English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 08/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish
John 10/22-42: “At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.The Father and I are one.’ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”?If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods” and the scripture cannot be annulled. can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’And many believed in him there.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 07-08/2020

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
Aoun congratulates President-elect Biden
Lebanon's president seeks evidence behind U.S. sanctions on son-in-law
President Aoun asks for evidence and documents which prompted US Treasury to press charges against MP Bassil
More Lebanese officials to face sanctions after Gebran Bassil/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/November 07/2020
FPM Denounces U.S. Sanctions against its Leader
Sit-in outside BDL
FPM organizes symbolic vehicle protest in demand for forensic audit
FPM polit-bureau rejects U.S. sanctions: New sacrifices for country's higher interest
Mustaqbal MP Says Aoun-Hariri Govt Cooperation Proceeding
UN Warns of Famine Risk in World Hotspots, Acute Hunger in Lebanon
US sanctions Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Christian politician/Zeina Karam/The Associated Press /November 07/2020
US judge may reject Ghosn's accused escape plotters' attempt to avoid extradition
How the port explosion rubbed raw Beirut’s psychological scars
Rebecca Anne Proctor/Arab News/November 08/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 07-08/2020

Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump, becomes 46th president of United States
Trump refuses to admit defeat, continues court battles as Biden prevails in election
Trump's Attacks on Mail-in Ballots Rankle Some Military Vets
Trump Faces Tough Road in Getting Supreme Court to Intervene
Joe Biden wins US presidency: All you need to know about the 77-year-old politician
'Welcome back America!' World celebrates Biden-Harris US election win
Incoming US President Biden may differ with Israel’s Netanyahu on Iran, settlements
Palestinians welcome Trump exit, but are cautious about newly elected Biden
Iran hopes for a change in ‘destructive’ US policies under Biden’s presidency
Iran judiciary says jailed rights lawyer Sotoudeh given furlough
UK, EU warn Israel over West Bank evictions, demolitions
Hundreds in Baghdad demand ouster of US troops from Iraq
Six Countries Reported Coronavirus on Mink Farms, WHO Says
UAE Announces Relaxing of Islamic Laws for Personal Freedoms

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 07-08/2020

Islamism and Maverick Terrorism/Charles Elias Chartouni/November 07/2020
Erdoğan's Jihad on "Infidel Europe"/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/November 07/2020
The incendiaries: How Pakistan and Turkey fan the flames of Islamic anger/Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/November 07/2020
Why US election results will have little effect on the Syrian conflict/Adelle Nazarian/Arab News/November 08/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 07-08/2020

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/November 07/2020
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions, Saturday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900

Aoun congratulates President-elect Biden
NNA/November 07/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, sent a congratulatory message to the newly-elected US President, Joe Biden, for gaining the confidence of the people of the United States and being elected as President. President Aoun expressed his hope that during Biden’s Presidential era, “Balance in the Lebanese-US relations would return to the good of the Lebanese and friendly US peoples”. ---- Presidency Press Office
 

Lebanon's president seeks evidence behind U.S. sanctions on son-in-law
BEIRUT (Reuters)/November 07/2020
President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that Lebanon would seek evidence and documents from the United States that led Washington to impose sanctions on his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, a prominent Christian politician.
The United States on Friday blacklisted Bassil, leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political bloc, accusing him of corruption and ties to the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah movement that Washington deems a terrorist group. Aoun asked Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister, Charbel Wehbe, to obtain evidence and documents that should be submitted to Lebanon’s judiciary “to take the necessary legal measures”, the presidency tweeted. In September, Aoun issued similar directives after Washington blacklisted two former government ministers over accusations of aiding Hezbollah.
Bassil, who harbours presidential ambitions, heads the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) founded by Aoun and has served as minister of telecoms, of energy and water and of foreign affairs. “Sanctions have not scared me nor promises tempted me,” Bassil said in a Twitter post following the announcement.
The FPM has a political alliance with Hezbollah, which has become Lebanon’s most powerful political force. Bassil has defended the group as vital to the defence of Lebanon. Hezbollah condemned the sanctions as blatant interference aimed at forcing U.S. “dictates” on Lebanon. [L1N2HS2C9]
The sanctions could complicate efforts by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri to navigate Lebanon’s sectarian politics and assemble a cabinet to tackle a financial meltdown, the country’s worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war and which is rooted in endemic corruption, waste and mismanagement. The U.S. Treasury Department accused Bassil of being at the “forefront of corruption in Lebanon”. A senior U.S. official said Bassil’s support for the armed group Hezbollah was “every bit of the motivation” for targeting him for sanctions. Bassil was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets human rights abuses and corruption around the world.

President Aoun asks for evidence and documents which prompted US Treasury to press charges against MP Bassil
NNA/November 07/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Charbel Wahba, to make the necessary contacts with the US embassy in Beirut and the Lebanese embassy in Washington, to obtain the evidence and documents which prompted the US Treasury to press charges and impose sanctions against the chairman of the Free Patriotic Movement, former minister, MP Gebran Bassil, asserting that this evidence should be handed over to the Lebanese judiciary in order to take the necessary legal measures.
The President pointed out that he will directly follow up this case, leading to the necessary trials in the event that any data are available on these accusations. --- Presidency Press office
 

More Lebanese officials to face sanctions after Gebran Bassil
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/November 07/2020
*No Lebanese politician should be feeling happy, says US source
*Bassil tried to reason with the Americans but they would have have none of it, the source added
NEW YORK: Gebran Bassil may be the first Lebanese politician to be subjected to sanctions under the Magnitsky Act — designed to punish corruption and human rights violations — but he certainly won’t be the only one. According to a US official source — who asked to remain anonymous — 23 other Lebanese politicians and individuals have also been blacklisted. Two months ago, the State Department contacted those designated — in addition to Bassil — and set an ultimatum for them to alter behavior or face isolation through sanctions. The official told Arab News that, while four managed to get off the list, the other 19 had tried to get around the requirements “by going around, offering to strike deals, hoping to outsmart the US administration.” Some with close ties to Bassil did not relent in “backstabbing Bassil, thinking that would get them off the hook. It didn’t work out.” However, the official warned that “no Lebanese politician should be feeling happy. Some of the individuals blacklisted are close to Saad Hariri (the Lebanese Prime Minister), as well. So, no one feels happy about Bassil’s misfortune. Many more Lebanese politicians and their allies will follow. All corruption will be met with sanctions.” He added that the State Department contacted Bassil again ten days ago and asked him to publicly distance himself from Hezbollah. Bassil, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, who is at the center of government formation effort, tried to reason with the Americans: His alliance with Hezbollah could yield benefits that are otherwise impossible to achieve, arguing about the important role he played in facilitating the maritime borders talks between Israel and Lebanon. But the Americans would have none of it. That was the last Bassil heard from them before sanctions were enacted. On Friday, Bassil said on Twitter that he was not “scared” of the sanctions and had not been “tempted” by promises. In September, the US blacklisted two ex-Lebanese government ministers, Hassan Khalil and Youssef Fenianos for providing material support for Hezbollah and engaging in government corruption.

FPM Denounces U.S. Sanctions against its Leader
Naharnet/November 07/2020
The Free Patriotic Movement denounced in a statement on Saturday the US Treasury sanctions imposed on its leader and former minister Jebran Bassil. The FPM said sanctions on the President’s son-in-law, Bassil are only part of a “slander campaign,” and that a US domestic law is being “exploited to retaliate against a political leader for complying to his principles, convictions, and national choices.”The U.S. Treasury on Friday slapped sanctions on Bassil, a leading Christian political ally of the Hizbullah, singling him out for what it said was his role in corruption. Bassil has emerged as a major target of Lebanese protesters who thronged streets in an uprising last year over endemic corruption and state mismanagement. The Treasury designation did not mention Bassil's alliance or links to Hizbullah, but the sanctions targeting him appeared to be part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran and its allies in the region. Hizbullah condemned the US Treasury's imposition of sanctions on Bassil, saying it considered the move to be a "political decision and a blatant and blunt interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon."U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, said Bassil contributes to a prevailing system of corruption and political patronage in Lebanon that has “aided and abetted Hizbullah’s destabilizing activities.”

Sit-in outside BDL
NNA/November 07/2020
Protesters organized a sit-in outside the Central Bank in Hamra this afternoon, demanding that the necessary files be handed over to the company in charge of the forensic audit. Demonstrators also called for "denouncing the banking policies adopted by the Central Bank Governor," raising slogans that read "no to banking secrecy over stolen money," and "no to escaping forensic audit under false pretenses," and "no to protecting any perpetrator or corrupt."

FPM organizes symbolic vehicle protest in demand for forensic audit
NNA/November 07/2020
The "Free Patriotic Movement" organized a symbolic protest using cars this afternoon, which demanded "proceeding with the forensic audit."Participants adhered to the COVID-19 preventive measures, while simultaneously raising their rightful demands. More than 250 cars took part in the protest, bearing slogans calling for "the need to proceed with the forensic audit because it is an essential step towards reform," and to "eliminate the obstacles placed by the corrupt who fear the truth that would expose them." Participants disclosed that their march will be followed by other political, legislative and popular moves, no matter the challenges and difficulties.

FPM polit-bureau rejects U.S. sanctions: New sacrifices for country's higher interest
NNA/November 07/2020
The "Free Patriotic Movement" political body announced, in a statement today, "the complete rejection of the American sanctions against the FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil," and considered them "a clear slander and use of an American law to take revenge on a political leader for refusing to obey what goes against his principles, convictions, and national options."The political bureau unanimously affirmed its full solidarity with the President of the Movement, including whom and what he represents.
"The political body regrets that the American administration, while on the threshold of the end of the presidential term, using the prestige, influence and power of its country to break a free Lebanese will, in contradiction to the values of freedom and democracy that have always united Americans with the Lebanese," the statement undersocred. The statement also called on the US administration to revert its unjust decision, urging it to show any evidence, documents or information in its possession that justifies its decision. The statement concluded that the Free Patriotic Movement will continue to adhere to its principles, and the unfair sanctions to which its president was subjected are a new sacrifice for the sake of Lebanon's greater interest in its security and stability.

Mustaqbal MP Says Aoun-Hariri Govt Cooperation Proceeding
Naharnet/November 07/2020
Al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc MP Samir el-Jisr assured that PM-designate Saad Hariri is still working “under the guidance” of the French initiative, and will not step back from his mission to form a government despite a stalemate, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Saturday.
“Hariri is working on easing all the obstacles facing the formation process, which currently seem linked to naming the ministers,” for ministerial portfolios, said Jisr. He said Hariri is “open to suggestions and names of highly qualified candidates from all parties, provided they are not partisans ,” added Jisr. Hariri pledged to form a government of technocrats committed to a French initiative proposed by President Emmanuel Macron, to draw Lebanon out of crisis. Jisr voiced optimism saying “the formation process has gone a good way,” affirming good “cooperation between President Michel Aoun and Hariri,” in that regard. He concluded saying that the crisis-laden country “does not tolerate any delay,” and a resignation of Hariri “is a deadly delay.” Aoun's press office on Friday said the President held a meeting with Hariri and discussed "various points related to the cabinet line-up," noting that "talks will continue over the coming days."

UN Warns of Famine Risk in World Hotspots, Acute Hunger in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 07/2020
A new report by two United Nations agencies warned Friday of a heightened risk of famine in three conflict-torn African states and Yemen, and a high hunger risk in 16 more. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) warned that a "toxic combination of conflict, economic decline, climate extremes and the Covid-19 pandemic ... is driving people further into the emergency phase of food insecurity". The agencies swung the spotlight on Burkina Faso, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, all facing rising levels of acute hunger with potential risk of famine. Issuing "a stark warning" in their Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots, the agencies said the four countries have areas that could soon slip into famine. Some parts of the population "are already experiencing a critical hunger situation", whereby any reduction in humanitarian access could lead to a risk of famine, they said. Another 16 states are "at high risk of rising levels of acute hunger", the agencies said. Those countries are Venezuela, Haiti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and Afghanistan. In the case of the DRC, around 22 million are food insecure -- "the highest number ever registered for a single country." The agencies said the global health crisis, extreme weather patterns and conflict had exacerbated hunger.
Only fast action could avoid a first outbreak of famine since 2017, which struck parts of South Sudan, they said. "This report is a clear call to urgent action," said Dominique Burgeon, the FAO’s director of emergencies and resilience. "We are deeply concerned about the combined impact of several crises which are eroding people’s ability to produce and access food, leaving them more and more at risk of the most extreme hunger." "We are at a catastrophic turning point," said Margot van der Velden, WFP's director of emergencies. Noting some 260,000 people died in a 2011 famine in Somalia she said simply: "We cannot let this happen again. We have a stark choice; urgent action today, or unconscionable loss of life tomorrow."

US sanctions Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Christian politician
Zeina Karam/The Associated Press /November 07/2020
BEIRUT — The U.S. Treasury on Friday slapped sanctions on Lebanon’s former foreign minister and a leading Christian political ally of the militant Hezbollah group, singling him out for what it said was his role in corruption.
Gebran Bassil, a lawmaker who leads the largest bloc in parliament and a son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, has emerged as a major target of Lebanese protesters who thronged streets in an uprising last year over endemic corruption and state mismanagement.
The Treasury designation did not mention Bassil’s alliance or links to Hezbollah, but the sanctions targeting him appeared to be part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran and its allies in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, said Bassil contributes to a prevailing system of corruption and political patronage in Lebanon that has “aided and abetted Hezbollah’s destabilizing activities.”
The United States has been sanctioning Hezbollah officials for years, and recently began targeting politicians close to the group. In September, the Treasury imposed sanctions on two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers allied with the militant group in a strong message to Hezbollah and its allies who control majority seats in Parliament.
Friday’s announcement is a major expansion of the scope of sanctions targeting Hezbollah’s political partners in Lebanon.
“The systemic corruption in Lebanon’s political system exemplified by Bassil has helped to erode the foundation of an effective government that serves the Lebanese people,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. Immediately after the designation, Bassil tweeted that the sanctions do not frighten him. “I have gotten used to injustice and learned from our history: It is our fate in this Orient to carry our cross every day ... in order to survive,” he tweeted. Hezbollah called it a purely political decision and blatant interference in Lebanese affairs. It said the U.S., “which supports and sponsors corrupt dictatorial states around the world, is the last country that has the right to speak of fighting corruption.” The announcement came as the world anxiously awaited the result of U.S. elections and Donald Trump’s pathway to reelection appeared to shrink. It also comes as Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is struggling to form a new government in Lebanon, which has been hit by the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Hariri’s government was toppled by the anti-corruption protests in November last year but he has recently been tasked by Aoun to form a new government. There have been concerns that sanctioning Bassil, a major power broker in Lebanon, would further complicate Hariri’s mission. Bassil has held several high-level posts in the Lebanese government, serving as the minister of telecommunications, energy and water and as foreign minister at various intervals over the past two decades. He also heads the Free Patriotic Movement, the Christian party founded by Aoun, and is a top advisor to the president. The Treasury designation described him as being “at the forefront of corruption” in Lebanon, accusing him of being involved in approving several projects that would have steered Lebanese government funds to individuals close to him through a group of front companies, while minister of energy in 2014. Bassil was targeted under the Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012 initially in response to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials. The law named after him was expanded and allows the U.S. to target any foreigner accused of human rights violations and corruption.

US judge may reject Ghosn's accused escape plotters' attempt to avoid extradition
Reuters/Thursday 05 November 2020
A federal judge in Boston said on Thursday she would likely reject a last-ditch effort by two men to avoid being extradited to Japan to face charges that they helped former Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee the country. US District Judge Indira Talwani said she was leaning toward concluding that the US State Department needed to take an additional step before allowing US Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, to be handed over to Japan. But that step, which involves certifying its compliance with obligations to not extradite people to countries where they could face torture, “isn’t a very heavy lift,” Talwani said. Assuming the department did so, Talwani said she likely would rule against the Taylors. She voiced skepticism of their lawyers’ arguments that they could not be prosecuted in Japan for helping someone “bail jump.” “What we have here is set of conduct that is a crime here and looks like is a crime there,” she said. Talwani said she would hold off on lifting an order she issued last week temporarily blocking their extradition until she formally ruled. Defense lawyer Tillman Finley said the Taylors would appeal any ruling against them.
The Taylors were arrested in May at Japan’s request. The State Department informed their lawyers last week it had approved turning them over. Prosecutors say the Taylors helped Ghosn flee Japan on Dec. 29, 2019, hidden in a box and on a private jet before reaching his childhood home, Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Ghosn was awaiting trial on charges that he engaged in financial wrongdoing, including by understating his compensation in Nissan’s financial statements. Ghosn has denied wrongdoing. Prosecutors said the elder Taylor, a private security specialist, and his son received $1.3 million for their services.

How the port explosion rubbed raw Beirut’s psychological scars
Rebecca Anne Proctor/Arab News/November 08/2020
ريبيكا آن بروكتور/ عرب نيوز: تقرير عن كيفية تحريك انفجار مرفأ بيروت ندوب المدينة
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92193/rebecca-anne-proctor-how-the-port-explosion-rubbed-raw-beiruts-psychological-scars-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83%d8%a7-%d8%a2%d9%86-%d8%a8%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%83%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%b1-%d8%b9%d8%b1/

*Months on from the port explosion, Lebanese struggle to deal with adversity and despair in the absence of accountability
*Mental-health workers tell of explosion’s lasting impact, made worse by coronavirus restrictions and economic calamity
BEIRUT: Almost half a century since Lebanon became embroiled in civil war, bullet-scarred buildings stand throughout Beirut as reminders of the city’s darker times alongside glistening towers signifying hope and renewal. And yet, like some great historical leveling, the port blast of Aug. 4 has indiscriminately left its scars on the city’s skyline, paying little heed to a building’s age or appearance.
The situation at ground level is scarcely any different. Beirut’s battered streets are a veritable metaphor for the emotional wounds of its people as they pick over the ruins of their economy, enduring constant power cuts and a new wave of coronavirus infections. The government is widely seen as ineffective and apathetic to demands for change.
“The physical wounds heal but the emotional ones take much longer to heal — I am not sure how we will ever get over what happened without justice,” said Ibana Carapiperis, 24, a volunteer with the Lebanese Red Cross, recalling the summer’s day when nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate caught fire. The resulting blast killed 204 and left around 6,500 injured. Public outcry forced the government of Hassan Diab to resign.
“My emotions are still very hard to process from that day. Every time I try and understand my emotions, I feel like I could break at any minute. The blast is still so fresh after three months. It feels like it was yesterday,” Carapiperis added.
Oct. 17 marked one year since the “thawra” — or “revolution” in Arabic — when thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to demand political and economic change, forcing Prime Minister Saad Hariri to stand down. Yet the mood was different when they returned this year — dimmed by months of grinding hardship and defeat.
Many thawra hard-liners did not even attend. “What thawra?” asked one.
“We need unity, we need a leader. We are lost now,” said another.
And just a few days after the revolution’s commemoration, when Mustapha Adib failed to win support for his non-partisan cabinet, Lebanon’s political class chose to return Hariri to office — compounding the revolutionaries’ sense of powerlessness. On Oct. 21, purported Hariri supporters even set fire to the “Revolution Fist” sculpture in Martyrs’ Square. It was quickly replaced the following morning by activists who refused to give up.
“What gives me hope is to know that people are still fighting every day, going to the streets to continue the revolution to try and change the system,” said Carapiperis. “This is not something we can just get over in a few days, weeks or months.”
Her diagnosis is corroborated by colleagues. “Not all wounds are visible, whether to a body or a beloved city,” said Marco Baldan, a Red Cross surgeon who helped coordinate the emergency response, in a statement. “On top of the horrific physical injuries that are being treated in hospitals, people risk developing huge, hidden scars unless they are supported through the psychological consequences of this catastrophe. Mental health support is a vital part of the medical response.”
The explosion occurred when Lebanon was already in a state of hopelessness, following months in the grip of the COVID-19 outbreak and economic turmoil. People had lost jobs, businesses and savings; the situation contributed to a rise in depression, suicidal thoughts and despair among the population.
“People are mentally not okay,” Rona Halabi, a Red Cross spokesperson in Beirut, told Arab News. “There were at least 300,000 people who lost their homes so you can only imagine the stress that this has caused. We believe mental health is as important as physical health.
“After being injured physically, wounds will start to heal eventually, but what you will remember of this terrible incident will never go away. People need to learn tools to cope with the trauma and move on with their lives.”
Mental health workers say survivors are still far from okay — made worse by the loneliness of coronavirus restrictions.
“Once the pandemic started, anti-coronavirus measures like lockdown and curfew hit people’s traditional coping mechanisms, such as gathering socially and seeing friends, sharing their worries and frustrations,” said Isabel Rivera Marmolejo, the mental health delegate for the Red Cross in Lebanon. “Now, the explosion is one more crushing blow.”
LEBANON IN NUMBERS
At 155%, Lebanon’s debt-GDP ratio is the world’s third highest.
Public debt projected to touch 167% in 2021.
Inflation was expected to average 20% in 2020.
A special hotline was established after the blast to help people dealing with trauma in place of face-to-face counselling. However, even Lebanese psychologists who experienced the blast say they have been affected.
“Lebanese psychologists are also struggling with the trauma,” Myrna Gannage, psychology department director at Beirut’s Saint Joseph University, told Arab News.
She suffered non-life threatening injuries in the blast, but remains troubled by her experience. “I never in my life saw anything like this,” she said. “We as Lebanese have lost our sense of mental equilibrium. We are still lost. There is a lack of hope and a constant fear of uncertainty in the Lebanese people.”
Gannage added: “The Beirut explosions reactivated psychological wounds from the civil war. We are very fragile right now.”
So, how do you help people who have lost hope? “We must guide them to use their own individualistic resources,” said Gannage. “Lebanese society does not offer anything for the people — people are left to rely on their own means of survival. It is not easy to help people today. As psychologists we can listen to people as much as possible, but even we don’t have the same hope that we once did.”
Largely forced to fend for themselves, many Beirut residents simply need time to come to terms with what has happened and to find healthy ways to keep their minds occupied.
“I encouraged people to keep moving and to stick to routines and not to expect high levels of productivity from themselves,” said Gisele Chaine, a Lebanese psychologist with the Red Cross.
“People needed to go back slowly to everyday life. The people I am still speaking with over the phone are having less symptoms linked to trauma now, such as nightmares, lack of productivity and low concentration.”
It often depends on the level of individual resilience. “Sometimes, all they needed was someone to talk to. They needed to have a safe space over the phone,” Chaine said.
Perhaps a glimmer of hope lies in the numerous non-governmental organizations and support groups that were established in the wake of the blast. Many Lebanese, it seems, are finding a sense of purpose in helping to rebuild their community, even in the absence of government support. But then again, many others are choosing to leave the country to escape the trauma and the deepening economic malaise.
“Some families are still in the mountains and haven’t yet been able to go back to their houses in Beirut for fear of being in their damaged homes and being close to the site of the explosion,” said Mia Atwi, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of Embrace, a suicide prevention helpline launched in 2013.
“There’s a lot of hopelessness, there’s a lot of despair. There are many people who have been working on leaving Lebanon. On the phone you hear people that are anxious, depressed, hopeless and feeling unsafe and feeling very confused.”
For many Lebanese, closure will only be found once some kind of justice and accountability is achieved.
“Part of the healing process for most of us is to have social justice,” said Atwi. “This is not an event you can heal from using only trauma therapy. The explosions were a political event as well. They are the result of the incompetence of the government that we are living under. We need to know who was responsible for this and hold them accountable.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 07-08/2020

Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump, becomes 46th president of United States
Tuqa Khalid and Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Saturday 07 November 2020
Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump on Saturday to become the 46th president of the United States, in a rare upset where a sitting US president loses the reelection bid. Despite being a closer call than most pundits and pollsters projected, Biden garnered 284 electoral votes compared to Trump's 214, according to an Associated Press tally of the voting by 538 electors across the country. Trump became the first president to lose reelection since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992. As the 46th US president, Biden is expected to push Washington back in the direction of former President Barack Obama’s liberal agenda. The Trump campaign was quick to push the election into litigation, filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. They have also demanded a recount in Wisconsin. Even before the last few states - Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Alaska – were called for either candidate, Trump claimed on Twitter that “there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” Twitter hid that tweet and added an advisory to it saying: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” It was one of several of Trump’s tweets about the election that were hidden and labeled as “disputed and misleading.” This year’s election was overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 230,000 people in the US.
Due to the rapid spread of the virus - something that may have cost Trump the election - the widespread use of mail-in ballots was adopted by millions of voters. Trump criticized the use of mail-in ballots, claiming that it enabled voter fraud due to the lack of thorough identity checks.
Trump’s only hope now lies in the courts and potentially the Supreme Court where he has appointed three of the nine justices since taking office in 2016.- With AP

Trump refuses to admit defeat, continues court battles as Biden prevails in election
Reuters/Saturday 07 November 2020
US President Donald Trump's campaign on Saturday said it would challenge the results of the presidential election in the courts after Democratic challenger Joe Biden was declared the winner by several television networks. Below is a list of the cases that will play out in the coming days and possibly weeks. Trump's campaign said on Saturday more litigation would be filed in the coming days.
Pennsylvania litigation
Several court battles are pending in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign is fighting Philadelphia election officials over vote counting in the city, which continued on Saturday. A state court on Thursday granted the campaign closer access to the proceedings, a ruling that officials have appealed. The City of Philadelphia Board of Elections has said its observation rules were needed for security reasons and to maintain social distancing protocols. On Wednesday, Trump's campaign filed a motion to intervene in a case pending before the US Supreme Court challenging a decision from the state's highest court that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday's Election Day that are delivered through Friday. US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday night ordered county election boards in the state to separate mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. EST on Election Day from other ballots. Pennsylvania election officials have said the late-arriving ballots were already being separated. The justices previously ruled there was not enough time to decide the merits of the case before Election Day but indicated they might revisit it afterwards. Alito, joined by fellow conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said in a written opinion that there is a "strong likelihood" the Pennsylvania court's decision violated the US Constitution. Pennsylvania's Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar has said late-arriving ballots are a tiny proportion of the overall vote in the state.
Nevada
A voter, a member of the media and two candidate campaigns sued Nevada's secretary of state and other officials to prevent the use of a signature-verification system in populous Clark County and to provide public access to vote counting. A federal judge rejected the request on Friday, saying there was no evidence the county was doing anything unlawful.
Georgia ballot fight
The Trump campaign on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in state court in Chatham County that alleged late-arriving ballots were improperly mingled with valid ballots, and asked a judge to order late-arriving ballots be separated and not be counted. The case was dismissed on Thursday.
Michigan ballot-counting fight
Trump's campaign on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Michigan to halt the vote count in the state. The lawsuit alleged that campaign poll watchers were denied "meaningful access" to counting of ballots, plus access to surveillance video footage of ballot drop boxes.
On Thursday, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed the case, saying there was no legal basis or evidence to halt the vote and grant requests.
US postal service litigation
The US Postal Service said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps on Thursday and were being delivered to election officials, according to a court filing early Friday. The Postal Service said 1,076 ballots, had been found at its Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others at other Pennsylvania processing centers. US District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington is overseeing a lawsuit by Vote Forward, the NAACP, and Latino community advocates.
Sullivan on Thursday ordered twice-daily sweeps at USPS facilities serving states with extended ballot receipt deadlines. The judge plans to hold a status conference on Monday.

Trump's Attacks on Mail-in Ballots Rankle Some Military Vets
Associated Press/Saturday 07 November 2020
President Donald Trump has held himself up as a champion of U.S. troops without rival. Now, with his presidency on the line, he's casting suspicion on a tool of participatory democracy — the mail-in ballot — that has allowed U.S. military personnel to vote while serving far from home since the War of 1812.
The president has shouted from Twitter to "STOP THE COUNT" and leveled unsubstantiated charges that "surprise ballot dumps" after election night are helping rival Democrat Joe Biden "steal" the election. All the while, Trump insists that military voters' mail-in ballots must be counted. He even suggested on Friday — without presenting evidence — that some troops' mail-in ballots have gone "missing." In his dizzying effort to sow doubt about the integrity of the vote, Trump has been all over the map on mail-in voting. The broadsides have unsettled many veterans and former military brass who saw voting by mail as a tether to their civic duty when serving abroad. "Officials at all levels including in the Congress need to say to the president 'Sir, you need to exercise the same patience that the rest of the nation does,'" said retired Navy Adm. Steve Abbot, who later served as deputy homeland security adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Abbot is a member of Count Every Hero, a coalition of top military brass advocating for service members' votes to be protected and properly tallied. He added: "It doesn't help this democracy for (Trump) to continue to sound this alarm. It's inappropriate."
It's unclear exactly how many mail-in military ballots remain uncounted in the undecided battleground states that will determine who will be the next president. More than 250,000 U.S. service members cast mail-in ballots in 2016 and even more were expected to vote by mail this time.
In the 2016 presidential election, Georgia received more than 5,600 ballots from uniformed service members; North Carolina received nearly 11,000; Pennsylvania nearly 7,800 and Nevada about 2,700, according to the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.
In the razor-thin election in Georgia, the secretary of state's office said as many as 8,900 ballots requested by military service members and U.S. citizens abroad — in addition to thousands that had already been received and tallied — could still arrive by Friday's deadline.
Trump appeared to take notice of the number of outstanding military and overseas votes in Georgia, tweeting Friday: "Where are the missing military ballots in Georgia? What happened to them?"
Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia accept and count ballots from overseas service members that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked before polls close. With Biden nearing the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency, Trump has escalated his effort to sow doubt about mail-in votes that state officials are still counting.
"It's amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided, too," Trump said in remarks at the White House on Thursday, hours after falsely stating in an all-caps tweet that any ballot received after Election Day won't be counted. "I know that it's supposed to be to the advantage of the Democrats, but in all cases, they're so one-sided."In fact, the disparity is hardly surprising. Biden and other Democrats in the leadup to Election Day urged supporters to vote early and by mail because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Trump urged his supporters to vote in person and he held the advantage in many states among those who cast their ballots in person on Election Day. Trump campaign spokeswoman Thea McDonald said the president believes "there are and should be exceptions for our military members serving our country overseas" to ensure their ballots are counted. But McDonald questioned why Pennsylvania election officials should be counting mail-in ballots for "Democrats in Philadelphia who attempt to vote after Election Day."Kristen Clark, a voting rights advocate, said the Trump campaign's suggestion to stop tallying legally cast votes for one group (civilians) while continuing the counting of ballots for another (military personnel) made no sense. "It's an indefensible position to say state laws should apply to one set of voters but not to another," said Clark, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Trump throughout his presidency has cast himself as a champion of military families. He's relished photo ops with Gold Star families, credited himself with reducing the number of U.S. troops deployed to "endless wars," and poured new resources into the military. But for some military families, Trump's undercutting of late-arriving mail-in ballots reflects poorly on the commander in chief, even as his team has tried to clean up his broad attacks on mail-in voting. "Everybody wants the right to participate in a democracy. That's why people join the military. It's something we believe in strongly," said Tori Simenec, 28, of Minneapolis, a Marine 1st lieutenant who served from 2016 until August of 2020. Mike Jason, 47, a retired U.S. Army colonel, recalled relying on mail-in balloting through a nearly three-decade career in which he voted by mail in his home state of Florida from outposts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany and a series of domestic installations. After depending on mail-in ballots as his own personal lifeline to participation in American democracy until retiring from the Army last year, he found Trump's attack on the integrity of mail-in voting to be infuriating.

Trump Faces Tough Road in Getting Supreme Court to Intervene
Associated Press/Saturday 07 November 2020
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said there's one place he wants to determine the outcome of the presidential election: the U.S. Supreme Court. But he may have a difficult time ever getting there. Over the last two days, Trump has leaned in to the idea that the high court should get involved in the election as it did in 2000. Then, the court effectively settled the contested election for President George W. Bush in a 5-4 decision that split the court's liberals and conservatives. Today, six members of the court are conservatives, including three nominated by Trump. But the outcome of this year's election seemed to be shaping up very differently from 2000, when Florida's electoral votes delivered the presidency to George W. Bush. Then, Bush led in Florida and went to court to stop a recount. Trump, for his part, has suggested a strategy that would focus on multiple states where the winning margins appear to be slim. But he might have to persuade the Supreme Court to set aside votes in two or more states to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, is not likely to want the election to come down to himself and his colleagues. Roberts, who was not on the court for Bush v. Gore in 2000 but was a lawyer for Bush, has often tried to distance the court from the political branches of government and the politics he thinks could hurt the court's reputation.
It's also not clear what legal issues might cause the justices to step in. Trump has made repeated, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Lawsuits filed by his campaign so far have been small-scale efforts unlikely to affect many votes, and some already have been dismissed.
Still, Trump has focused on the high court. In the early morning hours following Election Day he said: "We'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court — we want all voting to stop." And on Thursday, as Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, Trump again told Americans, "It's going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court in the land, we'll see." On Twitter too he urged, "U.S. Supreme Court should decide!"There is currently one election case at the Supreme Court and it involves a Republican appeal to exclude ballots that arrived after Election Day in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. But whether or not those ballots ultimately are counted seems unlikely to affect who gets the state's electoral votes. Biden opened a narrow lead over Trump on Friday, and any additional mail-in votes probably would help Biden, not the president.
Still, Trump's campaign is currently trying to intervene in the case, an appeal of a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to allow three extra days for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots. Because the case is ongoing, the state's top election official has directed that the small number of ballots that arrived in that window, before 5 p.m. Friday, be separated but counted. Republicans on Friday asked for a high court order ensuring the ballots are separated, and Justice Samuel Alito, acting on his own, agreed, saying he was motivated in part by the Republicans' assertion that they can't be sure elections officials are complying with guidance. Beyond the Pennsylvania case, if Trump wanted to use a lawsuit to challenge the election outcome in a state, he'd need to begin by bringing a case in a lower court.
So far, Trump's campaign and Republicans have mounted legal challenges in several states, but most are small-scale lawsuits that do not appear to affect many votes. On Thursday, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. But Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed two other campaign lawsuits Thursday. Trump and his campaign have promised even more legal action, making unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.
Biden's campaign, meanwhile, has called the existing lawsuits meritless, more political strategy than legal. "I want to emphasize that for their purposes these lawsuits don't have to have merit. That's not the purpose. ... It is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what's taking place in the electoral process," lawyer Bob Bauer said Thursday, accusing the Trump campaign of "continually alleging irregularities, failures of the system and fraud without any basis." On the other side, Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien, in a call with reporters Thursday morning, said that "every night the president goes to bed with a lead" and every night new votes "are mysteriously found in a sack."It's common in presidential elections to have vote counting continue after Election Day, however. And while most states make Election Day the deadline to receive mailed-in ballots, 22 states — 10 of which backed Trump in the 2016 election — have a post-Election Day deadline.

Joe Biden wins US presidency: All you need to know about the 77-year-old politician
The Associated Press/Saturday 07 November 2020
Days before he left the White House in 2017, President Barack Obama surprised Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, declaring his septuagenarian, white-haired lieutenant “the best vice president America’s ever had,” a “lion of American history.”
The tribute marked the presumed end of a long public life that put Biden in the orbit of the Oval Office for 45 years — yet, through a combination of family and personal tragedy, his own political missteps and sheer bad timing, had never allowed him to sit behind the Resolute Desk himself.
It turns out the pinnacle would not elude Biden after all. His moment just hadn't yet arrived. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 77, was elected Saturday as the 46th president of the United States, defeating President Donald Trump in an election that played out against the backdrop of a pandemic, its economic fallout and a national reckoning on racism. He becomes the oldest president-elect and brings with him a history-making vice president-elect in Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve in the nation's second-highest office.
There are no sure paths to a post held by only 44 men in more than two centuries, but Biden’s is among the most unlikely — even for a man who had aspired to the job for more than three decades, twice running unsuccessfully and passing on a third bid to try to succeed Obama four years ago. The president-elect’s allies, though, say it is that delayed, circuitous route that prepared him for 2020, when he could finally offer himself not just as another senator or governor with 10-point plans and outsize ambition. Instead, from launch on April 25, 2019, Biden sold himself as the experienced, empathetic elder statesman particularly suited to defeat a “dangerous” and “divisive” president and then “restore the soul of the nation” in Trump’s wake.
“A lot of people dismissed it,” said Karen Finney, a top aide to nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. “But when I saw his opening speech, talking about the fight for the soul of the country, I said, ‘He gets it.’ That’s what a president does. A president looks around the country and understands what’s happening.”
“Biden met the moment,” she said. His victory, though, did not come with the usual trappings. He did not bring along a clear Democratic Senate majority, and several Democratic House candidates lost, raising the prospect of a closely divided government likely to test his promise of bipartisanship. State legislatures also did not flip even as Biden was winning the popular vote by about 5 percentage points. In his first public statement as president-elect Saturday, Biden acknowledged the tensions that surely will linger, but called on Americans “to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation ... to unite, and to heal.” Biden first joined a Democratic primary race shaped by nearly two dozen rivals -- most considerably younger -- already deep into an ideological fight over issues from universal health care to taxation of billionaires. Biden took an open lane, settling where he spent his 36 years as a Delaware senator: a mainstream liberal with an establishment, deal-making core. But his visceral, emotional appeal transcended party identity.
When he warned that reelecting Trump “would forever alter the character” of America, Biden was drawing on life and political experience to tell his fellow Democrats they were having a premature debate. In his estimate, they were arguing over where the metaphorical train should go when, in fact, the train was -- and remains -- off the rails.
Biden was the presumed front-runner he hadn’t been in 1987, when his first White House bid ended embarrassingly with a plagiarized speech; or in 2008, when he was trounced in the Iowa caucuses by Obama and others; or even in 2016, when the combination of his son Beau’s death in 2015 and Obama’s behind-the-scenes support for Clinton forced him to pass on the race. Yet Biden was a wobbly 2020 favorite. He was well-regarded, even beloved as his party’s “Uncle Joe,” a loyal deputy to Obama, but he faced a river of criticism as too old, too moderate, too white, too wistful, too senatorial. He was not the same figure who'd first gone to Iowa in the 1988 cycle as a young star in his party, a gifted orator whose booming speeches could fill a room while at the same time making a connection with the legacies of the Democratic coalition Franklin Roosevelt built.
Though he eventually built out a policy agenda for an ambitious presidency, there was no signature proposal for a grand program like “Medicare for All.” Biden emphasized more personal traits. His empathy -- traced to a debilitating childhood stutter, a 1972 car crash that killed his first wife and infant daughter weeks after his election to the Senate, and then Beau’s death as an adult -- wasn’t something he could easily marshal on a crowded debate stage. Recalling decades on Capitol Hill meant reminiscing about the days of a Senate that still included old Southern segregationists, and it invited scrutiny of his votes for criminal justice laws, trade and tax deals, and war resolutions that are anathema to younger Democrats.
Talking so much about his family played into Trump’s efforts to sully Joe Biden and son Hunter as corrupt. Even Biden’s umbrage about Trump’s racist rhetoric highlighted that he was also a white establishment figure, vying to lead a party whose energy comes from women, Black and Latino voters and young people. When the nominating process started, Biden lost badly in both Iowa and New Hampshire, inviting talk about how he might make a graceful exit from the race. He found emphatic redemption, powered by Black voters so vital to any Democratic candidate, by winning the South Carolina primary and resetting the race in his favor. That victory sent a message to Democratic voters in key states that Biden could build a winning coalition. “I endorsed Joe Biden as soon as he announced because I thought he was the only candidate who would ever win” battleground states, said Gwen Graham, a former Florida congresswoman and 2018 candidate for governor. Graham, whose father served with Biden in the Senate, cited the president-elect’s “centrism and experience” as primary reasons, but added another trait she said was critical in the era of Trump.
“Joe Biden is just a fundamentally decent man,” she said. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and South Carolina’s most influential Democrat, leaned on the same assessment when he made his seminal endorsement in February, days ahead of what would become Biden’s first primary victory in 32 years of presidential campaigns.
“We know Joe,” Clyburn said with emotion. “But most importantly, Joe knows us.”It's an open question whether the bond Biden formed first with Black voters and then with moderate white Democrats would have expanded into a general election victory if the COVID-19 pandemic -- and Trump’s repeated dismissal of its economic and health threats -- hadn’t come to dominate 2020. And it’s certain the president-elect now faces a different challenge as he seeks to turn his November coalition into a governing alliance. But it’s not debatable that Biden’s core pitch, rooted in his political and personal biography, was the same when he launched his campaign in the spring of 2019 as it was when he won the South Carolina primary in February 2020 and as he closed out his campaign against Trump. Obama, awarding that rare civilian honor to a man he said in 2017 was headed to life as a private citizen, had one thing right: “He’s nowhere close to finished.”

'Welcome back America!' World celebrates Biden-Harris US election win
The Associated Press/Saturday 07 November 2020
Although U.S. President Donald Trump wasn't conceding defeat, people in other parts of the world started celebrating Joe Biden's election victory Saturday and expressed hope that the Democrat will quickly set to work on a topic that wasn't vital in the White House for the past four years: combating climate change. “Welcome back America !” tweeted the mayor of Paris. Referencing the Paris climate accord that Trump pulled out of, Anne Hidalgo called Biden's victory “a beautiful symbol to act more than ever together against the climate emergency.”
Cascading around the globe on social media and live news broadcasts, word of the victory in Pennsylvania that pushed Barack Obama's former vice president past the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to take over the Oval Office himself brought widespread relief in world capitals. In Rome, people gathered in a coffee bar broke out in cheers when media outlets delivered the news. A city official in Berlin said, “After the birth of my son, the election of Joe Biden is by far the best news of this year.”“Everything won’t get better overnight, but Trump is finally gone!” tweeted the official, Sawsan Chebli.
Western allies paid scant heed to Trump's claims that the divisive race wasn't over, instead quickly looking forward to a fresh start with a new administration in Washington. “We’re looking forward to working with the next U.S. government,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted. “We want to work in our cooperation for a new trans-Atlantic beginning, a New Deal.”Italy's foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, closed out his tweeted message of congratulations with Italian and U.S. flags. “Ready to keep on working to make our relations ever stronger in defense of peace and freedom,” he said. The election of Kamala Harris as the first Black woman vice president also struck an immediate chord internationally.“It makes us proud that the first woman to serve as vice president of the USA traces her roots to India,” said the leader of India’s opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi. Harris' late mother was from India. Kamala is Sanskrit for “lotus flower,” and Harris gave nods to her Indian heritage throughout the campaign. “She will be an incredible example and important role model for young girls throughout the world, showing them girls and boys enjoy the same rights and opportunities,” Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said.

Incoming US President Biden may differ with Israel’s Netanyahu on Iran, settlements
Reuters/Saturday 07 November 2020
Just two weeks ago, Joe Biden was the butt of a jibe made by U.S. President Donald Trump during a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Do you think ‘Sleepy Joe’ could have made this deal?” Trump asked Netanyahu in a televised phone call with his closest foreign ally about a Middle East peace initiative. Netanyahu demurred, apparently hedging in case of a Biden victory. It was a wise move: Declared winner of the U.S. presidential election by major television networks on Saturday, Biden is the one laughing now. The hawkish Israeli leader made no immediate comment after the U.S. networks called the election for the former vice president, and a picture of Netanyahu and Trump remained at the top of the Israeli prime minister’s Facebook page. Trump, who has made repeated claims of electoral fraud without providing proof, immediately accused Biden of “rushing to falsely pose as the winner.”Still, Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn - a member of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition belonging to the centrist Blue and White party - swiftly congratulated Biden. “Congratulations to US President-elect Joe Biden! Congratulations to Kamala Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president and congratulations to the American people on the proper democratic process,” Nissenkorn said on Twitter. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also offered his congratulations to the Democrat on Twitter. “The relationship between our countries is based on deeply held values and critical shared interests which I know will be at the heart of your administration,” Lapid wrote. Though Biden describes himself as a Zionist and friend to nine Israeli prime ministers, friction could arise between a Biden White House and Netanyahu, who famously feuded with Biden’s ex-boss, Barack Obama. In what Israel would likely see as a de-facto third Obama term, Biden has pledged to restore U.S. involvement in the Iran nuclear deal and is likely to voice opposition to Israeli settlement of occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood. That promises Netanyahu a policy whiplash after four years of being in lockstep with Trump - deferred, perhaps, by the need to deal with the COVID-19 crisis and U.S. economic woes first.

Palestinians welcome Trump exit, but are cautious about newly elected Biden
Reuters/Saturday 07 November 2020
The Palestinians have been holding out for a change of US president for three years, hoping for a chance to hit the reset button on relations with Washington.There was no immediate response from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Joe Biden was declared winner of the US presidential election by major television networks on Saturday, but the first key decision facing Abbas is whether he will resume political contacts with the United States. Three years ago Abbas cut off contact with President Donald Trump's White House, accusing it of pro-Israel bias over Trump's decisions to break with decades of US policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US Embassy to the city. "We don't expect miraculous transformation, but at least we expect the dangerous destructive policies of Trump to totally stop," said Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran negotiator and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee. "It is time to change course," she added. "They should change course and deal with the Palestinian question on the bases of legality, equality and justice and not on the basis of responding to special interests of pro-Israeli lobbies or whatever."
Other Trump decisions that infuriated the Palestinians were to de-fund the United Nations agency that deals with Palestinian refugees and to shut the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington. Trump also published a Mideast blueprint in January that envisaged Israeli sovereignty over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, territory that Palestinians seek for a state. "It is a happy day. Trump is gone," said Um Mohammad, a mother of four in Gaza. "I hope that Biden does not make the same mistakes and that he doesn’t blindly follow Israel."Mohammad Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief and government minister based in Abu Dhabi, said Biden’s win would "open a new horizon for peace that is based on the two-state solution as Biden promised during his election campaign." However Dahlan, who is living in exile and out of favor with Abbas, his party leader, called for internal reforms. "The removal of Trump’s danger isn’t enough, we have to resolve our internal imbalance by ending the divisions and elect new institutions and legitimate leaders," he said in a post on his Facebook page. This was echoed by Salem Barahmeh, executive director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, who cautioned that Biden was not going to deliver liberation for Palestinians or the independent statehood that they seek. "Take this time to look internally to our own people and build unity," he wrote on Twitter in a post calling for "a representative/inclusive/democratic political system and a viable strategy for liberation that inspires/mobilizes."

Iran hopes for a change in ‘destructive’ US policies under Biden’s presidency
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Sunday 08 November 2020
Tehran hopes to see a change in Washington’s “destructive” policies, Iran’s first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri said on Saturday, after Democrat Joe Biden won the US presidential election over incumbent President Donald Trump. “I hope we will see a change in the destructive policies of the United States… finally… the era of Trump and his adventurous and belligerent team is over,” Jahangiri said on Twitter. Tensions between Iran and the US have escalated since Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran in 2018 as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign. Biden, who was vice president under President Barack Obama when the nuclear deal was reached, has pledged to rejoin the accord if Iran returns to complying with it. The people of Iran will not forget the impact of the Trump administration’s sanctions on their lives, nor the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Jahangiri added. Tensions reached an all-time high in January when a US airstrike on Baghdad killed Soleimani, the top commander of the elite Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Iran hopes that under a Biden administration, the country would be able to rescue its currency from record lows and its battered economy from further collapse.

Iran judiciary says jailed rights lawyer Sotoudeh given furlough
AFP/November 07/2020
TEHRAN: Jailed human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been granted temporary release, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online news website reported on Saturday. “Sotoudeh ... has been released temporarily with the consent of the prosecutor in charge of women’s prisons,” the website said.
The UN had called on Iran to free Sotoudeh, a winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize, as well as other political prisoners excluded from a push to empty jails amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawyer was moved in late October from Tehran’s Evin Prison to a women’s detention center outside the capital, while her family insisted she needed hospital treatment. In August she announced she was going on hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners and focus attention on their plight due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But health issues prompted the 57-year-old Sotoudeh to stop the hunger strike more than 45 days after she started it, her husband Reza Khandan said in September. Sotoudeh was sentenced in 2019 to serve 12 years in jail for defending women arrested for protesting compulsory headscarf laws in the Islamic republic. Her furlough comes almost a month after French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, detained in Iran since June 2019, was temporarily released from prison with an electronic bracelet, her lawyer Saeed Dehghan had said on Oct. 3.
HIGHLIGHT
The UN had called on Iran to free Sotoudeh, a winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize, as well as other political prisoners excluded from a push to empty jails amid the coronavirus pandemic. Adelkhah was sentenced on May 16 to five years in prison for “gathering and conspiring against national security.” She was severely weakened by her 49-day hunger strike carried out to protest against her condition in prison and had developed a “kidney disease,” according to Dehghan. Iran has been struggling to contain what is the Middle East’s worst outbreaks of Covid-19 since reporting its first cases in February. The pandemic has so far killed more than 37,800 and infected over 673,000 in the Islamic republic. In October, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation of rights activists, lawyers and political prisoners held in Iran as a result of the pandemic. “People detained solely for their political views or other forms of activism in support of human rights should not be imprisoned at all, and such prisoners, should certainly not be treated more harshly or placed at greater risk,” she said. “I am very concerned that Nasrin Sotoudeh’s life is at risk,” Bachelet had added. A system of temporary releases to reduce the populations in severely overcrowded prisons, introduced by Iran in February to rein in transmission of Covid-19, has benefited some 120,000 inmates, although a number have since been required to return, according to Bachelet’s office. But it said that prisoners sentenced to more than five years for “national security” offenses were excluded.

UK, EU warn Israel over West Bank evictions, demolitions
Arab News/November 07/2020
LONDON: The UK and EU have warned Israel over its campaign to turn a West Bank region into a “firing zone for training exercises.”Israel has faced increasing scrutiny in recent weeks after it pushed forward with evictions and demolitions across the West Bank. Masafer Yatta is one of the poorest areas in the occupied Palestinian territory. Traditional shepherd villages and caves that make up the region rely on an NGO-funded water supply and solar panels. Palestinian shepherds rejected Israel’s proposal of “part-time” living arrangements for residents. Muhammad Moussa Abu Aram, a Masafer Yatta resident, said he dreaded being forced to leave his home, adding that “every aspect of life is difficult here” due to Israeli military activity. Both the UK and EU have condemned Israel’s demolition campaign. Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, EU representative to Palestine, said during a recent visit to the region: “We call on Israel not to carry out demolitions in the communities, which are highly vulnerable.” He added: “Displacing the communities would be in contravention with Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.” A British consulate spokesman in Jerusalem said: “Demolitions and evictions cause unnecessary suffering to Palestinians and damage the prospects of a two-state solution.” Brussels and London have sent envoys to inspect recent Israeli actions in the area. Meanwhile, the UN announced on Thursday: “So far in 2020, 689 structures have been demolished across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” West Bank resident Yasser Abu Al-Kbash told America’s National Public Radio that the recent demolitions were deliberately timed. “I am 99 percent certain this was taking advantage of the US elections. There were no journalists around,” he said

Hundreds in Baghdad demand ouster of US troops from Iraq
AFP/November 07, 2020
BAGHDAD: Several hundred protesters gathered in the Iraqi capital on Saturday afternoon to demand US troops leave the country in accordance with a parliament vote earlier this year. “We will choose resistance if parliament’s vote is not ratified!” read one of the banners at the demonstration, which took place near an entrance to the high-security Green Zone, where the US embassy and other foreign missions are located. Others carried signs bearing the logo of Hashed Al-Shaabi, a state-sponsored network of armed groups including many supported by Iraq’s powerful neighbor Iran. Following a US strike on Baghdad in January that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the Hashed’s deputy head, outraged Iraqi parliamentarians voted to oust all foreign forces deployed in the country. The US has sent thousands of troops to Iraq since 2014 to lead an international coalition helping Baghdad fight Daesh. Washington has drawn down those forces in recent months to around 3,000, and other coalition countries have also shrunk their footprint. Starting in October 2019, rockets regularly targeted those troops as well as diplomats at the US embassy. Over the summer, there was a marked increase in attacks against coalition logistics convoys using roadside bombs. Enraged by the ongoing attacks, the US in late September threatened to close its Baghdad embassy and carry out bombing raids against hard-line elements of the Hashed. Pro-Iran factions announced a temporary truce in October that put an end to the attacks, with no rockets targeting the embassy or foreign troops since. Iraq has long been caught in the struggle for influence between its two main allies, the US and Iran, with the tug-of-war intensifying under US President Donald Trump. Baghdad has been closely monitoring the results of the US presidential elections, seeing a change in the White House as a sign that tensions between Washington and Tehran could decrease.

Six Countries Reported Coronavirus on Mink Farms, WHO Says
Agence France Presse/November 07, 2020
Denmark and the United States are among six countries that have reported new coronavirus cases linked to mink farms, the World Health Organization said. Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are the other nations to have discovered SARS-CoV-2 in minks, WHO said in a statement. Denmark has imposed strict measures on the north of the country after warning that a mutation of the virus had jumped from minks to humans and infected 12 people. Copenhagen has warned the mutation could threaten the effectiveness of any future vaccine and has ordered the slaughter of all the estimated 15-17 million minks in the country. Britain on Saturday banned entry to all non-resident foreigners coming from Denmark after the mutation linked to mink farms was found in humans. Scientists say virus mutations are common and often harmless, and this one doesn't cause a more severe illness in humans. But Danish health authorities have expressed concern this strain, known as "Cluster 5", is not inhibited by antibodies to the same degree as the normal virus, which they fear could threaten the efficacy of vaccines that are being developed across the globe. "Initial observations suggest that the clinical presentation, severity and transmission among those infected are similar to that of other circulating SARS-CoV-2 viruses," the WHO statement said on Friday. "However, this variant... the 'cluster 5' variant, had a combination of mutations, or changes that have not been previously observed. The implications of the identified changes in this variant are not yet well understood," WHO warned. The UN agency said preliminary findings indicated this mink-associated variant has "moderately decreased sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies". WHO called for further studies to verify the preliminary findings and "to understand any potential implications of this finding in terms of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines in development". "Although the virus is believed to be ancestrally linked to bats, its origin and intermediate host(s) of SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been identified," WHO noted. Since June 2020, 214 human cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Denmark with SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with farmed minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported on 5 November.

UAE Announces Relaxing of Islamic Laws for Personal Freedoms
Associated Press/November 07, 2020
The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday a major overhaul of the country's Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing so-called "honor killings."
The broadening of personal freedoms reflects the changing profile of a country that has sought to bill itself as a Westernized destination for tourists, fortune-seekers and businesses despite its Islamic legal code that has previously triggered court cases against foreigners and outrage in their home countries.
The reforms aim to boost the country's economic and social standing and "consolidate the UAE's principles of tolerance," state-run WAM news agency reported, which offered only minimal details in the surprise weekend announcement. The government decrees behind the changes were outlined extensively in state-linked newspaper The National, which did not cite its source.
The move follows a historic U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel, which is expected to bring an influx of Israeli tourists and investment. It also comes as skyscraper-studded Dubai gets ready to host the World Expo. The high-stakes event, expected to bring a flurry of commercial activity and some 25 million visitors to the country, was initially scheduled for October but was pushed back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The changes, which The National said would take immediate effect, also reflect the efforts of the Emirates' rulers to keep pace with a rapidly changing society at home. "I could not be happier for these new laws that are progressive and proactive," said Emirati filmmaker Abdallah Al Kaabi, whose art has tackled taboo topics like homosexual love and gender identity. "2020 has been a tough and transformative year for the UAE," he added. Changes include scrapping penalties for alcohol consumption, sales and possession for those 21 and over. Although liquor and beer is widely available in bars and clubs in the UAE's luxuriant coastal cities, individuals previously needed a government-issued license to purchase, transport or have alcohol in their homes. The new rule would apparently allow Muslims who have been barred from obtaining licenses to drink alcoholic beverages freely. Another amendment allows for "cohabitation of unmarried couples," which has long been a crime in the UAE. Authorities, especially in the more freewheeling financial hub of Dubai, often looked the other way when it came to foreigners, but the threat of punishment still lingered. Attempted suicide, forbidden in Islamic law, would also be decriminalized, The National reported. In a move to better "protect women's rights," the government said it also decided to get rid of laws defending "honor crimes," a widely criticized tribal custom in which a male relative may evade prosecution for assaulting a woman seen as dishonoring a family. The punishment for a crime committed to eradicate a woman's "shame," for promiscuity or disobeying religious and cultural strictures, will now be the same for any other kind of assault.
In a country where expatriates outnumber citizens nearly nine to one, the amendments will permit foreigners to avoid Islamic Shariah courts on issues like marriage, divorce and inheritance. The announcement said nothing of other behavior deemed insulting to local customs that has landed foreigners in jail in the past, such as acts of homosexuality, cross-dressing and public displays of affection. Traditional Islamic values remain strong in the federation of seven desert sheikhdoms. Even so, Annelle Sheline, a Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote on Twitter that the drastic changes "can happen without too much popular resistance because the population of citizens, especially in the main cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is so small." The roughly 1 million Emiratis in the UAE, a hereditarily ruled country long criticized for its suppression of dissent, closely toe the government line. Political parties and labor unions remain illegal.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 07-08/2020

Islamism and Maverick Terrorism
Charles Elias Chartouni/November 07/2020
شارل الياس شرتوني: الإسلاموية والإرهاب الفردي

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92170/charles-elias-chartouni-islamism-and-maverick-terrorism-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%88/

The late attacks in France and Austria testify to the rising tide of individual terrorism, and the idiosyncrasies of Islamist terrorism which locates on a continuum between quietest salafism and abrupt radicalization. The radical twist far from being an ex nihilo phenomenon feeds on the failures of Muslim modernity, draws on its psycho-pathological repertoire ( resentment, psychotic foreclosures, Hatred of others as the obverse side of self despise, manichean worldview, paranoia, moral depravation .... ) and the equivocations of religious scripturalism and fideism as platforms of Islamic totalitarianism and outright political subversion. One cannot account for Islamic radicalism, if analytical insights fail to perceive the inner connections between religious totalitarianism, pervasive existential crises and the destructive proclivities they generate. The recapitulation of the different typologies under which classify different islamist movements of terror crystallize around a cluster of variables ( systemic, individual, religious and socio-political .... ), and help us make sense of the systemic interdependencies and their operational modulations.
As long as the systemic concatenations perpetuate, the psycho-pathological repertoire is readily engaged and instrumentalized alternately. Western democracies, with enhancing Muslim migration to the West, are confronted with the systemic and existential crises of a failed Islamic modernity and its deleterious impact on their political stability, narratives, institutions and civic doxa. The instrumentalisation of the reticular radical networks is by no means incidental, it taps the lingering dynamics of a failed modernity, its intellectual aporetics and deep reservoirs of disgruntlement and anger. Democratic countries are experiencing the impact of concurring dynamics on their societal structures, normative consensuses and civil concord, and are bound to deal with them on the basis of coherent strategic choices, solid normative consensuses and institutional cohesiveness. The terror acts are developing within the interstices of strategic shortsightedness, knowledge gap, laxism, lack of resolve, and the inconsistencies of murky and overstretched notions of political correctness. The randomness of Islamist terrorism is tantamount to its totalitarian purview, haphazard lethality and strategic objectives predicated on Muslim supremacism, religious self righteousness attaching relations of superiority and inferiority to differences between Muslims and non Muslims, and open imperial vindications laced with genocidal overtones. The ferocity of these attacks are quite expressive of cultivated hatred and characteristic of an ecology of violence, anger and predatory ethology.
Having set my conceptual framework, I think time is ripe for major intellectual and political turnarounds: 1/ The holistic approach to reformation of failed Islamic societies is preliminary to any political undertaking; 2/ religious reformation is the entry gate to the overall reformation process and should be predicated on the epistemics of Modernity ( Deconstruction of the Islamic canon, critical historiography, philosophical and political discourse of Modernity: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Constitutional State, collective and individual Rights, the distinction between public and private, .... ); 3/ The primacy of developmental policies and the politics of conditionality as prerequisites for sustainable financial, economic, social, educational and environmental reforms; 4/ the destruction of the ideological, political and strategic platforms of Islamist terrorism; 5/ the stabilization of Muslim and Arab geopolitics is essential in any reformist undertaking; 6/ the review of migration policies should be based on putting end to massive and desperation ones induced by political instability, violence and endemic poverty cycles, revising benchmarks of eligibility, inter-developmental cooperation and the politics of conditionality; 7/ the containment of Islamic neo-imperialism which thrive on instability, Islamic radicalism, politically induced migration, and on steering ghetto politics within Western Democracies.
It’s about time to contain the viral outbreak of Islamist violence, its normalization and the adjustment to the idea of its inevitability, and the need to deal with it on the basis of shadowy political arrangements with Muslim and Arab power politics, undermined sovereignty and inadmissible concessions in regard to normative and constitutional stipulations, political meta-narrative and basic security. The destruction of the operational platforms of militant Islam is mandated, if we were to oversee the twilight of this protracted interlude of trivialized violence, international insecurity and adjustment to the destructive constraints of institutionalized terrorism, its ideological implements and blackmailing power politics. The depraved killers are the derivatives of a wholesale ecology based on religious worldviews, institutional violence, moral callousness and their corollary culture of moral and political servitude ( Dhimmitude ), it’s about time to move markedly unto a new stage which ends this bloody turpitude and ushers a new era.

Erdoğan's Jihad on "Infidel Europe"
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/November 07/2020
Middle Eastern politics is always a trap for radical ideologues. In Erdoğan's mindset the "infidel West" is militarily helping Armenia (the evil) and Turkey is militarily helping Azerbaijan (the righteous).
Although Ankara and Baku categorically deny accusations, press reports and independent human rights observers have confirmed the arrival of hundreds of jihadists in Azerbaijan to fight Armenia.
After the Turkish military's direct armed engagement on Iraqi and Syrian territories, proxy wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, military tensions on the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, Erdoğan's new jihadist adventurism has found a new theater of war in the Caucasus. What's next?
In the mindset of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the "infidel West" is militarily helping Armenia (the evil) and Turkey is militarily helping Azerbaijan (the righteous). Pictured: The flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and portraits of Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, hang on the mayoral building of Ankara, Turkey on October 21, 2020.
The jihad against Europe by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is probably based on both ideology and opportunism. Fierce anti-Western rhetoric is an ideological sine qua non for Turkish political Islam; it is also a secure vote-catcher targeting conservative and nationalist masses.
Erdoğan's jihadism is not seasonal or a newfound system of political ideas. It is also not a reflection of peaceful sufism. Erdoğan comes from the ranks of Turkey's militant political Islamism that emerged in late 1960s under the leadership of the ideologue, Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister and Erdoğan's mentor. In Erbakan's rhetoric universal politics is simply about a struggle between the righteous (Islam) and a coalition of Zionists and racist imperialists -- all else is just details. In his thinking, the Zionists support Turkey's membership in the European Union in order to "get Turkish Muslims to melt in a pot of Christianity."
In a 2016 speech, Erdoğan talked of European countries: "These are not just our enemies... Behind them are plans and plots and other powers." Also in 2016, he said that jihad is never terrorism. "It is resurrection.... It is to give life, to build... It is to fight the enemies of Islam." In 2017, Erdoğan added that the German government's actions resembled those of Nazi Germany.
Last month, the Gaza-based leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Dawood Shihab, said that Turkey was the bravest Muslim country to fight French President Emmanuel Macron's hostility toward Muslims. Turks thought flattering words from PIJ were not enough crucify an infidel disguised as the president of a big European nation.
Erdoğan had to take the stage. Venue: A party convention in the heart of Anatolia. Décor: Huge posters of Erdoğan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. Two more photographs: Azeri landscape and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Slogan: "Karabakh and Al-Aqsa mosque [in Jerusalem] are waiting for us!" [Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory under Armenian occupation since the 1990s.]
The sultan speaks: "What is Macron's problem with Islam? What is his problem with Muslims? Macron needs some sort of mental treatment." Erdoğan apparently thinks that Macron has gone clinically insane because the French president vowed to crack down on radical Islamism in France, after the country was shaken by the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty on October 16.
Erdoğan also accused the West of supplying arms to one of the warring parties only, Armenia, in the most recent military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nevertheless, a bit hypocritically, Erdoğan is also proud that Turkey has been equipping the Azeri military with drones, various other weapons systems and training.
Middle Eastern politics is always a trap for radical ideologues. In Erdoğan's mindset, the "infidel West" is militarily helping Armenia (the evil) and Turkey is militarily helping Azerbaijan (the righteous). Fine. What other nation is militarily helping Azerbaijan? A nation on the side of the righteous? Israel, a country Erdoğan deeply hates.
In 2016, Azeri President Aliyev said that his country acquired military equipment worth $4.85 billion from the Jewish state. An Azeri presidential advisor has said that Azerbaijan, in Nagorno-Karabakh, was using Israeli-made drones, including so-called "suicide drones" that can destroy a target on impact. So, Turkey and Israel are equipping the same military which is in an armed conflict with another.
That unwanted coincidence, however, will not deter Erdoğan's jihadist ambitions. From a report in late October:
"Western intelligence agencies have revealed that Hamas' leadership has been operating a second clandestine office in Istanbul for cyber operations and counter-espionage against its enemies, including the Palestinian Authority and Hamas dissenters...
"The Hamas headquarters were established approximately two years ago in order to purchase equipment that can be used to manufacture weapons, to implement cyber-attacks against enemies, including embassies of hostile Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and Europe, and even against the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, as well as for surveillance and cracking down on dissenting members within its own ranks."
Turkey's latest jihadist export zone appears to be the Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh, to be specific. Although Ankara and Baku categorically deny accusations, press reports and independent human rights observers have confirmed the arrival of hundreds of jihadists in Azerbaijan to fight Armenia. Hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan could surely afford thousands of fighters, not just hundreds. But that could also mean angering Moscow which, as Azeris know very well, will not do any good to their infant state.
After the Turkish military's direct armed engagement on Iraqi and Syrian territories, proxy wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and military tensions on the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, Erdoğan's new jihadist adventurism has found a new theater of war in the Caucasus. What's next?
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.

The incendiaries: How Pakistan and Turkey fan the flames of Islamic anger
Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/November 07/2020

جوناثان سباير/ جيروزاليم بوست/الفتن: كيف تؤجج باكستان وتركيا نيران الغضب الإسلامي

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BEHIND THE LINES: The current moment differs from previous episodes of Islamist political violence in Western countries in two significant ways.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s condemnations of political Islam following the decapitation of teacher Samuel Paty on October 16 have led to furious demonstrations in parts of the Islamic world. A number of violent incidents of Islamist terrorism have followed, including the murder of three people in a church in Nice, by a recent Tunisian immigrant to France. It seems likely, though it cannot yet be confirmed, that the terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, in which four people died, was also related to the mood of fury among sections of European and global Islamic opinion related to the depiction of images of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
Outbursts of murderous fury of this kind, often not directed or organized by Islamist terrorist networks, form a tragic by-product of the arrival in recent years to the European heartland of significant numbers of people with Islamist sympathies. This outlook brings with it a desire to ensure – by whatever means deemed necessary – an elevated level of respect for Muslim religious sensitivities, over and above those of any other religion or creed. This latter situation is a state of affairs that exists in most Islamic countries. Some European commentators have concluded that such acts are intended to bring about the enforcement of Islamic blasphemy laws in non-Islamic countries.
So far, so familiar. But the current moment differs from previous episodes of Islamist political violence in Western countries in two significant ways.
First, these latest attacks come at a time when the actual organized networks of Salafi jihadi terrorists are weaker than at any time over the last two decades. The al-Qaeda network is aging, and closely observed by Western security services. The Islamic State, meanwhile, has yet to recover from the loss of its last territorial holdings in Iraq and Syria in March 2019, and the killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, by the US in October 2019.
The murders of Paty and the three other French citizens in Nice were not, it appears, the result of a direct decision by an Islamist terrorist network. It is too soon to draw any conclusions on this subject regarding the Vienna attack. ISIS has now claimed responsibility for this. But it is possible that ISIS sympathizers chose to act with no specific order from a chain of command.
Second, and most significantly, the atmosphere of fury and desire for retribution are no longer being stirred up only by Islamist preachers and jihadi organizations. Rather, the incitement, the steady drum beat of accusations and threats are coming now from the leaders and official mouthpieces of a number of Muslim states. This is a new situation. It is one of profound importance. The states in question are, most importantly, Turkey, and also Pakistan.
The Turkish and Pakistani efforts in this regard appear designed to generate among Muslim populations in Western countries a sort of “soft power” for the governments of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Imran Khan. They thus include within them a dismissal of the notion of legitimate sovereignty, according to which the internal affairs of other states are those states’ business alone.
Erdogan, following Macron’s comments, declared that the French president needed “mental treatment,” urged the boycott of French goods, and asserted that Muslims in Europe faced a “lynch campaign similar to that against Jews before World War 2.” France subsequently recalled its ambassador from Ankara.
THE TURKISH president has form in this regard. In 2017, following a ban by Germany on Turkish officials campaigning in Germany in favor of support for Erdogan in a referendum to increase his powers, the Turkish president warned, “If you go on behaving like that, tomorrow nowhere in the world, none of the Europeans, Westerners, will be able to walk in the streets in peace, safely.’
He also threatened at that time to send a new wave of migrants from Turkish shores across the Mediterranean to Europe.
In recent days, the Turkish president added to his exhortations against the French government, saying, “If there is persecution in France, let’s protect Muslims together.” He claimed in a speech to the AKP parliamentary group last week that “disrespect for the prophet is spreading like cancer, especially among leaders in Europe.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, meanwhile, said that the French president had “attacked Islam,” and accused Macron of “deliberately provoking Muslims.” He summoned the French ambassador to Islamabad for a reprimand.
A statement from the Pakistani Foreign Office followed, asserting, “Pakistan condemns systematic Islamophobic campaign under the garb of freedom of expression.”
These statements were made against the background of furious demonstrations in Turkey, Pakistan and further afield – including in the Gaza Strip and Iraq.
The efforts by powerful leaders of Muslim countries to inflame the sentiments of Muslims in Europe and beyond are a relatively new phenomenon. At the height of al-Qaeda’s insurgency a decade or so ago, political Islam was a powerful but oppositional presence in majority Muslim countries (with the exception of Iran, whose Shia identity makes it less relevant in this regard).
Today, it is Erdogan, above all, with Khan as his understudy, who is leading the way with the incitement.
It should go without saying that Erdogan and Khan’s calls for religious tolerance have no reflection in their own policies at home. Erdogan recently converted the ancient Hagia Sophia Church into a mosque and is set to do the same with the Church of St. Savior in Chora, Istanbul. Khan rules over a country where Ahmadi and Shia Muslims and Christians are regularly convicted on blasphemy charges, and where Hindus have been forcibly converted to Islam.
This, however, is precisely the point. These leaders, as is crystal clear to their supporters, are asserting a notion of elevated honor to be afforded the symbols of Islam, not arguing for parity.
When the atmosphere of incitement erupts into violence, as it inevitably must, Erdogan and Co. will be on hand to express regret. Erdogan, after all, only supplied the matches and the kindling. Someone else entirely lit the fire.
This approach makes policy sense for the Turkish leader and his allies. Through it, Ankara seeks to acquire a ready-made instrument to impose pressure on Western countries. France is an emergent strategic rival to Turkey, above all in the Eastern Mediterranean. Having an ability to foment public disorder within it is a useful weapon.
The Syrian Salafi strategist Abu Musab Al Suri famously came up with the idea of an “individualized” jihad, in which organizations would issue only general directives, leaving individual jihadis to take violent action at their own initiative. This formed the backdrop to the so-called “Stabbing Intifada” in Israel in 2015. It is strange to see that another version of it appears to now be an element of the policy of a powerful, still officially Western-aligned state.

Why US election results will have little effect on the Syrian conflict
Adelle Nazarian/Arab News/November 08/2020
As US media declare Joe Biden president-elect and Donald Trump consults his lawyers, the reality of the situation in Syria shows that it does not matter who claims victory in the elections, as the country’s fate lies squarely in the hands of the Syrian people.
There has been much speculation that, as president, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are bound to approach the Syrian crisis in drastically different ways. However, there is less certainty about whether either administration could do much to help end Syria’s nightmare while President Bashar Assad remains in power – and it seems neither would be willing to take the necessary steps to see him removed. The US record in Syria is not a good one. One year into the civil war, then-President Barack Obama backtracked on his chemical weapons “red line” after the Assad regime used sarin gas on its own people and was met with no US military action. Later claims emerged that Obama’s failure to act was out of concern that Iran would reject the nuclear deal that his administration was determined to drive through. Today, with Obama’s JCPOA deal undone by Trump, Iran continues to have a strong and growing presence in Syria and an undue influence on its prospects for peace.
Under President Trump the influence the US once had in the region has faded, a reality underlined by his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, leaving Russia and Iran to step into the gap. There is also no indication from the current US president that he seeks regime change in Syria.  In 2017, Nikki Haley, then-US ambassador to the UN, said it was no longer a priority of the US to remove Assad, but instead it intended to work to achieve a political settlement with other powers invested in the country, such as Turkey and Russia.
If Trump loses and Biden wins the presidency, there is fear in the region that the new Democrat president would restore the Iran nuclear deal, emboldening the Iranian regime and, by extension, Assad. There is also speculation that Biden could lead the US into another war in the region.
However, the US foreign policy think tank The National Interest recently said: “The former VP was actually one of the Obama administration’s leading skeptics about what the US could do in Syria.”
What is evident is that under neither Trump nor Biden is the US likely to reverse its new noninterventionist worldview, and regardless of the outcome of the US election, the fate of Syria rests rightfully where it should – in the hands of the Syrian people.
• Adelle Nazarian is the Director of Communications and Media for Citizens for a Secure and Safe America (C4SSA) . She is also a Senior Media Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy in Washington, D.C. and a Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, India.