weather an economic collapse – and doubtless it is more able to do so than others – a devaluation of the Lebanese pound would affect the Shia community at large, not just Hezbollah’s partisans. The ensuing discontent could represent a major problem for the party, all the more so as there is a significant Shiite component in the protest movement. So agreeing to a new government was a priority.
Whether Mr Diab is the silver bullet Hezbollah needs is questionable. His lack of communal backing will plague him in the months ahead, particularly when the government has to take tough economic measures heightening popular anger. Nor is it clear how his government will be able to move ahead on reforms that will entail undermining the political and economic interests of the very politicians who brought him to office and will appoint many of his ministers.
For example, one essential aspect of any reform package is to lay off thousands of superfluous workers from the civil service, placed there by the parties in power. Another is to lift subsidies on electricity and renovate the electricity sector, whose dysfunctional and corrupt nature has provided major sources of income for the parties. Will Mr Diab be able to make major progress here? Don’t hold your breath.
More likely, his government will try to progress where and when it can, compensating by putting an undue burden on society through taxes and other fees. Yet the protest movement showed the limits of that approach. What will happen then is that market realities will impose change on government policy, perhaps even bring intervention by the International Monetary Fund. This will mean even more pain and then we will see if Mr Diab can retain his post. The reality is that he was probably not brought in to last.
*Michael Young is editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East programme, in Beirut
Israel’s next underground war
Yonah Jeremy BOB/Jerusalem Post/December 26/2019
Israel and the US have become experts in tunnel warfare, but their conclusions are different.
Until the Gaza war in the summer of 2014, both Israel and the West were largely ignoring tunnel warfare as a new threat and playing field.
Hamas’s success with multiple surprise attacks from cross-border attack tunnels on IDF troops shook Israel out of its complacency. It also led to a multiyear and multibillion-shekel effort to come up with new tactics and technologies to combat the threat.
A somewhat parallel process occurred in the US when it ran into ISIS using tunnel warfare against American troops in Syria in 2015-2016 and in preparation for a possible conflict with North Korea in 2017-2018.
A key question that came out of an impressive Israel-US conference on tunnel warfare this week at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya was whether initial progress in combating the underground challenge has once again overinflated Israeli confidence or whether the US has now overblown the scope of the challenge.
A clear pattern from the conference appeared to be a divergence between Israeli and US outlooks on this question after the 2015-2018 period in which both countries appeared to view the challenge with the same severity.
While many Israelis appeared ready to say they have the Hezbollah and Hamas tunnel threat on the run (no one is quite proclaiming the threat defeated), American military experts and academics were saying that subterranean warfare is destined to become an even greater challenge going forward.
Who is right?
This is a crucial question because forecasting future security challenges determines not only the division of military budgets, but also how much strategic energy and emphasis is placed on the tunnel threat as opposed to other threats.
Though militaries have huge budgets, they are also finite.
At the end of the day, Israel and the US will plan, train and build their future forces more for addressing the underground warfare challenge or for another challenge.
Both militaries do plan for multiple challenges and fronts, but what is viewed as the “burning” issue always gets priority, and secondary priorities are often addressed more passively.
Part of determining who is right is understanding how Israel and the US each got to where it is at this point.
AT THE conference, Lt.-Col. “Itai” who works for the Defense Ministry weapons research division MAFAT, gave an extraordinary presentation explaining how Israel’s journey to addressing the tunnel threat started by tossing out 600 ideas into “the valley of [ideas]death” in order to find “four to six that actually work.”
“Itai” discussed how radar was limited because the ground absorbs the energy being used for detection, which prevents energy from hitting the underground target and boomeranging back.
He also noted that the ground is much more varied in its makeup than the air, since there is a wide mix of elements in the Gazan sand and in the Lebanese rocky ground.
These varied elements, along with other phenomena underground, can either block radar or give an enormous number of false positives (a problem even with “ground-penetrating” radar) which seem to present the characteristics of a void underground that could indicate there is a tunnel.
As “Itai” put it, maybe the most important discovery that the IDF made was that “there is no one ‘Tunnel Dome’ like Iron Dome” to address the tunnel threat the way that Iron Dome addresses the threat of rockets.
Once the IDF started experimenting with a wide variety of technologies to detect sound, movement and seismic activity, it needed its operational people to become skilled at sorting the actual threatening sounds from the sounds that just sound threatening.
“Itai” disarmed many at the conference by playing a loud sound that had convinced northern Israeli residents that Hezbollah was digging under their land – and which did, in fact, sound like a jackhammer for digging a tunnel – but which the IDF later determined was a “cricket mole.”
Almost comically, “Itai” described how similar audio false positives occurred with “offenders” like “a horse kicking a fence or a neighbor’s washing machine.”
In contrast, the actual sound of Hezbollah digging underground, which “Itai” played for the conference, was far more subtle.
The IDF’s initial success was with detecting Hamas tunnels in Gaza, with IDF Lt.-Col. Aviv Amir, who also presented at the conference, being one of the leading officers in the effort.
“Itai” said that in addition to the IDF succeeding in detecting and destroying a significant number of cross-border Hamas tunnels in recent years, the IDF’s underground Gaza wall has countermeasures that will prevent Hamas’s tunnels from even reaching the wall itself.
What was noteworthy about these comments was that the wall itself, due to be finished in 2020 (though its finish date has been postponed multiple times), appeared to be secondary. The countermeasures surrounding the wall seemed to be the center of the IDF’s future underground cross-border strategy for Gaza.
The IDF has publicized details of the wall – that it will be 6 meters high and several dozen meters deep, and that around the wall will be a system designed to locate and measure tunnels using sensors, aerostats and other intelligence.
After years of flailing for solutions, it was striking to hear “Itai’s” confidence that – following the IDF’s discovery of close to 20 Hamas tunnels in recent years, plus the wall – the IDF finally has the tunnel threat from Hamas on the run.
Amir exuded a similar level of confidence presenting a series of videos showing the IDF’s December 2018 operation uncovering six Hezbollah cross-border tunnels.
Likewise, when IDF doctrine expert for the Galilee Division Col. (res.) Yuval Bazak spoke to the conference about the tunnel threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon, his emphasis was on IDF maneuvering.
He said that the IDF should not become over-obsessed with the tunnels and with how to fight inside the tunnels.
Bazak said this would be yielding most of the IDF’s firepower and communications advantages. Rather, he said, the IDF could tactically neutralize Hezbollah’s tunnels’ usefulness by having its units constantly maneuvering instead of remaining stationary.
He also said that any future conflict with Hezbollah would involve faster penetration into Lebanon by IDF ground forces. This approach, more than new technologies, is what would overcome Hezbollah’s or Hamas’s ability to translate tunnel tactics into any real gain, he said.
“Itai” said that until 2014, Iran and other threats had unduly distracted Israel from the tunnel threat. Bazak later countered that, as of 2019, the tunnel threat was no longer strategic and should not distract from more serious threats like Iran and precision-guided missiles.
IN CONTRAST, the US experts at the conference appeared to see subterranean warfare as an expanding future threat that needs to alter the entire concept and structure of the American military.
If Israel’s primary worry has been protecting its territory from invasion and protecting its troops in the rear from ambush, the US’s future concerns have to do with prevailing over enemies like ISIS, North Korea, Iran and possibly even China and Russia on those adversaries’ soil.
In recent years, ISIS used underground networks to hide from US drones and aerial strikes, to move without detection from overhead surveillance and to escape from close-quarters combat.
Special Assistant to the US Army Judge Advocate-General Michael Meier told the conference that North Korea has around 5,000 out of the 10,000 tunnels and bases underground worldwide.
He said that North Korea and other countries do not merely build tunnels. Rather, they build sometimes vast underground facilities under mega cities where pursuers can get lost in a byzantine maze of utilities pipelines and subway lines.
Many of these countries have massively reinforced command and control underground capabilities as well as the ability to deploy thousands of troops, tanks, missiles and even launch planes from underground runways.
Meier said US adversaries are likely to take the position in future conflicts that if they “stay in any one place for more than 20 minutes, they will be dead” because US surveillance satellites will expose them and then unmanned hovering US drones will take them out.
With this mentality, he expects underground fighting to become not merely an add-on issue for the US, and said it might emerge as the primary playing field for combat.
Maj. Haley Mercer of the US 82nd Airborne Division told the conference that the American military’s doctrine in 2017 shifted from specializing in counterinsurgency warfare to focusing on specializing in subterranean warfare.
She also discussed how the US is pivoting to using electronic warfare, artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities to use deception and narrative control to confront US adversaries to help shape the “battlefield” in any terrain, before any shots are even fired.
Mercer also signaled that combat on unusual dynamic battlefields like underground ones had created a greater necessity for US cooperation and openness with allies like Israel than ever before in order to crack problems.
Both Israeli and US officials described American experts visiting Hamas-Hezbollah tunnels which Israel has uncovered in order to test their new technological solutions.
Col. Patrick Mahaney, who formerly led the US Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, said that “the technology is constantly changing” in subterranean and other warfare.
He said that the combination of a technology-tactics arms race is “not going to end,” especially regarding “complex operating environments that are emerging,” such as underground combat in cities.
Mahaney described the US military breaking with its preferred secrecy approach, since it has had to reach out to a wide range of small start-ups to seek technological help with addressing the tunnel challenge.
In some ways, he portrayed the US military as moving into the role of project manager to try to mix and match a variety of disparate technologies into customized solutions to addressing underground challenges that it could not solve on its own.
At least since 2018, the US has even been exploring a new generation of drones that will have underground capabilities to explore and map out larger complexes. These drones’ capabilities would go far beyond the first generation of ground-based robots that Israel uses to slowly comb through the smaller tunnels used by Hamas or Hezbollah.
SO IS Israel overconfident, or is the US overly alarmist?
Part of the answer in the differing perspectives may be that Israel and the US simply are addressing different kinds of tunnel threats.
The main focus for Israel regarding underground warfare has been defensive and narrow: detecting cross-border tunnels infiltrating its northern or southern borders.
In fact, Amir revealed at the conference that when the IDF found that a seventh Hezbollah tunnel in the north only came up to, but did not cross, Israel’s border – the IDF left it alone.
In contrast, the US is playing a mostly offensive game on a global field.
The most discussed subterranean adversaries for the US are ISIS in the Middle East and North Korea, if the countries have a future conflict.
In order to defeat ISIS or radically deflate North Korea’s war-making capabilities, the US would not be defending against a mere cross-border threat to the continental US. Instead, it would be trying to “drain the swamp” of an adversary’s capabilities in tunnels on foreign soil.
Top Israeli defense figures like former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror are fond of reminding people that Hezbollah and Hamas are dynamic, adapting actors.
This means that even if Israel is feeling greater confidence in the subterranean arms race, it probably is nowhere near complacency yet.
Further, if Bazak is correct and Israel will need to drive deeper into Gaza or Lebanon in future conflicts, the IDF will likely need to engage in draining the tunnel swamp just like the US.
It will ultimately be in one of those future conflicts that we will learn whether the IDF continues to keep its eye on the ball regarding the tunnels issue or whether recent victories and a plethora of other threats once again distract it into being blindsided.
