English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 31/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.august31.20.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance
Luke/01/01-07: “All the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 30-31/2020

The Conflict In Lebanon Is An Existential Confrontation between Death and Life Cultures/Elias Bejjani/August 30/2020
Health Ministry: 595 new COVID19 cases, 5 deaths
President Aoun's address marking the Centenary of Greater Lebanon
Former heads of government: We agreed to name Ambassador Mustapha Adib
Lebanese ambassador Adib poised to be designated prime minister
Envoy to Berlin backed as new Lebanese prime minister
Beirut Port Blast Death Toll Rises to 190
UN: Half of Lebanese Could Face Food Shortages
Al-Rahi Urges End to Arms Chaos, Rejects 'Settlements at Lebanon's Expense'
Macron Calls Aoun on Eve of PM Consultations
Aoun Says to Seek Constitutional Amendments to 'Declare Lebanon a Civil State'
Aoun calls for proclamation of 'secular state'
Nasrallah Says Hizbullah to Facilitate Govt. Formation, Open to New Political Pact
Hezbollah's Nasrallah: For every operative killed we will kill one soldier
Hezbollah Chief Says 'Open' to French Proposal for New Lebanon Pact
Lebanese Army Confirms Distributing Aid Using 'Transparent Mechanism'
How Lebanon can avert threat of new civil war/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 30/2020
A Devastated and a Victorious People in a Single Country?/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 30/2020
The Hariri Tribunal sentence is more valuable than it seems/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/ August 30/2020
Hizbullah Hit by Backlash after Beirut Port Blast/Associated Press/Naharnet/August 30/2020
'Strong Lebanon' Bloc confirms facilitating the birth of a reformist, productive and effective government

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 30-31/2020

Jared Kushner says 'stage is set' for further Arab-Israeli deals
Qatari envoy pursues efforts to end Gaza tensions/Hamas: Israel seeking to replace Qatar with UAE as main mediator
PA Appeals to UN to Pressure Israel to Release Palestinian Corpses
Israel Responds to Explosive Balloons with Tank Fire on Gaza
French military officer allegedly gave sensitive documents to Russia
Russia Satisfied with Results of Syria Constitutional Committee Meeting
One Shot Dead in Portland as Rival Protesters Clash
Afghan President Appoints Council for Peace Deal With Taliban

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 30-31/2020

Women Have Been Better Leaders Than Men During the Pandemic/Andreas Kluth/Bloomberg/August 30/2020
Save the Earth before Your Beautiful Hair/Najib Saab/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 30/ 2020
Women Have Been Better Leaders Than Men During the Pandemic/Andreas Kluth/Bloomberg/August 30/2020
The Attempt to Overthrow America/Guy Millière/ Gatestone Institute/August 30/ 2020
Iran’s influence in Iraq strong despite regime fears/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 30/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 30-31/2020
The Conflict In Lebanon Is An Existential Confrontation between Death and Life Cultures
*Hezbollah is a devastating cancer that is systematically devouring Lebanon and every thing that is Lebanese piece by piece in all domains and on all levels.
Elias Bejjani/August 30/2020
الصراع الوجودي في لبنان هو بين ثقافتي الموت والحياة. حزب الله الإرهابي هو ثقافة الموت وباقي كل اللبنانيين هم ثقافة الحياة
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/89957/elias-bejjani-the-conflict-in-lebanon-is-an-existential-confrontation-between-death-and-life-cultures/
The main and core current conflict in the Iranian occupied Lebanon is an extremely and dire serious existential confrontation between two cultures and two educations.
The Life education-culture on one side, and the death education-culture on the other side.
The majority of the Lebanese people from all walks of live, all religious denominations, all ethnicities and all Lebanese multi-cultural fabrics adore the life education-culture and adore it, while the Iranian Terrorist-Jihadist Hezbollah is trying by all means of terrorism and barbarism to force on Lebanon and on its peace loving people the Iranian Mullahs’ death education-culture life style.
This is why Hezbollah is alienated, rejected, feared and hated by the majority of the Lebanese people who adore life and want to live and let everybody else do so.
Practicality and in actuality Hezbollah is a devastating cancer that is systematically devouring Lebanon and every thing that is Lebanese piece by piece in all domains and on all levels.
Hezbollah does not only occupy Lebanon and is dragging by force and intimidation its Multi-cultural people to the stone ages, but at the same time is literally kidnapping its own Muslim Shiite Lebanese community and taking it as a hostage through jihad doctrinarian, fanaticism, hatred and war mentality.
Therefore this terrorist Iranian armed Jihadist Militia does not represent the Lebanese Shiite community, and most importantly is not from the Lebanese ethnically diversified social fabric.
In conclusion, Hezbollah is an existential threat to Lebanon’s people in almost every domain including identity, history, lifestyle, future, civilization, peace, stability and relations with each and every country in the entire world.

Health Ministry: 595 new COVID19 cases, 5 deaths
NNA/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The Public Health Ministry announced, on Sunday, that 595 new Coronavirus cases have been reported, thus bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 16,870. It also indicated that 5 death cases have also been reported in the past 24 hours.

President Aoun's address marking the Centenary of Greater Lebanon
NNA/Sunday, 30 August, 2020 
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, addressed the Lebanese this evening in a televised speech on the occasion of the Centenary of Greater Lebanon.
In his address, the President said:
"My fellow compatriots,
A year ago, we announced the kickoff of the Greater Lebanon Centenary commemoration, and it was supposed to be marked by cultural and artistic activities that speak of Lebanon; Lebanon, the country of civilization, culture, values, the country of Diaspora covering the four corners of the globe, the country of diversity and conviviality, and also the country of struggle and suffering, the country of pain and hope.
Unfortunately, this year has been packed with unprecedented crises and with disasters, leaving no room for any glimpse of joy. Yet, there remains hope, hope for real change that enables our nation to rise again.
A hundred years have gone by since the creation of the Lebanese State, since the declaration of the Greater Lebanon State.
It is true that the approaches of the Lebanese to this historic event are different and sometimes contradictory. Nevertheless, History and Truth testify that the proclamation of the Greater Lebanon State has constituted the nucleus for the creation of our nation in its current borders, after having restituted what had been ripped off it, and having secured for it a precious international recognition at that time. Out of historical fidelity as well, with the beginning of the Greater Lebanon, the pillars of the State have started to get in place, with the help of the French authorities; indeed, the foundations of all the administrative, financial, judicial and security institutions and regulations were laid down during that era, and so was the Lebanese Constitution.
My fellow Lebanese,
Today, we stand at the threshold of the second Centenary of our Lebanese State, and we must undertake a franc and honest review, especially that the first centenary, although it has known some eras of prosperity, economic, cultural and institutional renaissance, was overall loaded with plights, crises and wars, and our people only witnessed real stability and peace of mind for short periods that looked like an armistice between a crisis and the next...So where is the problem? Is it in us or in our surroundings or in our fate?
The specificity of the Lebanese society lies in its pluralism and diversity; and this is a real asset if it is well managed. Our ancestors have come up with a coexistence formula based on the respect of the others, and the respect of their right to political existence. The formula succeeded until it was smothered by the political fluctuations in the region, which have ignited our wars and the wars of others on our land, till the conclusion of the Taef Accord, which has become, partly, the new Constitution and which has strengths and weaknesses that pop up before us at every milestone.
Today, Lebanon is facing an unprecedented crisis whereas the decades-old accumulations in politics, economy, finance and livelihood have exploded. So has the time come to discuss a new formula or a new agreement?
Lebanon's youth are calling for change. They are everywhere, claiming out loud the change of the system; are we listening to them? These youth are the Lebanon of tomorrow. For them and for their future, I say: yes, the time has come!
Pluralism is a source of humanitarian, cultural and value richness. It has made Lebanon a message and a land for encounters and dialogue; shall we allow pluralism to become an engine for segregation and division? The confessional system which is based on the rights of confessions and on quotas between them was valid for a while, but today it has become an obstacle before any progress or recovery in the country, a hindrance for any reform and fight against corruption, and a generator of strife, incitement and division for all those who wanted to undermine the country.
Yes, there is a need to develop, modify, change the system...call it the way you like; but most certainly, Lebanon needs a new conception in running its affairs, based on citizenry and on the secularism of the State.
The shift of Lebanon from the prevailing confessional system to the modern secular State, the State of the citizen and citizenry, shall rescue it from the heinous legacies and repercussions of confessionalism, and save it from the protectorates, the red lines and the spoil-sharing that curtail any constructive will and curbs any move towards reform.
Lebanon and the Lebanese deserve, after a long suffering, a State where merit is the Criterion, and law is the Guarantor of the rights of all equally, and where the fundamental belonging is to the nation and not to the leaders of the confessions.
This State is a popular demand. It is claimed by the voices of the youth on the streets, so shall the political wills converge around it and shall the mechanism to reach it be discussed seriously?
My fellow Lebanese,
In order for the 1st of September 2020 to be a completion of the 1st of September 1920, and because I believe that only the secular State is capable of protecting and preserving pluralism and turning it into a real unity, I call for the proclamation of Lebanon as a secular State.
And I undertake to call for a dialogue that encompasses the spiritual authorities and the political leaderships in order to reach a formula that is accepted by everyone and that would be embodied in the appropriate constitutional amendments.
Dear compatriots, This is our land, this is our nation; and no matter how tough the difficulties get, we shall stay here and we shall stay together; and Lebanon shall remain, centenary after centenary, the country of all the Lebanese, the country of the immortal Cedar.
Long live Lebanon!" - {Presidency Press Office}

Former heads of government: We agreed to name Ambassador Mustapha Adib
NNA/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
Former Prime Ministers Naiib Mikati, Fouad Siniora, Saad Hariri and Tamam Salam, announced in a statement this evening, read out by Siniora following their meeting at Center House, that they have agreed to nominate Ambassador Mustapha Adib to head the next government.
They hoped in their statement that "Adib would be named with the highest number of votes from the parliamentary blocs and representatives," stressing the need for a speedy government formation and drafting of its ministerial statement "without delay."

Lebanese ambassador Adib poised to be designated prime minister
The National/August 30/2020
Lebanese ambassador to Germany is set to be appointed just before visit by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, Mustapha Adib, is poised to be designated prime minister on Monday after winning the support of major parties to form a new government. Mr Adib is set to be designated just ahead of a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, who is leading international efforts to press Lebanese politicians to address the worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. The country's crippling financial situation has been worsened by the Beirut port explosion on August 4. The previous government led by Hassan Diab quit on August 10 over the port blast in which 2,750 tonnes of unsafely stored chemicals detonated. The post of prime minister must go to a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon's sectarian system. Mr Adib's candidacy won vital political backing on Sunday from former prime ministers including Saad Hariri, who leads the biggest Sunni party, the Future Movement. President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, is due to meet parliamentary blocs on Monday in official consultations to designate the new premier. Mr Aoun is required to nominate the candidate with biggest level of support among MPs. Lebanon's dominant Shiite parties, the Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Amal Movement led by Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, will name Mr Adib at the consultations, a senior Shiite source said. The Christian Free Patriotic Movement, a political ally of Hezbollah, was founded by Mr Aoun and is led by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil. It will also support Mr Adib as prime minister-designate, Mr Bassil said.Mr Adib has a doctorate in law and political science, and served as an adviser to former prime minister Najib Mikati. He has served as ambassador to Germany since 2013. Once Mr Adib is designated the process of forming a new government will get under way. Until a new administration is agreed on, the Diab will government continue in a caretaker capacity. Lebanon's currency has lost as much as 80 per cent of its value since October and savers have been locked out their savings. Poverty and unemployment have soared. Lebanon began talks for financial support with the International Monetary Fund in May, after defaulting on its huge debt. The talks stalled amid divisions on the Lebanese side over the scale of losses in the financial system.

Envoy to Berlin backed as new Lebanese prime minister
AFP/August 30/2020
A majority of lawmakers must decide on who to name as premier before President Michel Aoun tasks him or her with forming a new government. Lebanon's Sunni Muslim political heavyweights on Sunday threw their support behind the ambassador to Berlin, Mustapha Adib, to be the next premier of their crisis-hit country. Their choice of the relatively unknown 48-year-old diplomat came a day before consultations were to start towards naming a new premier in the hours before a visit from France's President Emmanuel Macron.
A majority of lawmakers must decide on who to name as premier before President Michel Aoun tasks him or her with forming a new government, an often drawn out process that can take months.Meanwhile, Aoun called on Sunday for the proclamation of a "secular state" during a televised address to mark the upcoming centenary of the Lebanese state. "I call for the proclamation of Lebanon as a secular state," Aoun said during a speech in which he acknowledged the need "to change the system", after an enormous explosion at Beirut's port in early August and months of deepening economic crisis. A group of former prime ministers, including top Sunni political figure Saad Hariri, announced they had decided on Adib after reviewing several names. "Those meeting agreed to name ambassador Mustapha Adib to be prime minister," said former premier Fouad Siniora in a statement, stressing the need for speedy government formation. Lebanon's last government, headed by Hassan Diab, resigned after a massive explosion of ammonium nitrate at the capital's port on August 4 that killed at least 188 people, wounded thousands, and laid waste to large parts of central Beirut. That disaster came off the heels of the country's worst economic crisis in decades as well as a coronavirus outbreak and widespread popular discontent with the political class. Those who took part in mass protests from October 17 against politicians they deem corrupt and inept have already rejected any name that might emerge from the parliamentary consultations. "We reject the outcome of parliamentary consultations, which is already known in advance and will, as usual, lead to a so-called government of national unity, one that is cooked up abroad," said Naji Abou Khalil, a member of the National Bloc opposition party.

Beirut Port Blast Death Toll Rises to 190
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The death toll from this month’s Beirut port blast has risen to 190 with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon’s caretaker government said in a report dated Sunday. Lebanese authorities are probing what caused highly explosive material stored unsafely for years to detonate in a mushroom cloud, wrecking swathes of the city and fueling fury at a political class already blamed for negligence, incompetence, rampant corruption and the country’s economic meltdown. The army said on Saturday that seven people were still missing - three Lebanese, three Syrians and one Egyptian. It was not immediately clear if some had since been found. The Aug. 4 cataclysmic explosion left 300,000 people homeless and caused $15 billion in direct damage, said the report issued on Sunday by the presidency of the council of ministers. It said 50,000 houses, nine major hospitals and 178 schools had been damaged.
The outgoing government quit over the blast. The presidency will talk to parliamentary blocs on Monday to designate a new prime minister, a day before French President Emmanuel Macron visits to press leaders to act to save the country from a deep financial crisis rooted in endemic corruption and mismanagement.

UN: Half of Lebanese Could Face Food Shortages
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
More than half of Lebanon's population risk facing a food crisis in the aftermath of a Beirut port blast that compounded the country's many woes, a UN agency said Sunday. "More than half of the country's population is at risk of failing to access their basic food needs by the year's end," the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said. "Immediate measures should be taken to prevent a food crisis," ESCWA executive secretary Rola Dashti said. Lebanon's government, she said, must prioritize the rebuilding of silos at the Beirut port, the country's largest grain storage. Lebanon was mired in an economic collapse even before the cataclysmic August 4 cataclysmic blast at Beirut's port, which killed 188 people, wounded thousands and destroyed swathes of the capital. Lebanon defaulted on its debt, while the local currency has plummeted in value on the black market and poverty rates have soared, on top of a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, AFP reported. "The yearly average inflation rate is expected to be more than 50 percent in 2020, compared with 2.9 percent in 2019," ESCWA said in a statement. Lebanon relies on imports for 85 percent of its food needs and the annihilation of the silos at the Beirut port could worsen an already alarming situation, aid agencies and experts have said. ESCWA said increased transaction costs of food imports could lead to a further rise in prices. To prevent a crisis, authorities must set a ceiling for food prices and encourage direct sales from local producers to consumers, Dashti addedShe also urged the international community to "expand food security programmes targeting refugees and host communities" to help defuse "potential social tensions".According to AFP, earlier this month, ESCWA said more than 55 percent of the Lebanese are "trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities."

Al-Rahi Urges End to Arms Chaos, Rejects 'Settlements at Lebanon's Expense'
Naharnet/August 30/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his call for the State to put an end to "the proliferation of weapons.""All weapons must be brought under the control of the army and the (State's) political decision," said al-Rahi in his Sunday Mass sermon.
"The decision to declare war and peace belongs to Cabinet and its two thirds of votes, according to Article 65 of the Constitution. No one else has the right to control that, for the sake of preserving the lives of citizens, civil peace and domestic security," the patriarch added.And noting that the State's monopoly of arms is part of the "active neutrality" system he has been calling for, al-Rahi stressed that the patriarchate "will no longer accept settlements and bargains at the expense of the essence of the Lebanese entity."

Macron Calls Aoun on Eve of PM Consultations
Naharnet/August 30/2020
President Michel Aoun on Sunday received a phone call from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, on the eve of binding parliamentary consultations to pick a new PM. The National News Agency said the talks tackled Macron's visit to Lebanon on Monday and the current political developments in the country. "The French president reiterated his support for the ongoing efforts to form a new government," NNA added.

Aoun Says to Seek Constitutional Amendments to 'Declare Lebanon a Civil State'
Naharnet/August 30/2020
President Michel Aoun on Sunday called for declaring Lebanon a “civil state,” in an address to the nation marking 100 years since the declaration of Greater Lebanon. The State of Greater Lebanon was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon. “I call for declaring Lebanon a civil state and I pledge to call for dialogue gathering spiritual and political leaders to reach a format accepted by everyone, which would be translated through the appropriate constitutional amendments,” Aoun said. “There is a need to improve, amend and change the Lebanese system. Lebanon needs a new approach in running its affairs that would be based on citizenry and the state’s civil nature,” he added. “The current sectarian system is no longer valid and has become an obstacle in the way of any progress or reform,” the president pointed out.
He said that the time has come for seeking “a new formula or a new agreement” for the country. “The Taef Accord has points of strength as well as points of weakness that appear at every juncture,” Aoun noted.
Speaking in a TV interview that followed the televised address, the president said “gas exists” in offshore block number 4. “The political circumstances that led to halting its extraction will soon become known,” he added.

Aoun calls for proclamation of 'secular state'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 30/2020
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun called Sunday for the proclamation of a "secular state" during a televised address to mark the upcoming centenary of the Lebanese state. "I call for the proclamation of Lebanon as a secular state," Aoun said during a speech after an enormous explosion at Beirut's port in early August and months of deepening economic crisis. He said such a state was the only way "of protecting and preserving pluralism" and creating real unity. "Lebanon's youth are calling for change... for them and for their future," said the 85-year-old president, who has long been accused by protesters of being out of touch with the country's youth. "I say yes, the time has come," he added. "There is a need to develop, modify, change the system." Aoun spoke a day ahead of Lebanon marking a hundred years since French mandate authorities declared the state of Greater Lebanon. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to land in the country on Monday on his second visit in weeks to hammer home the need for reform in the wake of the deadly port blast that killed at least 188 people and wounded thousands. Aoun said he would call for dialogue including religious authorities and political leaders to reach "a formula that is accepted by everyone and that would be embodied in the appropriate constitutional amendments".Macron on Friday spoke of the "constraints of a confessional system" in the country's politics that was hampering reforms.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah earlier Sunday said his group was "open" to the French proposal for a new political pact for Lebanon as long as there is national consensus

Nasrallah Says Hizbullah to Facilitate Govt. Formation, Open to New Political Pact

Naharnet/August 30/2020
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday announced that his party will facilitate the formation of the new government as he welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a new political pact in the country.
“We hope the parliamentary blocs will be able tomorrow to name a PM-designate who enjoys the constitutional requirements,” said Nasrallah in a televised address marking the last day of the Shiite Ashura commemorations.
“We need a government that can revive the economic and social situations, carry out reconstruction (of areas devastated by the port blast) and achieve reforms,” Nasrallah added. “Whether in naming the premier or forming the government, we will cooperate to pull the country out of any governmental vacuum,” he went on to say. Commenting on recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron, Nasrallah said: “The French president called for a new political contract in Lebanon during his recent visit... We are open to any calm discussions in this regard, but we have a condition, that the discussions should enjoy the consensus of all Lebanese components.”
Nasrallah did not elaborate on what kind of changes his movement was willing to consider but cited criticism from "official French sources" over Lebanon's "sect-based political system and its inability to solve Lebanon's problems and respond to its needs."Lebanon recognizes 18 official religious sects and its 128 parliamentary seats are divided equally between Muslims and Christians, an arrangement unique in the region.
However, governments born out of this system have been prone to deadlock and have failed to meet popular demands for better living conditions.
Macron, the first world leader to visit Lebanon after the devastating August 4 Beirut port blast, will return on Monday to press for reform and reconstruction.
On his earlier visit days after the blast, the French president said Lebanese leaders had a "huge" responsibility: "that of a revamped pact with the Lebanese people in the coming weeks, that of deep change."
On Friday, Macron spoke of the "constraints of a confessional system" in a country populated by Christians, Sunni Muslims and Shiites.
He said this, combined with "what can be mildly described as vested interests" had prevented political renewal and made reforms almost impossible.
Turning to the issue of the Beirut port explosion, Nasrallah called on the Lebanese Army to declare the results of the “technical probe” in order to put an end to any speculation or accusations against Hizbullah.
“I call on authorities to declare whether there were any missiles or weapons at the port,” Hizbullah’s leader said, adding that claims linking his party to tons of ammonium nitrate blamed for the blast are mere lies.
As for the incidents on the Lebanese-Israeli border that followed Israel's killing of a Hizbullah member in a Syria airstrike, Nasrallah said his group is “committed to an equation.”“Our objective is not revenge but punishment and to establish a balance of deterrence,” he said.
“Israel, on its own, mobilized its forces and upped its measures on the Lebanese and Syrian borders... It is now sending remote control vehicles carrying dummies” to give us targets to hit, he added.
“Whenever Israel suspects any movement, it starts bombing the vicinity of its positions, and this reflects panic,” he said. “Everything that has happened since our brother's martyrdom is part of the punishment,” Nasrallah went on to say.
He added: “Let the Israelis understand that whenever they kill one of our mujahideen, we will kill one of their soldiers.”“We did not respond to the Israeli shelling days ago because that was what the Israelis wanted,” Nasralllah said.
Noting that Hizbullah is “not in a hurry” to respond to the killing of its fighter, and that it is awaiting the right circumstances on the ground, Hizbullah’s leader pointed out that Israeli soldiers currently in hiding “will eventually appear on the roads.”
unsafely for years. Ministers have kept working in a caretaker capacity until a new government is agreed.In his televised speech, Nasrallah also called on the Lebanese army to announce the results of its technical investigation into the blast that killed 190 people, injured some 6,500 and wrecked swathes of Beirut.

Hezbollah's Nasrallah: For every operative killed we will kill one soldier
Jerusalem Post/August 30/2020
"We are committed to an equation... but we are not in a hurry."
An IDF soldier will die in retaliation for each Hezbollah operative killed by Israel, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday.
“Let the Israelis understand that whenever they kill one of our mujahideen [jihadists], we will kill one of their soldiers,” he said in a televised speech marking the end of the Shi’ite holiday of Ashura. “We are committed to an equation. Our objective is not revenge but punishment and to establish a balance of deterrence.”“Everything that has happened” since the death of Hezbollah operative Ali Kamel Mohsen “is part of the punishment,” Nasrallah said. “If the resistance fighters carried out 100 operations and have not killed a Zionist soldier, the attacks will continue until the equation is equal again,” he said.
Israel has been bracing for a possible attack by the terrorist group after an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on July 20 killed one of its members. A response to the deadly strike was “inevitable,” Hezbollah said at the time. After the threat, Israel barred military vehicles from driving on certain border roads and deployed reinforcements with advanced intelligence and precision-fire systems to its northern borders. As tensions along the northern border with Lebanon subsided in mid-August, the IDF began to scale back troop reinforcements and other heightened security measures that had been put in place.
The defense establishment determined that Hezbollah would not carry out an attack following the explosion in Beirut Port, but the IDF has remained on high alert in the North. “We are not in a hurry to respond to Israel,” Nasrallah said. “Your soldiers will eventually appear on the roads.”
There have been three failed attacks along the Lebanese border since the July 20 airstrike. Last week, soldiers were fired upon in a suspected sniper attack near Kibbutz Manara in the Upper Galilee. The soldiers were in the field when they heard gunfire directed at them, a person familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post. The IDF fired dozens of smoke shells and flares to stop the gunfire and identify the shooters. Though no identifications were confirmed, helicopters and fighter jets struck Hezbollah posts along the border.
In his speech on Sunday, Nasrallah said the recent peace accord between the United Arab Emirates and Israel was treason. “We condemn all attempts to acknowledge Israel and all forms of normalization with this enemy,” he said. “We renew our condemnation of the stance of the officials in the UAE. Any such agreement is treason.”

Hezbollah Chief Says 'Open' to French Proposal for New Lebanon Pact
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday said that his party is "open" to a French proposal for a new political pact for Lebanon as long as there is national consensus. "On his latest visit to Lebanon, we heard a call from the French president for a new political pact in Lebanon... today we are open to a constructive discussion in this regard," Nasrallah said in a speech. "But we have one condition: this discussion should be carried out... with the will and consent of the various Lebanese factions."
Nasrallah did not elaborate on what kind of changes his party was willing to consider but cited criticism from "official French sources" over Lebanon's "sect-based political system and its inability to solve Lebanon´s problems and respond to its needs." Lebanon recognizes 18 official religious sects and its 128 parliamentary seats are divided equally between Muslims and Christians, an arrangement unique in the region. However, governments born out of this system have been prone to deadlock and have failed to meet popular demands for better living conditions.
Macron, the first world leader to visit Lebanon after the devastating August 4 Beirut port blast, will return on Monday to press for reform and reconstruction. On his earlier visit days after the blast, the French president said Lebanese leaders had a "huge" responsibility: "that of a revamped pact with the Lebanese people in the coming weeks, that of deep change."The explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, left to languish for years in a warehouse, prompted the government to step down on August 10 and reignited a months-old protest movement demanding a political overhaul.
Consultations to name a new premier are set to begin on Monday in tandem with Macron's visit. Nasrallah said his movement would be "cooperative" in the formation of a government capable of spearheading reform and reconstruction.
Many Lebanese have blamed the August 4 port blast on a ruling class seen as mired in nepotism and graft since the 1975-1990 civil war. The explosion killed more than 180 people and laid entire districts to waste, reviving a protest movement that had emerged in October to demand the wholesale removal of the political elite. On Friday, Macron spoke of the "constraints of a confessional system". He said this, combined with "what can be mildly described as vested interests" had prevented political renewal and made reforms almost impossible.
 

Lebanese Army Confirms Distributing Aid Using 'Transparent Mechanism'
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The Lebanese Army said on Saturday it is responsible for distributing 50 percent of humanitarian aid sent by international donors for people affected by the devastating blast that ripped through Beirut Port last August 4. “This aid is distributed based on a transparent mechanism that explains how and from where donations were received,” General Sami El Hoyek, head of the Beirut Forward Emergency Room of the Lebanese Armed Forces, said during a press conference. Few days following the explosion, an international donor held a teleconference where a total of 252.7 million euros were raised in emergency aid for Lebanon. Meanwhile, planes carrying food, medical aid and other equipment arrive daily at the Rafic Hariri International Airport in support of afflicted people and Lebanese homes and businesses in the wake of Beirut blast. However, fears emerged among residents that this aid will fall into corrupt hands. The Lebanese Army, however, said that the distribution of aid would be transparent, adding that the Army established around 250 military and civil engineering committees to speed up surveying and assessing the damage and complete its mission in the coming 15 days.
It added that search and rescue operations did not stop since the devastating explosion hit Beirut on Aug. 4, killing at least 188 people. Army spokesman Elias Aad said that seven people, including at least three Lebanese nationals, remained missing after the explosion.
“There are still seven missing people: three Lebanese nationals whose relatives have submitted DNA samples, three Syrian nationals and one Egyptian national,” he told reporters. Aad explained that the figure was compiled from data submitted by the country’s Internal Security Forces in coordination with the Lebanese Red Cross. The Army said it distributed around 43,000 food baskets on residents damaged by the blast, while 68 percent of donations included medial aid, medicines and vaccines.

How Lebanon can avert threat of new civil war
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 30/2020
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that Lebanon might slide into civil war if left alone to deal with its crisis. The clashes that happened the day before certainly sent an alarming signal of the potential return of civil war.
On Thursday, Hezbollah supporters, on the occasion of Ashura, wanted to hang religious banners in Khalde, a town located to the south of Beirut that is inhabited by Sunnis. This led to a clash, resulting in two deaths. During the funeral, mourners chanted the slogan “(Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah is the enemy of Allah.”
During periods of high tension, a single incident like this can spiral into an uncontrollable wave of violence. We have to remember the circumstances of the mid-1970s and compare them to the current landscape. The two factors that led to Lebanon’s civil war exist again today. The first factor is the existence of armed factions outside the control of the legitimate national army and security forces. The second factor is the insecurity the presence an armed non-state actor creates among the other factions. Then, it was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that was armed, rendering some Lebanese factions insecure, while today it is Hezbollah. More and more Lebanese are becoming vocal about the need to disarm Hezbollah and are attacking Nasrallah personally — something that was considered a grave blasphemy not a long time ago.
In 1975, the Phalangist-Christian faction fired on a bus transporting Palestinians in the neighborhood of Ain El-Remmaneh. The PLO retaliated and this opened the Pandora’s box of the Lebanese Civil War, which was closed only after 15 years of bloody conflict. Today, the Khalde incident could have similar repercussions if it is not quickly and decisively contained.
The average citizen should feel that the army has the upper hand when it comes to the country’s security.
Here, the role of army is crucial. The oversight of the “civilian authority,” or government, which is in Hezbollah’s camp over the army’s, has put the latter in an awkward position. While trying to remain neutral and maintain peace, which is an integral part of its mandate, the army’s task is becoming increasingly difficult. The country is divided between the people in power, who represent the Hezbollah camp, and the opposition, including Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the followers of Walid Jumblatt, who want to return to power. The Hirak popular protest movement is lost in the middle. The Hirak is made up of the civil society that is disgusted by the entire political class, hence its slogan “Killun yaani killun (All means all).” Yet, despite the good intentions of the civil society and the initiatives that are emerging, especially from the youth, it is not organized in a structure that can present a viable alternative to the current corrupt political class.
The prospects are not promising and Lebanon is at a turning point. Some expect Macron to be a savior and that his visit this week will produce miracles. Nevertheless, Macron’s formula, marketed under the tagline of a unity government, will basically freeze the facts on the ground for a while instead of improving the situation. His recipe will not reduce the tensions or the discontent with Hezbollah. On the contrary, recognizing its role under the auspices of a unity government might even increase the insecurity on the other side. The tensions are so high that even an Israeli strike on Southern Lebanon last week did not create the effect of rallying round the flag, as it did in 2006, when internal differences were overshadowed by an Israeli attack. Today, the opponents of Hezbollah are accusing it of instigating the skirmish with Israel to create a diversion.
De-escalation is important. While some voices call for the total disarmament of Hezbollah once and for all and others accuse the army of playing into Hezbollah’s hands by not protecting the protesters that were attacked by thugs from its ally Amal, the cohesion of the army is the last line of defense against a civil war. If the calls in Washington to decrease support for the army are answered, that would be a final blow to what is left of “civil peace.” Nevertheless, pressure should come on the government over its handling of the army. The army should protect the peaceful protesters. Staying on the sidelines while Hezbollah and its ally attack protesters will only fuel the discontent and insecurity. The average citizen should feel that the army has the upper hand when it comes to the country’s security.
The second step is for the army to be very firm with anyone outside of the security forces who is carrying a weapon or threatening an individual or a property. Regardless of which party the person belongs to, very strict measures should be taken against anyone who disturbs the country’s security. These measures should be announced and enforced. This would send a clear signal that the militias, whether that is Hezbollah or anyone else, can no longer rule the streets. Meanwhile, the army should create the space for the peaceful protests to take their course, as ultimately they are the only hope for developing a civil alternative to the corrupt sectarian system. If these measures are not taken immediately, Lebanon is heading toward the abyss.
**Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She holds a PhD in politics from the University of Exeter and is an affiliated scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.

A Devastated and a Victorious People in a Single Country?
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 30/2020
So, we – by that I mean the Lebanese people – are winning.
There is someone telling us that we are celebrating, on these days, the third anniversary of the “battles of the liberation of the East,” when we eliminated the “takfiri front”, which is said to have sprung on us from neighboring Syria.
There is someone who told us, a few days ago, about the 14th anniversary of the astonishing victory we secured in 2006, when we “humiliated the Zionist enemy and shoved its face in the soil”.
There is always someone coming out to tell us that the era of defeats has passed and that we are on the cusp of enthralling regional developments, like the United States being expelled from the region or praying in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The victories are abundant. The celebrations are also abundant. Sadness, on the other hand, is more abundant.
It is no secret that the Lebanese, the vast majority of them, become increasingly depressed with each of these mentioned victories. They are not even celebrating what ought to be there day of celebration, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Lebanon. They await the occasion in pain and with some regret. Celebrations, in any form, are not on their schedule, nor are they in the mood. Where does the problem lie then? Why are victories met with tears?
It is not new for political powers to make use of victories to consolidate their grip on their people. Some regimes would routinely magnify victories, or even flip defeats on their heads and turn them into successes, to strengthen that repressive grip. Some regimes, lacking any other achievements to brag about, have made such victories into justifications for a legitimacy that has no other basis.
The case of Hafez al-Assad has become very well known to those who want to know: he was not satisfied with declaring himself the “champion of October” in 1973, for he also became the “hero of the Golan Heights” in 1967, bearing in mind that Assad personally supervised, as defense minister, the fall of the Golan at the hands of the Israelis.
The obnoxiousness in Lebanon today is of the same nature, as is the lie: yesterday, we saw a mini-drill for the Sunni – Shiite civil war in Khaldeh, just south of Beirut. Inter-sectarian relations are unprecedentedly tense and hostile.
For Christians especially, but others as well, sentiments about Lebanese national unity oscillate between haplessness and fury. Added to this situation are other crises that the Lebanese are undergoing: an economic crisis reverberating across all classes in society without exception. Political gridlock which is increasingly difficult to fix given the depth of the corruption and the degree of frivolousness that characterize our governance. Losing more and more Arab and international friendships, accompanied by a universal inclination to have nothing to do with this hopeless country. Exacerbation of the helplessness and confusion regarding the many COVID-19 cases. Before and after all this, the horrific crime at the port that is the culmination of years of “the people, the army and the resistance” form of governance.
How can it be reasonable, as we stumble among these various catastrophes, to celebrate all these “victories” that Hezbollah and its supporters invite us to celebrate? This contradiction explains the pressing need to conjure up lies that achieve both tasks: on the one hand, the impossible task of convincing us that the victories are really victories, and, on the other, pushing us to believe that the catastrophes are not catastrophes, and thus, those responsible for both should not be brought down and thrown in jail. For this reason, the supply of lies in the market is huge, because in reality the victories are not victories while the catastrophes are catastrophes and those who cause them should end up in jail. Day after day, the picture becomes more evident: the victories are not victories in any sense, while the catastrophes are very much catastrophes.
The current attempt at lying is unparalleled except in the famous theory that emerged after the 1967 defeat, that we had been victorious because the “progressive regimes” did not fall.
But the contradiction is also explained by something else, that we really have become two peoples at least: a people that counts the blows it is dealt, and a people that counts, either with certainty, because of deceit or disingenuously, the victories it garners.
As for the sharpness of the divide, it says nothing else than that Hezbollah has succeeded in killing the Lebanese project completely. In fact, the duality of arms is not the most dangerous thing that the party here represents. What is more dangerous is the people’s duality, which has a striking impact on almost everything we are undergoing today, a deceitful marriage between victorious and vanquished. This is what leads to a duality of reality and truth. In all cases, it overwhelms any potential pluralism, not only under a democratic system, but also for a stable life. The overwhelming majority of the Lebanese people today see that the truth in these victories is that they are victories over them. Anything else is a lie and another source of despair and deep sadness.

The Hariri Tribunal sentence is more valuable than it seems
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/ August 30/2020
For over six long hours, the Lebanese and the world at large listened anxiously to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as it delivered its long-awaited sentence. For many, it was a disappointment. Over fifteen years of investigation and legal process by the United Nations formed tribunal was only able to convict one of the four accused members of Hezbollah and delivered what many saw as a charade of a tribunal, especially since over $ 800 million was spent with nothing substantial to show other than the obvious.
In reality, however, the public disappointment over the Hariri tribunal has downplayed the magnitude of this historic sentencing and what this means for Lebanon, and for delivering justice not only for the gruesome murder of Hariri but to tens of others victims whose culprits are yet to be brought to justice.
The STL has set a precedent – that political assassinations will be fully investigated, with the suspects tried in public. The problem is not in the tribunal itself, but rather in the culture that dominates Lebanon and the wider Middle East, where people talk about justice but fail to observe that justice is not always swift nor is it blind to due process. The people that are responsible for the killing of Rafik Hariri are heartless criminals but criminals still have rights and any evidence that should be presented against them can not be circumstantial.
Thus, the STL was only able to convict Salim Ayach. But it is not just the conclusion of the STL’s 2682-page verdict that is revealing, but rather its reading of the crime, motive, and criminal intent of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime at the time.
The STL was clear in establishing the criminal intent and motives that led the Assad regime and its Iranian allies to kill Hariri. It gave a very detailed reading of Hariri’s role in contributing to the pro-sovereign front known as the Bristol Gathering (see page 173). More importantly, it was able to demonstrate that the entirety of the Lebanese state was under the hegemony of Syria and thus it is impossible to exonerate the Syrian regime from its role in the crime.
The tribunal clearly stated that: “The attack on Mr. Hariri, however, did not occur in a political or historical vacuum and the Trial Chamber cannot ignore the background to the attack as providing a possible motive for it. It does this while noting that motive is not an element of any of the crimes charged in the amended consolidated indictment.”
The fact that it was not able to link the criminal intent to the criminal act is very simple as the tribunal pointed out that the crime scene was under the supervision of the Lebanese state, and either through duplicity or negligence “critical evidence was removed from the crime scene when the six convoy vehicles were removed and taken to the Helou Barracks ‘under the pretext of preserving them’.”
Saudi Arabia: Rafik Hariri tribunal verdict beginning of steps to seek justice
Yet going into the weeds of legal and judicial process of the tribunal waters down the impact of its findings or rather its limitations, as the mandate of the STL limits its “jurisdiction over persons responsible for the attack of 14 February 2005.” In essence, the STL’s mandate granted immunity to Hezbollah and to the Syrian regime – a measure that Russia and China made sure of at the UN Security Council meeting in which the tribunal was established. This get out of jail card thus renders all talk of the responsibility of Hezbollah as futile. Salim Ayach, who belongs and probably commands Hezbollah’s 212 Unit tasked with carrying out assassinations, was not acting alone when he killed Hariri nor was he freelancing for anyone else.
The recent story ran by the Washington Post reported that Ayach was also tasked with carrying out four other hits. This suggests that Hezbollah carried out most of the high profile assassinations after 2005, and that attempting to pin them on Sunni Islamic extremists groups is a red herring.
The killing of Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj in December 2007 is particularly interesting as al-Hajj was next in line to command the Lebanese Armed Forces. This made him a potential risk to Hezbollah, who decided to eliminate him and try to pin it on Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist faction believed to have been created by the Assad regime. The STL might not have delivered the justice that the Lebanese people yearn for, but it was able to establish one important fact. While political parties do use force and coercion to achieve their goals, none of the Lebanese parties except Hezbollah operates a transnational hit squad that is responsible for the killing of Hariri and many others. This fact will prove indispensable when French President Macron returns to Lebanon next week to try to convince the world that dialogue with Iran and Hezbollah can be constructive.

Hizbullah Hit by Backlash after Beirut Port Blast
Associated Press/Naharnet/August 30/2020
Sara Jaafar joined a group of political activists gathered on Aug. 4 to discuss strategies to challenge Lebanon's entrenched rulers when their building was shaken and the windows blasted out by the giant explosion that rocked Beirut.
She took cover from the flying debris, thoughts rushing through her head of past political assassinations in Lebanon. Her immediate reaction was that Hizbullah was targeting the dissidents' meeting.
The blast was in fact at the port of Beirut, caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate stored there for years. So far, it appears to be a result of longtime government mismanagement. No direct connection to Hizbullah has emerged in the explosion that wreaked destruction across the city and killed at least 180 people. Theories abound about what triggered the explosion, including even a possible Israeli strike against Hizbullah.
Jaafar's initial reaction reflected the fear Hizbullah has instilled among many Lebanese and the power it has succeeded in projecting over the past decade.
For many, the Iran-backed Hizbullah now stands at the top of Lebanon's sectarian-based system of power -- and so is complicit in the corruption many blame for the port disaster and for driving the country into near bankruptcy.
"Who controls most of everything?" asked Jaafar, a secular Shiite. Hizbullah and its ally, President Michel Aoun, "are the people in charge. ... They bear the responsibility."In the wake of the blast, Hizbullah has come under unprecedented public criticism and its role in Lebanese politics under intense scrutiny.
Cardboard effigies of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other politicians were hanged on nooses at a rally after the blast. Some accused Hizbullah of storing weapons at the port, a claim it denies. Hizbullah's political rivals seized the opportunity to fan hostilities against it and its allies.
Social media posts mocked Nasrallah's speeches. One noted how the U.S. killing of Iranian commander Qassim Soleimani in Iraq in January prompted Nasrallah to weep and threaten revenge -- while in his first speech following the blast, he was smiling and calm. "There is a paradox there with Hizbullah. They have never been more powerful politically and militarily. But they have never faced such an array of challenges as well," said Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based Hizbullah expert.
The season of discontent against Hizbullah comes as Lebanese suffer under an economic crash that has driven nearly half of the population into poverty. Rather than push for reform, critics say, Hizbullah has stood by its political allies who resist change. It also denied support to nationwide protests that erupted in October demanding the end of the dysfunctional political structure. U.S. sanctions against Iran and Hizbullah made things harder.
For years, Hizbullah maintained a clean reputation and distance from Lebanon's political elite. It developed its power and resources as a resistance movement against Israel and became virtually a state within a state, heading a powerful military force and a welfare network for its Shiite supporters.
Hizbullah remains Lebanon's only armed force outside the military. It has control over parts of the borders and plays a crucial role in Iranian-backed wars in the region, like Syria's.
In 2005, an explosion killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and changed Lebanon's political course. The bombing, blamed on Hizbullah, sent nearly a million people into the streets, forcing Hizbullah's ally Syria to end its occupation of Lebanon. After that, Hizbullah began seeping into the system -- from having a handful of Parliament members to becoming Lebanon's most powerful political faction.Hizbullah and its allies formed the last Cabinet. Its failures came to be seen as Hizbullah's, Blanford said.
And they were many: The government failed to enact reforms, stem the financial meltdown or reach a rescue package with the International Monetary Fund. It finally resigned after the explosion. Hizbullah plays a significant role in forming the new government. To deflect criticism, Nasrallah addressed supporters several times, denying Hizbullah had anything to do with the port explosion.
He made thinly veiled warnings to critics. In an Aug. 14 speech, Nasrallah warned repeatedly against pushing Lebanon toward civil war. He urged supporters to "hold onto their anger" over criticism, hinting it would be unleashed against opponents.
In Hizbullah's stronghold in the Beirut suburb Dahiyeh, supporters saw the explosion as a conspiracy to weaken Lebanon and the group.
"We had two places to bring money and assistance from: the port and the airport. Something had to happen somewhere so that the siege (on Lebanon) is tightened and so that these people rise against their rulers," said Issam Kaeen, a 42-year-old coffee shop owner.
Mohammed Abi Shakra, who owns a women's wear shop, said an Israeli attack on the port can't be ruled out. "This is a conspiracy against the Lebanese people to make them poor, to incite civil war," he said.
Meanwhile, social tensions are on the rise. Opponents of Hizbullah clashed twice with the group's supporters, including a gunfight on Thursday that killed two bystanders and wounded several. Gunmen reportedly opened fire over religious banners raised by Hizbullah supporters. "There is no god but God, and Nasrallah is the enemy of God," some mourners chanted at a funeral of man killed in a clash between supporters of Hizbullah and its Shiite ally the AMAL Movement.
Following the explosion, Hizbullah made some internal changes, part of a shift inward after the nationwide protests and its receding role in Syria's war, an official with the group said. The group's security chief was given a bigger portfolio and the head of an agency that coordinates with allies was replaced. Media operations are also changing, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to confirm media reports. After the blast, Jaafar and other victims demanded an international investigation. "We lost our homes, our kids, our fathers and our city. We lost everything," she said in an angry speech at a gathering near the port. "All of them means all of them," the small crowd chanted, naming Nasrallah among other leaders they want out of power.
Her apartment in a landmark building nearby was devastated by the blast. An architect, Jaafar is considering leaving the destruction as a reminder of how it all went wrong. Active since the October protests, Jaafar is frustrated by the small turnout in rallies since the blast but recognizes an outpouring of public anger is only one requisite for change. She, like many in Lebanon, sees her country's political crisis as a product of rivalry between Hizbullah's patron, Iran, and the U.S. and Gulf states. Only a resolution to that conflict will force change, she said.
"I understand why they exist. They filled the gap where the state failed," said Jaafar. But "we want a real nation, a real country," she said. "This is a jungle."
Jaafar said protest activists are realizing they must work with allies within the system for change -- push for early elections and challenge Hizbullah and its allies in Parliament. "We won't get rid of them in one election," she said.
 

Lebanon Arrests 3 Egyptians over Cairo Hotel Gang Rape Case
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 30/2020
Lebanon's Internal Security Forces have announced the arrest of three Egyptian nationals accused of gang-raping a woman in a luxury Cairo hotel in 2014. The ISF said in a statement it received a letter from Interpol in Egypt on August 27 with the names of seven Egyptian nationals in Lebanon "accused of raping a girl in 2014 in a Cairo hotel." The ISF intelligence branch "found that five of the seven had entered Lebanon previously" and that three remained in the country, according to the statement. The three suspects were arrested on August 28 in the village of Fatqa in Mount Lebanon, the ISF added.
The rape allegedly took place six years ago, but the accusations only emerged online in July. Egypt launched a probe in early August after receiving a letter from a national women's association that included a complaint from a young woman, who claimed she had been gang-raped at the Fairmont Hotel in 2014.
According to social media accounts, up to six men had drugged and raped the woman. The arrests in Lebanon came days after Egypt detained another suspect in the case as he attempted to flee the country. The prosecution last week it was seeking to arrest a total of nine suspects, adding that seven had fled abroad following the dissemination of their identities on social media. Names and pictures of suspects, who appear to hail from wealthy families, have circulated online, but AFP has been unable to verify their authenticity. The reports were widely shared, including by Assault Police, an Instagram account with more than 180,000 followers, which is dedicated to pushing for justice for rape and sexual assault survivors. The accusations have added to Egypt's resurgent #MeToo movement, which seeks to hold sexual predators in the deeply conservative country accountable for their actions.

'Strong Lebanon' Bloc confirms facilitating the birth of a reformist, productive and effective government
NNA/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The "Strong Lebanon" Parliamentary Bloc held an extraordinary meeting on Sunday, headed by MP Gebran Bassil, to discuss the new government formation and naming of its head during the parliamentary consultations scheduled for tomorrow. In a statement following their meeting, the Bloc members said that they discussed "positively all existing efforts to name a prime minister, and the names put forward were presented and agreed upon." They reiterated their "emphasis on facilitating the birth of a government according to their previously-set three criteria, namely that the cabinet, in its prime minister and ministers and program, ought to be reformist, productive and effective."The Bloc also affirmed that it "looks with great attention to the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Lebanon, and the ideas it can bring to help Lebanon implement the needed, necessary and urgent reforms."
The Bloc members also highlighted the importance of their presenting "an integrated program on these reforms and proposing a sincere, economic and political national initiative."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 30-31/2020

Jared Kushner says 'stage is set' for further Arab-Israeli deals
The National/August 30/2020
White House adviser is trumpeting the recent agreement by Israel and the UAE to establish diplomatic relations as a historic breakthrough.
White House adviser Jared Kushner on Sunday trumpeted the recent agreement by Israel and the UAE to establish diplomatic relations as a historic breakthrough and said “the stage is set” for other Arab states to follow suit, but he gave no indication that any new deals were imminent.
Mr Kushner spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. The August 13 announcement makes the UAE just the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, and the first to do so in over 25 years. The Abraham Accord between the UAE and Israel was struck on the condition that a planned annexation of vast swathes of the occupied West Bank did not go ahead. “Today obviously we celebrate a historic breakthrough for peace,” Mr Kushner said, adding that the deal will create “previously unthinkable” economic, security and religious cooperation.
“While this peace agreement was thought by many to be impossible, the stage is now set for even more,” he said, claiming he has heard optimism throughout the region since the deal was announced. “We must seize that optimism and we must continue to push to make this region achieve the potential that it truly has,” said Mr Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and chief Middle East adviser. Israel and the UAE have moved quickly to cement their ties over the past two weeks. Almost immediately, they opened direct phone lines, and Cabinet ministers have held friendly phone conversations.
On Saturday, the UAE formally ended its commercial boycott of Israel.But so far, predictions by Israeli and American officials, including Mr Kushner, that other Arab countries would follow the UAE have not yet materialised. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured the region last week, stopping in Sudan, Bahrain and Oman — three countries widely seen as candidates to establish ties with Israel — but appeared to leave empty-handed. The flurry of US diplomatic activity comes as the Trump administration presses ahead with ambitious plans to promote Arab-Israeli rapprochement even in the absence of a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which had long been seen as a prerequisite for Israel to reach peace deals with all of its Arab neighbours. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement with the UAE would bring “unbridled” trade and opportunities.
Trump unveiled a Middle East plan in January that has been rejected by the Palestinians, who say it unfairly favours Israel. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — for an independent state. The Trump plan offers them limited autonomy in 70 per cent of the West Bank, leaving Israel in overall control of the territory, and a symbolic presence on the outskirts of Jerusalem, while handing Israel control of the city’s sensitive holy sites.
 

Qatari envoy pursues efforts to end Gaza tensions/Hamas: Israel seeking to replace Qatar with UAE as main mediator

Khaled Abu Toameh/Jerusalem Post/August 30/2020
Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi on Sunday stepped up his efforts to end the current tensions between Israel and Hamas amid reports that he intends to remain in the region until the two sides reach an agreement. Emadi, who returned to the Gaza Strip on Saturday night after holding talks with Israeli security and military officials, reportedly informed the leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions of Israel’s response to their list of demands. “Al-Emadi has decided to pursue his efforts to reach a deal between Hamas and Israel,” a source in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post. “On Sunday, he held intensive talks with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and leaders of other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, but by midday it was unclear if he had made any progress.”The Palestinian factions are demanding that Israel ease restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip as a precondition for halting the launching of explosives-laden and incendiary balloons toward Israel. The demands include, among other things, expanding the fishing zone, allowing thousands of workers and merchants to enter Israel, increasing fuel supplies to the power plant in the Gaza Strip and facilitating the delivery of medical supplies and medicine to help stem the spread of the coronavirus in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. In addition, the factions are demanding that Israel facilitate the implementation of economic and humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip. The factions have repeatedly accused Israel of “foot-dragging” with regard to implementation of ceasefire understandings reached earlier this year with Israel under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations. Under the terms of the understandings, they say, Israel promised to ease restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip in return for a cessation of incendiary balloon and rocket attacks. Israel was “exploiting” the recent increase of coronavirus cases in the Gaza Strip to “step up its pressure on the Palestinian factions,” a source told the Post. According to the sources, Israel believes Hamas is under pressure because of the coronavirus outbreak among the general population in the Gaza Strip, which has been under curfew for the past six days to prevent the spread of the disease. “Despite the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Palestinian factions told al-Emadi that if Israel does not comply with their demands, they are prepared for an all-out military confrontation,” a source said. Emadi, for his part, has informed the factions that Doha was waiting for a green light from Israel to deliver another cash grant to the Gaza Strip. A Hamas official said Qatar has pledged another $30 million in financial aid to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip as part of a new ceasefire agreement with Israel. “On Saturday night, it seemed we were close to reaching a new agreement [with Israel],” the official said. “It’s not clear why Israel keeps coming up with new demands.” The official said he did not rule out the possibility that Israel was deliberately working to undermine the Qatari mediation efforts in order to bring the Egyptian mediators back into the picture. “It’s also possible that Israel is paving the way for the United Arab Emirates to replace Qatar as the main player in the Gaza Strip conflict,” he said. In 2017, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, citing its alleged support for terrorism as the main reason.

PA Appeals to UN to Pressure Israel to Release Palestinian Corpses
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called on the United Nations to pressure Israel to release corpses of Palestinians Tel Aviv has been withholding and refuses to hand them over to their families.
Palestine sent a letter to the UN special rapporteurs demanding them to exert pressure on Israel to refrain from its brutal and barbaric policy of seizing the bodies of the martyrs and to abolish any laws that allow such action.
It called for the immediate return of the bodies and requested real, impartial, independent and effective probes into the deaths of detainees and peaceful protesters.The letter was sent by the State of Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN in Geneva, on behalf of the Palestinian state, to several rapporteurs.
These include the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, as well as the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, the Special Rapporteur concerned with freedom of religion and belief, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition. The letter stressed ensuring accountability and deterrence of Israel, the occupying power, from seizing Palestinian corps, especially those of minors and detainees. It also called for urging Israel to publish its own rules of engagement on the use of live ammunition, regulate the use of lethal fire and respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The Observer further called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people and put an end to Israel’s systematic and discriminatory policies and support the work of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on its preliminary study of the situation in Palestine. It urged the special rapporteurs to initiate a criminal investigation into the repatriation of the bodies, including the development of a DNA test and registration service, and to facilitate the proper identification and burial of the bodies and remains. Israel has been illegally detaining 66 bodies of Palestinian martyrs in refrigerators, and had buried 254 Palestinians in mass graves, denying them the right to a dignified burial. “The policy of detaining the bodies and its impact on families amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and customary international law, which prohibits torture and ill-treatment, including Rule 90 of the customary international law study, which Israel is obligated to do,” the letter read.
This policy “deprives Palestinian victims and their afflicted families from investigating the circumstances of the killings, in violation of Israel’s obligation to investigate, punish, and address arbitrary deprivation of life, including the obligation to allow an adequate medical autopsy by an independent forensic examiner if the family requests it,” it added.

Israel Responds to Explosive Balloons with Tank Fire on Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
The Israeli military said it struck militant targets in Gaza early on Sunday in response to continued launches of explosives-laden balloons out of the Hamas-run territory. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side. But the violence comes at a time when Gaza is struggling with a worsening economic crisis and a new outbreak of the coronavirus. Hamas-linked groups have launched a wave of incendiary balloons into Israel in recent weeks, torching wide swaths of farmland. Israel has responded with airstrikes and other attacks. The army said Sunday's tank fire struck Hamas “military posts” in southern Gaza, without elaborating. Hamas is pressing Israel to ease its blockade on Gaza and allow large-scale development projects. Egypt and Qatar are trying to shore up an informal cease-fire. Those efforts have grown more urgent in recent days as authorities in Gaza have detected the first cases of local transmission of the coronavirus. Hamas has imposed a lockdown in the coastal territory bordering Israel and Egypt, which is home to 2 million Palestinians. Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to keep Hamas from building up its arsenal, but critics view it as a form of collective punishment. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and several smaller battles since the closure was imposed. The restrictions have pushed the local economy to the brink of collapse, and years of war and isolation have left the health care system ill-equipped to cope with a major outbreak. In response to the recent attacks, Israel closed Gaza’s sole commercial crossing, forcing its only power station to shut down for lack of fuel and leaving Gazans with just a few hours of electricity a day. Israel has also closed the coastal territory’s fishing zone. The UN's Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, last week warned the situation is “rapidly deteriorating.”
 

French military officer allegedly gave sensitive documents to Russia
Reuters/August 30/2020
Asked to comment on the report, Parly said the ministry had informed prosecutors about the case. PARIS - A senior French military officer had been placed under investigation over a suspected breach of security, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Sunday.According to Europe 1 radio, a French lieutenant colonel, based in Italy and stationed with NATO, is suspected of having passed sensitive documents to the Russian secret services. Asked to comment on the report, Parly said the ministry had informed prosecutors about the case. She did not elaborate on what the officer was suspected of having done. "We have taken all the necessary safeguard measures," she added. According to Europe 1, the officer was detained by the French security agency when he was about to return to Italy and was remanded in custody at La Santé prison in Paris. A judicial source said the Paris prosecutor's office had launched an investigation following a report from the Armed Forces Ministry on July 22. As a result, on Aug. 21 an officer with a posting abroad was indicted for passing information to a foreign power and compromising national security, according to the source, who said the officer was remanded in custody the same day.

Russia Satisfied with Results of Syria Constitutional Committee Meeting
Moscow - Raed Jaber/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
Moscow saw vital positive development during the recent meetings of the Syrian constitutional committee in Geneva, despite not achieving significant progress, a Russian source close to the Foreign Ministry told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday. “The discussions were different from the past two rounds of talks,” the source said, adding that his country is hoping to advance dialogue between the rival parties based on UN Security Council 2254. He revealed the opposition and the government delegations engaged in debates and listened to opposing views. “This is important progress even though a major breakthrough was not achieved during the talks,” the source stressed. He noticed that the government advised its delegation not to offer the other side any pretext for accusing it of disrupting the dialogue, in reference to similar accusations against Damascus in the past two rounds of talks held last year. “Moscow counts on the Syrian sides to reach, in the very near future, an agreement on specific points related to the expected constitutional amendments, mainly the distribution of powers between the different authorities,” the source continued. He said that the issue of “hostages” is still delaying progress in those talks, adding that the government delegation does not have the authority to discuss this issue. The source was speaking following weeklong UN-sponsored talks of the 45-member committee composed of representatives of the government, opposition and civil society, and which has a mandate to draw up a new constitution leading to UN-supervised elections.

One Shot Dead in Portland as Rival Protesters Clash
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
One person was shot dead in Portland late on Saturday as protesters from rival groups clashed in the northwest US city, which has seen frequent demonstrations for months that have at times turned violent. Police said in statements that both the death and protest violence occurred in downtown Portland. However, they did not immediately link the shooting death to the protests. “Police responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medical responded and determined that the victim was deceased,” a Portland police spokesman said in an emailed statement.
“A Homicide Investigation is underway.”Sounds of gunfire were heard in the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street, according to the spokesman’s statement, Reuters reported.
The police said they were not currently releasing suspect information. When asked by Reuters if the shooting was related to clashes between rival protesters in the same area, the spokesman said “it is too early in the investigation to draw those kinds of conclusions”.
The New York Times and the Oregonian newspapers reported that a large group of supporters of President Donald Trump had traveled in a caravan through downtown Portland, with a pro-Trump gathering drawing hundreds of trucks full of supporters into the city. The Times cited two unidentified witnesses as saying a small group of people got into an argument with other people in a vehicle and someone opened fire. Portland police earlier said in a tweet that a “political rally is caravanning throughout downtown Portland” and that there had been “some instances of violence between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators.”Police had intervened and made some arrests, they said in the tweet. The New York Times reported that Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed on the streets, with people shooting paint ball guns from the beds of pickup trucks and protesters throwing objects back at them.
The pro-Trump vehicle rally began near Clackamas Town Center before reaching Portland on Saturday evening, with clashes breaking out thereafter between Trump supporters and counter-protesters, the Oregonian reported.
It added that the shooting took place after most of the caravan had left downtown. According to Reuters, demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the US since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Tensions between rival protest groups have roiled downtown Portland every night for nearly three months following Floyd’s death. The Trump administration in July deployed federal forces to Portland to crack down on the protests.

Afghan President Appoints Council for Peace Deal With Taliban
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 30 August, 2020
Afghanistan’s president has appointed a council for national reconciliation, which will have final say on whether the government will sign a peace deal with the Taliban after what are expected to be protracted and uncertain negotiations with the insurgents.The negotiations were envisaged under a US-Taliban peace agreement signed in February as intra-Afghan talks to decide the war-torn country’s future. However, their start has been hampered by a series of delays that have frustrated Washington. Some had expected the negotiations to begin earlier this month.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree late Saturday establishing the 46-member council, led by his former rival in last year’s presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah, who is now in the government, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The council is separate from a 21-member negotiating team, which Ghani appointed in March and which is expected to travel to the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, for intra-Afghan talks.
The council will have the final say and will ultimately decide on the points that the negotiating team takes up with the Taliban.
Abdullah’s appointment to head the reconciliation efforts followed a power-sharing deal he signed in May with Ghani to end the political deadlock after last year’s election — a vote in which Abdullah had also declared himself a winner.
The High Council for National Reconciliation is made up of an array of Afghan political figures, including current and former officials, and nine women representatives, one of whom was named Abdullah’s deputy. Ghani also appointed former President Hamid Karzai to the council but his predecessor rejected the appointment in a statement Sunday, saying he declines to be part of any government structure.
Also on the council are mujahedeen and militant leaders who fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s but who were also involved in a Afghanistan’s brutal civil war that followed their takeover in 1992 that left 50,000, mostly civilians, dead in Kabul. Among them is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who signed a peace deal with Ghani in 2016 but previously was declared a terrorist by the US
The council also includes Abdur Rasool Sayyaf, who was the inspiration for the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. During the 1992-1996 civil war, Sayyaf’s fighters killed thousands of minority Shiite Muslims led by a rival warlord.
However, the establishment of the council may not sit well with the Taliban, who have appointed just one 20-member negotiating team that has the authority to make final decisions. The Taliban team answers only to the insurgents’ leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada.
There are also other obstacles in the way of the negotiations. The Afghan government has reversed a decision to release the last 320 Taliban prisoners it is holding until the insurgents free more captured soldiers.
The US-Taliban deal called on the Taliban to free 1,000 government and military personnel they hold captive while the government was to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, in an exchange meant as a goodwill gesture ahead of the intra-Afghan negotiations. The government appears adamant to secure freedom for the soldiers. Javid Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Advisor’s office, tweeted there are no changes to the plan.
“The Taliban will have to release our commandos held by them before the government resumes the release of the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners,” he said.
The US-Taliban deal is aimed at ending America’s war in Afghanistan — a conflict that began shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks and toppled the Taliban regime, which had harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
US troops have already started leaving Afghanistan, and by November, fewer than 5,000 troops are expected to still be in the country. That’s down from nearly 13,000 when the US-Taliban agreement was signed Feb. 29.
Under the agreement, the withdrawal of US troops does not hinge on the success of intra-Afghan talks but on commitments made by the Taliban to combat terrorist groups and ensure Afghanistan is not used as a staging ground for attacks on the US and its allies.
According to AP, since signing the agreement, the Taliban have held to a promise not to attack US and NATO troops, but have carried out regular attacks on Afghan security forces. The government wants an immediate cease-fire, while the Taliban have said the terms should be agreed in the negotiations.
Attacks, however, have continued unabated, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. On Friday, roadside bombs struck vehicles carrying civilians in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, killing 14 people, including three children. No one has so far claimed responsibility for those bombings.
Earlier last week, attacks — including a Taliban truck bombing in northern Balkh province that targeted a commando base for Afghan forces — left at least 17 people dead and scores more wounded.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 30-31/2020

Women Have Been Better Leaders Than Men During the Pandemic
Andreas Kluth/Bloomberg/August 30/2020
At least during the first wave of Covid-19, countries with female leaders suffered far lower death rates than comparable nations led by men. This doesn’t mean that the trend will necessarily persist in a second or third wave. Nor does it imply that women are also better leaders when it comes to whatever else governments find themselves doing, from reforming labor markets to waging war. But it’s worth pondering nonetheless.
In doing so, it’s of course tempting to descend into the netherworld of gender stereotypes and individual caricature. Donald Trump, president of the country with the most deaths from Covid-19, has communicated with an uninformed machismo that has provoked reactions ranging from shock to satire. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, the runner-up in coronavirus deaths, has pooh-poohed the disease as a “little flu.”
By contrast, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, which has generally managed the outbreak well, has impressed with explanations of the epidemiological R0 factor that went “viral” for their sobriety and clarity. Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, which has only 22 deaths from Covid-19 to date, has talked to Kiwis via Facebook Live from her home in a way that is casual and interactive but also reassuring and credible.
Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, with 264 deaths, has told her country’s children that “it’s OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time,” acknowledging vulnerability even while projecting competence.
But in a new global analysis, Supriya Garikipati at the University of Liverpool and Uma Kambhampati at the University of Reading avoid stooping to mere anecdotes. Using data up to May 19, they matched the 19 countries led by women with their “nearest neighbors” according to a mix of factors including population, the economy, gender equality, openness to travel, health expenditures and the proportion of elderly people. They couldn’t use Taiwan (7 deaths), which is governed by a woman but doesn’t belong to the United Nations.
Their conclusion was unequivocal: On average, the countries run by women suffered half as many deaths from Covid-19 as the nations governed by men. And in individual pairings, “female” countries fared better than “male” ones. Why?
Part of the answer is that the female leaders generally ordered lockdowns much earlier, thus “flattening the curves” of their national outbreaks. Ardern, for instance, calls this approach “going hard and early” — she just went into another temporary lockdown after a new cluster of cases following 100 days of no local transmission at all. But that only raises the question of why women tend to come to that difficult decision so much faster than men.
One reason could be that women are more averse to risk, as most studies corroborate. But the choice facing leaders this spring wasn’t simply between more or less risk. It was a trade-off between one risk, that to life, and another, that of economic loss. So the difference between the men and women, as the study’s authors point out, was really that the women took less risk with lives and more with the economy, whereas men did the opposite. Over time, of course, death and economic loss become intertwined.
The women also tended to communicate very differently with citizens. It’s long been hypothesized that female leaders lean toward “a more democratic or participative style” whereas men are “more autocratic or directive.”
That’s been hard to prove, but researchers are still studying whether women indeed bring more empathy to leadership or integrate more emotional information in their decision making.
An interpersonal, empathetic and participatory approach certainly seems to help in managing a pandemic. This requires building and maintaining a consensus that the threat is serious, that sacrifice is necessary to protect others, and that individual liberties must be weighed against public-health considerations. And that kind of dialogue with citizens appears to be especially hard for strongmen and comparatively easier for other leaders, female or male.
Comparisons between the sexes invariably become frustrating, either verging on the stereotypical or the vague and woolly. We have no idea how the late “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher — or the Brittonic Queen Boudica, who gave short shrift to several Roman legions — would have managed Covid-19. In leadership, individual character and talent surely trumps gender and everything else.
That said, the pattern during this pandemic so far certainly suggests that the world could use much more female leadership. With only 19 countries of the 193 in the UN run by women, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Save the Earth before Your Beautiful Hair
Najib Saab/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 30/ 2020
Less than a week after the publication of figures on the unprecedented rise in global temperatures, a thermometer in Southern California’s Death Valley soared to almost 55 degrees Celsius, according to the US National Weather Service, the highest temperature recorded anywhere in the world in the past 100 years. Temperatures in Europe were also at their highest for several consecutive days, not only in the south of the continent, but also in the center and north of it. In parts of Europe, the temperature exceeded 37 degrees for a full week, and last year the Netherlands witnessed a temperature of over 40 degrees for the first time in history. While the temperature in Baghdad exceeded 51 degrees, in some areas of the Arctic the temperature even reached 38 degrees last June, leading to acceleration in the melting of ice. The detailed figures, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, showed that every decade in the past sixty years has witnessed a higher average temperature compared to the previous decade.
I recall the first report I wrote on climate change in 1988, during a period with extreme climate disasters including droughts and hurricanes. I said at the time, that this is only a prelude and an early rehearsal of what will happen when major climate change effects strike. At the time, I was undertaking advisory assignments for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), then led by Mustafa Kamal Tolba, in addition to my private architecture practice and environmental design consultancy. I now have to admit that at the time, we didn't expect climate havoc to arrive so quickly. Despite everything I read and wrote over the years, I did not envisage, until recently, to witness such radical changes in my lifetime.
An incident last year changed my perception and alerted me to the reality that global warming is an immediate fact of today rather than a challenge for tomorrow. An acquaintance planning to build a house in the Netherlands, known for its cold weather and abundance of water, asked me to accompany him on a visit to his architect for advice. Upon seeing the preliminary designs, my first suggestion was to increase the area of glass windows on the southern side, in order to capture the most sun for the longest possible time. Capturing direct sunlight, I thought, brings natural heat. The architect was quick to display data and charts showing that the real problem now, in this traditionally cold country, is no longer the frost, but rather high temperatures over extended periods and in different seasons, which calls for limiting rather than extending hours of direct sun to avoid overheating of the space.
I was also surprised to see an option for an underground reservoir proposed to collect rainwater from the roof of the house. This seemed to be unusual, in a country known for its high rain and abundant rivers. For almost its entire history, the priority in the Netherlands has been keeping the water out, through dams and dykes, and the country has become the world’s leading expert at managing water. Most infrastructure in the Netherlands is built in a way to get the water out as soon as possible once it rains. But in recent years, it’s becoming clear that rainfall patterns are becoming much more erratic, with more long dry periods such as in summer 2019 and spring 2020, so the country needs to relearn how to manage water shortages, rather than water abundance.
We expected that the huge amount of recent scientific reports on the steady rise in temperatures to unprecedented levels, with the droughts that accompanied them in several regions of the world, would lead to a radical and rapid transformation among the skeptics. This was not the case with the US President Donald Trump, even though the highest world temperature had also just been recorded in the United States. While environmentalists waited for the tightening of restrictions on water use to prevent wasting it, the opposite actually happened. The president ignored the news of record temperature from Eastern California, and in a speech contested a law that was passed 28 years ago, mandating that showerheads should not allow for more than 9.5 liters of water per minute. President Trump claimed he “cannot wash [his] beautiful hair properly” because of the limited water flow. He proposed having the water limit apply to every shower nozzle not the entire head. Critics responded by saying this amendment, if implemented, would lead to an increase in wasted water by up to 4 times and higher utility bills.
Days after the President’s speech, record temperatures were followed by unprecedented fires in California, due to dried vegetation. While California’s climate has always been fire prone, the link between climate change and bigger fires is inextricable, as higher temperatures dry out vegetation even more, making it more likely to burn, according to leading scientists. Still, President Trump didn’t change his mind to amend the law limiting water flow from shower heads.
The planet is warming, the climate is changing, and water resources are dwindling from Baghdad to California, to Paris and Amsterdam and much beyond. This necessitates an immediate shift in public policies and personal practices. The US president must find an alternative method to wash and style his hair, without wasting water.

Women Have Been Better Leaders Than Men During the Pandemic
Andreas Kluth/Bloomberg/August 30/2020
At least during the first wave of Covid-19, countries with female leaders suffered far lower death rates than comparable nations led by men. This doesn’t mean that the trend will necessarily persist in a second or third wave. Nor does it imply that women are also better leaders when it comes to whatever else governments find themselves doing, from reforming labor markets to waging war. But it’s worth pondering nonetheless.
In doing so, it’s of course tempting to descend into the netherworld of gender stereotypes and individual caricature. Donald Trump, president of the country with the most deaths from Covid-19, has communicated with an uninformed machismo that has provoked reactions ranging from shock to satire. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, the runner-up in coronavirus deaths, has pooh-poohed the disease as a “little flu.”
By contrast, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, which has generally managed the outbreak well, has impressed with explanations of the epidemiological R0 factor that went “viral” for their sobriety and clarity. Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, which has only 22 deaths from Covid-19 to date, has talked to Kiwis via Facebook Live from her home in a way that is casual and interactive but also reassuring and credible.
Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, with 264 deaths, has told her country’s children that “it’s OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time,” acknowledging vulnerability even while projecting competence.
But in a new global analysis, Supriya Garikipati at the University of Liverpool and Uma Kambhampati at the University of Reading avoid stooping to mere anecdotes. Using data up to May 19, they matched the 19 countries led by women with their “nearest neighbors” according to a mix of factors including population, the economy, gender equality, openness to travel, health expenditures and the proportion of elderly people. They couldn’t use Taiwan (7 deaths), which is governed by a woman but doesn’t belong to the United Nations.
Their conclusion was unequivocal: On average, the countries run by women suffered half as many deaths from Covid-19 as the nations governed by men. And in individual pairings, “female” countries fared better than “male” ones. Why?
Part of the answer is that the female leaders generally ordered lockdowns much earlier, thus “flattening the curves” of their national outbreaks. Ardern, for instance, calls this approach “going hard and early” — she just went into another temporary lockdown after a new cluster of cases following 100 days of no local transmission at all. But that only raises the question of why women tend to come to that difficult decision so much faster than men.
One reason could be that women are more averse to risk, as most studies corroborate. But the choice facing leaders this spring wasn’t simply between more or less risk. It was a trade-off between one risk, that to life, and another, that of economic loss. So the difference between the men and women, as the study’s authors point out, was really that the women took less risk with lives and more with the economy, whereas men did the opposite. Over time, of course, death and economic loss become intertwined.
The women also tended to communicate very differently with citizens. It’s long been hypothesized that female leaders lean toward “a more democratic or participative style” whereas men are “more autocratic or directive.”
That’s been hard to prove, but researchers are still studying whether women indeed bring more empathy to leadership or integrate more emotional information in their decision making.
An interpersonal, empathetic and participatory approach certainly seems to help in managing a pandemic. This requires building and maintaining a consensus that the threat is serious, that sacrifice is necessary to protect others, and that individual liberties must be weighed against public-health considerations. And that kind of dialogue with citizens appears to be especially hard for strongmen and comparatively easier for other leaders, female or male.
Comparisons between the sexes invariably become frustrating, either verging on the stereotypical or the vague and woolly. We have no idea how the late “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher — or the Brittonic Queen Boudica, who gave short shrift to several Roman legions — would have managed Covid-19. In leadership, individual character and talent surely trumps gender and everything else.
That said, the pattern during this pandemic so far certainly suggests that the world could use much more female leadership. With only 19 countries of the 193 in the UN run by women, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

The Attempt to Overthrow America
Guy Millière/ Gatestone Institute/August 30/ 2020
The situation had become "worrying," in fact, even before the results of the 2016 presidential election were known. As we now can read in the Department of Justice report by Michael Horowitz, the senior levels of government during the Obama Administration were colluding to prevent President Trump from winning the election, and then, after it, to frame him in an attempted coup d'état.
Mayors of many cities and other local officials have deliberately protected criminals over law-abiding citizens and allowed the destruction to take place.
"I thought things were partisan and tough 30 years ago — nothing compared to today. Things have fundamentally changed... [the left] represents a revolutionary Rousseauian party that believes in tearing down the system... They're interested in complete political victory. They're not interested in compromise. They're not interested in dialectic, exchange of views... It's a substitute religion. They view their political opponents... as evil because we stand in the way of their progressive utopia that they're trying to reach..." — US Attorney General William Barr, Fox News, August 9, 2020.
"Today our nation is facing the most serious threat to establish such a tyranny in our entire history." — David Horowitz, Frontpage Mag, August 10, 2020.
The wave of riots that has followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 appears to have nothing to do with Floyd's death and everything to do with groups seeking to overthrow America. Mayors of many cities and other local officials have deliberately protected criminals over law-abiding citizens and allowed the destruction to take place. Pictured: Fireworks, launched by rioters, explode in the middle of a group of police officers in Washington DC on May 30, 2020.
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 might appear, looking back, as a pretext for mayhem. His reported killing by a white police officer was immediately followed by a wave of riots during which neighborhoods in several major cities were devastated. Stores were looted, buildings were burned and people were murdered as mayors and other local public officials chose to let the rioters run wild, whip up racial conflict and protect the criminals rather than the citizens being brutalized. The riots quickly appeared to have nothing to do with Floyd's death and everything to do with groups seeking to overthrow America.
In the past, members of the radical organization Antifa had committed acts of violence, but never before had been able to sow terror throughout major cities. This time, they could and they did.
In addition, the Marxist movement Black Lives Matter (BLM), which seemed to have disappeared since the election of President Donald J. Trump -- who, incidentally, did more for the black and Hispanic minority communities in three years than anyone had done for decades -- suddenly reappeared, well-funded and well-organized, at the heart of the riots. BLM received further support from the mayors of several major cities and gained even more popularity while attacking first the statues of former slave-owners, such as George Washington, and then those of the escaped slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In Washington, DC and New York City, "Black Lives Matter" was painted on avenues in huge yellow letters – in New York by the mayor himself.
This may have been the first time in US history that a Marxist movement received corporate support: Amazon, Microsoft, Nabisco, Gatorade, Deckers and other large American firms donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, now a major beneficiary of US corporate largesse. Many colleges and universities also joined in backing the movement. The trustees of Princeton University decided to remove Woodrow Wilson's name from the university's school of public policy. They said that they had examined the "long and damaging history of racism in America" and that Wilson's "racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college". Calls to "#CancelYale" surged across social media, alleging that Yale's namesake, Elihu Yale, was a slave-owner and slave-trader, and that the university must change its name, as well. Yale University President, Peter Salovey, however, said that would not be done, explaining that Yale was "relatively unexceptional in his own time."
Also for the first time, mayors of many cities and other local officials have deliberately protected criminals over law-abiding citizens and allowed the destruction to take place. Seattle's Mayor Jenny Durkan abandoned an entire area of ​​the city, dubbed CHAZ (and later CHOP) to rioters and suggested that the police-free zone would create a "summer of love", then did nothing while rapes, vandalism and murders took place. Portland's Mayor Ted Wheeler has allowed for nearly three months an entire district fall prey to rioters. The city councils of New York and Los Angeles, America's two largest cities, voted to cut the budgets of their police forces drastically. The Minneapolis City Council went even further and voted to disband the city's police force altogether.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in a seeming surrender to the mob, began referring to the pandemonium in Portland as the "immense power of peaceful protests" and compared federal law enforcement officers trying to defend a federal building against marauding arsonists to Nazi-era "stormtroopers."
Former President Barack Obama, speaking at the funeral of a civil rights leader, Congressman John Lewis, compared President Trump to the segregationist governor of Alabama in the 1960s, George Wallace -- who happened to be a Democrat. He spoke of "police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans," distorting the facts. In Minneapolis, a single policeman had knelt on the neck of a single black American, once. The police officer is in jail, awaiting trial, and his abuse has been severely and universally condemned.
The idea that the American police are "racist" has been used to justify riots and destruction. Some police officers may well be racist, but accusing all American police officers of racism does not align with the facts. Statistics show that the vast majority of black people killed by police officers are armed and dangerous. Moreover, the police officers involved are sometimes black. Statistics also show that, on average, 94% of the black people killed each year in the US are killed by other black people. But many people who talk about racism do not seem even slightly concerned about those black lives that have been taken. During the riots -- in which people were killed by rioters or by looters who used the riots as cover -- the main victims were black people, sometimes children.
Already in 2017, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had worried about the sporadic riots that were breaking out, for instance, when conservative speakers were invited to speak. The United States, he said , "is in the throes of a one-sided cultural civil war.... Surrender or fight – our country is at stake."
The situation, in fact, had become "worrying" even before the results of the 2016 presidential election were known. As we now can read in the report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the senior levels of government during the Obama Administration were colluding to prevent President Trump from winning the election, and then, after it, to frame him in an attempted coup d'état.
On the day after the election, people took to the streets with signs saying, "Not my President": President Trump's legitimacy was immediately questioned. On the day of his inauguration, in the downtown area of Washington DC, violent riots and acts of vandalism took place.
During the weeks that followed, President Trump was accused, with no evidence, of "collusion with Russia". The false charges lasted for more than two years and may well have hampered the management of the country. Former CIA Director John Brennan claimed that President Trump had "worked with Russians" and was "treasonous". When the accusations turned out to be unfounded, the president's accusers, in the hope of impeaching him, turned to a telephone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. President Trump was described as having "endangered the security of the country". An impeachment procedure, conducted in violation of all of the rules, followed. When law professor Jonathan Turley pointed out that the procedure was violating the rules, he received death threats. Retired Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz said that "For Congress to impeach President Trump for abuse of Congress would be an abuse of power by Congress". Left-wing members of the House of Representatives went ahead impeaching the president anyway. They failed.
In the effort to overturn the lawful 2016 election -- and to coerce witnesses to "flip" and testify falsely against President Trump -- the lives of others were ruined as well.
Evidence now clearly shows that General Michael Flynn, an outstanding four-star general and war hero, was the victim of an entrapment plot that forced him to resign, ruined him financially, and came close to destroying his life. He is now in the throes of an attempt to entrap him again by a politicized judge, Emmett Sullivan, and a politicized judiciary. Although the prosecutor, the Department of Justice, dropped the case after it was disclosed that vast amounts of exculpatory evidence had been withheld -- Judge Sullivan decided, illegally and in the finest tradition of the former Soviet Union, that he would be both the judge and the prosecutor, and continue to try the case that he was supposed to be impartially judging. The trial is still ongoing. Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi were among other innocent citizens who also had their lives upended.
Attorney General William Barr recently said:
"I thought things were partisan and tough 30 years ago — nothing compared to today. Things have fundamentally changed... [the left] represents a revolutionary Rousseauian party that believes in tearing down the system... They're interested in complete political victory. They're not interested in compromise. They're not interested in dialectic, exchange of views... It's a substitute religion. They view their political opponents... as evil because we stand in the way of their progressive utopia that they're trying to reach..."
As Barr said recently when testifying at House of Representatives committee: "Since when is it okay to burn down a federal court?"
Thirty years ago, many things were indeed different. Destructive forces, however, were at work. A few authors attempted to sound an alarm, without success.
In a book published in 1992, The Devaluing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children, former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett quoted prominent Democrat historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.:
"The bonds of national cohesion in the republic are sufficiently fragile already. Public education should aim to strengthen those bonds not to weaken them... The alternative to integration is disintegration".
The same year, policy analyst Martin Anderson published Impostors in the Temple: American Intellectuals Are Destroying Our Universities and Cheating Our Students of Their Future. "They pretend to teach", he wrote, "they pretend to do original, important work. They do neither. They are impostors in the temple. And from these impostors most of the educational ills of America flow."
The same year again, the esteemed economist and social commentator, Thomas Sowell, who happens to be black, wrote in his book, Inside American Education: "Whether blatant or subtle, brainwashing has become a major, time-consuming activity in American education at all levels".
There is arguably more at work than brainwashing. There is also the long march of the radicals through American institutions described by Roger Kimball in his book The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America. Now, as those students have graduated, they are now part of the government and large corporations, subverting Western culture from within.
American author David Horowitz, described what has been happening since November 8, 2016 as "sabotage", and wrote recently:
"On the Rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington is inscribed these words: 'I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' This statement by Thomas Jefferson is the heart of the democracy in whose founding he played so central a role. It is why the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights is the First Amendment and not the Second, or Fourth, or Fifth.
"Today our nation is facing the most serious threat to establish such a tyranny in our entire history."
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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Iran’s influence in Iraq strong despite regime fears
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 30/2020
Iran’s regime is concerned about the direction the Iraqi government is taking and the repercussions this shift might have on Tehran’s influence in Baghdad.
Two major issues particularly worry the Iranian authorities. First, the theocratic establishment is uneasy and dissatisfied with some of the policies that Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has been pursuing.
Since top political figures, rather than governmental organizations, play an important role in dictating Iraq’s politics, Tehran has always attempted to control and influence high-level officials within the Arab state. But Al-Kadhimi this month enraged Iran when he paid a visit to the US and met President Donald Trump. After the meeting, the US and Iraq “reaffirmed their commitment to a robust and productive bilateral relationship.” A joint statement said officials took part in separate sessions covering “economics, energy, health and environment, political and diplomatic issues, security and counterterrorism, and education and cultural relations.”
The visit was considered a major blow to the ruling clerics of Iran because it was only in January that the US killed its top general, Qassem Soleimani, and several Iraqi Shiite militia leaders in Iraq under a direct order from Trump. Iran is still searching for ways to retaliate, as it is not satisfied with the missile attacks it launched on US targets in Iraq in the days following Soleimani’s death. In a meeting with Iraqi leaders last month, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei once again brought the issue to the attention of the authorities, stating: “The US’s crime in assassinating general Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis is an example of the US’s presence. They killed your guest in your home, and they blatantly confessed to this crime. This is not a trivial matter.” Khamenei again warned that retaliation was on the way, saying: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will never forget the martyrdom of Hajj Qassem Soleimani and will definitely strike a reciprocal blow to the US.”
The Iranian regime has long spread the false narrative that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Quds Force have been saving the Iraqi government from collapse. As a result, Iraqi politicians must take Iran’s side. For example, the Asr Iran news site wrote to Al-Kadhimi last week: “If it was not for Iran, there would not be a prime minister named Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in Baghdad. Instead a caliph named (former Daesh leader) Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi would be ruling the country.”
But it is worth noting that Iran has been exploiting Iraq in order to skirt US sanctions, strengthen its Shiite militia groups, and profit from the Iraqi market. Iran’s exports to Iraq increased 37 percent to about $13 billion in 2019, according to the Head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Ale Eshaq. And Iran has reportedly discussed with the Iraqi government a plan to boost Tehran’s exports to its neighbor to $20 billion.
Iran has been exploiting Iraq in order to skirt US sanctions, strengthen its Shiite militia groups, and profit from the Iraqi market
The Iranian regime was also expecting that Al-Kadhimi would quickly expel US forces from the country, since the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of such a move after the killing of Soleimani. Kayhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Khamenei, expressed the regime’s fury by writing: “The Prime Minister of Iraq, ignoring the resolution of the parliament and the anti-American feelings of the people of his country, claimed that Iraq needs the United States.”
The second issue that is concerning Iran is related to the Iraqi public’s increasing resentment toward the regime and its interference in the country’s domestic affairs. Protests against Tehran started in October 2019, when people shouted slogans and some even burned down the Iranian consulate in Najaf. Last week, following the reported assassinations of several human and social rights activists, protesters stormed buildings linked to the Iranian regime’s proxy groups in the southern cities of Iraq.
Nevertheless, while the Iranian regime is facing some obstacles in Iraq, its influence there remains intact. The bilateral agreement between Al-Kadhimi and the US does not mean that the prime minister is entirely against Iran. In fact, before visiting Washington, Al-Kadhimi’s first foreign visit was to Tehran. He also told the US ambassador to Baghdad that “Iraq will not be a ground for settling accounts and launching attacks on any neighboring or friendly country.” Al-Kadhimi is more likely performing a balancing act between Iran and the US, rather than fundamentally shifting Baghdad’s policy against Tehran.
Furthermore, Iran wields significant influence in Iraq through its network of Shiite militia groups, which pose a threat to any official who dares to significantly undermine Iran’s role in Iraq. Through its influence in the Iraqi government, the Iranian regime has pushed the state into recognizing these militias — including the conglomerate known as the Popular Mobilization Forces — as legitimate groups, incorporating them into the state apparatuses and making the Iraqi government allocate wages and ammunition for them.
Overall, the Iranian regime still exerts significant influence in Iraq and this trend will likely continue as long as the ruling clerics remain in power.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh