English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 21/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/35-44:”‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. ‘But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.’ Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone? ’And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 20-21/2020

What About The Fate Of Those Who lack faith and worship money?/Elias Bejjani/October 20/2020
Hariri Hospital: 85 COVID-19 cases, 4 recoveries, one death
President Aoun to address the Lebanese tomorrow noon
Report: ‘Disappointed’ France Ready to Help Lebanon
STL Schedules 3rd Status Conference in Hawi-Murr-Hamadeh Case
Kubis Hails ‘Responsible’ Sea Border Talks
Parliament Session Loses Quorum
Lebanon Bemoans Lack of Blast Satellite Images from France, Italy
Perilously Stored Gas Cylinders Seized in Tariq al-Jedideh
Bogdanov Meets Hariri's Envoy, Urges Formation of 'Capable Govt.'
Consultative Gathering Says Won't Vote for Hariri
Dahieh, Deir Qoubel to Enforce Strict Lockdown Measures
Jumblat Criticizes Baabda for 'Stifling Freedom of Expression'
Geagea: Lebanese Forces Will Not Name Hariri
Report: Schenker Met Gemayel away from Spotlight
Women march from Verdun towards Ain Tineh calls for Constitution implementation
Deception..../Yair Ravid,/October 20/2020
As Cases Rise, Lebanon Seeks to Enforce COVID-19 Preventive Measures
Lebanon: Efforts to Ease Tension Between FPM, Hezbollah Supporters
Lebanese-Israeli Border Demarcation Negotiations Delve into Details Next Week
Lebanon: No Obstacles Hindering Designation of Hariri to Lead New Govt
Lebanese Security Chief Tests Positive for COVID-19 in US
Lebanese economic bodies call for assistance amid government formation crisis/Najia Hussari/Arab News/October 20/2020
On Dignity in Arab Politics: From Abdel Nasser to Hezbollah/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 20/2020
How did Saad Hariri end up back in the running to be Lebanese PM?/Michael Young/The National/October 20/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 20-21/2020

UN Security Council discusses Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
France to dissolve pro-Hamas Muslim group: Macron
France closes Paris mosque in clampdown over teacher’s beheading
France reluctant to wage full out campaign against terror networks
First UAE delegation in Israel agrees multibillion-dollar fund, visa-free travel
UAE, Bahrain welcome decision to remove Sudan from US terror list
US Official in Syria for Talks on Missing Americans
Iraq's Kadhimi, France's Macron Discuss Support to Confront Multifaceted Challenges
Israeli Army Evacuates Areas in Fear of Attacks From Gaza Strip
Female domestic workers regularly abused in Qatar: Report
Turkish Cypriots elect Erdogan’s candidate amid east Med tensions
US Commends Morocco’s Support for UN Efforts in Libya
 

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 20-21/2020

Pretoria plot fits Iran’s pattern of behavior/Joseph Hammond/Arab News/October 20/2020
EU’s hypocritical approach to Israeli occupation/Ramzy Baroud/Arab News/October 20/2020
Virus takes a firm hold of Europe/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/October 20/2020
Turkey: The Dark Side of Religious Sects/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/October 20/2020
Western Lives Matter: Teacher Beheaded in Paris/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/October 20/2020
America Feels Like It’s Falling Apart. Time for Some Optimism/Noah Smith/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020
Intel Can Leave Memory Games to Samsung/Tae Kim/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020
Thailand’s Leaders Can’t Afford Confrontation/Clara Ferreira Marques/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 20-21/2020

What About The Fate Of Those Who lack faith and worship money?
Elias Bejjani/October 20/2020
وماذا عن مصير الذين ضعف إيمانهم ويعبدون ثروات الأرض الترابية
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/43601/elias-bejjani-who-are-you-are-you-yourself/
Many people do not recognize consciously who they really are, and willingly and viciously hide behind fake faces, or let us say they put on deceiving masks.
Why? because they hate themselves, and mostly burdened with devastating inferiority complexes.
These chameleon like-people do not trust or respect themselves, have no sense of gratitude what so ever, lack faith in God and worship money.
Most of them were initially poor but suddenly became rich.
Instead of investing their riches that are graces from God in helping others and making them happy, especially those of their family members, they alienate themselves from every thing that is related to human feelings, and forget what is actual love, and that love is Almighty God.
They fall into temptation, live in castles of hatred, ruminate on grudges and contemplate revenge.
Not only that, but they start to venomously and destructively envy any one who is happy, respected and descent, but Evilly they use their riches and influence to inflict pain and misery on others.
They become mere sadists and enjoy pain of others, especially pain and suffering of those who are their family members that refuse to succumb and become evil like them
When we look around where ever we are it is very easy to identify many people who are of this evil nature.
The Question is, how they end?
They end paying for all their destructive and vicious acts, if not on this earth, definitely on the Day Of Judgment.
May Almighty God safeguard us from such evil people.
NB: The Above Piece was intitial published on August 02/2016. It is republished today with minor changes

Hariri Hospital: 85 COVID-19 cases, 4 recoveries, one death
NNA/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Rafic Hariri University Hospital stated on Tuesday in its daily report on the latest Coronavirus developments that the number of examinations conducted in its laboratories during the past 24 hours has reached 548, and that the number of patients infected with the virus who are at the hospital for follow-up is 85.

President Aoun to address the Lebanese tomorrow noon
NNA/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, is set to address the Lebanese at 12.00 pm tomorrow, where he will touch on the current situation.
President Aoun receives UN Special Coordinator: We hope to reach agreement that preserves Lebanon's sovereign rights through technical negotiations to demarcate southern maritime borders

Report: ‘Disappointed’ France Ready to Help Lebanon
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Lebanon is looking forward to its parliamentary consultations this week, meanwhile France continues to “send signals Lebanon’s way” urging a swift process of designating a new PM followed by a government formation in the crisis-hit country, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. According to the daily, Paris persisted in sending successive signals from within the French administration urging Lebanon’s political forces not to “waste time” and to conduct the consultations to assign a new prime minister for Lebanon so it could be followed by a government formation. Lebanon is scheduled to hold binding parliamentary consultations on Thursday to choose a new prime minister. The prime minister designate will then line up a government. Unnamed sources told the daily that French officials were “shocked” by the performance of some Lebanese leaders and how they broke the vows they made to France’s President Emmanuel Macron. After the colossal August 4 Beirut port explosion, Macron gave Lebanon's political class four to six weeks to implement a roadmap, and said he would commit to holding a donor conference for Lebanon in October. But Lebanese leaders did not commit to their vows. Macron accused them of “betraying” their promises over their failure to form a government in the wake of the Beirut port blast. The sources assured that France has reiterated readiness to be “effectively present” to help Lebanon after the designation of a premier and forming a government.

STL Schedules 3rd Status Conference in Hawi-Murr-Hamadeh Case
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon's Pre-Trial Judge, Daniel Fransen, will hold a third Status Conference November 4, the STL said on Tuesday. "The hearing aims at reviewing the status of the Ayyash case and ensuring the expeditious preparation for trial, through an exchange between the Prosecution, Defense and Legal Representatives of the Victims," the court said in a statement. In a scheduling order Fransen stated that the hearing will begin at 10.00 AM (C.E.T.) and will be public, noting that he might decide to go into closed session during the course of the hearing if confidential matters need to be discussed. The first status conference in the Ayyash case took place on 22 July 2020 and the second status conference took place on 16 September 2020. The aforementioned case against Salim Ayyash -- a Hizbullah member convicted over the 2005 murder of ex-PM Rafik Hariri -- relates to the bomb attacks on Lebanese politicians Marwan Hamadeh, Georges Hawi and Elias Murr.

Kubis Hails ‘Responsible’ Sea Border Talks
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis said during talks with President Michel Aoun that participants in the first round of delineation talks between Lebanon and Israel “showed a great deal of responsibility and professionalism," the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Kubis explained to Aoun the role of the United Nations in these negotiations, held at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, and the rules upon which the participants relied. Kubis explained that the negotiations were held in Arabic alongside the English language. “We hope to reach an agreement that preserves Lebanon's sovereign rights through technical negotiations to demarcate southern maritime borders,” said Aoun. Aoun thanked the UN for hosting the US-mediated talks at its headquarters in Naqoura. On Wednesday, the U.S.-mediated talks kicked attended by US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker. A joint statement released by the U.S. State Department and Jan Kubis, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, said the Israeli and Lebanese teams “held productive talks and reaffirmed their commitment to continue negotiations later this month.”

Parliament Session Loses Quorum
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
A Parliament session at UNESCO Palace on Tuesday lost quorum after MPs of the Lebanese Forces’ Strong Republic parliamentary bloc left the session to avoid a vote on a controversial general amnesty law which they oppose. Fifteen MPs of the Strong Republic bloc left the session moments after Speaker Nabih Berri asked regulators to check if quorum was met to launch a legislative session. The MPs argued that the “session was dedicated to elect members of the committees and should not be transformed into a legislative session.” However, lawmakers have elected two secretaries, three commissioners and the members of the parliamentary committees to replace the deputies who resigned, the National News Agency reported. The parliamentary session was held at UNESCO Palace, under the chairmanship of Speaker Nabih Berri. Lawmakers have also “filled vacancies in the supreme council to try presidents and ministers,” said NNA. On a bill to restore the original parliament building in Nejmeh Square amid a financial crisis in Lebanon, Berri sounded astonishment at construction proposals presented in dollars instead of in Lebanese Pounds.
"I have not heard of a country in the world whose currency is as dollarized as in Lebanon. Companies want to bill in dollars, and we will not accept that. I insist on submitting proposals of valuation, maintenance and restoration in Lebanese pounds,” said Berri. The colossal Beirut port explosion on August 4 damages large parts of the capital including the parliament building in downtown Beirut.

Lebanon Bemoans Lack of Blast Satellite Images from France, Italy
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab complained Tuesday that Lebanon has yet to receive satellite images from France and Italy as requested as part of a probe into the Beirut port explosion. Diab told reporters during a briefing that he had called on French President Emmanuel Macron to provide satellite images of the port "before, during and after" the devastating August 4 explosion. Authorities in Lebanon had also made the same appeal to Italy, the prime minister said, without specifying when the request was made or by whom. Neither Paris nor Rome have publicly said they would provide the images.
"They should have provided us with the" satellite images "but that has not happened, and I don't know why," said Diab, who resigned in the wake of the blast. Authorities say the explosion that killed around 200 people in Beirut was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire. President Michel Aoun, however, has said that an "attack" could have been behind the tragedy. Satellite imagery could help provide more details on one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in the world. Lebanese officials have rejected an international probe despite demands both from home and abroad for an impartial investigation. A local probe has yielded the arrest of at least 25 suspects, including the chief of the port and its customs director. Lebanon's ruling elite, many of them warlords in the country's 1975-1990 civil war, had known for years that ammonium nitrate was stored in a destitute port warehouse without precautionary measures. Their negligence and corruption is widely blamed for the disaster that wounded at least 6,500 people and displaced thousands more from their homes.

Perilously Stored Gas Cylinders Seized in Tariq al-Jedideh
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Beirut Municipality’s crackdown on flammable material posing risk to public safety continued on Tuesday with a new raid in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jedideh area, where a gasoline tank blast killed three people and injured over 50 earlier this month. “At the instructions of Beirut Governor Judge Marwan Abboud, and after a complaint was received about the presence of gas cylinders stored in an apartment in the Tariq al-Jedideh area, posing a threat to public safety, a force from Beirut’s fire and guard brigades raided the apartment and seized around 17 gas cylinders stored illegally,” the Municipality said. It said the cylinders were stored without any regard for public safety conditions in a manner threatening the neighborhood. “The cylinders were confiscated at the order of Governor Abboud and moved to a safe location,” the Municipality added.

Bogdanov Meets Hariri's Envoy, Urges Formation of 'Capable Govt.'
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Ex-PM Saad Hariri’s special representative in Russia, Georges Shaaban, met Tuesday with Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s Special Presidential envoy for the Middle East and Africa and its Deputy Foreign Minister.
A statement issued by the Russian foreign ministry said the talks tackled “the current issues in Lebanon in light of the developments of the domestic crisis in the political and socioeconomic fields.”The Russian side stressed “Moscow’s commitment and keenness on Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” the Ministry said. Bogdanov also emphasized the need to “speed up the formation of a capable government, which would represent an important basis for resolving the issues facing the Lebanese society.”

Consultative Gathering Says Won't Vote for Hariri
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
The Consultative Gathering, a grouping of Sunni MPs, announced Tuesday that it will not vote for ex-PM Saad Hariri in the binding parliamentary consultations to name a new PM. “With a lot of regret and astonishment, we ask if it is acceptable to downsize our major crises to the empty debate over respecting the National Pact in the designation of a premier or the formation of the cabinet?” the Gathering said in a statement, noting that the debate should be over “the government’s reformist rescue program that should be implemented.” Warning against any “waste of time and rescue chances,” the Gathering said it will take part in Thursday’s consultations but will not name “the sole candidate who has designated himself as premier to carry on with the same policies, without clarifying his financial, monetary or economic policies.”

Dahieh, Deir Qoubel to Enforce Strict Lockdown Measures
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Mount Lebanon Governor Mohammed Makkawi on Tuesday approved a request from the municipal union of Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahieh, for enforcing strict lockdown measures aimed at curbing a spike in coronavirus cases. The governor also approved a similar request from the municipality of the Aley district town of Deir Qoubel. The Beirut southern suburbs of Ghobeiri, Haret Hreik, Bourj al-Barajneh, Mreijeh, Tahwitat al-Ghadir and al-Laylaki are under the authority of the Dahieh municipal union. The governor’s memo cited laxity in abiding by individual and collective precautionary measures. The memo bans all types of social occasions, parties and gatherings and orders the closure of all cafes, street vending kiosks, gaming shops, children zones, indoor sport clubs, gyms and public parks. Restaurants will meanwhile be allowed to remain open but will have to operate within 50% of their customer capacity and will be obliged to remove 50% of their tables and chairs while the serving of shisha will be fully banned.
Municipalities will also be authorized to oversee the strict implementation of lockdown measures in terms of social distancing, precaution and staying home unless it is extremely necessary to go out.

Jumblat Criticizes Baabda for 'Stifling Freedom of Expression'
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday hit out at the Presidency and President Michel Aoun’s close circle, accusing them of seeking to repress freedom of expression in the country, following the arrest of a social media user. “It seems that the inclination of the presidential tenure or its clique is to stifle all forms of expression, the thing that did not happen even during the days of (communist leader) Enver Hoxha and his family in Albania,” Jumblat tweeted. “I condemn the arrest of Mr. Gaby al-Daher and I deplore all forms of attacks on freedoms,” the PSP leader added. According to media reports, Judge Ghada Aoun ordered Daher’s arrest after he posted on social media that “President Aoun has led us into hell.”Daher had been summoned to interrogation Tuesday moring by the anti-cyber crime bureau of the Internal Security Forces.

Geagea: Lebanese Forces Will Not Name Hariri
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Tuesday he “will not name” ex-PM Saad Hariri for the premier post, because he believes no change is possible in the presence of the “ruling trio.”“A new government is required to implement reforms, which can not be achieved in the presence of the ruling trio,” said Geagea referring to the Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah and Amal Movement. Geagea said he was “confident that no results can be achieved with their presence,” that's why "the LF will not nominate Hariri for we do not wish to engage in any joint initiative with the ruling trio."
Geagea denied any relationship between not naming the ex-PM and an earlier position regarding the presidential battle. “But shall Hariri be designated to form a new government, the LF will certainly support any positive step his government takes,” added Geagea. The LF chief saw that early parliamentary elections are Lebanon’s way out of the crisis.

Report: Schenker Met Gemayel away from Spotlight
Naharnet/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
A meeting was held away from the media spotlight between Kataeb party chief Sami Gemayel and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker during the latter's visit to Beirut last week, media reports said on Tuesday. According to Kataeb sources, discussions between the two men focused on issues previously highlighted during an earlier meeting between Schenker and resigned Lebanese MPs, including Gemayel, at Kataeb party headquarters in Bekfaya. The sources refused to dwell on the details, but said that Gemayel emphasized the “party's clear position it launches in secret and in public,” regarding the developments in Lebanon. Schenker, the top American diplomat for the Middle East, was in Beirut last week as part of indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over their disputed maritime border. According to the sources, Schenker has held several meetings other than those announced through the media. Schenker also paid the country a visit after the Beirut port blast and met members of Lebanon's civil society. He did not hold talks with politicians at that time.

Women march from Verdun towards Ain Tineh calls for Constitution implementation
NNA/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
A women march set out from the gendarmerie building in Verdun, heading towards Ain El Tineh headquarters, hoisting the Lebanese flags and deploring the endemic corruption in the various sectors, NNA Correspondent reported on Tuesday. Participants also called for the implementation of the constitution and condemned the failure to reveal and hold accountable those responsible for the August 4 explosion. They also called for holding the corrupt accountable and recovering public looted money.
 

Deception....

Yair Ravid,/October 20/2020

يائير رافيد: لخداع في المفاوضات اللبنانية الإسرائيلية

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/91504/yair-ravid-deception-%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ae%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84/

I call on the Government of Israel and the negotiators of its behalf, not to be deceived by promises, nor written and signed agreements that will oblige Israel to take irreversible steps. And I certainly warn against making gestures towards the other party, in order to embellish clauses in the agreement.

قراءة لضابط المخابرات الإسرائيلي المتقاعد والمتخصص بالشأن اللبناني، يائير رافيد ينصح من خلالها حكومة تل ابيب بعدم  الثقة في الوعود والإلتزامات التي تعطى من قبل لبنان الفاقد لقراره والمحكوم من قبل حزب الله وعدم الوقوع في فخ التقية الذي يمارسه حزب الله ورعاته، وذلك في المفاوضات التي بدأت بين وفدي لبنان ودولة إسرائيل لترسيم الحدود البحرية بينهما

****
The people of Israel strive for peace. For the sake of the coveted peace, they are willing to pay expensive prices, sometimes even exorbitant, and sometimes even willing to pay for imaginary peace, and even though the basket of the other side dose not contain the coveted goods at all.
Proper to mention the Oslo Accords, in order to better understand the value of agreements signed in our region, with those for whom the concept of peace, or agreements, is another tool in their toolbox, and that they use it to achieve their temporary goals. And that the fulfillment of obligations and the observance, are completely foreign to them. And what do I mean by that?

Of course, I mean the talks that began between the State of Israel and Lebanon, which were intended to demarcate and mark the maritime economic border between the two counties. And this is exactly where the problem lies. On the side facing Israel, is no state that is able to negotiate, sign agreements and stand behind them and ensure their existence. The delegation, which represents in talks the obscure entity called Lebanon, lacks binding powers, and even if it signs agreements, they will be completely worthless.

The president of Lebanon, who apparently has the highest authority in the country, does not gain the trust of any of his country's citizens. The post of Prime Minister is not staffed, in the absence of agreement on a candidate for the position.

The country's real ruler, the terrorist organization Hezbollah, has given its consent to the talks, since its economic situation, like that of Lebanon, is in complete collapse. And that in the absence of other sources of income, Hassan Nasrallah is willing to hold talks even with the "little Satan", the State of Israel. Since the only thing that interests the Lebanese side in these talks, is the desire to reach an agreement as soon as possible, which will allow them to bring in, foreign companies, which will produce gas quickly, and allow Hezbollah and its corrupt allies among the Lebanese leadership to continue to plunder the public funds.

None of the Lebanese population groaning under the ruins of the crumbling state, hungry for bread, will enjoy the fruits of natural resources that will be pumped as a result of the agreement. Hence, I call on the Government of Israel and the negotiators of its behalf, not to be deceived by promises, nor written and signed agreements that will oblige Israel to take irreversible steps. And I certainly warn against making gestures towards the other party, in order to embellish clauses in the agreement.

Negotiators on the Israeli side, must always remember the principle of hiding" "Takiya", existing in the foundation of the Shiite faith, according to the belief of the believer, and even obliged, to hide from his adversary, his true intentions. The State of Israel, its leaders and citizens, must not delude themselves, as if these talks with Lebanon, are any continuation of the welcome agreements that have recently been signed with the Gulf stats,

Since there agreements have been signed with serious and powerful countries, run by cultural people, who are seeking the good of their people, And not with corrupt gangs and terrorist like Lebanon.

**The author, Yair Ravid, a former Israeli intelligence officer, commanded the establishment of ties between the State of Israel and the Christians in Lebanon in 1976, and served as the head of the Mossad's operational station in Beirut. His book, "Window to the backyard, translated into English and can be downloaded on Amazon Kindle

As Cases Rise, Lebanon Seeks to Enforce COVID-19 Preventive Measures
Beirut/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Lebanon’s security forces have boosted their measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 amid an increase in the number of cases.
The Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday the registration of 995 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 62,944. It also reported six death cases during the past 24 hours.
Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi and the Coronavirus Follow-up Committee issued new preventive measures and procedures after a meeting held on Saturday. The committee issued a new list of towns classified as dangerous and witnessing an increase in the number of cases.
It also reiterated the importance of wearing masks, warning that violators would be strictly fined. All kinds of social events were banned in 79 towns and villages across the country while governmental and private institutions and schools in villages under lockdown were closed.
Last week, caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan stirred controversy after announcing that Lebanon would get the vaccine against COVID-19 through COVAX, an international initiative aimed at ensuring equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, before the end of this year.
"The first quantity of vaccine will be available for 20 percent of the Lebanese," he said, adding the rest of the needed quantities will arrive in Lebanon in batches. The minister’s statements surprised several medical and political officials. “This does not reflect the international status of the vaccine, which the Russians promised to release and which drives several questions concerning its efficacy and its side effects,” former MP Dr. Ismail Sukkarieh said. He explained that the vaccine has still not been licensed by the FDA and the World Health Organization. “There is no doubt that the minister cares about the general health of citizens, however, the issue is complicated and requires sensitive information and making the right choices,” Sukkariyeh added.

Lebanon: Efforts to Ease Tension Between FPM, Hezbollah Supporters
Beirut- Paula Astih/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Contacts are underway between the leaderships of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Hezbollah to reduce tension between the supporters of the two groups over the border demarcation talks with Israel and the government formation.
Hezbollah had expressed reservation over the delegation assigned by President Michel Aoun to represent Lebanon in the border demarcation negotiations with Israel.
Hezbollah supporters went to accuse the FPM of succumbing to American wishes for fear of economic sanctions. The accusations stirred a wave of angry reactions among FPM partisans, who demanded their leadership break up the alliance with Hezbollah, after “its cost has become high on us and on the country.”“We have reached a stage in which silence is no longer effective because the fate of the country is at stake,” a senior FPM member told Asharq Al-Awsat. MP Edgard Maalouf, from the FPM’s Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, did not deny the differences in views with Hezbollah on several matters.
He stated: “However, this should not reach the point of undermining the relationship with the party and the fall of the agreement,” known as the Mar Mikhael agreement, which was signed between Aoun and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in 2006.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Maalouf said that the two sides have overcome the dispute over the negotiating delegation by keeping the same lineup put forward by Aoun, without taking into account the observations presented by the Shiite duo, i.e. Hezbollah and Amal Movement.
However, the FPM now fears that an agreement would be reached at its expense, represented by the designation of former Premier Saad Hariri to lead the new government, especially after head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblattand and former Minister Sleiman Franjieh have both joined the Shiite duo to push for Hariri’s designation. “There are no settlements at the expense of the FPM, but internal and external political changes that need to be taken into consideration,” said Writer and Analyst Qassem Kassir.

Lebanese-Israeli Border Demarcation Negotiations Delve into Details Next Week
Beirut – Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Lebanon and Israel will resume next week arduous indirect negotiations on the demarcation of their land and water borders. The UN-sponsored and US-mediated talks are aimed at reaching an agreement over 2,290 square kilometers in their economic waters.
The first round of the talks was held outdoors on Wednesday under blue canvas covers near the two countries’ land border. The talks, the first to be held over the disputed sea boundary, broke up after barely an hour and both sides agreed to meet again in two weeks.
The meeting was described as “positive” and both sides expressed a desire to “speed up the negotiations process”, concerned Lebanese sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. “Both sides showed good intentions towards speeding up the talks and concluded that they should not extend for a long time,” they added, while the details of the discussions were kept under wraps. Wednesday’s meeting did not delve into the details of the demarcation. Those talks have been reserved for October 28 when the negotiations resume and maps will be laid out.
Asharq Al-Awsat obtained a copy of the maps. One map shows the Israeli “red line” that demarcates the border with Lebanon. Beirut says the line takes up large chunks of Lebanon’s economic waters. Another map shows the Lebanese “blue line” that begins from marine point number 23 on the border and that reserves the country’s right of 860 square kms of the economic waters. During pervious American mediation, US diplomat Frederick Hoff had proposed that Lebanon receive 58 percent of the disputed territory. A third map shows the “green line” land border between Lebanon and Palestine that was drawn up in 1923. The border, which begins from the B1 point, was cemented during a truce agreement between Lebanon and Israel in 1949. It grants 2,290 square kms of disputed waters to Lebanon. Lebanese military sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Lebanese maps that the negotiations team will present are based on the Law of the Sea. They stressed that Lebanon is committed to the green line that ends at point number 23 on the Lebanese shore. The line grants Lebanon an additional 1,430 square kms and places half of Israel’s Karish offshore oil field in Lebanese waters.
Lebanon is kicking off its negotiations from this point, revealed the sources.
Point B1 begins from the coastal Ras Naqoura region on the Lebanese-Israeli border, said historian Dr. Issam Khalifeh. This point was approved by the League of Nations in 1923, he told Asharq Al-Awsat. “This international border stretches from the land to the sea. Israel at one point moved the position 30 meters inside Lebanese territories in order to alter the marine boundary,” he continued. The Lebanese negotiations team has since corrected this error and is basing its talks on this land point because it is recognized internationally, said Khalifeh. Israel, he stated, does not want the negotiations to begin on this point, but rather on Tikhrit island. The “island” is in fact a 40 by 7-meter rock, explained Khalifeh. International law defines an island as being inhabited, but this one is not and therefore cannot be the starting point for the indirect talks.

Lebanon: No Obstacles Hindering Designation of Hariri to Lead New Govt
Beirut - Mohammed Shukair/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
The binding parliamentary consultations, which will be held at the Baabda Palace on Thursday, are expected to see the designation of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to head the new government, as the attempts of the former Foreign Minister, MP Gebran Bassil, to hinder his nomination have failed.
Hariri will be leading the government for the fourth time since the assassination of his father, late former Premier Rafik Hariri, in February 2005. Political sources ruled out the possibility of unseen obstacles that would push for postponing the consultations for the second time within a week. They noted that Aoun had delayed the deliberations the first time last week to give Bassil a chance to reshuffle the cards and block the way to Hariri’s designation. Consequently, the president could no longer delay the binding consultations, unless the FPM chief created a new issue, a former prime minister told Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity. He noted that Bassil was known for disrupting cabinet sessions and hampering the productivity of governments. But political sources said that the president “lacks the pressure cards to use them to empower Bassil and save him politically. In this regard, they stressed that the consultations have become a subject of international and regional interest, with the mounting American and French pressure. On the other hand, the sources underlined that the formation process would not be easy, especially if Bassil insisted on having the complete share of Christian ministers, with the refusal of the Lebanese Forces to participate in a government led by Hariri. These justifications may be Bassil’s last line of defense to recover his political strength, according to the sources. However, the FPM’s insistence on having an independent technocrat to lead the new government would not meet a positive response from other blocs, the political sources said, as the premiership is a political post “par excellence.”“Was Aoun elected president because he is a technocrat figure, or because he was leading a political movement?” they asked.

Lebanese Security Chief Tests Positive for COVID-19 in US
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
A top Lebanese security official has tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States, his department said on Monday, forcing him to delay his return from talks in Washington and to cancel scheduled meetings in Paris.
Major-General Abbas Ibrahim is in good health, the directorate of General Security, which he heads, added in a tweet. Ibrahim met US national security adviser Robert O’Brien at the White House last week to discuss American citizens held in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A Trump administration official confirmed that a White House official traveled to Damascus earlier this year for secret meetings with the Syrian government seeking the release of two US citizens thought to be held there.Last month Ibrahim held talks in Paris with French intelligence chief Bernard Emie about the formation of a new government to tackle Lebanon’s grave economic crisis, a Lebanese official said.

Lebanese economic bodies call for assistance amid government formation crisis
Najia Hussari/Arab News/October 20/2020
BEIRUT: The new Lebanese prime minister to head the next government is expected to be named within two days. Meanwhile, questions are being raised regarding Thursday’s parliamentary consultations, with President Michael Aoun rumored to be considering delaying them for a second time.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is the only name proposed to form the new government, with the two Christian parties — the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Lebanese Forces — objecting to his nomination. Richard Kouyoumjian, former minister and serving member of the Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc, said that his party’s objection does not mean it is refusing to participate in the binding consultations. “The mere participation of the bloc’s representatives in the parliamentary consultations makes it legal as per the common agreed values and laws, whether or not the bloc names the person who will be assigned to head the new government,” he said. Kouyoumjian called for “the implementation of the constitution” and said: “Enough bidding in the name of the sect.” The stance of the Lebanese Forces means the FPM is the only bloc disrupting the parliamentary process. The Lebanese Forces’ decision not to propose anyone to head the government differed from its position in the two previous parliamentary consultations. In these consultations, the party proposed Ambassador Nawaf Salam. Future parliamentary bloc member Mohammad Hajjar hoped that the consultations would not be postponed as “it will not be in the interest of the country and the people.”
He told Arab News: “The first postponement was not justified. We said that the French initiative is an opportunity to rescue the country and that it should not be wasted. We said that postponement does not change anything, but rather will be an obstruction that does not benefit the country. We hope to have a prime minister assigned on Thursday by a parliamentary majority.”On whether he expects a postponement of consultations under new pretexts, Hajjar said: “Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi called for the application of the law that does not refer to Christian or regional charters in the assignment process. We say that 22 Christian members of parliament will come to the next parliamentary consultations in the Baabda Palace, and some of them might name Hariri while others might not. Therefore, the consultations must be held so that we proceed to form the government.”
Amid the political ruckus, The Lebanese economic bodies representing the various fields of the private sector have launched a new call for help to save the country. In a meeting on Monday, the groups called for “the immediate formation of a government that can implement the French initiative.”
The economic bodies warned that “we will reach a stage where there is zero liquidity in hard currencies, the dollar exchange rate will rise uncontrollably, the purchasing power will diminish, and the inflation rate will rise. This means an almost complete closure of institutions, mass unemployment, and societal poverty across all sects.” The experts highlighted that they had previously warned “of this tragic fate repeatedly, and here we are. On the ground, the structure of the country is collapsing, the economy — with all its components — is deteriorating at record speed, and institutions are breathing their last.”
In a position announced on Monday, the International Monetary Fund projected that “Lebanese economy will see one of the region’s sharpest economic contractions this year at 25 percent.”
The Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut estimated the cost of closing the poverty gap in Lebanon in 2020 for those below the minimum poverty line at $838 million. The group explained that this cost had increased three times since 2019, due to a spike in poverty from 8 percent to 23 percent.

On Dignity in Arab Politics: From Abdel Nasser to Hezbollah
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 20/2020
Dignity, Karama in Arabic, is a concept related to individuals.
The modern individual reclaims his dignity by taking it back from temporal or metaphysical forces that appropriate it. He owns his dignity and his dignity is exclusively his. He translates it in a respectable manner, whereby it becomes an expression of what he is, what he does and believes in and how he leads his life. Dignified people treat others the way they want to be treated. They respect others’ opinions and defend, when they can, others’ right to dignity and freedom.
The word is derived from the Latin word Dignitas, which translates to a person’s value or worth; i.e., the concept refers to a particular individual and is not linked to politics, states, nations, militaries or conflicts.
With military and security regimes and their weak legitimacy and need to sustainably orchestrate rallies, this notion was snatched from individuals and consigned to the nation, politics and war. Dignity no longer referred to what one is and does. It came to refer to what one fights and resists. According to the original old meaning, one could have dignity while one’s nation is abased or submissive, and one could also lack dignity though one’s nation is militant and victorious. The notion now no longer springs from individuals’ relationships with themselves. It is determined on the basis of a relationship with a real or imagined enemy.
Gamal Abdel Nasser, as the godfather of the modern Arab military-security state, coined the famous slogan: “Lift your head up, my brother,” construed as a call to dignity in the new sense of the word. But the slogan implicitly went on: worship the leader and lower your head to the officer and jailer.
Dignity has become a collective and political notion, as is the case for freedom, which has been said not to be an individual’s freedom, but that of the nation. At the time, it was not clear that what had been called the nation’s freedom could only be attained by violating individuals' freedoms.
Since this nation is necessarily coupled with an immortal leader, the new notion of dignity exempts an individual’s submission to this leader. In practice, the opposite materializes: This individual, under a security and military regime, becomes extremely susceptible to being imprisoned for no other reason than holding his opinion and to being summoned to rally in city squares and applaud the leader. Constantly worshiping the leader is required, as is demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice one’s life for him: “Our blood, our souls, we would sacrifice for you ...”, as the famous chant goes.
In other words, this novel notion of dignity comes to define the complete antithesis of dignity, the first requisite of which is one’s sovereignty over oneself, in mind and body. One is insulted, imprisoned, tortured in jail and dehumanized, and is, of course, banned from joining a party that is not approved of by the regime, never mind forming a party or advocating ideas different from official ideas. Nevertheless, he is credited with having dignity and dignity is ascribed to him, merely because his leader fights, threatens to initiate conflicts, confronts the West or tussles with Israel.
The most extraordinary thing about all of this is that defeats do not undermine this notion of dignity. The resounding defeat of 1967 did not deter many from reiterating the daft phrase: “Nasser lifted up the Arabs’ heads.” Since defeats are an almost assured consequence of taking the path of a military security regime, dignity, per the new notion, comes to have a duple function: convincing the vanquished he is victorious and that his dignity has increased rather than decreased.
Thus, it is not without indication that among the first slogans launched by the Syrian revolution and chanted by the Syrians was: “The Syrian people will not be abased.” This slogan – chant constituted a reconsideration of the original notion of dignity.
Not very differently from how it does with dignity, militant politics has also hijacked a similar concept: Honor. The honorable are longer those who live and behave honorably, but those who adopt a political stance aligned with the leader’s desire or a particular militant doctrine. Here, the new definition coexists with the tribal concepts and behaviors, that is, those that venerate bloodlines and “authenticity,” as well as “honor crimes”, which the new “honorable” folks do not see as dishonorable. The same is true for the new meaning of dignity, whereby the use of tribal heritage is also apparent, like Amr bin Kulthum’s pre-Islamic poetry and his arrogance, not to mention ancient Arab history with its heroes and conquests.
This inversion of definitions takes its most glaring form in today’s Lebanon. For in the face of an economic and political collapse, dignity and honor call for continuing to resist and condemning anything that may seem like a concession or a step back. As for those who refer to the resistance’s role behind the current collapse, they are told: “Let it all be sacrificed to Nassrallah’s slippers.”

How did Saad Hariri end up back in the running to be Lebanese PM?
Michael Young/The National/October 20/2020
Saad Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, could be tasked with forming a government this Thursday, filling a vacuum that has lasted since early August. The dynamics leading to this moment were released in a notable interview with Mr Hariri almost two weeks ago.
In that interview, Mr Hariri sent a number of messages – some blunt, others more subliminal. Many people expected him to say that he would not be a candidate for prime minister, as he had noted on several occasions previously since resigning in the wake of popular protests in October 2019.
Mr Hariri’s announcement appeared to reflect a shift in the attitude of his regional supporters.
For a long time, Saudi Arabia had not been happy that he seemed to be the front man for a system, they believe, is in large measure controlled by Hezbollah.
That said, Saudi Arabian officials in Beirut had noted that there was no objection to Mr Hariri’s candidacy, as long as he returned to office with a clear programme to implement.
Lebanese anti-government protesters carry placards and hold a torch as they gather in front of a statue, representing the torch of the revolution, to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government protests, near the Beirut port. EPA
Similarly, Mr Hariri’s attitude also signalled a possible shift in Washington. For the same reasons as Riyadh, the Trump administration had not been enthusiastic about Mr Hariri’s return.
Yet in the aftermath of his announcement, US officials declared their support for the quick formation of a Lebanese government, acknowledging that they had not objection to the former prime minister coming back.
What happened? Mr Hariri had strong French backing and He declared that he had a programme to implement: to move forward with the economic reform plan floated by French President Emmanuel Macron last September in Beirut. At the time, Mr Macron had hoped for the quick formation of a technocratic government to implement it, but this was derailed because of a disagreement between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement (the two main Lebanese Shia parties) and Mr Hariri.
In the aftermath of this setback, however, all sides reaffirmed that they wanted the French plan to succeed, which left a door open for Mr Hariri to throw his hat into the ring, with French encouragement.
Hezbollah and Amal welcomed this move, as it could calm sectarian tensions and side-line the possibility of their having to form another failed government opposed by a majority of Lebanese, similar to that of caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab.
There were two implicit messages in Mr Hariri’s interview. The first he directed at the political class, telling all parties that they should accept his return at the head of a government of technocrats in order to avoid the complete disintegration of the Lebanese economy. In other words, Mr Hariri was proposing a solution that would save the politicians from the consequences of such a collapse.
The second, Mr Hariri directed at his sometime allies Walid Jumblatt, the political leader of Lebanon’s Druze community, and the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party. Both had refused to support his comeback in the past, and he was harsh in implying that with or without their support he would form a government with Hezbollah and Amal.
The strong implication was that both of them, representatives of minority groups, had no interest in opposing an agreement between the major Sunni and Shia parties.
Only time will tell whether Mr Hariri’s gamble succeeds and Lebanon can take steps toward a deal with the IMF
On October 16, President Michel Aoun was scheduled to hold parliamentary consultations to name a prime minister.
However, Mr Aoun, realising that Mr Hariri would be anointed and that his son-in-law Gebran Bassil would have no say in the matter, delayed consultations until October 22. In that way he sought to buy time for Mr Bassil to secure his stake in a new Hariri government.
Mr Bassil and Mr Hariri are on bad terms, and one of the conditions the former prime minister had for taking office was that Mr Bassil not control the energy ministry. Mr Bassil’s ambition is to become president, and he could use such control as leverage to secure Mr Hariri’s support for his candidacy. Yet reform of the ministry is also a central aspect of the Macron plan, so Mr Hariri’s priority was always to block a return of Mr Bassil or one of his appointees.
What may have changed is that Hezbollah, which had often supported Mr Bassil against Mr Hariri, appears unwilling to do so this time around. Partly, that’s because the party wants to avoid a complete economic breakdown, which could threaten Lebanon’s stability and therefore its own dominant role in it. Partly, it is because Hezbollah’s priority today is to retain political Shia unity, and therefore to side with Mr Bassil’s bitterest rival, the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
And partly it is because Hezbollah wants to preserve Sunni-Shia relations in Lebanon at a time of regional volatility and on the eve of US elections. Only time will tell whether Mr Hariri’s gamble succeeds and Lebanon can take steps toward a deal with the International Monetary Fund. For now, the political victim of this consensus appears to be Mr Bassil. If reform is the ruling class’s sole path to self-preservation, Lebanon may see more change than had seemed possible.
*Michael Young is a senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut and a columnist for The National

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 20-21/2020

UN Security Council discusses Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
AFP/October 20/2020
United Nations Security Council members called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to respect a new ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh during a meeting on the disputed region Monday. The council held closed-door discussions on the fighting, which has left hundreds dead since clashes erupted on September 27, at the UN headquarters in New York. During the meeting -- which was requested by France, Russia and the United States -- the council's 15 members reiterated a plea by UN chief Antonio Guterres for parties to honor a new ceasefire. "Everyone was saying the same thing: the situation is bad and both sides need to pull back and heed the Secretary-General's calls for a ceasefire," a UN diplomat told AFP. Russia, which currently holds the council's rotating presidency, is working on a statement that would call for adherence to the ceasefire, diplomats say. The text -- which is expected to be agreed between council members this week -- will also call on Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume negotiations facilitated by the Minsk Group. Russia, France and the US chair the Minsk Group, which was created by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in 1992 to find a solution to the territorial conflict. Nagorno-Karabakh is a breakaway region of Azerbaijan mainly inhabited by ethnic Armenians and backed by Armenia. Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, have fought sporadically over the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ethnic Armenian separatists seized the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Baku in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives. The United Nations passed four resolutions on the conflict in the early 1990s. The current fighting is the worst in the decades-long dispute since 2016. The new ceasefire, backed by international mediators, was struggling to hold on Monday as both sides accused each other of fresh attacks. It was the second agreed after a previous truce thrashed out in Moscow earlier this month never showed any sign of seriously holding.

France to dissolve pro-Hamas Muslim group: Macron

Arab News/October 20/2020
PARIS: France is to dissolve pro-Hamas Muslim group, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. The French government has intensified action against Islamist extremism in recent days after a teacher was beheaded for showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in class. Macron said the Cheikh Yassine Collective was "directly implicated" in Friday's beheading attack and would be disbanded."We know what needs to be done", Macron told reporters after a meeting with a unit for the fight against Islamism in a northeastern suburb of Paris.

France closes Paris mosque in clampdown over teacher’s beheading
AFP/October 20, 2020
PARIS: French authorities said Tuesday they would close a Paris mosque in a clampdown on radicalism that has yielded over a dozen arrests following the beheading of a teacher who had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The mosque in a densely-populated suburb northeast of Paris had published a video on its Facebook page days before Friday’s gruesome murder, railing against teacher Samuel Paty’s choice of material for a class discussion on freedom of expression, said a source close to the investigation. The interior ministry said the mosque in Pantin, which has some 1,500 worshippers, would be shut on Wednesday night for six months. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has vowed there would be “not a minute’s respite for enemies of the Republic.” The order came after police on Monday launched a series of raids targeting extremist networks, mainly in the Paris region. Paty, 47, was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the capital. A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of his killer, 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who also posted images of the decapitated body on Twitter. Anzorov was shot dead by police. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Tuesday that Paty would be posthumously bestowed France’s highest order of merit, the Legion of Honour, for having been “martyred” because of his profession. The murder was preceded by a fierce online campaign against Paty and the school, led by the father of a schoolgirl. The school said Paty had given Muslim pupils the choice to leave the classroom.
The father who posted the video shared by the Pantin mosque is among 15 people arrested after the killing, along with a known radical and four members of Anzorov’s family. Darmanin accused the father and the radical of having issued a “fatwa” against the teacher. On Tuesday, the head of the Pantin mosque, M’hammed Henniche, said he had shared the video not to “validate” the complaint about the cartoons, but out of fear that Muslim children were singled out in class. Four pupils suspected of accepting payment for pointing Paty out to his killer were also taken into custody Monday. Junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa was to meet the French bosses of social media networks Tuesday to discuss bolstering the “fight against cyber-extremism.”Paty’s killing has drawn parallels with the 2015 massacre at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where 12 people, including cartoonists, were gunned down for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Tens of thousands of people took part in rallies countrywide on Sunday to honor Paty and defend freedom of expression, while Muslim leaders gathered at his school Monday to offer condolences and distance their religion from the atrocity. French President Emmanuel Macron threatened that “fear is about to change sides” in the new anti-extremist campaign. Paty’s beheading was the second knife attack since a trial started last month over the Charlie Hebdo killings. In the September attack, two people were wounded outside the publication’s former offices. A silent march is planned for Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Tuesday evening in homage to Paty, while parliament will observe a minute of silence in the afternoon. Macron will attend an official homage with Paty’s family Wednesday at the Sorbonne university.
Blanquer added that schools countrywide will observe a minute’s silence for Paty when pupils return after the autumn break, and a special lesson on the recent events will be taught in all classes. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti on Tuesday denied there had been any failure on the part of intelligence services. “This is an insidious war,” he told France Inter. “There is organized terrorism that is monitored by our services, and then there is a young man of 18 who was not on the radar of the intelligence services and who committed this abominable act.” Meanwhile, Paris prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into a French neo-Nazi website hosted abroad that republished the photo of Paty’s decapitated corpse posted to Twitter by the killer.

France reluctant to wage full out campaign against terror networks
The Arab Weekly/October 20/2020
PARIS – French anger over the assassination of a history professor last Friday has sparked a security crackdown leading to the arrest of some individuals thought to have helped the attacker carry out his crime.
Experts on terrorist groups, however, believe isolated security campaigns will not lead to significant results in stopping terrorist attacks.
On Monday, French police raided some Islamic associations and arrested some foreign nationals suspected of holding extremist religious beliefs, three days after the heinous crime against history teacher Samuel Paty perpetrated by an Islamist militant.
Paty, 47, was decapitated on Friday in broad daylight outside his school in a middle-class area of ​​Paris by an 18-year-old man of Chechen descent. The police shot and killed the perpetrator.
The teenage killer sought revenge against the teacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class about freedom of expression attended by 13-year-old pupils. Depicting the prophet is widely considered to be blasphemous in Islam.
Public figures described the killing as an "attack on the Republic" and on "French values."
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said authorities were conducting about 80 investigations of hate speech cases on the internet and that he was looking into whether to dissolve about 50 Islamist associations.
The minister added on Europe 1 radio: “Police operations are ongoing, and more will follow, against dozens of individuals.”
Darmanin announced that state agencies will visit the headquarters of 51 associations during the week and that many of them will be “dissolved” by a decision of the Council of Ministers.
In particular, he expressed his desire to see the dissolution of the “Collectif contre l’islamophobie en France," a civil society group dedicated to countering Islamophobia in France, stressing that this entity is “clearly implicated” and that there were “a certain number of indications that allow us to classify it as an enemy of the Republic.”
Terrorism experts believe that dealing with the crime as an isolated incident and arresting some individuals will not solve the problem and may even encourage others to commit attacks, pointing out that extremist groups usually use the arrest or killing of their members to motivate other members to carry out attacks.
The experts pointed out that France -- as well as Europe as a whole -- tends to adopt a security approach first in order to show strength and firmness against terrorism, but this does not achieve long-term gains, and evidence shows that attacks continue to occur in France.
Moreover, the conditions leading to the emergence of terrorism are still in place, especially in poor and marginalised areas of the country.
They further pointed out that the security approach must include a comprehensive plan to dismantle groups that support terrorism financially and through proselytising activities. These groups have a strong presence in France that threaten the country, which French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, have repeatedly acknowledged. Macron spoke sternly of the danger of "Islamitst isolationism" in France in a recent speech.
Controversial Islamist groups and associations have benefited from the tolerant attitude of successive French governments and the climate of freedom in the country, building intertwined influence networks within Muslim communities through charitable work, religious advocacy and control of mosques, all of which have caused the communities to close in on themselves and adopt hostile attitudes towards the state, French culture and secular values.
These small, closed associations work to draw in new immigrants, especially those who entered the country illegally, and then brainwash them with anti-French propaganda by playing on their religious sentiments. They argue that French secularism is a threat to their faith and that Muslims in France are oppressed. This explains why new youth often volunteer to carry out terrorist operations, under the watchful eye of their dubious mentors.
While French authorities have pledged to quickly replace controversial and radical imams, monitor speeches in mosques pledging loyalty to foreign parties or groups and monitor the funding of charities and other religious associations, they have been slow to implement these measures, suggesting the strong anti-terrorism rhetoric is primarily intended for political and electoral purposes.
Experts have raised questions about France’s perceived silence on external financing networks, whose effects appear in mosques as well as in charitable work aimed at recruiting members.They have asked whether the silence is linked to the foreign investment France receives from countries with influence inside Islamist networks, such as Qatar, which has significantly invested in social and economic projects in the French suburbs, as well as in sports and tourism.
Some analysts fear that a lack of clear focus on France's real terrorism nexus, amid widespread feelings of shock and anger within French society, could lead to ill-targeted actions impacting Muslim communities as a whole and jeopardise Arabs and Muslims' ability to integrate in the country.
In recent years, Paris has taken only limited measures to deal with Islamist militants, such as arrests or deportations. On Sunday, a police source said France was preparing to deport 213 foreign nationals who are on the government's watch list and suspected of holding extremist religious beliefs, including about 150 serving jail sentences. A security source said that deportations were already underway prior to Friday's attack.
The police arrested ten people in connection with the attack in the twenty-four hours following Paty’s murder. Prosecutors said they included the father of a student at the school where Paty taught and another person who was under surveillance by the intelligence services and who allegedly started a social media campaign against the slain teacher. Paty’s murder shocked all of France. Tens of thousands demonstrated on Sunday to defend freedom of expression and rejecting “obscurantism," while Macron chaired a Defence Council meeting in the evening. According to the Elysee Palace, the president told the ministers: “Fear is about to change sides. Islamists must not be allowed sleep soundly in our country.” At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting held with Prime Minister Jean Castex, five ministers and anti-terrorism state prosecutor Jean-Francois Richard, Macron announced plans for “concerted steps” against “the structures, associations and people close to radical groups … who spread hate and can encourage attacks.”

First UAE delegation in Israel agrees multibillion-dollar fund, visa-free travel
Arab News/October 20/2020
DUBAI: The first delegation of UAE officials to visit Israel cemented a historic normalization deal with a series of meetings and agreements on Tuesday. The Emiratis landed in Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, where they were met by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and agreed a multibillion-dollar fund. The parties signed four agreements including one on visa-free travel - the first of its kind between Israel and an Arab country. Other deals were were on the promotion and protection of investments, cooperation in science and innovation and civil aviation. The five-hour-long meeting – held in the airport because of coronavirus precautions – saw the announcement of the $3 billion Abrahamic fund for development and initiative in the private sector, UAE’s state news agency WAM reported. “The fund reflects the three countries’ desire to prioritize people’s wellbeing regardless of their religious beliefs and identities,” UAE’s Minister of State to the United Arab Emirates Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh said. The trilateral meeting between Israel, US and UAE was attended be Netanyahu, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, US Assistant to the President Avi Berkowitz, UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al-Tayer and UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq Al-Marri. The three nations will also set up a development office in Israel to study and initiate projects, aimed at creating a positive impact on economic growth, living standards and create high quality jobs. “We will sign four agreements that will change the path of the people of UAE and Israel,” said Netanyahu. Israel and the UAE have already signed several commercial deals since mid-August, when they first announced they would establish full relations. “The agreements will strengthen bilateral relations between UAE and Israel,” said Al-Tayer. The UAE and fellow Gulf state Bahrain in September became the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to sign deals to establish formal ties with Israel, a move that Washington and its allies have said would foster regional peace and stability but which has been rejected by the Palestinians. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Middle East envoy Ari Berkowitz are joining them on the trip, after having accompanied an Israeli delegation to Bahrain on Sunday for a signing ceremony to formalize ties. The UAE, along with Bahrain, signed the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel in Washington last month. They became the first Arab nations after Egypt and Jordan to agree to have relations with the Jewish state. Palestinian leaders have been angered by the agreement, saying they have not been included in Trump’s overall Middle East peace plan. (With agencies)

UAE, Bahrain welcome decision to remove Sudan from US terror list

Arab News/October 20/2020
DUBAI: The UAE and Bahrain both welcomed on Tuesday the US removing Sudan from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Donald Trump said a day earlier he would remove Sudan from the list after the country agreed to pay compensation to US victims of terror attacks.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it supported all efforts to remove Sudan from the list. The ministry added it that it supported everything that "contributes to strengthening Sudan's security, stability and prosperity."
The Bahraini foreign ministry also said it welcomed the decision, calling it a positive step. Sudan’s central bank said on Tuesday it had transferred $335 million in compensation to the US. The money is for victims of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which were conducted by Al-Qaeda while Osama bin Laden was based in Sudan. Sudan is ruled by a transitional government installed after the downfall of President Omar Al-Bashir last year. The removal from the terror list will allow Sudan to access international loans and aid to revive its economy.

US Official in Syria for Talks on Missing Americans
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
A senior White House official made a secret visit to Syria for high-level talks aimed at securing the release of two Americans that Washington believes are held prisoners by the Assad government, US administration officials said Monday. Kash Patel, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, went to Syria as part of an administration effort to secure the release of Americans overseas, including missing journalist Austin Tice, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The trip, the first high-level visit by an American official to Syria in years, was first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.
Gaining the release of Tice, a journalist from Texas who disappeared while covering the civil war in 2012, would be a significant foreign policy victory for Trump, whose administration has touted its record of freeing Americans held overseas as well as an unconventional approach to Middle East politics, The Associated Press reported. Direct talks had also been sought by the missing journalist’s parents, Marc and Debra Tice. “For years we have pushed for engagement between the US and Syrian governments to help bring our son safely home, so we hope recent reports are accurate,” they said in a statement.
“We are deeply grateful to everyone working for Austin’s safe return, and his continued absence shows there is more to be done.”Tice, a former Marine and native of Houston, Texas, vanished in August 2012 in the Damascus suburb of Daraya as he was about to make a trip to Lebanon and was detained at a checkpoint. He had been working as a freelance journalist for CBS News and other outlets. Trump has made negotiating the release of US citizens held hostage or imprisoned in foreign countries a priority.
A top Lebanese intelligence official has been in Washington since last week. Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has negotiated the release of a US citizen from Syria and a Lebanese man who is also a permanent US resident from Iran.
Abbas’s departure from Washington was delayed, and a planned trip to Paris canceled, because he contracted COVID-19, according to Lebanon’s General Security Directorate. Former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his recent book that negotiations on the US role in Syria were “complicated by Trump’s constant desire to call Assad on US hostages. Kamalmaz’s daughter, Maryam, said the family still has no news about her father’s health or whereabouts. “We are hoping this meeting will bring some updates and news about him.”Tens of thousands of people are believed held in Syrian prisons since the country’s civil war broke out in 2011. Many are held incognito for years in lock-ups rife with torture and disease. In the country’s war, militant groups have also resorted to kidnapping foreigners for ransom or rivals to settle scores. According to AP, the Syrian government has not publicly acknowledged knowing anything about his whereabouts. A pro-Syrian government newspaper Al-Watan also confirmed the Journal’s report, adding that Patel and Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostages affairs, were in Damascus in August, where they met with the Syrian intelligence chief to discuss the Americans.
The paper also said it was the third such secret visit by senior US officials in past years. The other missing man is Majd Kamalmaz, a 62-year-old clinical psychologist from Virginia, who disappeared in 2017 and is believed to be held in a Syrian government prison. His daughter, Maryam, said the family learned of Patel’s visit last week. “Praying for the best from it,” she said, speaking to The AP in a series of messages. The family believes the trip occurred within the past two weeks but she had no further details.
There has not been a confirmed visit by a high-level American official to Damascus since the US shuttered its embassy in the capital and withdrew its ambassador in 2012 as the country’s civil war worsened.
However, numerous US officials, both military and civilian, have traveled to opposition-held parts of the country in the years since.

Iraq's Kadhimi, France's Macron Discuss Support to Confront Multifaceted Challenges
Paris- Michel Abu Najm//Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
Although French President Emmanuel Macron is still busy with the stabbing attack in the Paris suburb that left one man dead, the Elysee Palace provided Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi Monday with an official reception ceremony and the needed time to discuss multifaceted issues, revealing Paris’ desire to enhance its relations with Baghdad. The Prime Minister arrived Sunday evening in Paris as part of a European tour that includes France, Britain, and Germany. In the French capital, Kadhimi sat down with Macron, his counterpart Jean Castex, President of the French Senate, Gerard Larache, in addition to the foreign and defense ministers. French sources told Asharq Al-Awsat there is a mutual aspiration to enhance relations between the two countries. “Paris wants to have a weighty role in Iraq, not just at the level of fighting terrorist cells. For its part, Baghdad needs to diversify its relations, not to remain trapped between Tehran and Washington,” the sources said. Also, Iraq looks at Paris as an entrance to Europe and a side capable to help at all levels, while France considers the Iraqi market as promising with a significant chance to operate at all levels, particularly in the reconstruction process.
In this regard, Iraq and France signed Monday three memoranda of intent (MOI), in the fields of transportation, agriculture, and education, in the presence of Kadhimi and Castex. According to a statement by the Prime Minister's Office, the MOI seek to strengthen the institutional capabilities of the Ministry of Agriculture, including the exchange of experiences in the field of agriculture, training, veterinary education, plant health and agricultural research, encouraging partnerships in the fields of food and agricultural industries, agricultural machinery, and developing land and water resources.
At the level of transportation, the agreement included cooperation on the construction of a metro railway in Baghdad, while the agreement on education sought to boost cooperation in the field of education between the two parties and expand the admission of Iraqi students to French universities.
During his meeting with Macron, Kadhimi discussed strengthening joint cooperation in the field of combating terrorism.
“Macron and Kadhimi discussed relations between the two countries and ways to develop them. The latest regional and international developments were reviewed, and views were exchanged on a number of issues of common concern,” a statement by his office said. The meeting dealt with ways to enhance joint cooperation between Iraq and France, especially with regard to the economic, security and cultural fields, and in the field of combating terrorism. Kadhimi expressed his aspiration to consolidate the existing friendly relations between the two countries, and to consolidate ways of joint cooperation, in a way that enhances their common interests. He also valued France’s efforts to launch an initiative to support the Iraqi government in implementing some of its government reform program. For his part, Macron welcomed the visit of Kadhimi, and affirmed his country's keenness to strengthen ties with Iraq in various fields.
During talks with his counterpart, the Iraqi PM discussed ways to develop bilateral relations between the two countries and strengthen them in the economic, investment, security, and health fields.
The two men also tackled the situation in the region and exchanged views on a number of issues. Kadhimi stressed, according to the statement, the importance of strengthening cooperation between the two countries in many sectors, indicating: "The government seeks solid relations with the countries of the world based on common interests and restore Iraq to its international status." For his part, the French Prime Minister affirmed France's keenness to support Iraq at various levels.

Israeli Army Evacuates Areas in Fear of Attacks From Gaza Strip
Tel Aviv/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
The Israeli army evacuated Monday morning workers from Gaza farms following intelligence reports claiming that a Palestinian cell is plotting to launch rocket attacks. The military on Monday cordoned off roads and agricultural areas near the Israel-Gaza Strip border, citing engineering work.
"The residents are not subject to any danger," Israeli military sources assured. However, Israeli farmers were ordered not to work in areas near the border. These activities sparked concerns about the eruption of war since the Israeli army has shifted priorities and placed the risk of a war with Gaza on top of the list. Although the Lebanese Hezbollah is the arch-enemy, Gaza Strip’s preparedness for a huge war remains the main concern for Israeli security bodies, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. A high-ranking officer stated that an escalation is possible if no truce was reached with Hamas. The truce would cover thousands of Gazans working in Israel, the transfer of the Qatari funds for a year, the desalinization of seawater, the construction of an industrial zone, and a solution for the captives and missing issue. Notably, Qatar stepped in as a mediator between Israel and Gaza in quest of a long-term truce.

Female domestic workers regularly abused in Qatar: Report
Arab News/October 20/2020
LONDON: Female migrant workers in Qatar regularly suffer extreme abuse and are frequently overworked, according to a report published on Tuesday by Amnesty International. The report, which surveyed the experiences of 105 female migrant domestic workers in the Gulf state, said some were forced to work excessive hours, were not paid properly, were denied food, and suffered severe physical mistreatment at the hands of employers, including sexual assault. It documented instances of regular beatings suffered by 15 of the women, with 40 saying they had been slapped, spat at or had their hair pulled. Most were frequently insulted; one said she had been treated “like a dog” by her employer. Another said her employer had threatened to cut out her tongue and kill her. “I am only a (maid), I cannot do anything,” she told Amnesty. Eighty-seven of the 105 said their passports had been confiscated by their employers, preventing them from returning home, and they were offered no protection by Qatari authorities.
Ninety of the women interviewed said they worked for over 14 hours per day, and half said 18-hour days were normal — double the standard hours stipulated in their contracts. Many had never received days off. Five of the women surveyed by Amnesty said they have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of employers or their family members, with one adding that she had witnessed the son of her employer raping another domestic worker. She and her colleague were offered money by the employer to keep quiet. When they went to the police instead, she said, they were accused of making the story up. Qatar is thought to have around 173,000 migrant domestic workers and as many as 2.7 foreign workers overall, making up nearly 90 percent of the country’s population, with most coming from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Qatar has been dogged by allegations of systematic mistreatment of such workers, including denying them the right to set up unions, or to return home without their employer’s permission for years. International focus has been drawn to the way the country has treated migrant laborers since Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Problems persist, including late or non-payment of wages, inadequate housing and exploitative behavior by employers. Despite moves to bring in such functions as a minimum wage and the 2017 Domestic Workers Law, which ostensibly guaranteed rights on issues such as working hours, breaks, days off and holidays, most measures are not enforced and migrant domestic workers in particular have been left behind, Amnesty said. “The women we spoke to were resilient and independent — they had left their homes and traveled halfway across the world. Instead of being isolated and silenced, these women should be given a voice so they can advocate for their rights,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice. “Domestic workers told us they were working an average of 16 hours a day, every day of the week, far more than the law allows. Almost all had their passport confiscated by their employers, and others described not getting their salaries and being subjected to vicious insults and assaults,” he added. “The overall picture is of a system which continues to allow employers to treat domestic workers not as human beings, but as possessions. Despite efforts to reform labor laws, Qatar is still failing the most vulnerable women in the country.”A Qatari government statement said allegations raised by the report will be investigated to ensure “all guilty parties” are held to account.
“If proven to be true, the allegations made by the individuals interviewed … constitute serious violations of Qatari law and must be dealt with accordingly,” the statement added.

Turkish Cypriots elect Erdogan’s candidate amid east Med tensions

Arab News/October 20/2020
NICOSIA: Turkish Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus on Sunday narrowly elected right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar, backed by Ankara, in a run-off poll, at a time of heightened tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. Tatar, 60, clinched his surprise victory in a second round of presidential elections, winning 51.7 percent of the vote, official results showed. He edged out incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, 72, a supporter of reunification with the Greek Cypriot south of the divided island, leaving attempts to relaunch long-stalled UN-brokered talks hanging in the balance. Tatar is an advocate of a two-state solution and held the post of premier in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognized only by Ankara. He controversially received the open backing of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the election campaign.
In a victory speech to hundreds of cheering and Turkish flag-waving supporters, Tatar thanked Turkey’s head of state and said: “We deserve our sovereignty — we are the voice of Turkish Cypriots.
“We are fighting to exist within the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, therefore our neighbors in the south and the world community should respect our fight for freedom.”
There was no immediate official reaction from the Greek Cypriot government or ruling party in the south of the island, which is a European Union member state, although opposition parties were quick to lament the outcome. Erdogan was swift to celebrate the victory, which followed a high 67-percent turnout at the polls. “I congratulate Ersin Tatar who has been elected president ... Turkey will continue to provide all types of efforts to protect the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people,” he wrote on Twitter. Ersin Tatar edged out incumbent Mustafa Akinc, leaving attempts to relaunch UN-brokered talks hanging in the balance. In a telephone call the same night, Erdogan said he was confident the two leaders would maintain close cooperation in all areas, “starting with the hydrocarbon linked activities in the eastern Mediterranean,” his office said.
Under Erdogan, Turkey has become an increasingly assertive regional power that is now engaged in a bitter dispute with Greece and Cyprus over oil and gas reserves in eastern Mediterranean waters. The European Union has deplored Turkey’s drilling for hydrocarbons in disputed waters and warned Ankara against further “provocations,” while multiple countries have staged military drills in the region in recent months. The second-round ballot was triggered after Tatar won 32 percent of the vote on Oct. 11 ahead of Akinci, who garnered just under 30 percent. Akinci was tipped to secure a second term, having won the backing of Tufan Erhurman, a fellow social democrat who came third last time around. After his defeat, Akinci, who had accused Ankara of meddling in the polls, thanked his supporters and said: “You know what happened ... I am not going to do politics on this.”
The TRNC, with a population of about 300,000, was established after the north was occupied by Turkey in 1974 in reaction to a coup that aimed to annex Cyprus to Greece.
Earlier in October, Turkish troops angered the Republic of Cyprus by reopening public access to the fenced-off seaside ghost town of Varosha for the first time since Turkish forces invaded the north. The reopening was announced jointly by Erdogan and Tatar at a meeting in Ankara just days before the first round of polling. It drew EU and UN criticism and sparked demonstrations in the Republic of Cyprus, which exercises its authority over the island’s south, separated from the TRNC by a UN-patrolled buffer zone.
On the eve of Sunday’s vote, Greek Cypriot demonstrators massed at a checkpoint along the so-called “Green Line,” holding signs that read “Cyprus is Greek,” in protest at the reopening of nearby Varosha to the Turkish Cypriots. Turkey has repeatedly said it seeks to defend Turkish and Turkish Cypriots’ rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Akinci’s relationship with Ankara had come under strain, especially after he described the prospect of the north’s annexation by Turkey as “horrible” in February. When Akinci took office in 2015, he was hailed as the leader best placed to revive peace talks. But hopes were dashed in July 2017 after UN-mediated negotiations collapsed in Switzerland, notably over Greek Cypriot demands for the withdrawal of the tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers still stationed in the TRNC.

US Commends Morocco’s Support for UN Efforts in Libya
Rabat - Asharq Al-Awsat/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 20 October, 2020
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker hailed Morocco’s continuous support for United Nations efforts to restore security and stability in Libya. Washington is looking forward, in the coming weeks, to a positive outcome from the UN-led intra-Libyan dialogue, which aims to create a new transitional government and chart the path to national elections. "We strongly support the UN-facilitated Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LDPF) as the means towards an inclusive, negotiated political solution to the conflict in Libya," Schenker said following his meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in Rabat on Monday. Schenker said that they had a chance to talk about how, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, they could make the already strong US-Morocco strategic partnership even stronger. He stated: “We appreciate the King’s continuous and valuable support on issues of common interest such as peace in the Middle East, and stability, security and development across the region and the African continent.”“Morocco is the only country in Africa with which we have a Free Trade Agreement, and we and our companies see it as a gateway to the continent,” he continued. “Over 150 American companies operate here, creating jobs for the local economy. Next year will mark the 15th anniversary of the FTA taking effect and increasing the value of our trade by many multiples,” added Schenker. “Morocco is also a close partner with the United States on a range of security issues. It participates in more than 100 military engagements with us yearly, including African Lion. Secretary of Defense Esper was just here and signed a ten-year Roadmap for Defense cooperation, a symbol of our long-term and strategic cooperation,” he stressed. “Before arriving in Morocco over the weekend, I was in Beirut, where Morocco demonstrated its generosity by setting up a field hospital that has helped over 50,000 Lebanese in the aftermath of the devastating explosions that took place there in August,” he remarked. “Next year, we will celebrate 200 years of friendship between Morocco and the United States, when we mark the bicentennial of the American Legation in Tangier, the oldest US diplomatic property in the world,” the US official stated.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 20-21/2020

Pretoria plot fits Iran’s pattern of behavior
Joseph Hammond/Arab News/October 20/2020
US intelligence officials believe that Iranian operatives are seeking to assassinate Lana Marks, the American ambassador to South Africa, who has been in the post since last year. The plot, which US officials have known about since the spring, reportedly involves the Iranian Embassy in Pretoria. President Donald Trump tweeted a stern warning to Iran after Politico reported the plot last month.
While some have guffawed at the allegation, it fits a clear pattern of growing Iranian ties in Africa and the willingness of the regime to launch terrorist attacks around the world. It is worth noting Iran has deep ties with South Africa. The country has long been a significant trading partner of Tehran. Iranian foreign direct investment in South Africa in 2018 stood at a reported $135 billion.
South Africa has also been a source of military technology for the pariah state. Rogue South African scientists may have aided Iran’s chemical weapons program in the early 1990s, according to declassified US intelligence documents released by the Washington-based Property of the People group. Hezbollah has often been considered an Iranian proxy in Lebanon, but the terrorist group is also well established in many parts of Africa. It has been accused of operating training camps and conducting fundraising in South Africa since at least 1994. As early as 2004, a US State Department document warned of a South African political group inspired by “Iranian Shiite fundamentalism.”
However, South Africa has broken with Iran over with the Pretoria plot. While the Iranians have dismissed the allegations, South African officials have launched an investigation and vowed to protect all foreign diplomats in the country. President Cyril Ramaphosa has also been briefed on the matter.
Second, it follows the increasingly public revelation of Iranian terrorist plots in both the US and Europe in recent years. In 2018, the Trump administration arrested two Iranian agents for spying on Iranian opposition groups in the US. The same year, the Danish government accused Iran of plotting attacks against opposition figures in Denmark. Meanwhile, the French government accused Iran of plotting to bomb a Paris rally attended by thousands of Iranian exiles organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The investigation led to arrests in several countries and a cooling of ties between Iran and the EU. The trial of an Iranian diplomat charged in connection with that case will begin next month in Belgium. Elsewhere, Albanian police announced that Iran had been plotting a similar strike in that country last year.
Also in 2019, Dutch authorities alleged Iran had paid a Moroccan gangster to kill two dissidents in Holland. One of those slain was Ahmad Mola Nissi, the leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, who was shot five times in front of his home. Such attacks in Europe have precedents in the 1990s too. In 1992, a group of Kurdish dissidents was assassinated at Mykonos Cafe in Berlin. Several senior Swedish politicians who happened to be visiting Berlin at the time of the murders narrowly missed having dinner at the same restaurant that night due to scheduling issues.
It follows the increasingly public revelation of Iranian terrorist plots in both the US and Europe in recent years.
The Pretoria plot is also reminiscent of a 2011 incident, in which Iranian operatives sought to hire Mexican gangsters to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US as he dined at the Cafe Milano restaurant in Washington. The plot was foiled, one of the plotters was handed a lengthy prison sentence, and President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, Saudi diplomatic efforts at the UN produced a resolution condemning the attack. The resolution called on “Iran to comply with all of its obligations under international law, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons.” Still, as the above incidents highlight, such plots have sadly continued in jurisdictions around the world.
South Africa may seem like an unlikely place for the regime to launch a “revenge” attack for the January US airstrike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani and the deputy leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis. However, Marks is a personal friend of Trump. Born in South Africa, she is conversant with both Xhosa and Afrikaans — two of South Africa’s 11 official languages. After a brief tennis career, she made her fortune as a fashion designer. As such, the foiled plot may have been designed to humiliate Trump before the Nov. 3 presidential election.
At this point, the details of the Pretoria plot are unclear. However, the potential threat is an important reminder that the specter of IRGC terrorism stretches far beyond the Middle East.
*Joseph Hammond is a journalist and former Fulbright Public Policy fellow with the government of Malawi. Hammond has been a recipient of fellowships organized by several think tanks, including the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council of the United States, the Heinrich Boll Stiftung North America Foundation, and the Policy Center for the New South’s Atlantic Dialogue.

EU’s hypocritical approach to Israeli occupation
Ramzy Baroud/Arab News/October 20/2020
In theory, Europe and the US stand on opposite sides when it comes to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. While the US government has fully embraced the tragic status quo created by 53 years of Israeli military occupation, the EU continues to advocate a negotiated settlement that is predicated on respect for international law.
In practice, however, despite the apparent rift between Washington and Brussels, the outcome is essentially the same. The US and Europe are Israel’s largest trading partners, weapons suppliers and political advocates.
One of the reasons the illusion of an even-handed Europe has been maintained for so long lies in the Palestinian leadership. Politically and financially abandoned by Washington, the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas has turned to the EU as its only possible savior. “Europe believes in the two-state solution,” PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said during a video discussion with the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs last week. Europe’s continued advocacy of the defunct two-state solution qualifies it to fill the massive gap created by Washington’s absence.
Shtayyeh called on EU leaders to “recognize the state of Palestine in order for us, and you, to break the status quo.” However, there are already 139 countries that recognize the state of Palestine. While that recognition is a clear indication that the world remains firmly pro-Palestinian, it changes little on the ground. What is needed is a concerted effort to hold Israel accountable for its violent occupation, as well as real action to support the Palestinians’ struggle. Not only has the EU failed in this regard, it is actually doing the exact opposite: Funding Israel, arming its military, and silencing its critics.
Listening to Shtayyeh’s words, one gets the impression that the top Palestinian official was addressing a conference of Arab, Muslim or socialist countries. “I call upon your parliament and your distinguished members of this parliament that Europe not wait for the American president to come up with ideas… We need a third party who can really remedy the imbalance in the relationship between an occupied people and an occupier country, that is Israel,” he said.
But is the EU qualified to be that third party? No. For decades, European governments have been an integral part of the US-Israel alliance. Just because the US administration has recently taken a sharp turn in favor of Israel, this should not allow Europe’s historical pro-Israel bias to be mistaken for pro-Palestinian solidarity.
In June, more than 1,000 European parliamentarians representing various political parties issued a statement expressing “serious concerns” about Donald Trump’s peace plan and Israel’s proposed annexation of nearly a third of the West Bank. The US Democratic Party, including some traditionally staunch supporters of Israel, was equally critical of the plan because, in its members’ minds, annexation would make the two-state solution impossible. However, just as the Democrats made it clear that a Joe Biden administration would not reverse any of Trump’s actions should he win next month’s election, European governments also said they would not take a single action to dissuade Israel, let alone punish it for its repeated violations of international law.
Lip service is pretty much all that ordinary Palestinians have obtained from Europe. The EU may have donated much money, but it has been largely pocketed by Abbas loyalists in the name of “state-building” and other fantasies. Tellingly, much of the imaginary Palestinian state infrastructure that has been subsidized by Europe in recent years has been blown up, demolished or confiscated by the Israeli military during its various wars and raids. But the EU has not punished Israel as a result and the PA has not stopped asking for more money to continue funding a non-existent state.
Not only has the EU failed to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing occupation and human rights violations, it is actually financing Tel Aviv too. According to Defense News, a quarter of Israel’s $7.2 billion of military exports in 2019 went to European countries. Moreover, the EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for a third of its total trade. This includes the bloc importing products made in illegal Israeli settlements.
Additionally, the EU labors to incorporate Israel into the European way of life through cultural and music contests, sports competitions and myriad other methods. While the EU possesses powerful tools that can be used to exact political concessions and enforce respect for international law, it opts to do very little.
Lip service is pretty much all that ordinary Palestinians have obtained from the EU.
Compare this with the ultimatum the EU gave the Palestinian leadership this month, linking its aid to the PA’s financial ties with Israel. In May, Abbas took the extraordinary step of considering all agreements with Israel and the US to be null and void. Effectively, this means that the PA will no longer be accountable for the stifling status quo that was created by the Oslo Accords, which have been repeatedly violated by Tel Aviv and Washington. Severing ties with Israel also means that the PA refuses to accept nearly $150 million a month in tax revenues that Tel Aviv collects on its behalf. This Palestinian step, while long overdue, was necessary. Instead of supporting Abbas’ move, the EU criticized it, refusing to provide additional aid for Palestinians until he restores ties with Israel and accepts the tax money. According to Axios, Germany, France, the UK and even Norway led the charge on this.
Continuing to make references to the unachievable two-state solution, while arming, funding and doing more business with Israel, is the very definition of hypocrisy. The truth is that Europe should be held as accountable as the US in emboldening and sustaining the Israeli occupation of Palestine. However, while Washington is openly pro-Israel, the EU has played a cleverer game: Selling Palestinians empty words while selling Israel lethal weapons.
*Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Twitter: @RamzyBaroud

Virus takes a firm hold of Europe
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/October 20/2020
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has taken Europe in its grip with a vengeance. The much-feared second wave of the pandemic has arrived across the continent, sooner and more fervently than expected. Governments in the Northern Hemisphere have been dreading the colder winter months and the likelihood of the virus’ effects combining with the flu, another respiratory disease, but nothing could have prepared them for this.
Last weekend’s mood was reminiscent of that fatal weekend in mid-March, when country after country went into lockdown and borders closed one by one. European governments are trying to do whatever they can to avoid a repeat of the outright lockdowns seen in March. However, the measures required to respond to the case numbers spiraling out of control are drastic nonetheless.
What governments fear is that, as case numbers rise, the virus will again spread to vulnerable groups and that hospitals’ intensive care units will either not have enough beds or enough staff, or both, to cater for all the patients requiring treatment. Who could forget the scenes in Italy in the spring, when emergency room staff had to carry out the gruesome triage, deciding whose life should be saved?
In France, Paris and some other cities now have a 9 p.m. curfew, while Italy and Germany have also tightened restrictions. The situation in Germany is very difficult because the country’s federal structure makes for a hotchpotch of measures that differ from state to state and even district to district. Belgium, which has one of the highest numbers of new cases per capita in the world, has introduced particularly draconian measures.
Even the freedom-loving Swiss are now obliged by law to wear masks in all indoor public places, while 15 people is the maximum number allowed for public gatherings — inside and outside. Demonstrations are still allowed, provided they adhere to social distancing rules. People attending private gatherings of more than 15 people must wear masks, prompting the concern of how Swiss police can monitor that. In the Netherlands, the royal family had to be flown back from their holiday in Greece after just one day amid a government travel advisory to stay put. A very contrite Prime Minister Mark Rutte took full responsibility for that PR flop.
In the UK, Wales will go into full lockdown on Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a Mexican standoff on two fronts: Internationally with the EU on Brexit and domestically with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham on how much the government has to pay if the city is to abide by the draconian restrictions imposed by Westminster. London is under tougher restrictions too.
Across Europe, government deficits have been growing because of the necessary COVID-19 support measures like furlough schemes and direct subsidies. According to the Financial Times, deficits in euro zone countries are approaching €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion), or 8.9 percent of the euro zone’s combined gross domestic product.
Many travelers face a quagmire of ever-changing quarantine rules, making cross-border air travel unpredictable, if not impossible.
All of the above raises many questions. What measures are commensurate with the threat? How will freedom-loving Europeans react to the renewed restrictions placed on their lives? How much more can the continent’s economies take, especially the hard-hit hospitality sector and airlines? For how long will the various furlough programs and small business credit lines be extended? What to do about people who fall through the cracks, like artists or the self-employed? This is a particularly pertinent question because, in Europe, the gig economy has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade. How much financial wiggle room have governments left to expand programs, who will pay down the ballooning deficits, and over what time frame? Are we mortgaging the future of our children?
All of these topics were discussed in the press and on television talk shows across Europe. Virologists discussed the merits of the Swedish model, the Great Barrington Declaration (a proposed system resembling an attempt to create herd immunity), the New Zealand model of isolation and lockdowns, and the many frameworks between these extremes.
What broadly transpired were the following four points.
While most citizens understand the need to comply with government restrictions, there are others who refuse.
Firstly, people are tired and scared for their livelihoods. While they endured the lockdown in spring, they thought that, if they could just get over this hump, life would return to normal. Alas, it did not. While most citizens understand the need to comply with government restrictions, there are others who refuse. In London, thousands took to the streets on Saturday demanding an end to restrictions, chanting that they were the 99 percent (which they were not).
Secondly, while governments and most opposition parties, other than the far-right populists, broadly agreed on the measures in the spring, this is no longer the case. Painting things with a broad brush, the more right-wing, pro-business politicians question the necessity of the lockdowns out of fear for what the new measures mean for the economy. The center-left (social democrats, greens, etc.), meanwhile, puts public health concerns above the economic imperative. Thirdly, many populist parties, such as Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally, were caught on the back foot by the virus. Ever since the pandemic spread to Europe, their pet peeve of immigration has mattered far less than the danger posed by the virus. They have found it difficult to adjust.
Fourthly, and importantly, there is awareness that the virus will be with us for some time to come, making our lives anywhere from more difficult to outright impossible; and that there is nowhere to hide. It would be remiss not to sound a small warning over vaccines. They will become available, but it may take longer than we thought. Even when we have vaccines or antiviral drugs, we need to produce them at scale, ship them in refrigerated containers, which poses its own set of challenges, and ensure all people and all nations have access — not just the rich. Expect that to be a bumpy ride.
In the meantime, we should all take care of our families, neighbors and especially the weak, whether they are in a high-risk health group or are poor. We must make sure that nobody falls through the cracks. History will judge us on these parameters.
**Cornelia Meyer is a Ph.D.-level economist with 30 years of experience in investment banking and industry. She is chairperson and CEO of business consultancy Meyer Resources. Twitter: @MeyerResources
 

Turkey: The Dark Side of Religious Sects
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/October 20/2020
The school curriculum teaches boys that the female sex is inferior and second-class, while it teaches girls to be a slave to a man. — Professor Esergül Balcı, Report from Izmir September 9th University, September 5, 2020.
In 2010 a scandal in Siirt in southeast Turkey revealed serial rapes in this conservative little town, including cases of adults raping minors and minors raping toddlers, even killing one.... "This is a small town," the mayor said... "Almost everyone is related to everyone.".... No one was prosecuted.
What in the modern world is widely viewed as sexual abuse of minors is standard social behavior for Turkish Islamists. For instance, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's one-time staunchest ally and his choice for president (when Erdoğan was prime minister), Abdullah Gül, married his wife, Hayrunisa, when she was 15 years old and he was 30
When, in 1925, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, banned all Islamic sects, dervishes, lodges and other religious cults dating from the Ottoman times, he publicly said, "The Turkish Republic cannot be a republic of sheiks, dervishes and their disciples. The only right sect is the sect of civilization." Almost a century after the birth of a modern nation, nevertheless, the Turkish Republic has indeed become a republic of sheiks, dervishes and their millions of disciples.
The findings of an academic from Izmir's September 9th University are worse than scary. The following is from Professor Esergül Balcı's alarming report:
Islamic sects, cults and orders in Turkey have flourished in coalition with [President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's] Justice and Development Party (AKP) as their members have successfully built networks in public service.
The number of madrassas [Islamic schools] has risen sharply [since the AKP came to power in 2002].
The Treasury's financial support for schools run by Islamic sects has reached TL 1 billion [approximately $126 million].
About one million pupils attend schools run by sects.
A total of 2.6 million Turks have some kind of connection with a religious order.
There are primarily 30 sects, their 400 branches and 800 madrassas.
Parents enroll children as young as three years old at religious schools. A third of Turkey's 10,000 private schools have links with at least one sect. So do 2,800 of the country's 4,000 private dormitories.
The school curriculum teaches boy students that the female sex is inferior and second-class, while it teaches girls to be a slave to a man.
There is always the not-so-peaceful side of the story of Islamic sects. Cüppeli Ahmet Hoca, himself a cult leader, claimed recently that there were about 2,000 Salafi associations with armed members. "If prosecutors invite me to testify I can name 150 of them," he said. After he testified to the police, he said: "The police were not surprised by what I said in my statement."
What in the modern world is widely viewed as sexual abuse of minors is standard social behavior for Turkish (and other) Islamists. For instance, Erdoğan's one-time staunchest ally and his choice for president (when Erdoğan was prime minister), Abdullah Gül, married his wife, Hayrunisa, when she was 15 years old and he was 30.
Tribe mentality, mixed with conservative Islamist thinking, started to poison the country in the early years of AKP rule. In 2010, a scandal in Siirt, in southeast Turkey, revealed serial rapes in the conservative town, including cases of adults raping minors and minors raping toddlers, even killing one. "This is a small town," the mayor said about that horror story. "Almost everyone is related to everyone. We have closed the case after consultations with the governor, the police and the prosecutor." No one was prosecuted.
Turkish investigative journalist Ismail Saymaz published a book in 2019, "The Sect of Lust" ("Şehvetiye Tarikatı"), in which he documented judicial reports detailing sexual abuse at several cults. Some of the chapters in the book include: The Cloister of Sex;; I'd Be Happy if the Sheik Had Sex With My Wife; Two Sisters, One Husband; A Sheik's Penis Is Like a Mother's Nipple; Abuse of Mentally-Handicapped Child.
Most recently, Sheik Fatih Nurullah, leader of the Uşşaki Islamic cult, was arrested in September for repeated sexual abuse and deprivation of liberty for sexual purposes. The victim of the sheik was a 12-year-old girl whose mother was a cleaning lady at the cult's premises. The sheik, whose real name is Eyyüp Fatih Şağban, is facing a prison term of up to 55 years.
Some tapped phone conversations revealed an exchange between Sheik Nurullah and the abused child's father, mentioned by his initials, F.A., in judicial reports. In one conversation Sheik Nurullah admits having kissed the 12-year-old girl on her lips, but said he did that "with the affection of a grandfather." Sheik Nurullah is also heard trying to persuade F.A. to cover up the incident "in the name of Allah." In a second voice recording, Sheik Nurullah recommends to F.A. that he kill his daughter and disguise it as suicide.
After the father filed a complaint about the sheik, the father was badly beaten by a disciple of Sheik Nurullah. Other followers later contacted F.A. and offered him TL 50 million (approximately $6.3 million) if he agreed to withdraw his complaint.
Sheik Nurullah will not be the last Islamic cult leader to abuse children. But is it only about a perverted religious individual? Or a few? Or a few dozens, or hundreds? What about millions of devoted followers? A Turkish proverb notes: "The sheik cannot fly but his disciple lets him fly" -- followers tend to attribute characteristics to a cult leader that he does not possess.
*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.

Western Lives Matter: Teacher Beheaded in Paris
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/October 20/2020
"This is not an act of 'separatism', it is a declaration of war that must be dealt with accordingly". — Pascal Bruckner, French author.
France's elites... fail to understand the ideological war that the enemies of open societies have declared on them. You can see it from the targets of the attacks by extremists: Jews, a priest, cartoonists, tourists, ordinary people, policemen, now a teacher.
An entire community of immigrants, who enjoyed all the freedoms we had granted them, ambushed him.... It is a racism condoned by imams who had called [the beheaded teacher] Paty "delinquent".
"[T]here is the continuity of our submission. I am convinced that if we had known how to say no, we would not be here. They all bowed their heads out of fear of appearing racist or out of patronage." — Élisabeth Badinter, author, Le Point, October 16, 2020.
If the French authorities do not take the many warnings to heart, even after a school teacher was beheaded in broad daylight by a terrorist shouting "Allahu Akbar", it means that the fight is over and they might as well raise a white flag over the Eiffel Tower.
Samuel Paty, the French school teacher beheaded in a Paris suburb by a Chechen migrant, was the victim of the most ferocious racism that circulates today in Western democracies, that of fundamentalist beliefs against "infidels". Paty was murdered for having carried out his work with conscience and courage, educating his students to respect the founding values ​​of our societies and the words mounted over the doors of his school: Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Pictured: Bois-d'Aulne College in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, where Samuel Paty was murdered on October 16.
Western Lives Matter. We should ask all the journalists, the politicians, the clerics, the people of the street, to kneel for Samuel Paty. This French school teacher was the victim of the most ferocious racism that circulates today in Western democracies, that of fundamentalist beliefs against "infidels". The Chechen terrorist, after beheading Paty, called him a "dog". "In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful...," the terrorist wrote after the attack, "Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your dogs who dared to belittle Muhammad...".
Paty was murdered for having carried out his work as a teacher with conscience and courage, educating his students to respect the founding values ​​of our societies and the three words mounted over the doors of his school: Liberté, égalité, fraternité, freedom, equality, brotherhood. Paty had shown Charlie Hebdo's Mohammed cartoons to his students to sensitize them to freedom of expression. He had also asked his pupils to create a drawing based on those three words.
"A borderline in the abominable has just been crossed" essayist Pascal Bruckner said.
"They are attacking the most sacred stronghold of the Republic: the school and the physical person of the teachers. A teacher is beheaded for showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in a freedom of speech seminar. The victim has reportedly received death threats. The butcher of Conflans-Saint-Honorine is ISIS at home: a solemn message in the form of a macabre ceremony, a warning for all the teaching staff who will have to shut up or perish. This is not an act of 'separatism', it is a declaration of war that must be dealt with accordingly".
"It is time to close all the Islamist prayer rooms, we know very well where they are," said General Pierre de Villiers. "It is an attack on the very existence of our nation and civilization." They have known this for years and have done nothing. Courage is lacking, collaborationists abound. "Only force reduces violence... It is time to send radical imams back to their countries of origin without delay."
The attack came a few days after tension arose around the staff of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Its director of human resources, Marika Bret, was evicted after serious death threats from extremist Muslims. Bret made her "exfiltration" public for French intelligence to alert the public to the threat of extremism in France:
"My security agents received specific and detailed threats. I had ten minutes to pack and leave the house. Ten minutes to give up a part of one's life is a bit short and it was very violent. I will not go home. I am losing my home to outbursts of hatred, the hatred that always begins with the threat of instilling fear. We know how it can end".
According to the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, France still does not understand the reality she is facing:
"She believes herself struck by terrorists... while she is subjected to a guerrilla war that one day [reaches] the dimensions of a total war... as many countries...to varying degrees, are still enduring (Algeria, Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia)".
It seems as if France does not know how to get out of a monstrous spiral of hatred and self-destruction -- hatred on the part of Islamic fundamentalism; self-destruction on the part of France's elites who fail to understand the ideological war that the enemies of open societies have declared on them. You can see it from the targets of the attacks by extremists: Jews, a priest, cartoonists, tourists, ordinary people, policemen, now a teacher.
"We are at war", said the former French PM Manuel Valls this week. "We are at war against Islamism, jihadism. We are at war with the Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood".
Le Figaro listed some of the most barbaric terror attacks on France:
"He died, beheaded, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, in France. History teacher, he joined the memorial to the victims of conquering Islamism alongside the soldiers of Montauban, the children of the Otzar Hatorah school, the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie, the policewoman of Montrouge, the French Jews of the Hyper Cacher, the Nice pedestrians of July 14, Father Hamel, the massacred of Bataclan and café terraces, young girls from Saint-Charles station, Colonel Beltrame, police officers from the Prefecture of Police and all these victims who died under the bullets and the knives of the jihadists".
It does not sound like France; it sounds more like Syria.
An entire community of immigrants, who enjoyed all the freedoms we had granted them, ambushed him. The terrorist had receive a "refugee" permit. French police have arrested his family members. It is a racism condoned by imams who had called Paty "delinquent".
The charge of "Islamophobia" kills. It was the parents' hate campaign that led the terrorist to behead Paty.
"How can we avoid partition?", former President Francois Hollande said. "Because that, all the same, is what is happening: the partition".
The situation in French schools is alarming. That is the lesson of the Mila O. affair, which is on the cover of Le Point's weekly. We left her, in January. She was fleeing school, protected by the police after she made insulting comments about Islam during a livestream on Instagram. Ten months later, this 16-year-old from a provincial French high school lives in hiding, like Salman Rushdie. "She is constantly persecuted", Mila's parents say. Extremist Muslims wish her to "die in hell", to "undress her in the public square", to "bury her alive", to make her "swallow her organs", to "disfigure her with acid after raping her in a cellar".
On August 15, one of the participants in her school's language course saw her having dinner with a friend in Malta. "The boy asked me if I was Mila," says the girl. She answered yes. So he started insulting her. "He asked me if I was proud of what I had done. Yes, also very proud ". The boy replied: "I will strangle you and rape your mother!". He swore on the Quran and Allah. "He also told me he would reveal my location on his Snapchat account." Many students at Mila's former school say she deserved this fate.
Author Élisabeth Badinter blames feminism for the abandonment of Mila. "We immediately surrendered to the first manifestations of political Islamism, in 1989, in Creil", Badinter said.
"When three girls asked to wear the Islamic headscarf in public schools, the whole left said, in the name of tolerance, that we had to give in to their diktats. Between the girls of Creil and the persecution of Mila is the continuity of our submission. I am convinced that if we had known how to say no, we would not be here. They all bowed their heads out of fear of appearing racist or out of patronage. I am surprised that many feminist activists are not worried. Their silence is a bad sign".
Badinter has three explanations: "Fear, indifference or, worse, the approval of those who pursue Mila". After the beheading of the teacher, the French began again sweet, hypocritical, empty, disarming slogans, "Je Suis Enseignant" ("I am a teacher") and "Je suis professeur". We do not need slogans, we need to defeat these extremists. "A teacher beheaded for having shown the Charlie Hebdo caricatures: we are, in France, at this level of unbearable barbarism" Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally Party, tweeted. "Islamism is declaring war on us: it is by force that we must drive it out of our country". If the French authorities do not take the many warnings to heart, even after a school teacher was beheaded in broad daylight by a terrorist shouting "Allahu Akbar", it means that the fight is over and they might as well hoist a white flag over the Eiffel Tower.
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 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.

America Feels Like It’s Falling Apart. Time for Some Optimism
Noah Smith/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020
Octavia Butler’s classic futurist novel “Parable of the Sower” recently made the New York Times bestseller list for the first time. It depicts an America falling apart at the seams due to violence, economic decline, and governmental dysfunction. But despite the chaos, the protagonist, Lauren Olamina, spends much of her time thinking about space exploration. Faced with a dystopian Earth, she motivates herself and her followers to survive by dreaming of the stars.
Today, the US isn’t quite falling apart yet, but a pandemic, social unrest, political chaos, wildfires and economic recession are hastening what was an already worrying national decline. As people desperately try to shore up the nation’s institutions, a few are taking a page from “Parable of the Sower” and dreaming big dreams about what the future could hold. One example is the socialists who came up with the idea of a Green New Deal. Though the particulars of such a policy haven’t exactly been hammered out yet, the basic idea is to combine a bold attack on carbon emissions with an equally audacious expansion of economic security. Aggressive targets for green energy, construction of transit and retrofitting of buildings would be combined with large-scale government job provision, free education and income security.
The idea’s promoters wax positively utopian about what a Green New Deal could accomplish. The vision is not one of diminished horizons or painful cutbacks in economic growth — which a few environmentalists demand — but rather one of clean, tranquil abundance. In the words of writer Aaron Bastani, it would be “fully automated luxury communism” — a Star Trek future where technology does all the work and humans share the benefits equally. Futurists such as Ramez Naam, meanwhile, are imagining the technologies that would be required to create an economy that’s both prosperous and environmentally friendly. Others are reimagining the American city. The YIMBY movement — which stands for “yes, in my back yard” — is pushing to change America’s sprawling, suburban, car-centric development pattern into one based around density and public transit. An ad-hoc alliance between socialists and left-libertarians, the YIMBYs would remove zoning laws while using the government to build trains and public housing. Thanks to the visions of such thinkers as transit analyst Juliet Eldred, young people are sharing urbanist memes and passing around maps of an envisioned countrywide high-speed rail system. In an early victory, the YIMBYs managed to get Oregon to effectively ban single-family zoning statewide.
And for many of these same idealists, reimagining the American city also means reimagining the police. Police brutality has been a major cause not only of recent unrest, but of long-simmering racial tensions that have made even the most liberal American cities feel less than fully integrated. While some want to abolish the police entirely, more pragmatic visionaries are thinking of ways to reduce the number of dangerous interactions between law enforcement and the community. Darrell Owens, a co-executive of the YIMBY advocacy group East Bay for Everyone, successfully pitched the city of Berkeley on the idea of replacing traffic cops with an unarmed traffic enforcement department.
If American cities are to become more efficient in their use of land and resources, it stands to reason that more people could live in them. In his new book “One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger,” writer Matthew Yglesias proposes a dramatic expansion of immigration, along with industrial and urbanist policies to give all the new Americans jobs and places to live. This idea falls short of more radical proposals for open borders, but manages to still be breathtaking in scope while not sacrificing the specific details of how to accommodate new arrivals.
Any future utopian America will need to be not just wealthier and more efficient, but far less unequal. While advocates of the Green New Deal would remake the economy with a huge array of industrial policies and programs, a small but growing group of social democrats is envisioning something simpler and cleaner. Writers such as Annie Lowrey and the pseudonymous writer “James Medlock” envision a nation where equality is not left to the vagaries of the employment system, but instead is assured via taxes and spending. Medlock favors broad-based taxation such as the VATs used in Europe, and universal social programs such as basic income. The idea is that creating an economically equal society is actually quite easy — just use a few simple but powerful redistributionary tools to make sure everyone has enough cash.
These are only a few of the Americans dreaming of utopian futures at a time when chaos and decline threaten to overwhelm the present. Others envision bold programs to close racial wealth gaps, colonize Mars, or use technology to change the nature of what it means to be human.
Most of these big ideas are unlikely to materialize in the near future — at least not in their idealized forms. The vicissitudes of a chaotic world and a divided society, the limitations of technology and the need for compromise always stand in the way of utopia. But the simple fact that Americans are dreaming these dreams means there is still something vital and unbeaten in the country’s spirit. The ability to imagine not just fixes for today’s problems, but a radically better tomorrow, is an essential motivator to keep fighting when everything feels like it’s falling apart.

Intel Can Leave Memory Games to Samsung
Tae Kim/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020
Intel Corp. has stumbled lately. To right itself, the semiconductor giant needs to get back to basics and prioritize its main business. An exit from the memory industry will help that effort.
The company agreed to sell its Nand memory-chip subsidiary to South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. for about $9 billion, the Asian chipmaker said in a statement late Monday New York time. Despite large investments in flash memory, Intel has never been able to become a big player in these types of semiconductors, which are used in storage devices inside computer hard drives and consumer electronics. That’s a problem because in a commodity market such as memory, leadership and size are essential to generate profits over the long term.
With no prospects for large gains on the horizon, Intel is smart to give up on memory. First, the move can help the company’s bottom line. Earlier this month, Raymond James estimated Intel could boost its annual free cash flow by $2 billion if it left the memory business. Second, the prospects of this part of the chip industry aren’t very promising. This, analysts say, is because market leader Samsung is willing to flood the market if necessary to defend its leading position, without regard to maintaining its prices. Not a great situation for the other smaller players. Even Micron Technology Inc. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra hinted at those difficult industry dynamics during his earnings call last month. He noted the industry needs to reduce its factory investments if chipmakers wanted to improve the market’s profitability. This is a battle Intel doesn’t need to fight.
But most importantly, Intel needs to focus on its primary business: central-processing unit (CPU) chips. Frankly, the company has gotten distracted with several needless acquisitions and forays into disparate markets such as security software, smartphone wireless chips and programmable FPGA chips. All those areas don’t matter if the company loses technical leadership in the CPU market. And after Intel revealed in July that another next-generation chip based on 7-nanometer manufacturing technology would be delayed, most analysts now believe Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has the prime position to make the fastest, best-performing processors for several years. A $9 billion deal isn’t going to fix all the problems of a $200 billion company. But every step toward a more focused Intel is a positive.

Thailand’s Leaders Can’t Afford Confrontation
Clara Ferreira Marques/Bloomberg/October, 20/2020
Anti-government marchers have been gathering across Thailand in defiance of a state of emergency, and their list of demands now stretches to include reining in the powerful monarchy. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has indicated he wants to talk. He could do with listening, too.
Discontent has simmered since a March 2019 election, but gathered steam late in the year with the disqualification of opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and the subsequent dissolution of his party. With few concessions and despite multiple arrests, restlessness has intensified and student-led protests have broadened. Former junta leader Prayuth has few useful options in his normal toolkit. A glance at the ailing $500 billion-plus economy provides one good reason for officials to show flexibility.
Thailand was worryingly sluggish even before the pain inflicted by 2020, thanks to unimpressive productivity growth, the Sino-US trade war, severe drought and its stubbornly strong currency. The coronavirus has hit tourism especially hard. The country has since done better than most neighbors in containing the pandemic, with the exception of Vietnam, but the aftermath has been painful. Now, the prospect of prolonged unrest risks spooking businesses and consumers, whose confidence has only just begun to recover. Tourists, who contribute roughly 20% of gross domestic product, may stay away even if restrictions slowly begin to ease.
In the latest escalation, the government ordered emergency measures last week that ban gatherings of five or more people and news considered detrimental to national security, and used water cannon to disperse the crowd. Nonetheless, tens of thousands of people came together again at the weekend. Now, authorities are threatening to censor troublesome media, too.
Protest is hardly new. The Southeast Asian country has seen about a dozen coups and many unsuccessful attempts since the transition to constitutional monarchy in 1932. The economy does recover, but the bounce has grown less pronounced as underlying, untended structural woes from labor to education and infrastructure linger. Analysts at Capital Economics point out that private investment, excluding housing, has yet to reach levels seen before the 2014 coup that first put Prayuth at the helm.
Equity investors are certainly not sticking around. The benchmark SET index has declined by almost a quarter this year, making it one of the worst performers in the region, with consumer stocks particularly dented. Foreigners have already pulled, net, more than $9 billion from domestic equities in 2020 — exceeding 2018’s record annual outflow. Though admittedly easing some concerns about Thai competitiveness, the baht currency has gone from outperformer to one of Asia's weakest in 2020.
The trouble is that it’s difficult to envision how the government’s next steps can help either the economy or future stability. During his time in office, Prayuth has shown no hint of pliability or instinct for radical reform, even when he had untrammeled power as junta leader. Equally, his government appears unsure how to deal with a leaderless popular movement that will be hard to silence in the age of social media. One credible option is returning to charter reform, given one of the protesters’ demands is rewriting a constitution drafted by a military-appointed panel after 2014. So far, that effort has stalled as lawmakers instead want to vet plans submitted earlier. At best, it would buy time. The worst case would be lethal violence that has periodically suppressed protests over the decades.
Even harder to see is how the monarchy would make concessions to those protesters who want to see a more democratic version of the institution, with the king, who spends most of his time in Germany, separating his wealth from the crown’s assets and relinquishing control over some army units. They also want to see laws that punish insulting the monarch scrapped. Yet the issue is divisive, even among demonstrators.
Without efforts to foster a truce, let alone tackle deep divisions within Thai society, instability will continue. That’s a worryingly open-ended distraction for a government expecting to see the economy post its worst drop on record this year.
Growth — and investors — won’t return in earnest until that changes.