English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 06/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17/24-26/:”Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2020

Report: Lebanon Advised to 'Deal' with Govt Formation because World is Occupied Elsewhere
Franjieh Denies Demands for Ministerial Portfolio
Wazni Says Deadline Extended to Submit Data for Forensic Audit
Nehme Says Silos to be Demolished amid Uproar over Donated Flour
Lebanon to demolish Beirut port silos at risk of collapse after blast
Lebanon Extends Deadline to Submit Data for Forensic Audit, Says Fin Min
Beirut volunteer ‘Dream Team’ continues to rebuild three months after port explosion
Ethiopian woman opens café in Beirut, calls on Lebanese to fight for a better future
Syrian Refugee Sets Himself Ablaze outside U.N. Offices in Beirut
Daryan Inspects Dar al-Fatwa after Blaze
Hezbollah delays formation of Lebanese government
Lebanon customs chief formally arrested in ‘Captagon Prince’ case
Forming Lebanon’s new cabinet is like mission impossible/Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/Thursday 05 November 2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2020

US Election: Chaos, confusion or lawsuits in six states delay Trump-Biden result
If US president, Biden likely to keep Trump’s pro-Israel decisions: Prince Turki
Biden on Cusp of White House Victory, Trump Turns to Courts
France Sees Need for 'New Relationship' between EU, U.S.
Russia Says 'Obvious Shortcomings' in U.S. Election System
France-Turkey tensions: Erdogan’s rhetoric of ‘violence’ unacceptable, says French FM
Iraq ratifies new election law aimed at independents, paving way for early vote
Assad Says Billions Locked in Lebanese Banks behind Syria’s Economic Crisis
Washington Seeks to Eliminate PKK Presence in Syria, Says US Official
Cairo receives Bashagha, reinforces speculations about his assuming premiership

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2020

Palestinians Call for Boycotting Israel, Then Ask Israel To Save Their Lives/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2020
Erdogan’s Comrades and Getting Rid of the ‘Shame’/Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 05/2020
Sorry, Boeing, the Yacht Had to Go/Brooke Sutherland/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
Biden May Be Winning, But America’s Future Isn’t/Francis Wilkinson/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
It's the Fed, Not the White House, That Matters Most in Asia/Daniel Moss/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
But What About the Muslims Themselves?/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 05/2020
How a Fiercely Christian Nation Became Fanatically Islamic/Raymond Ibrahim/November 05/2020
Two steps Europe must take to deal with Islamist terrorism/Con Coughlin/The National/November 05/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2020

Report: Lebanon Advised to 'Deal' with Govt Formation because World is Occupied Elsewhere
Naharnet/Thursday 05 November 2020
Lebanon was reportedly advised by international and UN parties to “take over the reins” and form a new government urgently needed to accompany the historic sea border demarcation talks between Lebanon and Israel, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday. A senior UN official reportedly confirmed to political sources that Lebanon “has no chance but to individually” form a government, noting that world countries are occupied at this stage with their own rapid internal developments, leaving no place for Lebanon on the scale of international concerns, according to the daily.
The latest developments in France over the murder of a teacher have made it reshuffle its priorities, and so did the developments in the United States with the US elections underway, said the daily. Lebanon, facing a tragic collapse, cannot possibly wait a few weeks more to line up a cabinet.
International and UN parties not only urge the formation of a Lebanese government to start a rescue plan on the economic and financial levels, but because the urgent need necessitates the formation of a government that accompanies the border demarcation negotiations, said the daily.

Franjieh Denies Demands for Ministerial Portfolio
Naharnet/Thursday 05 November 2020
Head of the Marada Movement Sleiman Franjieh on Thursday denied reports claiming he demanded specific ministerial portfolios in a new cabinet, playing a role in delaying the formation process. “Everything published in media reports attributing demands for ministerial portfolios to the Marada movement are baseless,” said Franjieh in a tweet. He said Marada “did not ask” PM-designate Saad Hariri for a ministerial share, but will decide and “build on the matter” when required.According to reports, Franjieh demands two ministerial portfolios, a so-called sovereign portfolio and another one service-related, in Hariri’s government.

Wazni Says Deadline Extended to Submit Data for Forensic Audit
Naharnet/Thursday 05 November 2020
Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni announced on Thursday a three-month extension of a deadline to provide all data required for a forensic audit of the Central Bank’s accounts, after the bank declined to submit all information needed, citing banking secrecy. Wazni assured that forensic audit is one step forward towards much-needed reforms, noting that President Michel Aoun has expressed strict commitment to it. The announcement came after a meeting between the Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal, James Daniell, Central Bank governor Riad Salameh, Aoun, and Wazni at Baabda Presidential Palace. For his part, Aoun asserted the need of the government to conduct a financial forensic audit of Central Bank accounts, stressing the importance of this step in the context of necessary reforms to tackle financial and economic conditions in the country. It was decided to extend the deadline required for the delivery of necessary documents for an additional three-month period, provided that some documents which have not yet been delivered would be delivered during that period. In September, Alvarez and Marsal started a forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon as part of measures towards reforms to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades.It set November 3 as a deadline for the bank to provide it with all information needed for the review. But the central bank has handed over less than half of the documents required to proceed with the audit bringing the audit to a halt. It says provisions of the Code of Money and Credit and the Banking Secrecy Law bar it from releasing the rest.

Nehme Says Silos to be Demolished amid Uproar over Donated Flour
Agence France Presse/Thursday 05 November 2020
Lebanon will demolish the grain silos at Beirut port that were severely damaged in the enormous explosion in August because they are at risk of collapse, caretaker Economy Minister Raoul Nehme said Thursday. "The grain silos are damaged and more precisely, they pose a risk to public safety," the minister said in a press conference, citing an assessment by experts. "It is necessary to demolish them to avoid any further problems," he said, adding that the army will carry out that task, supported by experts. Lebanon built the grain silos in the late 1960s with a loan from Kuwait. The gutted silos, which had a storage capacity of more than 100,000 tons, have become emblematic of the catastrophic port blast, which took place on August 4 and has been widely blamed on government negligence. The disaster -- Lebanon's worst in peace-time -- killed around 200 people, injured at least 6,500 others and ruined swathes of the capital. Authorities say the blast was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire, years after it was impounded at the port. Nehme's announcement came as heavy rains battered Beirut, where homes damaged by the blast are at risk of further collapse. A vacated building in the working class Karantina district collapsed on Wednesday due to heavy rainfall. Nehme said that the silos contained 45,000 tons of grain before the explosion but experts have determined that remaining quantities are not safe for human or animal consumption. As a result, the reserves will be disposed of in a safe manner that will not increase the risk of the silos' collapse, he said. Lebanon relies on imports for 85 percent of its food needs. Confirmation that the silos cannot be salvaged for future use compounds an already alarming food supply outlook. The country, grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, has received donations of grain and flour in the aftermath of the explosion. But tons of flour donated by Iraq and Egypt are at risk of going bad because they are being stored improperly at a sports stadium in the south of Beirut, the head of the Ghobeiri municipality told AFP on Wednesday. He claimed large quantities had already been spoiled, but Nehme on Thursday disputed the claim, saying only three bags of flour donated by Iraq had gone bad. He said he has called on the army to distribute remaining quantities.

Lebanon to demolish Beirut port silos at risk of collapse after blast
AFP, Beirut/Thursday 05 November 2020
Lebanon will demolish grain silos at Beirut port that were severely damaged in an enormous explosion in August because they are at risk of collapse, economy minister Raoul Nehme said Thursday. “The grain silos are damaged and more precisely, they pose a risk to public safety,” the caretaker minister said in a press conference, citing an assessment by experts.“It is necessary to demolish them to avoid any further problems,” he said, adding that the army will carry out that task, supported by experts. Lebanon built the grain silos in the late 1960s with a loan from Kuwait. The gutted silos, which had a storage capacity of more than 100,000 tons, have become emblematic of the catastrophic port blast, which took place on August 4 and has been widely blamed on government negligence. The disaster -- Lebanon’s worst in peace-time -- killed more than 200 people, injured at least 6,500 others and ruined swathes of the capital. Authorities say the blast was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire, years after it was impounded at the port. Nehme’s announcement came as heavy rains battered Beirut, where homes damaged by the blast are at risk of further collapse. A vacated building in the working cass Karantina district collapsed on Wednesday due to heavy rainfall. Nehme said that the silos contained 45,000 tons of grain before the explosion but experts have determined that remaining quantities are not safe for human or animal consumption. As a result, the reserves will be disposed of in a safe manner that will not increase the risk of the silos’ collapse, he said. Lebanon relies on imports for 85 percent of its food needs. Confirmation that the silos cannot be salvaged for future use compounds an already alarming food supply outlook. The country, grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, has received donations of grain and flour in the aftermath of the explosion. But tons of flour donated by Iraq and Egypt are at risk of going bad because they are being stored improperly at a sports stadium in the south of Beirut, the head of the Ghobeiri municipality told AFP on Wednesday. He claimed large quantities had already been spoilt, but Nehme on Thursday disputed the claim, saying only three bags of flour donated by Iraq had gone bad. He said he has called on the army to distribute remaining quantities.

Lebanon Extends Deadline to Submit Data for Forensic Audit, Says Fin Min
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 November, 2020
Lebanon’s caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni on Thursday announced a three-month extension of a deadline to provide all data required for a forensic audit of the central bank after it had declined to submit some information, citing banking secrecy. The caretaker prime minister and sources have said that Banque du Liban withheld information needed by consultancy Alvarez & Marsal to begin the audit, which is a key demand for foreign financial assistance to help Lebanon tackle a financial meltdown. On Wednesday, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab urged BDL to hand over all documents and information requested by Alvarez & Marsal for the audit. Diab said in a statement that he had instructed Wazni to contact BDL and ask it to hand over the necessary documents, adding that it had provided the firm with only 42 percent of the requested paperwork, citing Lebanese legislation and banking secrecy. “Any reform not based on the forensic audit of the central bank would only be symbolic reform to cover up the continued approach that brought the country to this state,” Diab said. “I warn against any attempt to subvert the forensic audit to prevent Lebanese from knowing the truth behind the disappearance of their savings,” he added. Last July, the Lebanese government hired New York-based Alvarez & Marsal to conduct a forensic audit of the country’s central bank accounts to determine how large amounts of money were spent in a country plagued by corruption.

Beirut volunteer ‘Dream Team’ continues to rebuild three months after port explosion
Robert McKelvey, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 05 November 2020
When Dutch construction worker Jasper Duivenstijn and Portuguese pharmacist Joao Pequeno heard about the devastation caused by the August 4 Beirut Port blast, they hopped on the first plane to Lebanon with nothing but the clothes on their backs and suitcases full of tools, looking to do whatever they could for the city’s beleaguered citizens. Three months on, the repair work being done in the aftermath of the blast, which claimed over 200 lives and left an estimated 300,000 people without homes, is still mounting up. Duivenstijn and Pequeno work their normal jobs for between 6 to 8 months of the year, and then spend the rest of the year offering their services in disaster zones like Serbia and Croatia. They had originally intended to head to Bosnia but changed plans when they heard about the Beirut blast.
Together, they have been working around the clock – without any payment – for months, battling feverishly against an endless stream of projects and repair works that continue to pour in from desperate families across the city. “We could see loads of teams cleaning up, but it was still an absolute mess,” Duivenstijn told Al Arabiya English. “People were living in half collapsed buildings. I only do paid work to support myself. As soon as I’ve made enough money, this is what I do.” Their efforts have inspired other specialists – both locally and from abroad – to join them in their cause. Initially, they were working in the streets, directly in front of the damaged buildings. Now, this aptly named and ever-expanding ‘Dream Team’ has a brand new workshop in Beirut’s popular Mar Mikhael district, thanks to an ongoing collaboration with local NGO Kilna Ya3ni Kilna, as well as Lebanese architect Ola Khazaal.
“A common friend introduced me to them, as they could help me in rebuilding the houses,” said Khazaal. “I loved how they were so dedicated to helping others. Then we tried to make this group between us, so we can just help more.”Originally founded in December 2019, Kilna Ya3ni Kilna (“All Of Us Means All Of Us” in English) started out as a small-scale initiative to distribute donations amid both public demonstrations against Lebanon’s entrenched political elite and a deepening financial crisis that continues to grip the country. The organization’s name is a play on the anti-government chant heard in the protests: “All of them means all of them.” “Before the blast, we were helping people with food, medicine and rent money,” said Rayan Khatoun, a survivor of the Beirut blast and one of Kilna Ya3ni Kilna’s key organizers. “After the blast, it became more urgent, for shelter, so [Khazaal’s] receiving funds, and then we’re putting in our funds. Three months later and people are still without windows and doors. The guys are basically offering free labor. People are getting all of this for free.”
Local support
Acquiring the necessary raw materials was initially challenging, with items like glass and wood being particularly hard to source, especially with only limited funds available. Without a constant supply of cash, the Dream Team has to make the best of what is available to them.
“As an architect, I can get stuff for a reduced price and – as they know that we are doing this for the re-building of Beirut – they also take this into consideration,” explained Khazaal. In the absence of much state-organized help, the massive outpouring of support from the local community has been essential, with local suppliers offering deep discounts to the continuing reconstruction effort. Even the workshop space itself has been offered with a significantly reduced rent fee. “The people are incredible,” remarked Pequeno. “Apart from being really nice, the response that we saw from the locals and whoever’s around has been amazing. I never saw anything like it in terms of disaster response. People really know what to do here, which is amazing to see.” The workshop is not simply a matter of convenience, however. With the onset of the winter in Lebanon, torrential rainstorms have already begun to sweep the country, bringing the risk of further destruction to already damaged houses. “Before, we’d offer a person a basic door straight out of our factory and ask them to paint it themselves, because it’s quite time consuming and it requires a lot of space which we didn’t have,” explained Duivenstijn. “That was fine then. Now, we need this space with a roof over our heads. We need to have it completely painted before we install it.” Despite the urgency of the situation and many offers of paid work, the Dream Team is committed to offering their specialist skills free of charge to the people of Beirut for as long as they are needed. While Duivenstijn and Pequeno do plan to move on eventually, they hope others will continue to provide structural support over a longer period of time. “We don’t want to take jobs from people,” said Duivenstijn. “The moment we feel like we’re actually taking away work from paid workers here, that’s when we’ll stop, but as long as there’s too much work to be done and a lot of people will not get help because they’re on a waiting list, we’ll stay.”

Ethiopian woman opens café in Beirut, calls on Lebanese to fight for a better future
Bassam Zaazaa, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 05 November 2020
An Ethiopian domestic helper, Coco, has been the Lebanese capital’s talk of the town thanks to her newly launched mini-café that has been gaining publicity over the last few weeks. With its small and cozy wooden-style exterior seating area, Cafe Coco opens its doors for clients from 7 a.m. until midnight daily. With her friendly smile, 33-year-old Coco Setargachew Hiowt prepares multiple types of coffee using Ethiopian beans as she welcomes her clients in the mini cafe in one of Beirut’s neighborhoods. Having spent over 13 years in Lebanon, Coco refused to leave Lebanon amid its worst economic catastrophe and current dollar shortage, the currency in which her salary was once paid. Many domestic workers from Ethiopia have sought ways to leave Lebanon due to the economic crunch and the devaluation of the local currency that have set in even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Support from her sponsor
Coco’s sponsor and employer Eddy Ebrahim supported her startup.
“I told my sponsor [Eddy] I don’t want to leave Lebanon despite not getting my salary in dollars anymore. I stayed here and specifically as things took a deeper nosedive,” she said. “I love this country … it is my second home. I decided to stay here, fight and work harder. I am sure that the citizens should not leave as well. This is their country and I trust that it will rise again. Lebanese should stay and work for the best of their homeland.”Meanwhile Eddy, who is a shop owner, said that Coco is a loyal and hardworking person as much as she is a patient, successful and self-determined woman. “She didn’t mind not getting her salary in dollars anymore when I told her so. Coco surprised me when she decided to stay here and [open] her own business. Despite my limited capabilities and resources, I supported her to the maximum and provided her with a small corner to sell coffee in one of my shops,” Eddy told Al Arabiya English.
At the age of 16, Coco came to Lebanon for the first time in 2006 to work as a domestic helper for a lawyer in Beirut’s Fern Al Chebbak neighborhood where she met Eddy and his family. Her former sponsor passed away in 2016 and she returned to Ethiopia. “I contacted Eddy and told him I love Lebanon and want to return… he issued me residency in 2018, and I came to stay with his mother.”When the economy deteriorated, “Eddy encouraged my idea to buy a small coffee machine to sell coffee, in the corner of his shop,” she said who bought the coffeemaker for 400,000 Lebanese pounds from her own pocket. Nearly nine weeks have passed since she started selling coffee, and for Coco, business is starting to pick up. Her coffee has a reputation for its affordability at a time when few things are and the good taste of the hand-roasted coffee beans, which she roasts herself. Eddy believes that through her obvious willpower Coco’s story delivers a positive message to Lebanese citizens not to ditch their country and migrate but rather stay and fight. “Lebanon is a great country to fight for change … I love this place as much as I love my homeland,” said Coco, who said that she is a strong supporter of the October 17 revolution.
During Al Arabiya English’s visit to Coco’s café, a young man and his mother happened to be seated on a couch chatting and sipping coffee. Preferring to remain unnamed, the mother and her son invited clients to come enjoy a “tasty coffee at a comfy café.”
Blend of cultures
“My compatriots and Lebanese friends and clients have been encouraging and supporting me on social media. It started with a word of mouth and now the media is all over the place. This is becoming a trendy buzz across social media platforms. It all started with a small coffeemaker.
Thanks to Eddy’s unlimited support, the place has turned into a mini-café. The blend that I have managed to create herein between the Lebanese and Ethiopian cultures and tastes seem to attract further customers,” she explained. Clients from distant areas [outside Beirut] of Zahle, Jounieh, Batroun, Tripoli and others have been visiting her café to enjoy her delicious coffee, she said. However, Coco said the dollar crisis that has badly affected Lebanon has not spared her business. She imports coffee beans from Ethiopia and pays a person $10 a week who flies weekly to her homeland to bring her supplies, which also cost $10. “Everybody has been supporting me. In return, I call on all my Lebanese friends and the citizens not to leave their country, stay and work for this lovely land. If they leave, who will make the change … Lebanese should stay and work for a better Lebanon. I am confident Lebanon will rise again,” she said. Meanwhile, Eddy concluded by pointing at Coco and saying “most Lebanese should learn from this successful prototype.”

Syrian Refugee Sets Himself Ablaze outside U.N. Offices in Beirut
Agence France Presse/Thursday 05 November 2020
A Syrian refugee in Lebanon set himself ablaze outside the Beirut headquarters of the U.N.'s refugee agency on Thursday, a spokesman for the organization told AFP. "In a tragic incident this morning, a Syrian refugee registered with UNHCR tried to self-immolate by setting himself on fire near the organization's Reception center in Beirut," UNHCR said in an emailed statement. The 58-year-old male "victim was rescued by UNHCR security personnel and later taken to a hospital by the Lebanese civil defense for due medical attention," it said. UNHCR did not say why the man set himself ablaze, but a spokesman for Lebanon's Internal Security Forces told AFP that it was because he could not afford medical treatment for his sick daughter. The ISF spokesman said the man, who was being treated at the nearby Rafik Hariri hospital, was in a stable condition. Lebanon says it hosts 1.5 million Syrians, nearly one million of whom are officially registered as refugees with the United Nations. Syria has been in a state of civil war for nearly a decade. The refugees' already-dire conditions have deteriorated over the past year as Lebanon grapples with its worst economic crisis since its own civil war, which ended in 1990.
A rapid devaluation of the Lebanese pound has sent prices soaring while banking controls on deposits have restricted access to savings. Tens of thousands of people had already lost their jobs before a coronavirus outbreak in February dealt a final blow to many ailing businesses. An August 4 explosion at Beirut's port that killed more than 200 people, including more than 40 Syrians, further compounded Lebanon's economic woes. Looking for a way out, many Syrians have attempted deadly clandestine journeys across the Mediterranean in recent months. The Lebanese government, meanwhile, has continued to call for their repatriation, despite warnings from aid groups and international agencies that it is not safe to return.

Daryan Inspects Dar al-Fatwa after Blaze
Naharnet/November 05/2020
A blaze erupted Thursday on the first floor of the Beirut headquarters of Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni Muslim religious authority. The National News Agency said the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit and that it was doused by crews from the Beirut Fire Brigade and the Civil Defense. The blaze broke out in a room adjacent to the office of Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, NNA added. Daryan later inspected the site and lauded the efforts of the firefighters who extinguished the fire. He was accompanied by Dar al-Fatwa secretary Sheikh Amin al-Kurdi and a number of assistants.

Hezbollah delays formation of Lebanese government
Media Line/November 05/2020
Group ‘has biggest role and biggest say,’ is waiting for result of US presidential election, Christian politician, others tell The Media Line
Lebanese President Michel Aoun tasked former prime minister Saad Hariri on October 22 with forming a government, but the powerful Hezbollah movement has been delaying the process.
Hariri, whose previous government resigned a year ago in response to popular protests, obtained the support of a majority in parliament in a recent consultative session. If he succeeds in his mission, he will head his third government since 2009.
Marc Saad, spokesman to the international press for the Christian Lebanese Forces party, told The Media Line that the process of forming a government had not changed in years.
“Hezbollah not only has the biggest role and the biggest say, the organization is literally running the show while watching for the smallest details to ensure its interests are secured,” he said.
The delay does not really matter to the decision-makers despite the fact that it is hurting the Lebanese people, who are suffering in their daily lives as Hezbollah pursues a different agenda, Saad explained.
“Even after the apocalyptic bomb explosion of August 4 [in Beirut’s port], Hezbollah didn’t care about time or the goals of the awaited new government. Instead the organization imposed its own conditions and realigned the rules for formation with their expectations,” he said.
“Look at the failed effort of [previous prime minister-designate] Mustapha Adib: Hezbollah was able to secure the Finance Ministry and asked to name other Shia ministers, but Adib refused and resigned,” Saad explained.
Adib, who was nominated to form a government after prime minister Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of the port explosion, was unable to fulfill his mandate due to political divisions and unrest. He returned the mandate to Aoun on September 26.
Last January, Diab formed a government of technocrats after Hariri and his government resigned over the economic protests the previous October.
Saad says Hezbollah will agree to form a government only if it holds the reigns to more than a third of the cabinet, with foreign affairs under its control and the security portfolios under its influence.
“We believe that [a] new government should focus on speedy measures to stem the economic collapse, rebuild Beirut and work on delivering electricity. But the parties involved in the formation of a government are not concerned about these issues,” he stated.”
Saad added that even if Hariri could affect a particular concession or alliance between the ruling powers, he should have the ability to form a government of technocrats, with a shared vision and goals, as well as the determination to deliver.
“What matters today is the people, and Hezbollah should take its concerns to the parliament, where the sovereign power resides,” he said.
A Hezbollah spokesperson did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Media Line. Last month, Hariri announced that he would form a cabinet composed of “non-partisan specialists,” in line with a proposal laid out by French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron demanded serious political reforms for Lebanon if he is to head an international group of donor nations tasked with extricating Lebanon from its dire economic condition.
The French president visited Beirut immediately after the devastating port explosion. He returned in early September and announced an initiative, stipulating the formation of a government that would undertake reform according to a specific program in return for financial assistance from the international community.
Imad al-Hout, head of the Islamic Group party’s political office and a former lawmaker, told The Media Line that the process of forming a government came under very complex circumstances. He cited a loss of confidence in the political class “as a result of the accumulation of mismanagement and corruption for many years, which translates into the movement of October 17, 2019.”He was referring to the nationwide street protests that broke out last fall and led to Hariri’s resignation. The protests are also known locally as the “October Revolution.”
Demonstrators initially took aim at the proposed implementation of taxes on gasoline, tobacco and VoIP calls on apps such as WhatsApp. However, they quickly turned their attention toward the entire political system, as well as at Iran, the patron of Hezbollah.
Hout says that the priority of the coming government should be to restore the confidence of citizens while dealing with the economic situation through a group of ministers who are competent, have clean hands and work according to a clear program of reforms.
“What is happening now is the opposite of that,” he stated.
“We are witnessing a clear effort by the Lebanese political forces to form a government according to the logic of quotas divided among them,” he said, referring to Lebanon’s deeply entrenched sectarian political system.
He called it “an attempt [by politicians] to keep themselves afloat… after they were sent into disarray by the demands of the people.” He also called on political forces to “withdraw from the government arena,” and for the “formation of a government of independent elements.”
Hout said that some parties want to postpone the government’s formation until after the US presidential election is resolved, hoping that American pressure on Lebanon might diminish and the balance of forces changes.
“Hezbollah is a Lebanese political component like the rest of the [country’s] political components, and as such it plays a similar role in the process of facilitating or disrupting the formation of the new government,” he noted. “But since it has a greater organizational, financial and political capacity than the rest of the political components, its influence is undoubtedly greater than the rest.”Alain Sarkis, a political analyst for the Nida al-Watan newspaper in Beirut, notes another major difference between Hezbollah and the country’s other parties.
“The organization is armed… and is supported by Iran,” he told The Media Line. “In addition, Hezbollah has a parliamentary majority and enjoys the support of the presidency. The organization managed to sabotage Macron’s initiative by not letting go of the Finance Ministry although the Lebanese constitution does not specify any portfolio for a particular sect,” Sarkis continued. “France is also busy now with the latest [violent] incidents [committed by Islamists after the publication of cartoons allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed],” he noted.
Sarkis warned, however, that in light of the suffering in the Lebanese street, delaying the formation of a government could backfire domestically.

Lebanon customs chief formally arrested in ‘Captagon Prince’ case
Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/November 05/2020
Beirut, Lebanon – A formal arrest warrant has been issued against Lebanese customs chief Badri Daher over allegations of accepting a bribe, wasting public funds and misusing his position to allow a drug-smuggling Saudi prince to leave Lebanon without paying a multimillion-dollar fine.
Beirut Investigative Judge Charbel Abu Samra issued the warrant on Tuesday against Daher, who has already been detained for nearly three months on accusations of wilful negligence that led to the massive Beirut port explosion in August that killed more than 200 people.
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Abu Samra’s decision followed Daher’s interrogation last month by the financial public prosecutor, who subsequently recommended charges be brought against him, based on a complaint filed by investigative journalist Riad Kobaissi and several lawyers.
Daher is accused of illegally lifting a travel ban on Saudi Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz in July after the prince completed a prison sentence for attempting to smuggle nearly two tonnes of Captagon, an amphetamine-based drug, from Beirut to Saudi Arabia on board a private jet in 2015.
Daher denies illegally lifting the ban.
The prince, who was 29 years old at the time, had arranged for the roughly 10 million pills to be stashed in suitcases and cardboard boxes, on which were pasted his name and the word “private”, along with the green palm tree and crossed-swords emblem of the Saudi kingdom.
Despite the prince’s diplomatic status, customs officials insisted on searching the boxes and found the pills.
Captagon is a stimulant that became popular with front-line fighters in Syria following the outbreak of the country’s civil war, but also with party-goers and youths in Gulf Arab nations.
Lebanese security forces have in the past decade seized tens of millions of pills en route to the Gulf, primarily bound for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Lebanese customs law, people convicted of drug-trafficking crimes are not allowed to leave the country until they pay a fine of either double or triple the amount of the goods seized.
In line with these regulations, Daher in February had issued a travel ban against the prince after his sentence ended, to make sure he did not leave Lebanon before paying the fine.
It was set at the time at some 65 billion Lebanese pounds ($43.5m at the official rate of 1,500 pounds to the US dollar), which is double the estimated 32.6 billion pounds worth of the drugs seized.
In a letter reviewed by Al Jazeera, the prince subsequently asked for a compromise – to pay just the principal amount of 32.6 billion pounds.
A judicial source, speaking under condition of anonymity, and Daher’s lawyer George Khoury told Al Jazeera this request was approved by Daher and other customs officials.
In late July, Daher asked the General Security agency, responsible for controlling Lebanon’s ports of entry, to lift the travel ban on the prince, according to another document seen by Al Jazeera.
The agency complied.
The catch? Prince Abdel Mohsen never paid the fine.
Special treatment?
During his interrogation by the financial public prosecutor last month, Daher allegedly claimed he had been asked by Lebanese President Michel Aoun himself to lift the travel ban on the Saudi prince, even though he had not paid the fine, the judicial source said.
Local news channel Al Jadeed, where Kobaissi works, also reported Daher had made this claim during his interrogation last month.
The presidency has both denied the president’s involvement and denied that Daher made the claim during his interrogation, and has threatened to take legal action against Al Jadeed for reporting Daher’s alleged statement.
Daher’s lawyer denied he had been paid or offered a bribe in the case, and instead said the customs chief’s decision to lift the ban had been motivated “primarily in an effort to boost relations between Lebanon and the brotherly nation of Saudi Arabia”. He declined to comment on whether Daher had decided to do this on his own accord, or had been instructed to by other officials, including President Aoun.
Daher is heavily backed by Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement party and regularly met with the president before he was detained in August.
Aoun refused to sign a decree dismissing Daher and two other state employees from their positions in the wake of the Beirut explosion.
Lebanese parties are generally split between their loyalty to Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Lebanon’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has been strained in recent years due to the growing power of Iran-backed Hezbollah, a close ally of Aoun.
Kobaissi, who first reported the story and has been reporting on Lebanese Customs for nearly a decade, has said he believes questions surround the messy way in which Prince Abdel Mohsen’s exit was arranged and it did not appear to involve a presidential favour to the Saudis.
“If this was done in the manner of a diplomatic favour … they wouldn’t have implemented a travel ban in the first place, none of these communications [between officials] would have occurred and no one would have found out about this issue in the first place,” he said on an Al Jadeed programme last month.
Still, even before his release, the prince was given special treatment.
Prince Abdel Mohsen spent his five-year stint in detention in a private cell arranged at Beirut’s notorious Hobeish Police station – a detention centre known for its severe overcrowding.
Despite the overcrowding, the prince was allowed to have an entire cell to himself. He was also frequently allowed to welcome visitors.
In 2017, Al Jadeed obtained a selfie video taken by the prince himself from inside his cell, apparently on his birthday.
He sat at a small table with an unidentified man and panned the camera around to show a table bedecked with candles, as colourful lights strobed in the background and loud Arabic music played.
Port explosion aftermath
It was Daher’s arrest in August over the port explosion and subsequent replacement with acting customs chief Raymond Khoury that exposed the allegedly corrupt dealings.
Upon taking over, Khoury found the prince had not paid his fine before his travel ban was lifted. On September 17, he sent a letter to the public prosecutor’s office asking for the travel ban to be reinstated because the case was not over.
Khoury also asked the higher council of customs, a three-member committee, to evaluate the prince’s request for a compromise in the amount he needs to pay. This step is required by customs regulations for cases involving large sums but was not carried out by Daher.
Unlike Daher, the council declined the prince’s request and said he should instead pay double the principal amount, 65 billion pounds.
But all of these measures matter little because the prince has since left Lebanon.
Daher is set to be questioned further over the case by investigative judges at a hearing on November 12.
 

Forming Lebanon’s new cabinet is like mission impossible
Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/Thursday 05 November 2020
The creation of a new cabinet in Lebanon seems to be heading toward deadlock, and the optimism that a cabinet may be formed from the presidential press office has been squandered.
A public visit by the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Gebran Bassil, who happens to be President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, to the Presidential Palace was enough to overrule any progress that had been made. Creating new cabinets in Lebanon has been a tiresome mission in the last few years thanks to the FPM’s approach, which has the silent support of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
FPM has introduced new customs to the process: veto power. Along with their allies, they were able to delay for months the birth of governments after the Doha Agreement of 2008 that granted all political forces including Hezbollah mutual veto power and ended months of political deadlock.
Not only did they block cabinet creation, FPM ministers along with their allies, paralyzed the cabinet functions when the agenda did not suit their requests or when they realized that their demands would not be met.
In 2010, FPM and its allies controlled the crippling third of the cabinet, meaning in a 30 member government, the resignation of 11 ministers would automatically lead to the resignation of the whole cabinet. After months of squabbling between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and then General Michel Aoun, 11 FPM ministers resigned collectively when Hariri refused to appoint Aoun’s second son-in-law Shamel Roukoz as Lebanese Army Commander. The timing was fortuitous. Hariri was in Washington to meet with American President Barack Obama in the White House. Where he went into the meeting as Lebanon’s Prime Minister, he left embarrassed as a resigned official.
By 2016, it seemed that Hariri and the FPM had reconciled when the former officially nominated Aoun for president. But the deal would collapse again when Hariri resigned on October 29, 2019 few days after the Lebanese took to the streets in mass protests refusing his cabinet’s economic policies and criticizing the delays in reform that were promised over and over again, but those promises were never met. FPM had practically blocked all decisions that were not in harmony with its interests, especially those pertaining to the power sector that they had controlled for the past 10 years or so.
While French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to resolve Lebanon’s compounding political and economic crises has not been respected by several local players, the old political show has once again taken center stage. The same players have the same demands.
Hariri has succeeded in returning to his old post as prime minister after securing a small majority of votes. He had nominated himself as the “natural candidate,” an uncustomary move in Lebanon. Notably, his old ally the FPM did not nominate Hariri.
It rarely happens that a parliamentary group refrains from nominating a prime minister and then goes to negotiate with him the share it must have in the new cabinet, but this is precisely what the FPM did.
Logically speaking, a parliamentary bloc that refuses to grant its support for a prime minister should not be request representation in his government. Not only are they trying to impose their will on the negotiation track and earn a share in the new cabinet, but also they are basing their strong points of negotiations on the mandatory signature of the president on any ministerial decree to create the new cabinet. If he does not sign it, the cabinet would not see the light.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, the prime minister could propose a cabinet lineup of his choosing, and he could exclude the FPM or any other party from its membership, but he would still require the consent of President Aoun who has favored FPM political interests at the expense of national interests.
If FPM interests are not taken into consideration, Aoun would refrain from signing. However, if Aoun did not sign off on the cabinet, he would be betraying his oath to respect the constitution; the president should be bipartisan and respect all parties equally, but he is not and he does not.
If an agreement is not reached soon, two possible scenarios emerge. Hariri could fail in forming a cabinet and, once again, step down, meaning the hunt for a new prime minister would commence. Alternatively, he could refuse to step down and wait for developments that would improve his hand at the negotiating table as Aoun has no constitutional tool that allows him to force a prime minister designate to withdraw the nomination. This route would create a new deadlock with a prime minister designate incapable of forming a new government and the economy still in freefall, the agony would continue.
No matter what the reason for the delays in cabinet formation – whether some parties are waiting for the completion of the American presidential elections or whether it be to advance personal interests – the current deadlock is detrimental for the country’s continually ailing economy and its people, still traumatized from a year of catastrophe.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2020

US Election: Chaos, confusion or lawsuits in six states delay Trump-Biden result
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 05 November 2020
This year’s US presidential election was anticipated to be one of the most competitive races in recent years, but what has ensued is chaos, confusion and lawsuits. President Donald Trump routinely warned of voter fraud leading up to Election Tuesday, but Democrats said there was no proof for his claims. Mail-in ballots, allowed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, are the main issue at hand for the Trump campaign. They have said they are not being allowed into several vote counting centers in battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada.
The Trump campaign has also sought to have court orders issued to invalidate mailed ballots received after Election Day. But a number of the battleground states have said they would accept mailed ballots if there was a postmark that it was sent on or before Tuesday, Nov. 3.
“The lawsuits are meritless,” said Bob Bauer, who is part of Biden’s legal team. “They’re intended to give the Trump campaign the opportunity to argue the vote count should stop. It is not going to stop.”With Democratic nominee Joe Biden sitting at 264 Electoral College votes, he needs one more state to cross the 270 needed to win. Trump has 214.
Pennsylvania (20 Electoral College votes)
On Thursday, an appellate court in Philadelphia ordered more access for Trump campaign observers inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Republicans have said they want to see the ballots being opened to ensure transparency. But the Biden campaign quickly pushed back with reports suggesting they would appeal the decision. Vote-counting was briefly in Philadelphia paused due to the litigation before resuming. But one of the main counties still counting votes announced they would halt their work until Friday. Fox News reported that 29,000 ballots in Allegheny County were incorrectly sent out before corrected ones were mailed. It is a separate issue from the Philadelphia development earlier. The chair of the Board of Elections in the county confirmed the report, saying out of 313,072 mailed ballots, 35,000 are left to be counted. Out of those, 29,000 ballots were ordered by a federal court not to be counted until Friday, the official said in televised remarks. Another 6,800 ballots had “other issues” and will be looked at starting Friday, the official said.
Georgia (16 Electoral College votes)
A judge in Georgia dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and Trump’s campaign that asked him to ensure a coastal county was following state laws on processing absentee ballots. Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not explain his decision Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah. Trump has been slightly ahead in the state, but mailed ballots are expected to help Biden.
Nevada (6 Electoral College votes)
Emerging as one of the determining states, Biden is hopeful that he will win the six Electoral College votes needed to emerge as the 46th president. According to a New York Times tally, as of noon EST, Thursday, Biden held a slight lead of less than 1 percent.
Trump campaign officials said they would file a lawsuit in this state as well.
Arizona (11 Electoral College votes)
Despite being called for Biden, the Trump campaign has vehemently opposed any result, saying there were close to 500,000 votes not counted. Biden’s team came out Thursday and said that the outcome there may take longer to determine.
No lawsuit has been announced here, although Trump said every state claimed by Biden would be legally challenged.
North Carolina (15 Electoral College votes)
One of the first states to close its polls, North Carolina emerged as one of the last states to announce its results. Trump needs to win the state where an estimated 5 percent of the votes are yet to be counted. North Carolina’s Democratic governor pushed to allow ballots to be accepted for one week after Election Tuesday.
No litigation has been announced here.
Wisconsin (10 Electoral College votes)
In another state that has been widely ruled for Biden, Trump has demanded a recount. An estimated 20,000 votes, less than 1 percent, separated Biden from the president.
Trump won this state in 2016, making him the first Republican to win there since the 80s.
- With AP

If US president, Biden likely to keep Trump’s pro-Israel decisions: Prince Turki
Emily Judd, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 05 November 2020
If elected US president, Joe Biden will not undo the Trump administration’s pro-Israel actions such as the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, said former Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal on Wednesday.“I think Mr. Biden as president is not going to draw back from where Mr. Trump has driven America - whether it is on Jerusalem, on the Golan Heights, or on the so-called Abrahamic Accords,” said Al-Faisal, who was also previously Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, during a Beirut Institute summit in Abu Dhabi. “My concern about some Arab quarters particularly my Palestinian friends and brothers is if they expect that a president Biden is going to be different from Mr. Trump, I think they will be sorely disappointed in that,” he added. Last year, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and officially annexed from Syria in 1981. A senior Biden campaign official told American news outlet Jewish News Syndicate this week that Biden will likely not reverse US recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017, a contentious decision that recognized Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel. Biden has said he will keep the US embassy in Jerusalem if elected president. Israel considers the entire city of Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. This year, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords – normalization agreements between Israel and Arab Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Biden said at the time he was “gratified” by the Israel-UAE peace at the time of its announcement. “The United Arab Emirates and Israel have pointed a path toward a more peaceful, stable Middle East. A Biden-Harris administration will seek to build on this progress,” he said in a statement. However, Biden's running mate Kamala Harris promised this week that if elected, Biden will restore economic assistance to the Palestinians and reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington - reversing steps taken by Trump administration. Under Trump, the State Department cut more than $200 million in aid to the West Bank and Gaza and closed the PLO mission in the US capital. Al-Faisal noted that Biden has said he will reverse one Trump Middle East policy: US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “Biden has said that he will go back to the JCPOA, but that he will have conditions for going back. We still don't know what those conditions are,” he said.

Biden on Cusp of White House Victory, Trump Turns to Courts
Agence France Presse/Thursday 05 November 2020
Former vice president Joe Biden, making his third run at the White House, was tantalizingly close to victory on Thursday as President Donald Trump sought to stave off defeat with scattershot legal challenges and his campaign insisted he would be reelected.
Biden, 77, needs a total of 270 votes to capture the Electoral College that determines the White House winner and the magic figure was in reach with several states expected to announce their results on Thursday. The former senator from Delaware and Democratic hopeful currently has 253 electoral votes -- or 264 if the 11 electoral votes from the southwestern state of Arizona are included. Trump, 74, trails with 214 electoral votes but Jason Miller, his top campaign strategist, said the Republican incumbent will "again win the race.""We think that as soon, possibly, as the end of tomorrow, on Friday it will be clear to the American public that President Trump and Vice President (Mike) Pence will serve another four years in the White House," Miller told reporters. The current Electoral College tallies say otherwise with Biden on track to win Arizona and Nevada and possibly even pick off Georgia and Pennsylvania.
"Let me be very clear, our data shows that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States," his campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon told reporters. "We're very confident, whatever happens with the counting and the timing, we will come out ahead." Trump is currently ahead in Georgia and Pennsylvania but Biden has been chipping away at his leads as the votes continue to be tallied -- slowly in some states this year because of the huge volume of mail-in votes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump had a roughly 18,000 vote lead in Georgia early Thursday with about 60,000 votes remaining to be counted, much of it from the heavily Democratic suburbs of Atlanta.He was leading by about 122,000 votes in Pennsylvania with 91 percent of the vote counted but Biden has been narrowing the margin.
"STOP THE COUNT!" Trump tweeted on Thursday morning. "ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!"
While Trump was demanding that vote-counting be halted in Georgia and Pennsylvania -- where he is leading -- his supporters and campaign were insisting that it continue in Arizona and Nevada, where he is trailing.
Trump prematurely declared victory Wednesday and threatened to seek Supreme Court intervention to stop vote-counting but it has continued nonetheless.
'STOP THE COUNT!'
Fox News and AP news agency projected Biden as the winner in Arizona on Tuesday night. But other outlets have yet to do so and vote-counting continues in the state, where Biden has a fairly healthy 69,000 vote lead.
With 86 percent of the vote counted, Biden had a razor-thin 8,000-vote lead in Nevada, which has six electoral votes. Nevada was won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and much of the outstanding vote is from areas of the western state that skew towards Democrats. In Georgia, Gabriel Sterling of the Secretary of State's office, appealed for patience and dismissed Trump campaign claims of irregularities among election workers. "These people are not involved in voter fraud," Sterling said. "This is a long process, but I think all of us would agree that having an accurate count is much more vital," he added. Pennsylvania, Biden's birthplace, has 20 electoral votes and was considered one of the major prizes in Tuesday's election. Georgia, with 16 electoral votes, has been a reliably Republican state but could land in the Democratic column for the first time since Bill Clinton won it in 1992. Trump won both states in 2016 in carving out his upset victory over Hillary Clinton. With potential defeat looming, Trump has launched multiple legal challenges, announcing lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania and demanding a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden won by just 20,000 votes. Bob Bauer, a lawyer for the Biden campaign, dismissed the slew of lawsuits as "meritless." "All of this is intended to create a large cloud," Bauer said. "But it's not a very thick cloud. We see through it. So do the courts and so do election officials."
'Count the votes!'
In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign said a court had given the green light for its "observers" to watch ballot-counting in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia. Earlier Trump supporters had been kept as much as 100 feet (30 meters) away. Attempts to stop vote-counting in states where Trump is leading were not restricted to the courts. In the Michigan city of Detroit, a majority-Black Democratic stronghold, a crowd of mostly-white Trump supporters chanting "Stop the count!" tried to barge into an election office Wednesday before being blocked by security. Television networks have projected a Biden win in Michigan, but final ballots are still being counted. In the Arizona county of Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, an aggressive pro-Trump crowd gathered outside a counting office chanting "Count the votes!" -- some of them openly carrying firearms, which is legal in the state.
In stark contrast to Trump's unprecedented rhetoric about being cheated, Biden has sought to project calm, reaching out to a nation torn by four years of polarizing leadership and traumatized by the Covid-19 pandemic. "We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies," Biden said Wednesday. "What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart." The tight White House race and recriminations have evoked memories of the 2000 election between Republican George W Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
That race, which hinged on a handful of votes in Florida, eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which halted a recount while Bush was ahead.

France Sees Need for 'New Relationship' between EU, U.S.
Agence France Presse/Thursday 05 November 2020
The United States and the European Union need to develop a "new transatlantic relationship" after the U.S. election, irrespective of who wins, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday. Le Drian warned that there "will be no going back to the previous situation, to the good old times of transatlantic relations." "We will have to build a new transatlantic relationship, which will be a new partnership," he told Europe 1 radio, adding that France would work "with the person elected and the new US government, whatever happens. Expanding on the need for a reset in relations, he argued: "The world has changed in four years.""What has changed is the fact that Europe has in the past four years asserted its sovereignty, in the areas of security, defense and strategic autonomy." Citing as examples plans for a common EU defense fund and EU moves to regulate the European activities of US internet giants, he said: "Europe has shed its naivety in the past four years and begun to assert itself as a power."

Russia Says 'Obvious Shortcomings' in U.S. Election System
Agence France Presse/Thursday 05 November 2020
Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday said outdated legislation and a lack of regulation had revealed flaws in the U.S. electoral system, as votes were being tallied to decide the next American president. The knife-edge U.S. presidential race was tilted toward Democrat Joe Biden early Thursday, but President Donald Trump claimed he was being cheated and went to court to try and stop vote counting. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that both candidates had an equal chance of winning and pointed out "obvious shortcomings in the American electoral system.""This is partly due to the archaic nature of the relevant legislation and a lack of regulation in a number of fundamental points," she said during her weekly press briefing.  Zakharova also said Russia hopes the United States will be able to elect the next president in "full compliance with the American constitution."
"And the most important thing is to avoid the occurrence of mass riots in the country," she added. An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors votes around the West and the former Soviet Union, found no evidence of election fraud and said Trump's "baseless allegations" eroded trust in democracy. A two-year investigation into links between Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Trump's campaign confirmed troubling behavior but eventually ended in anticlimax.

France-Turkey tensions: Erdogan’s rhetoric of ‘violence’ unacceptable, says French FM
Emily Judd, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 05 November 2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s declarations of “violence” and “hatred” are unacceptable, France’s foreign minister said Thursday. “There are now declarations of violence, even hatred, which are regularly posted by President Erdogan, which are unacceptable,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview with Europe 1 radio. France is currently pushing for a “strong” European Union response to Turkey, including potential sanctions, over “provocations” by Erdogan. The country’s minister for European affairs said last week that it is exhorting its EU partners to take action against Ankara.
“We need to go further... We will push for strong European responses, which could include sanctions,” said Clement Beaune in an address to parliament. Erdogan has lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron in recent days following Macron’s response to the beheading of a teacher in France by an extremist over the use of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Macron has said that France will not give up caricatures and that the teacher was killed “because Islamists want our future,” vowing “they will never have it.”Last week, Erdogan responded in a provocative speech that accused Macron of having both an “anti-Islam agenda” and mental problems. France recalled its ambassador from Ankara over the comments. The Turkish president also went on to urge Turks “never” to buy French brands and said that Muslims in Europe are being treated like Jewish people before World War II. European leaders including the prime minister of Italy have condemned Erdogan’s statements as “unacceptable.”The latest flareup between Erdogan and Macron is just one incident in a series of bilateral clashes over issues including the conflict in Libya, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and maritime control in the eastern Mediterranean. France and Turkey are both members of the 29-member international military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was founded to create a counterweight to the Soviet Union’s military capabilities at the time the organization was established in 1949.

Iraq ratifies new election law aimed at independents, paving way for early vote
The Associated Press, Baghdad/Thursday 05 November 2020
Iraq’s president ratified on Thursday a new election law aimed at giving political independents a better chance of winning seats in parliament, paving the way for early elections next year. President Barham Saleh stressed the need for free, fair, and transparent balloting that would restore the Iraqi citizens’ confidence in the legitimacy of the process. Read more: Oil-dependent Iraq must ‘diversify rapidly’ as challenges stifle young population. The new law changes each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts and prevents parties from running on unified lists, which has in the past helped them easily sweep all the seats in a specific province. Instead, the seats would go to whoever gets the most votes in the electoral districts. Drafting a new election law has been a key demand of the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been taking to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shia south since last year. The protesters have called for an end to endemic corruption by a political class that is largely seen as having squandered Iraq’s resources through greed and mismanagement over the past years. The protests were met with a heavy military crackdown and hundreds were killed. The Iraqi president said that although the new law was not perfect, it signaled progress and had the potential to enable future reforms. He called for the quick fulfillment of remaining conditions required to hold elections, including biometric voter registration and reforming the electoral commission. A dispute over the mechanism to replace retired judges at the Federal Supreme Court — the body that rules on constitutional disputes — still needs to be settled before the elections can take place. “We have to create a political climate which will help alleviate this suffering, as well as ensuring justice and integrity during the choosing of a strong government,” Saleh said in a speech Thursday. “This is what we aspire to, through an electoral law which will enable Iraqis from all walks of life to vote and to participate in elections, God willing, without the historical problems of forgery, manipulation and pressure.” Iraq’s Parliament earlier this week passed the final version of the new law despite objections from some political parties. The 329-member chamber was elected in May 2018. The vote is held every four years, but the protesters have been demanding early elections. Meanwhile, in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, at least three women were killed and three policemen were wounded in twin blasts on Thursday, according to a security statement. The Security Media Cell, affiliated with the armed forces, said the women died when a motorcycle bomb exploded, while the policemen died in a second explosion that went off when they arrived at the scene of the first blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Fighters loyal to ISIS, which was defeated in Iraq in late 2017, have recently stepped up attacks in the area.

Assad Says Billions Locked in Lebanese Banks behind Syria’s Economic Crisis
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 November, 2020
Syrian President Bashar Assad said billions of dollars of deposits held by his countrymen in Lebanon's financial sector that were blocked after a major financial crisis were a main cause of Syria's deepening economic crisis. Lebanese banks, fearing capital flight and grappling with an acute hard currency crunch, have since last year imposed tight controls on withdrawals and transfers abroad, drawing outrage from local and foreign depositors unable to access their savings. Assad said anywhere from $20 billion to $42 billion of Syrian deposits could have been lost in the once vibrant banking sector that held over $170 billion in foreign currency deposits. "This figure for an economy like Syria is terrifying," he said. "It's the money they put in Lebanese banks and we paid the price this is the core of the problem that no one talks about," Assad added, speaking during a tour of a trade fair broadcast on state media. Syrian businessmen say Lebanon's tight controls on withdrawals have locked hundreds of millions of dollars once used to import basic goods from oil to commodities into Syria. Many Syrian front companies had also long circumvented Western sanctions by using Lebanon's banking system to import illicit goods into Syria by land, bankers and businessmen say. The US Treasury has blacklisted scores of such firms. Assad said the current economic woes were not caused by the Caesar Act - the toughest US sanctions yet against Damascus which came into force last June. "The crisis began before the Caesar Act and years after long-imposed Western sanctions ... It's the money (in Lebanese banks) that has been lost," Assad said.

Washington Seeks to Eliminate PKK Presence in Syria, Says US Official
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 5 November, 2020
US Special Representative for Syria Engagement Ambassador James Jeffrey said his country seeks to reduce and eventually eliminate the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Syria. In an interview with Syria Direct, Jeffrey said the US considers the PKK a terrorist organization. “We want to see the PKK cadre leave Syria. That is a major reason why there is tension with Turkey in the northeast, we want to reduce that tension because in all other areas other than the northeast, we have very close coordination with Turkey on the Syrian situation,” he stated. “And even in the northeast, as I said, we have an agreement with Turkey in terms of military [movement].” Acting also as the special envoy to the International Military Intervention against ISIS, Jeffrey said the US wants to have a stable base in northeast Syria for its efforts to fight ISIS, which requires local partners. The local partners are the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as the US military partner and the civilian administration there. “There has to be a civilian administration because, as you know, the regime retreated from that area back in 2013.” And so, for practical purposes, he pointed out that the US encourages the Arab and the Kurdish elements of that general coalition to work together, to share power, to work out differences between them, as a practical matter, for a day in and day out stability and facilitation of US operations there. Jeffrey reiterated the US stance, which indicates that a “political solution to the Syrian crisis that reflects the will of the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is absolutely necessary,” expressing frustration that Russia has so far not pushed Assad to re-engage with the political process. The US current Syria policy “will continue” with bi-partisan support, according to Jeffrey, regardless of who wins the US election. “What I can say is, particularly on our Syria account, I see no change in our troop presence, I see no change in our sanctions policy, I see no change in our demand that Iran leave Syria, be it with a Biden administration or Trump one.”Jeffrey said the US has sanctioned about 75 individuals under the Caesar Act and under other acts that it found in certain circumstances make more sense. “This is just the beginning of what will be further waves of sanctions. Again, we're starting off with the people closest to Assad because we think that it is very important to focus on the accountability of those people who have financed him and on those people who have enabled his military machine,” he further explained.

Cairo receives Bashagha, reinforces speculations about his assuming premiership
The Arab Weekly/November 05/2020
CAIRO – The stock of the Muslim Brotherhood in the coming inter-Libyan dialogue in Tunis got a big boost lately by Cairo’s reception of the Minister of Interior in the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fathi Bashagha. The Tunis talks will decide on the new executive authority in Libya and appoint officials to sovereign positions. Bashagha is accused by some of belonging to the Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party. His visit to Cairo increases his chances of being Libya’s next prime minister, since it will be understood as an endorsement of his candidacy, a stance that has been preceded by indications of a similar endorsement by Paris. Bashagha is expected to hold talks with Egyptian officials aimed at reassuring Cairo about the security elements that will be deployed alongside the police forces loyal to the army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in the central region, specifically in Sirte and the oil terminals. Analysts also do not rule out that Bashagha will hold meetings with representatives of the Libyan National Army (LNA) within the context of the security talks supervised by Cairo. Egypt had hosted at the end of last September security talks between representatives of the LNA and representatives of the Government of National Accord which centred on the security track related to the central region. Turkey had threatened to take control of that region, prompting Egypt to rattle the sabres of a potential war as it declared the area a “red line” not to be crossed.
Bashagha’s visit to Egypt came as a surprise to observers of Libyan political affairs, especially as it took place only days after a visit he made to Qatar during which he signed a security cooperation agreement with Doha in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed in Geneva at the end of last month.
The spokesman for the Libyan National Army, Ahmed al-Mismari, said in a statement that “what the state of Qatar, which is the largest supporter of terrorism, did in terms of using its agents in Libya today and signing what it called security agreements, is a violation of the outcomes of the 5 + 5 Geneva dialogue.”
He said the agreement was “a malicious attempt to undermine what the Libyan National Army officers agreed to in Geneva in terms of a ceasefire, stopping escalation and ending the destructive foreign interference in Libyan affairs.”
The Qatari move reflected Doha’s solidarity with Ankara, which was the first to violate the terms of the Geneva talks agreement by refusing to freeze its military cooperation agreement with the GNA. The Turkish ministry of defence did in fact announce the continuation of training GNA military elements in Libya and Ankara.
The second article of the agreement stipulates “freezing all military agreements related to training inside Libya and the departure of foreign trainers from Libya until the unified government takes over its duties and tasks the security room formed according to this agreement to propose and implement special security arrangements that guarantee security in the areas evacuated from military units and armed formations.” While observers expected Cairo and the UN mission in Libya to take a firm stance against these transgressions that reflect the persistence of Turkish intransigent attitude, everybody was surprised to see Cairo receive Bashagha, which reinforces speculations about the existence of a regional and international consensus regarding catapulting the latter to be the next prime minister or head of the new Presidency Council.
Observers support these expectations by emphasising that coordination regarding securing the central region (Sirte and the Oil Crescent) could have been limited to the work of the Military Committee and did not necessarily require Bashaga’s intervention even if he had influence over Misrata militias. They also wondered why the GNA’s Minister of Defence, Salah al-Din al-Nimroush, was not summoned to take part in these consultations if the matter really relates to securing the central region only.
For their part, the upcoming talks in Tunis about the formation of the new executive authority are still surrounded by vagueness and ambiguity. The Islamists are promoting the idea that the Tunis dialogue will focus only on modifying the executive authority, amid reports of Turkish efforts to have Fayez al-Sarraj stay on board as head of the Presidency Council and to appoint a prime minister from the eastern region (Cyrenaica), with the possibility of keeping Bashagha as minister of the interior. The main goal of the Turkish proposal is to ensure that the maritime border demarcation agreement it signed with Fayez al-Sarraj is not be scrapped. These expectations run counter to a scenario that was floated during the last period and which sounds more realistic. In this scenario, Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh would become the new head of the Presidency Council, while the office of prime mister would go to western Libya and specifically to someone from Fethi Bashagha’s hometown, Misrata. Statements by Turkish officials and their Islamist allies in Libya reflected concern about and fear of losing Turkish influence, but the course of affairs on the ground is still going according to Turkish plans. Fayez al-Sarraj rescinded his decision to resign by the end of October, just like Ankara had wanted, and the 5+5 Joint Military Committee is meeting anew in Ghedames despite announcing on October 27 that it had reached an agreement.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2020

Palestinians Call for Boycotting Israel, Then Ask Israel To Save Their Lives
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2020
Particularly outrageous is the fact that Erekat was admitted to an Israeli hospital for the best medical treatment at a time when the Palestinian government is denying ordinary Palestinians permits to go to Israeli hospitals.
The Palestinian official's treatment in an Israeli hospital shows that the Palestinians themselves "are in a reality of full normalization with Israel." — Nadim Koteich, Lebanese journalist, Asharq Al-Awsat, October 27, 2020.
The fact that Erekat chose to go to an Israeli, and not a Jordanian hospital, was a sign that he "has full confidence in the Israelis despite his public statements against them." — alarab.co.uk, October 19, 2020
If and when Erekat recovers from his current illness and returns to his family, it would behoove him to apologize to the UAE and Bahrain for having denounced their normalization agreements with Israel. Next, he might want to apologize to the Palestinian people for depriving them of the superb medical treatment that he himself received at Hadassah Hospital.
Perhaps Erekat might also consider thanking the Israeli doctors who worked around the clock to keep him alive. Additionally, he can thank the Israeli medical teams and soldiers who escorted him from his home in Jericho to Jerusalem. Finally, Erekat might inform the world that he regrets having called for the boycott of Israel -- the country he knew he could turn to save his life, no matter what harm he had inflicted upon it.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat spent the past two decades calling for the boycott and isolation of Israel. If and when Erekat recovers from COVID-19 and returns to his family, he might want to apologize to the Palestinian people for depriving them of the superb medical treatment that he himself received at Hadassah Hospital, and might also consider thanking the Israeli doctors who worked around the clock to keep him alive. Pictured: Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, Israel, where Erekat chose to be hospitalized and receive treatment.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat spent the past two decades calling for the boycott and isolation of Israel. In the past few months, Erekat, a PLO leader who previously headed the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel, came out against the agreements to normalize relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He and other Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accused the UAE and Bahrain of betraying the Palestinians and stabbing them in the back by making peace with Israel.
On October 8, Erekat announced that he had been infected with COVID-19. A few days later, as his condition seemed to worsen, Erekat was rushed from his home in the West Bank city of Jericho to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem: Hadassah Ein Kerem. An Israeli ambulance guarded by Israeli soldiers transferred Erekat to the Israeli hospital at the request of his family and the Palestinian Authority leadership.
The man who worked tirelessly to harm and slander Israel and who condemned Arabs for establishing relations with Israel in the end chose to seek medical treatment in a hospital belonging to the same state he has spent much of his life demonizing.
When he announced that he had been infected with COVID-19, Erekat received an offer from Jordan's King Abdullah to receive medical treatment in the kingdom. Expressing gratitude to the Jordanian monarch, Erekat did not take up him up on the offer.
Instead, when his health deteriorated, Erekat, along with his family and the PA leadership, ran to Israel for help. Israel responded by immediately dispatching Israeli medics and soldiers to Jericho to evacuate Erekat to Hadassah Hospital, where Israeli doctors worked to save his life.
The irony of Erekat's decision has hardly been lost on many Arab commentators.
As it turns out, some Arabs are not oblivious to the monstrous hypocrisy of the Palestinian leadership. These Arabs view the hospitalization of Erekat in an Israeli hospital as yet another sign of the double-talk and lies of Palestinian leaders, who, day in and day out, incite their people against Israel -- but who run to Israel whenever they feel the need.
Particularly outrageous is the fact that Erekat was admitted to an Israeli hospital for the best medical treatment at a time when the Palestinian government is denying ordinary Palestinians permits to go to Israeli hospitals.
In June, the Israeli non-governmental organization Physicians for Human Rights reported that Palestinian agencies in charge of liaising with the Israeli authorities had stopped transferring exit permit applications that were submitted for medical reasons. The group quoted Palestinian patients as saying that the Palestinian Ministry of Health refused to refer them to Israeli hospitals or cover the cost of treatment in Israel.
Why is the Palestinian leadership depriving its people of advanced medical treatment and health care in Israel? Because this leadership decided a few months ago to suspend all ties with Israel to protest the since-shelved Israeli plan to apply sovereignty to portions of the West Bank. If the plan was never implemented, why are Mahmoud Abbas and his officials in Ramallah continuing to boycott Israel?
Evidently, this boycott does not apply when the life of a senior official like Erekat, who is the secretary-general of the PLO, is at stake. Erekat did not want to go to Jordan. He did not ask Egypt or any other Arab country for help. His appeal went straight to his Israeli neighbors -- who, without pausing for a second, saved his life. This was probably the only wise decision Erekat ever made.
Lebanese journalist and columnist Nadim Koteich, commenting on Erekat's hospitalization pointed out the "symbolic intensity and connotations" of a senior Palestinian official who, "in his complex health ordeal, finds only an Israeli medical center and an Israeli medical team to try and save his life."
Noting that Erekat had rejected the normalization agreements between Israel and the two Gulf states, Koteich that the Palestinian official's treatment in an Israeli hospital shows that the Palestinians themselves "are in a reality of full normalization with Israel."
Koteich wondered why the Palestinians still do not have a modern medical facility more than 25 years after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. "How come the Palestinians do not have a hospital that is fit to treat Palestinians?" he asked.
"Is it conceivable that after a quarter of a century of the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians still don't have a medical center worthy of the Palestinian specialists working in all the world's hospitals? The Palestinians took the entire Gaza Strip (in after the Israeli withdrawal in 2005), and instead of transforming it into an economic/industrial zone, it became a miserable camp for political Islam and an arena for the Palestinian civil war (between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas)."
The London-based Al-Arab newspaper, referring to the medical treatment the Palestinian official received in Israel, said that the fact that Erekat chose to go to an Israeli, and not a Jordanian hospital, was a sign that he "has full confidence in the Israelis despite his public statements against them."
Prominent Egyptian media personality Ahmed Moussa also weighed in on the controversy surrounding Erekat's medical treatment in Israel. Moussa said that there are "many questions" about Erekat's hospitalization in Israel, especially in wake of his attacks on Arabs who normalize their ties with Israel. "There are Palestinian hospitals, there are hospitals in Jordan, Egypt and many Arab countries," he remarked.
"Many people are now asking why was Erekat transferred to an Israeli hospital? Just a few days ago Erekat was attacking Arabs for establishing relations with Israel. But now he has chosen to be treated in an Israeli hospital. Egypt and Jordan have the best hospitals. Isn't it strange that Erekat chose an Israeli, and not Arab hospital? The Palestinians need to explain to the public why he preferred to go to an Israeli hospital. I am not the only one asking this question. They must give us an answer. They must explain to us why they took Erekat to an Israeli hospital."
Moussa's question is hardly a rhetorical one. It was posed to highlight the hypocrisy of Palestinian leaders.
Palestinian leaders such as Erekat can afford the best VIP medical treatment for themselves and their families while preventing their people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from going to Israeli hospitals. The issue of Erekat serves as further proof that the current Palestinian leadership does not care about the interests or health of its people, but only those who are close to Mahmoud Abbas.
If and when Erekat recovers from his current illness and returns to his family, it would behoove him to apologize to the UAE and Bahrain for having denounced their normalization agreements with Israel. Next, he might want to apologize to the Palestinian people for depriving them of the superb medical treatment that he himself received at Hadassah Hospital.
Perhaps Erekat might also consider thanking the Israeli doctors who worked around the clock to keep him alive. Additionally, he can thank the Israeli medical teams and soldiers who escorted him from his home in Jericho to Jerusalem. Finally, Erekat might inform the world that he regrets having called for the boycott of Israel -- the country he knew he could turn to save his life, no matter what harm he had inflicted upon it.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Erdogan’s Comrades and Getting Rid of the ‘Shame’
Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 05/2020
What is going on in Turkey?
Is the truth finally coming out? Have the years and years of propaganda about prosperity and growth under the Justice and Development Party’s rule finally been exposed? More importantly, has President Erdogan run out of ways to cover up the internal financial, social, and economic collapse that Turkey is undergoing? Is waging direct military wars in two continents and recruiting mercenaries, with bribes or extremist recipes perfected by the Muslim Brotherhood, all he can do to cover up this collapse? Rounding up thousands of Syrian refugees and sending them off to serve Ankara’s expansionist tendencies, which have become synonymous with Erdogan’s dreams of tampering with borders and plundering countries’ resources?
Erdogan has sent mercenaries and extremists to Azerbaijan to fight Armenians in Karabakh, transferred mercenaries and armed forces to Libya and mobilized the Grey Wolves in France, establishing an unfamiliar state of affairs: a parallel society that mimics that of France, to meddle with the affairs of other countries. He has also continued his war with Kurds in Northeast Syria and Iraq’s Qandil Mountains. In parallel, the eastern Mediterranean situation will continue to escalate as Turkey strives to seize a share of the oil and gas, even if this puts the region on the brink of a military confrontation with Greece. This approach, which seeks to focus on foreign affairs in order to divert attention from internal conflicts, has failed to cover up Turkey’s imminent collapse, ensuing from the Turkish lira’s devaluation, increased inflation, and the rising unemployment, as over 15 million Turks find themselves without a job!
In a shocking report, a Turkish cultural organization indicated that 100 well-known musicians, who are supposedly from a distinct social group, had attempted suicide between March and the end of summer. The reason behind this increase in suicide attempts is a sense of powerlessness streaming from a feeling that they hit a brick wall, left without work and with no opportunities in sight. And the more one observes developments in Turkey, the more one discovers that independent data and polls suggest despondency and fear of the future is widespread among Turks. This has led to an increase in suicide rates, sometimes escalating to take the form of mass suicide.
Official figures demonstrate that between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2019, 566 people committed suicide, and attempts were in the thousands. The repeated collective suicides reflect feelings of total paralysis and endless despair. These suicides appear to prove that the official policies totally disregard people’s concerns and pain. A few months ago, a sign hanging on the door of a residential apartment shocked the residents of Istanbul’s Fatih; it read: “Warning, the apartment is littered with cyanide. Tell the police. Do not enter the apartment.” The police arrive and found four siblings’ corpses; two men and two women, between 48 and 60 years of age! Toward the end of October, residents in Bakirkoy, Istanbul, complained about a chemical smell emanating from an apartment. The police stormed it and found three bodies, a 38-year-old jeweller, his wife and their six-year-old child. The lethal poison was cyanide. Days earlier, the bodies of a family of four who had committed suicide using cyanide were found; among them was a five-year-old. Next to the bodies was a letter from the father: “I ask for forgiveness, but there’s nothing I can do”!
At the same time, the scene of women in their twilight years gathering around garbage bins in search of leftover food in the garbage has become familiar in Turkish cities. The monetary and economic policies pursued by Berat Albayrak (Erdogan’s son-in-law), which prioritize the narrow interests of the president’s family and those of some of the influential people close to him, have recently led to a dramatic increase in poverty. More than 20 million Turks now live in poverty, while a similar number is tittering on the edge. Another 4 million Turks live on modest state support.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Central Bank, which owes around 170 billion dollars while its reserves have declined to 40 billion dollars, is under pressure from the sharp collapse of the Turkish currency’s exchange rate with the US dollar... and investors’ increased anxiety about their investments.
The collapse didn’t start over the last two years; rather, it started early on in Erdogan’s presidential term, after he amended the constitution and came to have extensive powers, among them are promoting and appointing university deans and judges... A new Turkey emerged, turning the page on the zero problems era and entering an era of open conflict with its surroundings, near and far. The former invigorated investment, collaborative projects and employment, and Turkey became a major destination for European and Gulf tourism, and we’re talking about millions of tourists who spend heavily... All of that was brought to an end by the advent of a populism fixated on promoting neo-Ottomanism, a return to “Greater Turkey”, and the establishment of an “Ottoman Crescent” that is compatible with the Persian crescent and doesn’t collide with it. The plan implies ripping countries apart, violating their sovereignty, and recklessly interfering with Arab states’ affairs.
Among its other actions, Turkey has deprived Iraq and Syria of their water rights, and it has blackmailed European countries, repeatedly using the Syrian refugee card. It extends to the states that were formed out of the Soviet Union’s collapse. This approach has led his former and ally and current rival, Ali Babacan, to declare that Erdogan has brought shame to Turkey because of his foreign interventions. Babacan says the meddling has isolated the country from its neighbors in the region, aside from isolating it internationally, pledging that Turkey will free itself of this shame.
After 17 years in power in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party has become akin to the Baath parties in Syria and Iraq. That is, a kinship network of relatives, subordinates and reliable sycophants. The result is that funds are made available to buy S-400, but not wheat. Turkey’s priority has become to bring down the authoritarian reign that has brought hunger, blood and shame. And the latest local elections demonstrate that the potential for change is greater now than it has ever been.

Sorry, Boeing, the Yacht Had to Go
Brooke Sutherland/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
How tight is Boeing Co. on cash? The planemaker is reportedly parting with a luxury mega-yacht it had kept around to wine and dine potential clients. Boeing sold the 130-foot sea cruiser to an unidentified California property developer for $13 million, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. The transaction moved quickly and skipped usual pre-purchase inspections, the business news site said. It’s just the latest in an accelerated dismantling of an American manufacturing powerhouse that just two years ago could seemingly do no wrong.
The aerospace giant continues to grapple with the fallout from the grounding of its top-selling 737 Max jet that has lasted more than 18 months following two fatal crashes and the dramatic plunge in air travel demand during the coronavirus pandemic. Fitch Ratings last week downgraded Boeing’s debt to BBB-, just one level above junk status, while maintaining a negative outlook. The credit-rating company cited expectations that air traffic won’t return to 2019 levels until the end of 2023; that timetable could put further pressure on production rates and hamper Boeing’s ability to clear out a glut of undelivered planes that are piling up in parking lots.
Early on in the pandemic, Boeing toyed with the prospect of a government bailout but ultimately chose to make its own way. That choice was made easier by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive corporate bond-buying program, which kept credit markets open for the company and other borrowers. But there’s no money coming in the door: Boeing burned through more than $5 billion of cash in the third quarter, bringing its year-to-date total to more than $15 billion. As of the end of September, it was sitting on more than $60 billion of debt.
Bond traders clearly see Boeing as a riskier proposition. The cost to insure its debt against default for five years is about 277 basis points, according to ICE Data Services. While that’s certainly better than the 651-basis-point high reached in late March, it compares with an average of just 30 basis points from the start of 2015 through 2019 for the company. By comparison, a five-year credit default swap on Expedia Group Inc., which also has ratings on the brink of junk, trades at 209 basis points, while Southwest Airlines Co., also rated in the triple-B tier, has five-year CDS trading at 136 basis points.
The cash squeeze has forced Boeing to continue adding to an already aggressive cost-cutting plan with new efforts to tighten up its operations and supply chain. That’s leading to more layoffs, with the company announcing in October that it will ultimately trim about 30,000 people from its workforce, a nearly 20% reduction. Having already announced plans to consolidate work on its 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina and shutter a production line at the storied plant in Everett, Washington, Boeing is also weighing whether to divest the industrial park that houses its Seattle-area jetliner headquarters. This is part of a broader review of the company’s real estate holdings, with even the main Chicago offices being assessed, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith told Bloomberg News. All in, the company expects to trim its office space by 30%. It reportedly has some 2.4 million square feet of office space and 124 million square feet of factories and warehouses.
Further underscoring the financial strain, Boeing said last month it would fund the company match for employee 401(k) plans with its own stock, rather than cash, for the foreseeable future.
With that all as the backdrop, the yacht clearly had to go, even though I suspect most Boeing investors are only hearing about the existence of this luxury ship for the first time this week. It’s a throwback to a corporate identity that quite simply no longer exists — Boeing can no longer shower money by the bucketful on its shareholders and would-be airline customers, and it no longer enjoys the kind of prestige that might justify a mega-yacht. Management finally seems to have realized that the Boeing of old is not coming back, so the sooner the legacy of its past excesses is addressed and dealt with, the better. The price tag of $13 million is pennies compared with Boeing’s debt obligations and cash burn, but every bit helps.
Fittingly, the Boeing yacht was named Daedalus. In Greek mythology, Daedalus is the father of Icarus and the maker of the wings his son used to fly too close to the sun. It’s quite the metaphor.

Biden May Be Winning, But America’s Future Isn’t
Francis Wilkinson/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
Two decades ago, when I was working in politics, I ran into a friend in New York after returning from my umpteenth trip to Washington. Election Day was weeks away, and I was tired in the way that political people are tired in the fall of years that end in an even number.
He expressed unease with how little he was engaged in politics. A brilliant actor, he didn’t do much more than vote. I said — with absolute conviction — that we were fortunate to live in a country where art was more important than politics. Places where politics were all consuming and all important were invariably places with big problems.
America is now such a place. The state of US politics is dangerous dysfunction. A new nation is struggling to be born. An old nation is doing all it can to make it a stillbirth. And the toll of that struggle is rising.
“The closeness of today’s party competition is decidedly not normal in American politics,” wrote political scientist Frances E. Lee in 2014. “In fact, the last three decades have seen the longest period of near parity in party competition for control of national institutions since the Civil War.”
The Civil War was not a high water mark for national greatness. And American politics has not improved since 2014.
In many ways, this election went much better than it could have. On Election Day, former Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York emailed me, saying “I fear we may not know who the winner is for weeks to come!! I pray that our nation will not be besieged with chaos and violence!!”
Violence, no. Chaos, yes. President Donald Trump wanted chaos, of course, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that anything that serves Trump’s narrow interests disserves the nation’s. Predictably, he claimed a victory that is not his — saying in a tweet (since flagged by Twitter) that “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the election.”
This is not true, of course. And that’s no small part of the problem that America faces. Democratic politics is conducted via speech — call it “debate” if you are old-fashioned. There can be no functional, let alone healthy, democratic politics if the executive is a fountain of falsehood.
Trump may well be removed after the votes are counted. A Democrat will win the popular vote. Again. And while Joe Biden’s night was not what Democrats had hoped for, it bears some resemblance to election night in 2018, when Florida confounded Democrats yet again but the late-breaking vote in the Midwest and West bolstered a Democratic win. It looks like the Democratic majority in the House is depleted but standing. If the Blue Wall holds in the Upper Midwest, or the right combination of a partial wall with Nevada and Arizona stands, then Biden will be president.
That the popular vote has no bearing on that result is a structural problem that has no solution right now. That Biden may have a Senate with an obstructionist Republican majority is a more pressing concern. As the New York Times reported on the Senate races, “At stake was the ability of the next president to fill his cabinet, appoint judges and pursue his agenda.”
The underlying assumption is that if Democrats do not win total victory across all branches of government, Republicans will make the nation ungovernable while trying to scuttle the economy. As my colleague John Authers wrote: “There will be no big game-changing shift toward fiscal policy and away from monetary domination.”If Trump somehow prevails, America will be well on its way to failed statehood, with a corrupt and incompetent administration that continues to be opposed by a majority of citizens. If Biden prevails, as seems increasingly likely, and the Republicans hold the Senate, Republicans will devote themselves to using the Senate to destroy Biden’s presidency.
There is an enormous grassroots churning in the US right now, from Black Lives Matter to suburban women organizing their neighborhoods. A future is coming into view. Yes, the anti-majoritarian Senate and Electoral College are serious impediments. But scores of millions of Americans voted for Trump. The Republican Party has broad and genuine political support. It appears to have been largely defeated last night. But it was not rebuked, so it will not change. The costs of Republican intransigence will continue to mount.

It's the Fed, Not the White House, That Matters Most in Asia
Daniel Moss/Bloomberg/November 05/2020
Please look beyond the White House for just a few minutes, Asia. The place that matters most for you right now is the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building, a few blocks away on Constitution Ave.
Don’t let the obscurity of the address fool you. From inside these walls a massive exercise in financial stabilization provided the most important foundations for Asia’s economic rebound from the coronavirus-induced slump. By flooding world markets with liquidity and easing a shortage of dollars to key nations, the Fed bought policy makers vital time to plot their response to the pandemic. Without these benign conditions, it’s hard to imagine that places like Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea would have been able to expand their budgets so greatly. Countries could have been forced into bailouts from the International Monetary Fund.
When observers in Asia talk about US elections, the conversation quickly becomes an exercise in navel-gazing. That tends to mean expressions of disapproval at Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese-made goods, wariness about curbs on technology investment or lamentations that Beijing has stolen Washington’s march on the South China Sea. Yes, these are big issues. But they haven’t made the difference between economic resilience and something worse. That hinge point has been the Fed.
The Fed’s brawn doesn’t stem directly from the ballot box. Few in Asia appreciate this exercise in the US’s raw financial muscle. At a five-hour election-watch event in Singapore hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, the Fed barely registered. When it seemed Trump was pulling ahead, the mood in the audience turned dour.
Conversation focused on trade wars, the politics of mask-wearing (in Singapore, it’s compulsory), regulatory enforcement and who might occupy cabinet jobs like secretaries of state, defense and treasury for the next four years.
Quantitative easing, swap lines and the ability to borrow against assets held at the Fed aren’t as sexy as aircraft carriers or as tangible as a more expensive smartphone. Asia’s monetary system, however, depends on the stability of the greenback. Currencies are mostly priced against the buck; more than a few countries have soft pegs to the dollar. By acting promptly at the start of the year, the Fed effectively threw its arms around Asia in the ways previous generations of US officials covered the region in a security umbrella.
Even for China, the exchange rate that matters is the yuan’s value against the dollar. Beijing’s efforts to make the yuan a major world currency have come up short; it accounts for a miniscule portion of global foreign exchange transactions. When it comes to monetary power, China is a minnow.
The Fed’s assertiveness during the pandemic has taken a number of forms. First, the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to near zero and resumed massive bond buying. Officials then approved dollar-swap lines to nine countries, including South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. That allowed those nations to meet the needs of companies and financial institutions rushing for dollars as the global payments system underwent severe strain in March. The Fed established swap lines with the Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and a few others during the global financial crisis a decade earlier. Note these are US allies and partners.
Its next step was to open temporary repurchase agreements that allow monetary authorities to exchange US Treasuries for dollars, which can then be made available to firms in their jurisdictions. Membership of this club was a bit more vague, though it was especially intended for those without a formal swap agreement. You need an account at the New York Fed to apply.
Though a big plus for American influence, the steps also made sense, given the dollar is the linchpin of the world financial system. “It’s not in the US interest to say, ‘Use our currency, borrow in our currency, but if you run out, well, that’s just bad luck,’” said Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, in a telephone interview. “That would be an absolute gift to China.”
The Fed isn’t immune from politics. Fed governors, including the chair, are nominated by the president — who tends to favor low borrowing costs for Americans — and confirmed by the Senate. Trump flirted with the idea of trying to fire Chair Jerome Powell in 2018 because he wasn’t moving fast enough to cut rates. Biden hasn't dwelled on the Fed. He's likely to more closely reflect long-term consensus that presidents shouldn't browbeat it.
And whatever the merits of the Fed’s largesse are to the rest of the world, they have flown largely under the radar. Few, if any, senators are asking which countries have or haven’t benefited — it’s probably better that way.
Could the Fed’s backstop pry Asian countries from the allure of China, the region’s biggest economy? No. Nor will many leaders flat-out knock back foreign direct investment from Chinese firms. But the power of the greenback will keep the hedging game in Asia going a good while longer.

But What About the Muslims Themselves?
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/November 05/2020
There was no scarcity of comparisons between the Islamic anger directed at France and that which is directed at China, Myanmar and India. In France, a series of crimes ensued after a caricature was displayed. In some parts of the Muslim world, demonstrations in protest erupted and calls for boycotting products were made. In China, Myanmar, and India, punishments are divided between concentration camps, prisons, laws, and murders that exclusively target Muslims. But the anger was nonetheless contained and its expression, even more so.
Certainly, a role is played by governments and states which, in pursuit of their interests and those of their leaders, respond in one instance and do not do so in the other. Today, the Turkish government most exemplifies this politicking. And perhaps what is described as the Islamic- European relationship’s sensitivity, a complicated, multifaceted and longstanding issue, also partially explains this. Muslims do not have a similarly dense historical relationship with China, Myanmar, or India.
However, something else is likely more important. Since copies of Salman Rushdi’s Satanic Verses were burnt in Britain in 1989, no large protest movements, to say nothing about acts of violence, have been directed at the racism to which Muslim individuals or groups are subjected. No sharp popular objections to legislation that could harm Muslims emerged. Actions of this kind were exclusively directed against books, drawings, and articles that were said to have targeted Islam as a religion and doctrine… The terrorists behind 9/11, the pinnacle of the confrontation with the “West”, invoked US troops’ presence on Muslim land and suffering they said that Muslim peoples had been subjected to at the hands of eternal enemies, “Crusaders” and “Jews”. But they didn’t mention the conditions of individual Muslims in stable societies once. They had no political program or economic plan for those Muslims. This is not even relevant for an organization like Al-Qaeda; neither stability, nor politics, nor economics are in its dictionary. September 11 has become a significant milestone in what were considered cultural civilizational and identitarian wars and in globalizing those wars.
More to the point, in the Islamic reactions to the West, especially to France, concepts, beliefs, or causes totally overshadowed individuals and groups. Islam, according to their interpretation of it, is the sole concern. Muslims are not of concern whatsoever. Their Islam has no room for Muslims.
We find something similar in the way the Palestinian cause and Palestinians are dealt with, as the cause alone is sanctified and incites collective outrage. The Aqsa Mosque and the rhetorical insistence on praying in it are the most eloquent symbols of this view. Even the atheists among the Palestinian cause’s supporters, from time to time, are struck by an overwhelming urge to pray in this particular mosque. As for Palestinians and how they are treated in this or that country, these matters are of no importance. Thus, for example, it becomes possible for a regime like the one in Syria to be venerated and praised for its declared stance on the cause. As for its stance on Palestinians, whom it went about killing and tyrannizing, no consideration is paid to it.
In all of this, we face, time after time, a political culture centred on causes and concepts, not people. The cause is inflated, and the people are flattened. This, among other things, undermines the potential for improving the conditions of Muslims in democratic Western societies. No efforts are put to enhance their lives there, or taking certain measures and engaging in certain behaviors like increasing their turnout in elections, for example, with the electoral alliances and the ensuing changes in the balances of power, legislation, and decision making. Of course, very little is usually being said about immigration, residency, and work with utilitarian considerations... all of this is not seen as relevant. It’s almost nobody’s concern.
The distance between Muslim individuals and their European societies thereby grows, while concern with shortening it is entirely absent. In the end, alongside the proliferation of criminal defenses of the cause, comes populists and racists like Marine Le Pen’s advance to the forefront, and European Muslims suffer by the then catastrophic consequences. Meanwhile, we would have defied and resisted “the enemies of Islam” and attained victory for the cause!
This tendency finds a sap in a kind of cultural production that is pervasive in our communities. One that focuses on “representation”, “representing our image” and how “covering Islam” in Western media, or it affirms the necessary abandonment of Western technology and Western Orientalism that we must embark on, perhaps of Western medicine as well. In these bogus battles, we attain “victories” that resemble the “divine victories” we achieved in our military confrontations. With all of that, only the “war on terror” and Islamophobia are needed to finish the job. Both deal with Muslims as though they are one individual, making it all but impossible for Muslims to be individuals.

How a Fiercely Christian Nation Became Fanatically Islamic
Raymond Ibrahim/November 05/2020
One of the benefits of Adel Guindy’s new book, A Sword Over the Nile: A Brief History of the Copts Under Islamic Rule, is that it implicitly answers an important question: how and why did non-Muslim nations become Islamic? In this case, how did Egypt go from being overwhelmingly Christian in the seventh century, to being overwhelmingly Muslim in the twenty-first century?
To understand the significance of this question—and because pre-Islamic Egypt’s profoundly Christian nature is often forgotten—a brief primer is in order:
Before Islam invaded it, Egypt was home to some of Christendom’s earliest theological giants and church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria (b. 150), Origen the Great (b. 184), Anthony the Great, father of monasticism (b. 251), and Athanasius of Alexandria (b. 297), the chief defender of the Nicene Creed, which is still professed by all major Christian denominations. The Catechetical School of Alexandria was the most important ecclesiastical and learning center of ancient Christendom.
Writing around the year 400, and further indicative of how thoroughly Christian pre-Islamic Egypt was, John Cassian, a European, observed that “the traveler from Alexandria in the north to Luxor in the south would have in his ears along the whole journey, the sounds of prayers and hymns of the monks, scattered in the desert, from the monasteries and from the caves, from monks, hermits, and anchorites.”
Some Europeans, such as the British historian and archaeologist Stanley Lane-Poole (d. 1931), even claim that Coptic missionaries were first to bring the Gospel to distant regions of Europe, including Switzerland, Britain, and especially Ireland. Most recently, both the oldest parchment to contain words from the Gospel (dating to the first century) and the oldest image of Christ were discovered in separate regions of Egypt.
Accordingly, something very dramatic, very cataclysmic—namely, violent persecution, as made clear by page after page of A Sword Over the Nile, which chronicles fourteen centuries of Islamic rule—was responsible for transforming Christian Egypt into Muslim Egypt.
Should anyone consider the Coptic sources of being biased against Islam, it is worth noting that Muslim sources often confirm them. For instance, in Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi’s (d. 1442) authoritative history of Egypt, anecdote after anecdote is recorded of Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving Coptic women and children—often with the compliance if not outright cooperation of the authorities. The only escape then—as sometimes today—was for Christians to convert to Islam.
Indeed, after recording one particularly egregious bout of persecution in the eleventh century, when, along with countless massacres, some 30,000 churches, according to Maqrizi, were destroyed or turned into mosques—a staggering number that further indicates how Christian pre-Islamic Egypt was—the Muslim historian makes an interesting observation: “Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims.” (One can almost hear the triumphant “Allahu Akbars”.)
Yet physical violence was not alone in making such a fiercely Christian nation become Islamic. The dhimma system, Islam’s discriminatory rules for governing Christian and Jewish subjects (based largely on Koran 9:29 and the so-called Conditions of Omar), while providing some religious freedom, also stipulated a number of fiscal burdens (jizya), social inequality, and a host of other disabilities that, decade after decade, century after century, saw more and more Copts convert to Islam to alleviate their burdens and achieve some semblance of equality.
Thus, in his The Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902), historian Alfred Butler mentions the “vicious system of bribing the Christians into conversion,” before elaborating:
[A]lthough religious freedom was in theory secured for the Copts under the capitulation, it soon proved in fact to be shadowy and illusory. For a religious freedom which became identified with social bondage and with financial bondage could have neither substance nor vitality. As Islam spread, the social pressure upon the Copts became enormous, while the financial pressure at least seemed harder to resist, as the number of Christians or Jews who were liable for the poll-tax [jizya] diminished year by year, and their isolation became more conspicuous. . . . [T]he burdens of the Christians grew heavier in proportion as their numbers lessened [that is, the more Christians converted to Islam, the more the burdens on the remaining few grew]. The wonder, therefore, is not that so many Copts yielded to the current which bore them with sweeping force over to Islam, but that so great a multitude of Christians stood firmly against the stream, nor have all the storms of thirteen centuries moved their faith from the rock of its foundation.
Such is the forgotten history of the Copts’ diminution: that ten percent of Egypt is still Christian is not a reflection of Muslim tolerance, as many apologists claim, but intolerance. While the lives of many Christians were snuffed out over centuries of violence, the spiritual and cultural identities of exponentially more were wiped out in their conversion to Islam. (Such is the sad and ironic cycle that plagues modern Egypt: those Muslims who persecute Christians are themselves often distant descendants of Copts who first embraced Islam to evade their own persecution.)
In short, if it were not for the Copts’ stubborn resilience and endurance, Christianity would have been wiped out altogether from Egypt—just as it was in the rest of North Africa, which, before the seventh century Islamic conquests, was also thoroughly Christian.
In connection, it is interesting to note that, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the U.N. General Assembly on December 9, 1948), both violent and nonviolent pressures are deemed factors of genocide. “Killing” and causing “serious bodily or mental harm” to members of any group of people—in this case, “infidel” Copts—are the first two legal definitions of genocide. The third definition of Resolution 260 encapsulates the “slow-motion genocide” that typifies Coptic history under Islam: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” (emphasis added).
That is precisely what the aptly called Conditions of Omar does. It imposes negative “conditions of life calculated” to prompt the Copts to abandon their Christian identities/heritage in order to reap the benefits of joining Islam—which includes the cessation of persecution and discrimination, as A Sword Over the Nile makes abundantly clear.
*Raymond Ibrahim is author of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (2018); Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013); and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). He is a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the Middle East Forum, and the Gatestone Institute.

Two steps Europe must take to deal with Islamist terrorism
Con Coughlin/The National/November 05/2020
With most European countries struggling to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the latest wave of terror attacks in several cities on the continent has provided an unwelcome reminder of the threat posed by Islamist militants.
And, to judge from the response of leading politicians to the upsurge in violence, there is a renewed determination to take a more robust approach in tackling the extremist ideology, a policy that, if not handled with care, risks alienating the majority of law-abiding Muslims who reside in the European Union.
After the recent attacks in the French cities of Paris and Nice, Austria has become the latest country to find itself the target of Islamist extremists after a 20-year-old gumnan killed four people and wounded 22 others before he was shot dead by police on Monday night.
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Armed with a pistol, a machete and a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle, the attacker, named as Kujtim Fejzulai, an Austrian citizen from the Vienna suburb of Modling, went on the rampage through the “party mile” of Vienna’s old town, targeting crowds enjoying a night out before the new virus lockdown.
Responding to the attack, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called on Europe to form a common front in what he calls a “war on Islamism”. He says he will push for such an alliance during the European Leaders Meet this month.
Speaking to the German newspaper Die Welt, Mr Kurz said: “I expect an end to the misconceived tolerance, and for all the nations of Europe to finally realise how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.”
Mr Kurz’s call comes in the aftermath of French President Emmanuel Macron’s uncompromising condemnation of extremists in the wake of the attacks in Paris and Nice.
After the Notre Dame basilica attack in Nice, in which three people were murdered by a Tunisian immigrant, Mr Macron vowed to continue the campaign against extremists, claiming that the attacks had been carried out in protest against “the values that are ours, for our taste for freedom, for this possibility on our soil to believe freely and not to give in to any spirit of terror. And I say it. with great clarity once again today: we will not give up".
While it is true that many European countries – including France – have been reluctant to curb the activities of organisations such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, there are also measures that governments can undertake to prevent further attacks, such as improving their own security arrangements.
In Austria, for example, it emerged that the Vienna attacker had been released early from prison in December after serving two thirds of a 22-month term for trying to join ISIS in Syria. While the early evidence collected by the interior ministry suggests that the gunman acted alone, there are suspicions that he may have been in contact with extremists in other parts of Austria and neighbouring Switzerland. And even though Fejzulai was on a watch list by Austria’s BVT counterterrorism agency, he was still allowed to travel to Slovakia in July, where he bought assault rifle ammunition.
Questions about the effectiveness of security forces have also been raised by the Nice attack, where it now transpires that the terror suspect had arrived by train from Italy, which he had reached from Tunisia after being picked up by a humanitarian organisation in the Mediterranean.
The ease with which the Paris and Vienna attackers were able to operate inevitably raises questions about Europe’s open border policies as dictated by the Schengen Agreement.
But the uncompromising attitude of some European leaders to the latest terrorist incidents also raises fears that they might be in danger of over-reacting to the scale of the threat. Germany’s Free Democrats centre-right opposition party, for instance, has called on Chancellor Angelo Merkel to “stand firm” with her French and Austrian counterparts.
It is, however, important that leaders maintain a sense of proportion. After all, the overwhelming majority of the estimated 20 million Muslims residing in the EU are law-abiding citizens who have no interest in supporting the radical agenda espoused by militant groups. Any attempt to crack down on the extremists, therefore, must be done in a manner that does not alienate or disrupt the lives of this majority.
And, if Europe is about taking effective measures to stem the activities of extremists, then it should concentrate its focus on countries that support and encourage militant activities. Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah would struggle to survive without the backing they receive from Turkey, Qatar and Iran. So Europe must start by holding these countries accountable for their actions.
For too long, Europe has turned a blind eye to the support these countries provide in the hope that, by maintaining a dialogue with them, they will be persuaded to mend their ways. It was mainly for this reason that the conclusions of a controversial report commissioned by the British government into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood were never published.
Therefore, if Europe is really serious about tackling the militant threat, a good place to start would be to challenge the countries that provide them with the funds and support they need to flourish.
*Con Coughlin is a defence and foreign affairs columnist for The National