English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 12/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Parable Of The The Widow & The judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people
Luke 18/01-08: “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September11-12/2020

Aoun Discusses Situation at Port with Army Chief
France Tries Forcing Change on Lebanon's Politicians
Beirut Fire Brought under Control as Anger Mounts
Jumblat Says Port Fire Sought to ‘Destroy Evidence’
Adib Says Accountability is Essential after Port Fire
EU Official to Visit Beirut Saturday Carrying Humanitarian Aid
Beirut blaze extinguished but flames of anger, distrust smoulder
More explosive materials uncovered at port after blast: Army
New Beirut port fire may have been caused by ‘sabotage, technical error or negligence’, claims President Aoun
Explosive material found in Beirut port after blast was stored for years, says president
Bad economy, Beirut blasts push doctors out of Lebanon/Mona Alami, Al Arabiya English/Friday 11 September 2020
Exhausted rescue workers soldier on at Beirut port/Najia Houssari/The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
Question: "Why does God allow evil?"/GotQuestions.org/September 11/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September11-12/2020

Is Iran trying to hack into the US presidential campaign?
Explosion in Tehran Province Kills 1, Damages Buildings
Trump announces Bahrain-Israel normalisation after three-way call
In Mideast deja vu, blast rocks military munitions depot in Jordan
Turkey slams Arab ties with Tel Aviv despite being one of first to recognize Israel
Euro-Med leaders warn Turkey that sanctions are on the table
Opposition watchdog puts Syria's pandemic deaths at more than 1,000
Turkey’s belligerence roils gas-rich eastern Mediterranean
Divide between Turks and Syrian refugees widening, survey shows
Egypt's El-Sisi and France's Macron discuss Libya in phone call

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September11-12/2020

Egypt: Elderly Christian Woman Stripped Naked and Beaten Is Denied Justice – Again/Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/September 11/2020
Editorial In ISIS Weekly Al-Naba: 9/11 Was A Turning-Point In Modern Muslim History, But Al-Qaeda Sold Its Achievements To The Muslims Brotherhood/MEMRI/September 11/2020
The Fairmont Case: Egypt's Battle between Civility and Savagery/Cynthia Farahat/American Thinker/September 11/2020
The 'Merchants of the Palestinian Issue'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 11/ 2020
Bahrain’s recognition of Israel reveals a vision for the future of the region/Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab News/September 11/2020
Why the US Electoral College system is problematic/Howard Leedham/Arab News/September 11/2020
Need for better ways to gauge threat posed by terrorists after release/Peter Welby/Arab News/September 11/2020
Russia aims to increase its influence in Eastern Mediterranean/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/September 11/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September11-12/2020

Aoun Discusses Situation at Port with Army Chief
Naharnet/September 11/2020
President Michel Aoun met with Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun and several military officials on Friday for discussions on the situation at the port of Beirut after the deadly mega blast and a huge fire one month after.
Discussions have also focused on the humanitarian aid operations and the obstacles facing their progress. A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, the site of last month's catastrophic explosion that killed nearly 200 people and devastated parts of the capital. The fire hit a warehouse containing food aid which threatened to disrupt humanitarian operations and sparked outrage among Lebanese still reeling from a devastating dockside explosion last month. The army and the interim port chief said the fire broke out in a warehouse in the port's free zone containing cooking oil and tyres.

France Tries Forcing Change on Lebanon's Politicians
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 11/2020
During his visit this month, French President Emmanuel Macron gave Lebanon's politicians a road map for policy changes and reform, set deadlines for them to take action and told them he'd be back in December to check on progress.
It was a hands-on approach that angered some in Lebanon and was welcomed by others. And it revived a bitter question in the tiny Mediterranean country: Can Lebanese rule themselves? Lebanon's ruling class, in power since the end of the civil war in 1990, has run the tiny country and its population into the ground. Heading a sectarian system that encourages corruption over governing, the elite have enriched themselves while investing little on infrastructure, failing to build a productive economy and pushing it to the verge of bankruptcy.
Anger over corruption and mismanagement has come to a peak after the giant Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut's port, caused by the detonation of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that politicians allowed to sit there for years. Nearly 200 people were killed and tens of thousands of homes were damaged. Another large fire erupted at the port on Thursday, only further traumatizing and frustrating Beirutis. Poet and journalist Akl Awit wrote in An-Nahar newspaper that he strongly opposes outside interference, but the political elite brought it on themselves. "This is a class that does not care about law, constitution, judiciary, morals, conscience, earthquakes or even about bankrupting people," he wrote. "This class only wants to stay in power ... (It) understands only the language of the rod."Some worry that even outside pressure cannot force reform on politicians, for whom reform means an end to power and perhaps eventual accountability.
"They are known to give empty promises whether to their people or the international community," said Elias Hankash, a legislator from the right-wing Kataeb party who resigned from parliament following the port explosion. "Regrettably maybe President Macron does not know whom he is dealing with."
Resistance to reform can be startling. In 2018, a France-led conference pledged some $11 billion in aid to Lebanon. But it came with conditions of reforms, including audits and accountability changes that could have hurt the factions' corrupt patronage engines. Politicians were unable to pass the reforms to unlock the desperately needed money. Late last year, Lebanon's economic house of cards collapsed into its worst financial crisis in decades. The local currency has crashed, throwing more than half the country's 5 million people into poverty.
In his Sept. 2 visit, Macron came in with a strong push for change. He met with officials from the eight largest political groups. They were given a so-called "French Paper, which lay out what it called a "draft program for the new government" on everything from how to deal with the coronavirus, to investigating the port explosion, rebuilding the port, fixing the electricity sector and resuming talks with the International Monetary Fund.
It reminded many of the nearly three decades when Syria dominated Lebanon — particularly of Rustom Ghazaleh, the late Syrian intelligence general who ran day-to-day affairs in the country and would often summon its politicians to his headquarters in the border town of Anjar. Syria's domination ended in 2005 after nationwide protests broke out following the assassination for former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. During those years, Syrian intelligence agents were known to drive around Beirut and Lebanon in French-made Peugeot cars. One meme that circulated on social media after Macron's visit showed photos of him and Ghazaleh grinning over a Peugeot. "This time, the owner of the car factory himself came. The big boss came to form a government," it read. On Wednesday, authorities met one key demand by Macron, launching a forensic audit into Lebanon's central bank to know how billions of dollars were wasted. The factions also quickly agreed to name Lebanese-French citizen Mustapha Adib, Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, as the new prime minister. But already, there appear to be delays in negotiating a new Cabinet, despite a Monday deadline that Macron said Lebanese politicians agreed on to form the government. In the past it has taken months to form governments as factions bargain over who gets which ministries. Joe Macaron, a fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, said France is not in the position Syria once had to dictate policies — there are other outside players to take into account.
"The French role largely depends on the cooperation of both the U.S. and Iran," he said. Since 2005, Lebanon's politics have been divided between a U.S.-backed coalition and another supported by Iran and Syria led by the militant Hezbollah. Disagreements sometimes led to street clashes -- but they always managed to agree on splitting financial gains.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on two former Lebanese ministers allied with Hezbollah for their links to the militant group. It also said both are involved in corruption. While some Lebanese criticize Macron's interference, others yearn for the days when Lebanon was a French protectorate after World War I until independence in 1943. More than 60,000 signed a petition after the blast to return to French mandate for 10 years. Macron dismissed the idea. Since the port blast, international officials, including Macron, Italy's prime minister and Canada's foreign minister have visited and called on the government to implement reforms to receive financial assistance. Many dignitaries toured the Beirut neighborhoods most damaged in the blast, something no senior Lebanese official has done, apparently fearing residents' fury. "The only state that is not interfering in Lebanon's affairs is the Lebanese state," goes one joke making the rounds. Hankash, the lawmaker who resigned, said the ruling class has "shown they cannot run the country on their own. (It) has proven to be an immature authority that needs guardianship."In mid-October, tens of thousands of Lebanese joined nationwide protests that tried — but so far failed — to end their grip on power. Macaron, of the Arab Center in Washington, said corruption will continue unless there is real reform."Preventing the oligarchy from running the show seems wishful thinking at this point unless the Lebanese people defy the odds by forcing a new reality."

Beirut Fire Brought under Control as Anger Mounts
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 11/2020
Smoke billowed from the port in Lebanon's capital Friday hours after firefighters said they were able to bring under control a huge fire that terrified the city's residents five weeks after a massive blast killed and wounded thousands of people. The fire led authorities to order the removal of all dangerous materials from the country's ports and airport to avoid more such incidents that have traumatized the nation of 5 million. Military police have already opened an investigation into the fire. It wasn't clear what caused the fire that broke out Thursday afternoon and covered the city with dark smoke and toxic fumes. No one was hurt by the fire, the second at the port this week. The head of Lebanon's Civil Defense said Friday the fire was extinguished and firefighters are working to cool down the area of the fire. Many Beirut residents opened their apartments windows and hid in corridors fearing a repeat of the Aug. 4, blast that killed 192, wounded 6,500, left a quarter million people homeless and caused damage worth billions of dollars. The explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port for six years forced the government to resign six days later. The port explosion is still under investigation and negligence and mismanagement appear to be a main reason. Corruption is widespread in Lebanon, where the ruling class made up of sectarian groups has been running the country with impunity since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990.
"The fire at the port of Beirut cannot be justified no matter what. Accountability is a main condition that such painful incidents are not repeated," Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib wrote in a tweet Friday. Adib, a Lebanese-French citizen, won majority support from legislators last week for form a new Cabinet. Following a meeting Thursday night by the Higher Defense Council, the country's top security body, a statement said they discussed the presence of dangerous material at the country's ports and only international airport in order to destroy them or get rid of them "to avoid any catastrophic incidents."
In a sign of widening distrust after the explosion, many Lebanese accused politicians of deliberately trying to destroy evidence at the port that led to the blast. Thursday's fire was the second mysterious blaze there this week, following a small one Tuesday that also caused some panic but was quickly extinguished.
The panic was compounded by the fear that more chemicals could be in the port's wreckage. Earlier this month, the army said it found more than 4 tons of ammonium nitrate in four containers stored near the port that it said were "dealt with."Outgoing Minister of Public Works and Transportation Michel Najjar, whose ministry is in charge of the port, told a local TV station that the fire appears to have been caused by sparks from a power tool during work at the port. Lebanon is gripped by an unprecedented economic crisis and financial collapse, blamed on decades of mismanagement and corruption by an entrenched political class. Last month's blast is seen as the culmination of leaders unable to manage the country's affairs or protect its people. So far, authorities have been unable to provide answers about the explosion, and there has been no accountability for it.

Jumblat Says Port Fire Sought to ‘Destroy Evidence’
Naharnet/September 11/2020
Progressive Socialist party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat said Friday the fire that broke out at Beirut port yesterday sought to “demolish evidence” in the case of the colossal Beirut blast earlier in August. “They burnt evidence fearing a bold investigator with a conscientious or fearing an honest employee and those are many in this criminal administration,” said Jumblat in a tweet. Jumblat went on saying that “this authority will not escape punishment.”A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, the site of last month's catastrophic explosion that killed nearly 200 people and devastated parts of the capital. Investigations into the monster blast are underway and twenty-five suspects are in custody. Lebanon has rejected an international investigation into the country's worst peace-time disaster, but its probe is being aided by foreign experts, including from the FBI and France.

Adib Says Accountability is Essential after Port Fire
Naharnet/September 11/2020
Prime Minister designate Mustafa Adib said the fire that broke out on Thursday at the Beirut port “can not be justified by anyone” stressing the need for accountability. “No one can justify the fire at the port of Beirut yesterday. Accountability is key so that similar painful incidents do not become recurrent,” said Adib in a tweet. The PM-designate hailed the rescue teams, “blessed are the efforts of firefighters, civil defense and Lebanese army for containing the fire,” he added. A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, the site of last month's catastrophic explosion that killed nearly 200 people and devastated parts of the capital. The new fire nearly 40 days after the blast triggered widespread panic among traumatized residents of the area. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the fire at the facility. But citing preliminary reports, caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Michel Najjar suggested that the fire was sparked by maintenance works.

EU Official to Visit Beirut Saturday Carrying Humanitarian Aid
Naharnet/September 11/2020
A third European Union Humanitarian Air Bridge flight, one of the largest of its kind, is landing in Beirut on Saturday 12 September 2020 at 17h30, the EU Delegation to Lebanon said on Thursday. Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, will be joining the flight from Munich to Beirut. The plane’s cargo consists of essential aid, including ambulances, personal protective equipment, medicines and telecommunication equipment. The transportation cost of the Humanitarian Air Bridge is fully covered by the European Union. The cargo of this flight was donated by the Portuguese Cooperation agency (Camões) and the German NGO Orienthelfer. "The supplies will help vulnerable people with humanitarian needs following the explosion at the Beirut port and the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the third Humanitarian Air Bridge organized by the European Union, following two earlier flights on 13 and 31 August 2020," the EU Delegation said. A ceremony will be held at the airport on Saturday evening to hand over the supplies. Commissioner Lenarčič will also meet with Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib during his stay in Lebanon.
 

Beirut blaze extinguished but flames of anger, distrust smoulder
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
Many Lebanese accused politicians of deliberately trying to destroy evidence at the port that led to the blast.

BEIRUT-- Lebanese firefighters on Friday put out a blaze at Beirut port that brought back the trauma of last month’s deadly dockside explosion and destroyed badly needed food aid. Fire crews used cranes to hose down the last smouldering embers of the fire that swept through already damaged warehouses on Thursday. But popular anger at the authorities’ failure to provide public safety, even in the heart of the capital, was rekindled by the new blaze. The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon as workers were carrying out repair work on some of the warehouses still standing after last month’s explosion.
Sparks from a power saw being used in the repairs were the likely cause of the blaze, according to the government’s preliminary findings.The International Committee of the Red Cross said one of the warehouses contained precious food aid for tens of thousands of needy families in Lebanon and in neighbouring Syria. It said it had been working on moving the supplies out of the damaged warehouse ever since the August 4 blast but the operation had still been ongoing when the fire hit. “Due to the rubble present and the danger involved, it is not possible to confirm the level of loss incurred at this time,” an ICRC statement said. “The explosion and the fire will no doubt have an impact on the ICRC’s humanitarian aid whether in Lebanon or Syria.”On Friday, earthmovers were again at work clearing rubble from the port through which the vast majority of Lebanon’s food and other imports used to pass.
New misery
“The fire is very weak. There’s just one area we’re still dealing with. It’s nothing,” said George Abou Moussa, operations director of Lebanon’s civil defence agency. The sight of a vast pall of smoke billowing over the port district on Thursday, barely a month after the colossal blast killed more than 190 people and ravaged tens of thousands of homes, sent terrified residents running onto the streets. “What happened yesterday was a repetition of August 4,” said Antoine Assaad, who lives in the capital’s heavily damaged Mar Mikhael neighbourhood.
“People were terrified. They were running into each other in their hurry to escape.”The August 4 explosion of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, which had been left unsupervised in a port warehouse for years, reignited anti-government protests which had died down in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The blast heaped new misery on Lebanese already battling the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, which has seen poverty rates double to more than half the population. Criminology researcher Omar Nashabe asked how fire could erupt in an area that should have been a protected crime scene.
“Where is the judiciary? Where is the state? Where is responsibility?” he asked. The government resigned after last month’s explosion, but President Michael Aoun remains in office alongside his new Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib. Aoun said Thursday’s fire could have been an “intentional act of sabotage, the result of a technical error, ignorance, or negligence.”Adib called for those responsible to face the full force of the law. But the company responsible for managing the warehouse used by the ICRC, BCC Logistics, denied any responsibility and called for a full investigation.
Distrust
The fire led authorities to order the removal of all dangerous materials from the country’s ports and airport to avoid more such incidents that have traumatised the nation of 5 million. Military police have already opened an investigation into the fire. The head of Lebanon’s Civil Defense said Friday the fire was extinguished and firefighters are working to cool down the area of the fire. In a sign of widening distrust after the explosion, many Lebanese accused politicians of deliberately trying to destroy evidence at the port that led to the blast. Thursday’s fire was the second mysterious blaze there this week, following a small one Tuesday that also caused some panic but was quickly extinguished. The panic was compounded by the fear that more chemicals could be in the port’s wreckage. Earlier this month, the army said it found more than 4 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in four containers stored near the port that it said were “dealt with.”Lebanon has launched a probe into last month’s blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever, and arrested 25 suspects so far.Among them are top port and customs officials, as well as Syrian workers who allegedly carried out welding hours before the explosion.
Lebanese leaders have rejected an international investigation, but the official probe is being aided by foreign experts.

More explosive materials uncovered at port after blast: Army
The Daily Star/September 11/2020
BEIRUT: More explosive materials stored in 143 containers were found during search operations at the port, an Army officer told President Michel Aoun during a meeting Friday, more than a month after the deadly port explosion.
The explosive materials had been stored at the port for 15 years, head of the engineering regiment Col. Roger Khoury said during a meeting at the Baabda Palace. Around 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate was found by Army personnel recently at the Customs division of the port, which according to Khoury was stored there in 2004 and 2005.The meeting was headed by Aoun and attended by the Army commander and officers overseeing the search operations at the blast site and NGO representatives. Aoun stressed on the importance of continuing to clear out the rubble, secure aid for those affected, and assess the damage at the port and surrounding areas, in order to start with the reconstruction phase. He added that the organizations that dealt with the aftermath of the explosion, including aid distribution, search and rescue missions and removing rubble had produced positive results.
The colonel said that within eight days of the blast, 24 bodies were uncovered at the site, nine of them firefighters and nine workers at the wheat silos. He also provided an update on the number of the missing, which is nine, in accordance to testimonies from families.
A devastating blast at the Beirut Port on Aug. 4 claimed at least 192 lives, injured around 6,500 people and left 300,000 homeless. The explosion was the result of the detonation of around 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored at the port for six years. Investigations are still underway to uncover the details of the blast and to hold the responsible people accountable. So far there are 25 in custody in the case, including the head of the port. People have blamed the ruling politicians including current and past prime ministers, ministers and the president, for the blast and accused them of gross negligence.

New Beirut port fire may have been caused by ‘sabotage, technical error or negligence’, claims President Aoun
MEMO/September 11, 2020
A fire which broke out in Beirut’s port yesterday may have been caused by “sabotage, technical error or negligence”, a Twitter account belonging to the Lebanese Presidency has claimed.“In all cases, the cause must be known as soon as possible, and the perpetrators held accountable,” the tweet attributed to President Michel Aoun added. The tweet was published during a meeting of the Higher Defence Council, in which Aoun, with the current caretaker government, who were forced to step down after the 4 August explosion, discussed yesterday’s fire.
Yesterday’s blaze, which took place only five weeks after last month’s explosion, broke out in one of Beirut port’s remaining warehouses, burning a store of cooking oil and car tyres, according to the Lebanese army. The flames also claimed thousands of food aid packages belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as 0.5 million litres of oil, regional director of the humanitarian organisation Fabrizio Carboni said on Twitter. Firefighters, who lost ten colleagues in last month’s explosion, were seen onsite tackling the blaze, assisted by military helicopters carrying water buckets. The blaze is the second in the port this week after Lebanese security services ignited debris left behind after the 4 August explosion on Wednesday. Both fires have sparked widespread panic among Beirut residents, many of whom are still traumatised by last month’s events. The 4 August blast happened when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate ignited and exploded in Beirut port’s warehouse 12. Nearly 200 people were killed and thousands more injured in the explosion, which devastated entire neighbourhoods in Beirut. Lebanese political leaders have rushed to order an investigation into yesterday’s fire, while Prime Minister-designated Mustafa Adib stressed the need for accountability. “No one can justify the fire at the port of Beirut yesterday. Accountability is key so that similar painful incidents do not become recurrent”, the former Ambassador to Germany said in a tweet. “Blessed are the efforts of firefighters, civil defence and Lebanese army for containing the fire”, Adib added. The cause of the blaze remains unclear, though some observers have advanced the theory sparks from welding machinery caused flammable materials in the vicinity to catch fire.

Explosive material found in Beirut port after blast was stored for years, says president
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
BEIRUT: Several tons of highly explosive material found at Beirut’s port, just weeks after the same chemical was blamed for causing a massive detonation there, had been in storage for 15 years, the Lebanese president said on Friday.
The army said on Sept. 2 it had discovered a stockpile close to the port of 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate, the highly explosive chemical blamed for the huge Aug. 4 blast that killed about 190 people and ruined a swathe of Beirut.
The Aug. 4 blast was caused by a far larger quantity of the chemical, about 2,750 tons, which officials said had been stored for about six years at the port in unsafe conditions. A man uses a water hose to put out the remains of a fire that broke out at Beirut’s port yesterday, Lebanon Sept. 11, 2020. (Reuters)
Critics said the lack of proper care and attention in storing such highly explosive material revealed the depth of dysfunction in the way Lebanon has been governed. The country is grappling with an economic crisis under a mountain of debt. After meeting senior army officers overseeing work at the devastated port, President Michel Aoun said in a statement the 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate found near a port entrance had been stored since 2005. He said it had been safely destroyed. He also said the army inspected 143 containers at the port that he said were found to hold other flammable material.
On Thursday, warehouses at the port, some still holding stored goods despite blast damage, erupted into a huge fire. A source said the blaze was caused by welding during repairs, as stray sparks set light to flammable contents.
Lebanese firefighters try to put out a fire that broke out at Beirut’s port area, on Sept. 10, 2020. Thick black columns of smoke rose into the sky, as the army said it had engulfed a warehouse storing engine oil and vehicle tires. (AFP)
Thursday’s blaze, barely a month after the huge explosion, sent a cloud of acrid smoke over the capital and generated panic in the city, still traumatized by the blast that smashed buildings in the area and shattered windows all over Beirut.
As well as killing about 190, the Aug. 4 explosion injured 6,000. The president’s statement said nine people were still listed as missing since the blast.

Bad economy, Beirut blasts push doctors out of Lebanon
Mona Alami, Al Arabiya English/Friday 11 September 2020
Lebanon’s medical sector has taken a big hit as the result of the country’s economic collapse coupled with the Lebanese lira’s devaluation, topped by the Beirut port explosion that killed at least 191 people. The compounding crises are pushing the country’s top doctors out in droves, which could leave Lebanon’s healthcare system significantly diminished.
Fearing for their families’ security, following the August 4 blast, and finding it hard to make a living of the country financial collapse, Lebanese doctors who spend years honing their skills in top international universities are now looking to leave again.It is too early for concrete data on the number of doctors specifically who have left or are planning on leaving, but general emigration data show an upward trend this year compared to the last two years. “The immigration crisis is escalating. Expectations for this year, without COVID-19, would have been for 120,000 departures compared to 66,000 departures in 2019, 33,000 in 2018 and 18,000 in 2017,” explained Mohamad Chamsedine, a researcher at Information International, a Beirut-based research group whose offices facing the port were significantly damaged in the blasts.
COVID-19, he added, has complicated immigration processes due to long airport closures and lower employment opportunities around the world. While it is too early for concrete data on the number of doctors looking to leave Lebanon, or the number of those who have already left, medical professionals Al Arabiya English spoke with are actively planning to move their practices outside the country. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Fadi, who is an ear, nose and throat specialist is moving to the Gulf in the next few months.
“I am saddened to leave but I am left with no other choice. I have to think of my children’s future. Financially, I also I have to provide for my parents. My wife is now very anxious after the explosion. Personally I feel very conflicted. Leaving now after the [explosion] is making me feel like quitting, it doesn’t feel right.” he said. Fadi who used to make around $15,000 a month, now earns a fraction of that amount.
“Doctors are paid six months to a year after they operate, with the Lebanese pound’s devaluation, most now make a 10th of their earnings,” he said. “And on top of that, most of us saw their savings wiped out by the banking crisis.”
The Lebanese government defaulted in March on its $1.2 billion Eurobond payment, triggering a restructuring of its $90 billion debt, and Lebanese saw their savings essentially wiped out overnight.Other problems faced by medical staff are the large unpaid bills left by social security. The government owes private hospitals an estimated $1.3 billion in dues since 2011, compromising their ability to buy vital medicines and medical supplies and to pay staff salaries. Even plastic surgeons, considered Lebanon’s top earners, are not shielded from Lebanon’s financial crisis. Dr. Hussein Hashem, one of Beirut’s plastic surgeons said he is trying to leave the country because of the deteriorating economic situation, which has translated into a 60 percent income drop. Dr. Hashem would like his children to move away from Lebanon if they can, although COVID-19 is also another obstacle Lebanese have to contend with.
Doctors Al Arabiya English spoke to had seen a drop in their earnings, including Noha, an ophthalmologist who has this year reported a loss, and has applied for a medical license in Dubai. “I went from making $25,000 a month to a loss this year. I can’t afford to stay in Lebanon anymore, and I am not the only one. The heads of many of departments of top hospitals in the country are all applying for medical licenses in the Gulf,” she said. Doctors who spoke to Al Arabiya English also reported increasing medical equipment shortages due to the pound devaluation as well as operational difficulty linked to electricity shortages and situational instability, which could have significant repercussions on the health of patients in the long run. While some top local hospitals such as the Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC), which is part of the Clemenceau Medicine International (CMI), have chosen to expand regionally for strategic purposes, the crisis is helping them in attracting more and more Lebanese medical talent in countries where they are branching out, such as in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Toudic Eid, medical director at the CMI, acknowledged that the recent crisis has accelerated the move of top Lebanese doctors with CMI into the region, a trend that was uncommon in the past. “Whoever can leavewill leave,” said Shadi Saleh from the Global Health Institute at American University of Beirut. While this is definitely a win for the region, it does not bode well for Lebanon. The country, 30 years after the war, will find its healthcare once again stripped from its best and brightest minds. “I hope we do not end up with the Iraq and Syrian model whereby all the real professional talent leaves,” added Saleh.
 

Exhausted rescue workers soldier on at Beirut port
Najia Houssari/The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
BEIRUT: Firefighters and civil defense workers were continuing their efforts on Friday to cool down a site at the Port of Beirut where a fire had broken out a day earlier, with white smoke billowing out and agencies estimating $4 million worth of losses as a result of the incident. According to the army, the fire broke out in a warehouse containing tires and oil. The fire was due to the cutting of iron columns that had collapsed after a massive explosion on Aug. 4. Warehouse workers had wanted to remove the columns in order to pull out the goods trapped underneath. However sparks from the cutting fell on inflammable goods in the warehouse and caused a fire.
The military police, who are in charge of investigating the fire, have questioned 20 people including eyewitnesses. The port has been under army control since Aug. 4, when the explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse destroyed wheat silos, the port’s warehouse zone, Beirut waterfront and neighboring areas. The explosion killed 192 civilians including children, in addition to 10 rescue workers and firefighters. It injured 6,000 civilians and displaced 300,000 people whose houses were either totally or partially destroyed. According to testimonies, nine people are still missing.
Col. Roger Khoury, who is commander of the army’s Engineering Regiment, said during a meeting with President Michel Aoun that 24 bodies had been retrieved from the site eight days after the Aug. 4 tragedy, including the bodies of nine firefighters and nine silo workers. “During the search operation in the port we discovered 4,350 kilos of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a warehouse since 2004 or 2005, so they were destroyed in special fields. In addition, we discovered that there were warehouses which have been storing inflammable materials for the past 15 years, noting that 143 warehouses containing inflammable materials were checked,” he added.
FASTFACT
The explosion killed 192 civilians including children, in addition to 10 rescue workers and firefighters. It injured 6,000 civilians and displaced 300,000 people whose houses were either totally or partially destroyed.
Col. Youssef Haidar said that 1 million square meters of the port’s 1.4 million square meter area had been cleared, 15,000 tons of rubble had been removed and 20 tons of cargo had been sorted.
The port’s two disasters have been mainly handled by the fire services and civil defense. Georges Abou Moussa, head of operations at Lebanese Civil Defense, said there were huge pressures on the team.
He went to Qartaba, northern Lebanon, to fight forest fires caused by unusually high temperatures. “We are working round the clock,” he told Arab News. “I had to move from the Port of Beirut to a region 2,000 meters high up in the mountains to fight forest fires. Yes, we are exhausted but we did not lose our enthusiasm, this is our duty and we are used to always confronting disasters. However, the number of these disasters has drastically increased lately.”
Abou Moussa said that some civil defense employees were working without pay, while others were getting minimum wage.
Lt. Michel Murr, from Beirut Fire Brigade, said that firefighters had been working at the port for 24 hours.
“Our conditions are lamentable,” he told Arab News. “Our vehicles are overused and have started to break down. Yesterday the water pump broke down yet we continued fighting the fire and called on anyone who had a water tank to bring it over so that we could extinguish the fire.”
The fire brigade had just three vehicles and if they broke down then operations would come to a halt, he said.
“According to the international firefighting system, the vehicles should be replaced every three or four years. In Lebanon we never replace them with brand new ones because the state has no money. We are working with minimal resources and we still rush into the field whenever we hear of a fire breaking out somewhere. Firefighters did not lose hope despite losing some of our colleagues who got killed in action. Yesterday, our aim was to spare Beirut from the fire and pollution resulting from burning tires and oil. Our equipment consists of the bare essentials, in spite of this we work with high professionalism to spare ourselves from human and material losses.”Erdogan said.
The survey found that 51.8 percent of Syrian respondents are not considering returning home. So far, only 400,000 refugees have returned voluntarily to safe areas in northern Syria controlled by the Turkish army.
For integration efforts to succeed, Erdogan said, a nationwide strategy is needed to defuse political and social tensions in the country.
Omar Kadkoy, a migration policy analyst at Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, believes Syrians’ poor command of Turkish is hindering their social interaction.
“The inadequate language skills among Syrians reflects the lack of a national strategy to nurture coexistence between Syrians and Turks,” he told Arab News.
With many Syrians planning to remain in Turkey, Kadkoy believes the government should step up a “harmonization policy” promised by policymakers since 2014.
Kadkoy also said that many Turks, irrespective of their income levels, believe Syrians are responsible for the country’s economic woes.
However, the coronavirus pandemic shows that Syrians are more vulnerable to economic downturns, with three times as many Syrians as Turks forced to go on unpaid leave.
“More than four times as many Syrians have lost their jobs. This is largely due to their informal employment,” he said.
Syrians’ labor rights need greater protection under work permit regulations, Kadkoy added.

Question: "Why does God allow evil?"
GotQuestions.org/September 11/2020
Answer: The Bible describes God as holy (Isaiah 6:3), righteous (Psalm 7:11), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and sovereign (Daniel 4:17-25). These attributes tell us the following about God: (1) God is capable of preventing evil, and (2) God desires to rid the universe of evil. So, if both of these are true, why does God allow evil? If God has the power to prevent evil and desires to prevent evil, why does He still allow evil? Perhaps a practical way to look at this question would be to consider some alternative ways people might have God run the world:
1) God could change everyone’s personality so that they cannot sin. This would also mean that we would not have a free will. We would not be able to choose right or wrong because we would be “programmed” to only do right. Had God chosen to do this, there would be no meaningful relationships between Him and His creation.
Instead, God made Adam and Eve innocent but with the ability to choose good or evil. Because of this, they could respond to His love and trust Him or choose to disobey. They chose to disobey. Because we live in a real world where we can choose our actions but not their consequences, their sin affected those who came after them (us). Similarly, our decisions to sin have an impact on us and those around us and those who will come after us.
2) God could compensate for people’s evil actions through supernatural intervention 100 percent of the time. God would stop a drunk driver from causing an automobile accident. God would stop a lazy construction worker from doing a substandard job on a house that would later cause grief to the homeowners. God would stop a father who is addicted to drugs or alcohol from doing any harm to his wife, children, or extended family. God would stop gunmen from robbing convenience stores. God would stop high school bullies from tormenting the brainy kids. God would stop thieves from shoplifting. And, yes, God would stop terrorists from flying airplanes into buildings.
While this solution sounds attractive, it would lose its attractiveness as soon as God’s intervention infringed on something we wanted to do. We want God to prevent horribly evil actions, but we are willing to let “lesser-evil” actions slide—not realizing that those “lesser-evil” actions are what usually lead to the “greater-evil” actions. Should God only stop actual sexual affairs, or should He also block our access to pornography or end any inappropriate, but not yet sexual, relationships? Should God stop “true” thieves, or should He also stop us from cheating on our taxes? Should God only stop murder, or should He also stop the “lesser-evil” actions done to people that lead them to commit murder? Should God only stop acts of terrorism, or should He also stop the indoctrination that transformed a person into a terrorist?
3) Another choice would be for God to judge and remove those who choose to commit evil acts. The problem with this possibility is that there would be no one left, for God would have to remove us all. We all sin and commit evil acts (Romans 3:23; Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8). While some people are more evil than others, where would God draw the line? Ultimately, all evil causes harm to others.
Instead of these options, God has chosen to create a “real” world in which real choices have real consequences. In this real world of ours, our actions affect others. Because of Adam’s choice to sin, the world now lives under the curse, and we are all born with a sin nature (Romans 5:12). There will one day come a time when God will judge the sin in this world and make all things new, but He is purposely “delaying” in order to allow more time for people to repent so that He will not need to condemn them (2 Peter 3:9). Until then, He IS concerned about evil. When He created the Old Testament laws, the goal was to discourage and punish evil. He judges nations and rulers who disregard justice and pursue evil. Likewise, in the New Testament, God states that it is the government’s responsibility to provide justice in order to protect the innocent from evil (Romans 13). He also promises severe consequences for those who commit evil acts, especially against the "innocent" (Mark 9:36-42).
In summary, we live in a real world where our good and evil actions have direct consequences and indirect consequences upon us and those around us. God’s desire is that for all of our sakes we would obey Him that it might be well with us (Deuteronomy 5:29). Instead, what happens is that we choose our own way, and then we blame God for not doing anything about it. Such is the heart of sinful man. But Jesus came to change men’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He does this for those who will turn from evil and call on Him to save them from their sin and its consequences (2 Corinthians 5:17). God does prevent and restrain some acts of evil. This world would be MUCH WORSE were God not restraining evil. At the same time, God has given us the ability to choose good and evil, and when we choose evil, He allows us, and those around us, to suffer the consequences of evil. Rather than blaming God and questioning God on why He does not prevent all evil, we should be about the business of proclaiming the cure for evil and its consequences—Jesus Christ!

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September11-12/2020

Is Iran trying to hack into the US presidential campaign?
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
Cyber-security experts say Iran has both the means and the motive for suspected hacking activities.
TEHRAN--Tehran pushed back Friday at accusations by Microsoft that Iran-based hackers are targeting the US presidential campaigns of US President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden. But Iran’s defence against the accusations lacked credibility as official claims that Tehran does not care about the US election’s outcome ring hollow, experts say.Iran is widely known to be hoping for Trump’s defeat in the next November vote, as a Biden victory could offer it a way out of US sanctions that have severely impaired its economy and risk destabilising the whole regime if maintained for another four years.
Microsoft claimed Thursday that it had thwarted cyber-attacks by hackers from Iran, China and Russia that have been targeting staff from the campaigns of Trump and Biden ahead of the November vote. It was clear that “foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting” the November 3 election, Microsoft said on Thursday. Microsoft’s announcement affirms US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warnings that “China, Iran, and Russia are trying to undermine our democracy and influence our elections,” acting secretary Chad Wolf said in a prepared statement. The firm said an Iran-based group called Phosphorus has been targeting personal accounts of people associated with the Trump campaign. “The United States, which has for decades been meddling in the elections of other countries such as Iran, is in no place to make such absurd claims,” state news agency IRNA quoted Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying. “For Tehran, it does not matter who is in the White House. What matters is Washington’s commitment to international rights, rules and norms, not meddling in others’ affairs and acting on their commitments,” Khatibzadeh claimed. Cyber-security experts say Iran has both the means and the motive for such suspected activities. They believe it is not implausible that Tehran, which has the means for covert cyber-operations, would resort to malicious hacking against the Trump campaign. The Iranian regime has suffered a great deal under the current US administration. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated since 2018, when Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a multinational accord that limited Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump subsequently re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy. Animosity further deepened after a US drone strike near Baghdad airport killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January.

Explosion in Tehran Province Kills 1, Damages Buildings
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 11/2020
A huge explosion in a battery workshop southwest of Tehran on Friday killed one person and damaged dozens of cars and buildings, Iranian media reported. The explosion in Nasim Shahr county "completely destroyed the battery workshop, killed one and caused another (person) to lose a limb," local fire brigade chief Iraj Torkamani told Tasnim news agency.The cause of the explosion was still unclear and investigations were underway, he added.

Trump announces Bahrain-Israel normalisation after three-way call
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
A joint statement said the three parties will continue efforts “to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

WASHINGTON - Bahrain has become the latest Arab country to agree to normalise ties with Israel as part of a broader diplomatic push by President Donald Trump and his administration to fully integrate the Jewish state into the Middle East.
Trump announced the agreement on Friday, following a three-way phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The three leaders also issued a brief six-paragraph joint statement, attesting to the deal.
“Another HISTORIC breakthrough today!” Trump tweeted. Bahraini news agency BNA said the king of Bahrain reiterated the necessity of reaching a fair and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two state solution, in his call with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu . The announcement, made on the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, came less than a week before Trump hosts a White House ceremony to mark the establishment of full relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain’s foreign minister will attend the event.
“There’s no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than this agreement,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The move represents another diplomatic win for Trump less than two months before the presidential election and an opportunity to shore up support among pro-Israel evangelical Christians. Just last week, Trump announced agreements in principle for Kosovo to recognize Israel and for Serbia to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East,” Trump, Netanyahu and King Hamad said in the statement. “Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region.”Like the UAE agreement, Friday’s Bahrain-Israel deal will normalise diplomatic, commercial, security and other relations between the two countries. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, had already dropped a prohibition on Israeli flights using its airspace. Saudi acquiescence to the agreements has been considered key to the deals. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner noted that the agreement is the second Israel has reached with an Arab country in 30 days after having made peace with only two Arab nations — Egypt and Jordan — in 72 years of its independence.
“This is very fast,” Kushner told The Associated Press. “The region is responding very favourably to the UAE deal and hopefully it’s a sign that even more will come.”Netanyahu welcomed the agreement and thanked Trump. “It took us 26 years between the second peace agreement with an Arab country and the third, but only 29 days between the third and the fourth, and there will be more,” he said, referring to the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the more recent agreements.”The joint statement said the parties will continue efforts “to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realise their full potential.”The agreement makes Bahrain the fourth Arab country, after Egypt, Jordan and the UAE, to have full diplomatic ties with Israel. Other Arab nations believed to be on the cusp of fully recognising Israel include Oman and Sudan. While tacitly blessing the deals Saudi Arabia, the regional power player, is not expected to move as quickly.
The agreement could give a boost to Netanyahu, who was indicted on corruption charges last year. Deals with Gulf Arab states “are the direct result of the policy that I have led for two decades,” namely “peace for peace, peace through strength,” Netanyahu has said.
The Israeli-UAE deal required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians. Telephone calls soon began working between the nations as they continue to discuss other deals, including direct flights.
While the UAE’s population remains small and the federation has no tradition of standing up to the country’s autocracy, Bahrain represents a far-different country. Just off the coast of Saudi Arabia, the island of Bahrain is among the world’s smallest countries, only about 760 square kilometers. Bahrain’s location in the Arabian Gulf long has made it a trading stop and a naval defensive position. The island is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet and a recently-built British naval base. Bahrain is acutely aware of threats posed by Iran. Manama’s rulers have blamed Iran for arming militants on the island. Iranian authorities have denied the accusations, though weapons experts suggest explosives found there bear similarities to others linked to Iran. Bahrain’s royal family and officials have come out in support of the Israel-UAE agreement. However, civil society groups and others have condemned the move and warned the monarchy not to follow in UAE’s footsteps — despite Bahrain’s years-long flirtation with Israel and Jewish leaders. Unlike the Emirates, Jews had a historical presence on the island and some still live there. Bahrain has relied on economic and security support from other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly neighboring Saudi Arabia. In that way, Bahrain has always followed in lockstep with Riyadh, meaning normalisation with Israel likely got the kingdom’s approval.

In Mideast deja vu, blast rocks military munitions depot in Jordan
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
“An explosion occurred in the early hours of Friday … in a warehouse containing unusable mortar bombs belonging to the armed forces,” the government said.

AMMAN-- A huge blast rocked a Jordanian military munitions depot early Friday sparking a large fire, but there were no reports of casualties at the base situated in an uninhabited area. “An explosion occurred in the early hours of Friday … in a warehouse containing unusable mortar bombs belonging to the armed forces,” the government spokesman said in a statement. The blast happened in the city of Zarqa, 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the capital Amman, where several Jordanian bases and depots are located. Images which swiftly spread on social media showed a huge ball of flame rising into the night sky, followed by the sound of several explosions. Government spokesman Amjad al-Adaileh said in his statement that “so far no injuries have been recorded.” An initial investigation had determined that “the explosion was caused by an electrical short circuit in warehouses situated in an isolated and uninhabited area” which was under camera surveillance. The army, which swiftly closed off the area, acknowledged that there had been an explosion “in one of the ammunition depots which is being dismantled near the city of Zarqa.”It added in a statement that “a committee has been set up to determine the causes of the explosion.”Zarqa governorate, which has a population of about 1.5 million people, has witnessed several explosions in past years, mainly caused by old munitions and fires in warehouses as it is also home to many factories and a free trade area. The explosion comes only days after the Hashemite kingdom announced it was reinstating military service for unemployed men between the ages of 25 to 29. Jordan abolished compulsory military service in 1991, three years before signing a peace accord with neighbouring Israel. But the country and its 10 million people, ruled by King Abdullah II, have been hit hard by restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Unemployment rose to 23% in the first quarter of 2020, according to official figures, up from 19% for the same period last year.

Turkey slams Arab ties with Tel Aviv despite being one of first to recognize Israel
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Friday 11 September 2020
Turkey ramped up its criticism Friday against Arab states normalizing ties with Israel, despite Ankara long having its own diplomatic and trade tries with Tel Aviv, including being one of the first Muslim-majority countries to recognize the state of Israel. Its ties with Israel date back to the early 50s when the two countries’ leaders would meet covertly. Turkey went back and forth in downgrading diplomatic representation with Israel over the years, but it continues to maintain its relationship with Israel. More recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has attempted to portray himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause. Erdogan has lashed out at Arab states, specifically the United Arab Emirates and now Bahrain, for their agreements with Israel to normalize ties.On Friday, Turkey said Bahrain’s move to establish ties with Israel would deal a fresh blow to efforts to defend the Palestinian cause.
“It will further encourage Israel to continue illegitimate practices towards Palestine and its efforts to make the occupation of Palestinian lands permanent,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said. A similar stance was taken when the UAE announced its deal with Israel last month. At the time, Turkey said history would never forgive the UAE’s “hypocritical behavior” in agreeing such a deal, which recasts the order of Middle East politics. Erdogan went as far as threatening to pull Turkey’s ambassador to the UAE and cut diplomatic relations. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash cited Turkey receiving over half a million Israeli tourists per year, billions of dollars’ worth of bilateral trade and an existing embassy there. “And I ask myself whether this is a principled position or not [from Turkey],” Gargash said in a recent interview. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, Turkey exported more than $4 billion worth of goods to Israel in 2019, while it imported more than $1.5 billion in goods. Israeli Ambassador Eitan Naeh, left, shakes hands with President  One year earlier, Turkish exports to Israel amounted to $4.02 billion. It imported $2 billion worth of products. “Turkey’s policy appears to be ‘do as I say, but not as I do,’” Firas Maksad, an adjunct professor at George Washington University, said. - With Reuters

Euro-Med leaders warn Turkey that sanctions are on the table
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
Macron said that the Mediterranean had become the scene of “a hegemonic game between historical powers seeking to destabilise the region,” pointing towards both Turkey and Russia.
PORTICCIO, Corsica island, France--Leaders of seven European countries on the Mediterranean said on Thursday they were ready to back EU sanctions against Turkey if Ankara shunned dialogue on escalating tensions in the sea. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the leaders of six other EU states, including Turkey’s regional rival Greece, for a summit in Corsica in the hope of finding common ground ahead of the next EU summit this month. Showing again his anger against Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Macron said before the summit that the NATO ally was no longer a partner in the Eastern Mediterranean, and that its people “deserved” better conduct from their government. Clockwise from left, Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela, Spain’s Prime France has strongly backed Greece and Cyprus in a growing standoff with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, which has sparked fears of more severe conflict. After talks with the leaders of Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Cyprus in the resort of Porticcio outside the local capital Ajaccio, Macron adopted a slightly milder tone, saying the leaders wanted to reengage in a dialogue with Turkey “in good faith.”But the final statement of the leaders made clear that sanctions were on the table if Turkey failed to end its “confrontational actions.”“We regret that Turkey has not responded to the repeated calls by the European Union to end its unilateral and illegal activities in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea,” the communique said. “We maintain that in absence of progress in engaging Turkey into a dialogue and unless it ends its unilateral activities, the EU is ready to develop a list of further restrictive measures,” the leaders said, adding these could be discussed at the European Council on September 24-25.
“Clear and firm”
The crisis has added to a growing list of tensions between Turkey and Europe, notably over Ankara’s military intervention in Libya, its policy in Syria and a crackdown on opponents of Erdogan at home. “We Europeans need to be clear and firm with the government of president Erdogan, which today is behaving in an unacceptable manner,” Macron told reporters before the summit began. He said that at the moment Turkey was “no longer a partner in the region” of the Eastern Mediterranean due to its behaviour. Macron added that Turkey had “intensified provocations in a way that is not worthy of a great state. The Turkish people are a great people and deserve something else.”But in a strongly worded reply, the Turkish foreign ministry described Macron’s comments as “arrogant” and a sign “of his own weakness and despair.”The EuroMed 7 is an informal group of EU Mediterranean states, sometimes dubbed “Club Med,” that held its first summit in 2016. Turkey is not a member. Turkey has sought to join the EU for over half a century, though analysts say the growing rift between Erdogan and the bloc’s leaders has made the prospect increasingly unlikely.
‘Destabilisatuion risks’
Macron said that the Mediterranean had become the scene of “a hegemonic game between historical powers seeking to destabilise the region,” pointing towards both Turkey and Russia. There are “real risks of destabilisation in the Mediterranean because of threats from Turkey,” said Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, calling on the EU to “use all the means” at its disposal to “avoid a catastrophic conflict for the whole region.” “If Turkey refuses to listen to reason… I don’t see any choice for my European colleagues except significant sanctions,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who also held bilateral talks with Macron before the summit, wrote in French daily Le Monde. Greek media said the possible sale by France of Rafale fighter jets could be on the table, in a sign of the increasingly strong alliance between Paris and Athens.
Adopting a slightly milder tone, Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez said the seven had sent a “clear message” for real dialogue. “We believe this genuine dialogue is possible, we believe it is possible to follow the path of de-escalation,” he said.

Opposition watchdog puts Syria's pandemic deaths at more than 1,000
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
DAMASCUS - A Syrian opposition watchdog put the number of COVID-19 deaths in regime-controlled areas in Syria at more than 1,000 as of Friday. Basing its information on “reliable medical sources in regime-controlled areas,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said, “the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has reached nearly 21,100, of whom 2,850 recovered, and 1,040 died. ”It added, “the cases are distributed across all Syrian provinces” but most of the infection cases and deaths are “still documented in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus and Rif Dimashq, amid disastrous medical situation.”SOHR’s estimated toll is much higher than the official tally of 3,416 confirmed cases and 147 deaths. A UN official said Tuesday that more than 40 members of UN staff and their families have caught coronavirus in Syria as he warned that the illness was spreading in the war-torn country. There were about 200 people, including “staff and dependents, spouses, children, parents, who have displayed symptoms of Covid-19,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. “From these 200, there are 42 staff and dependents who have been confirmed positive with Covid-19,” he added. Three people had had to be medically evacuated, but most of the others had only “mild” symptoms. “It caught us at a time where we have seen a very significant rise, or increase, in the level of Covid-19 in Syria,” Laerke added.
“We believe community transmission is widespread, and that the actual cases exceeds those that are officially recorded.”In the past weeks, Syrian doctors and activists have voiced concerns on social networks of a possible explosion in the number of virus cases.
Human Rights Watch said last week that frontline staff battling the novel coronavirus in government-held areas were dying in growing numbers for want of personal protective equipment. “It is bewildering that as the obituaries for doctors and nurses responding to the Covid-19 pandemic pile up, official numbers tell a story at odds with the reality on the ground,” said HRW researcher Sara Kayyali. Nine years of civil war have battered Syria’s healthcare system, with hospitals damaged by bombing, vital equipment lacking and doctors wounded or forced to flee fighting. The Syrian health ministry recently admitted it did not always have the capacity to carry out large-scale testing across different provinces.
 

Turkey’s belligerence roils gas-rich eastern Mediterranean
Arab News/September 11/2020
DUBAI: Time was when Turkey pursued a foreign policy devised by an academic turned foreign minister that came to be known as “zero problems” with neighbors. Even though 10 years is a very short time by the standards of the rise and fall of nations, Turkey’s current diplomatic doctrine does not bear even a smidgen of similarity to what Ahmet Davutoglu had formulated in 2010. If anything, his former boss, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is pursuing a policy that has been described variously as “zero friends,” “nothing but problems” and “zero neighbors without problems.”It is a policy that has now brought US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus in an attempt to solve some of Turkey’s proliferating problems with its neighbors. “We hope there will be real conversations and we hope the military assets that are there will be withdrawn so that these conversations can take place,” Pompeo told reporters on the flight to Qatar. The military assets he referred to belong mainly to Ankara and Athens, but in fact a number of countries are ranged against Turkey over what they view as unchecked energy piracy coupled with gunboat diplomacy. Turkey has occupied and controls one-third of Cyprus since 1974, when it invaded the north in response to a coup engineered by military leaders in Athens. Now it is embroiled in simultaneous disputes with Greece and Cyprus – a fellow NATO member – over maritime borders and gas-drilling rights. Fueling Turkey’s great-power ambitions are investments in a domestic arms industry geared to the production needs of everything from warships to submarines, frigates to attack helicopters, and armed drones to light aircraft carriers. For months now, Turkey has been prospecting for gas and oil reserves in eastern Mediterranean waters claimed by Greece. When it deployed a research ship accompanied by military frigates in August, Greece fired a warning shot by staging naval exercises.

Divide between Turks and Syrian refugees widening, survey shows
Arab News/September 11/2020
ANKARA: Syrian refugees are facing growing problems integrating in Turkey, according to a wide-ranging survey that shows up to 85 percent of Turks want the newcomers to live in isolation away from Turkish neighborhoods. Almost a decade after their first arrival from the war-torn nation, Syrians are still viewed negatively by their hosts, according to Murat Erdogan, a professor at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul who led the study. “If this polarization is not reduced in a bid to provide Syrians with decent living standards, political tensions and hate speech will further hinder integration,” he warned. The “Syrian Barometer 2019” survey’s findings will be released on Wednesday. The study, which included interviews with both Turks and Syrians, was supported by the UNHCR refugee agency in Turkey. Turkey is home to more than 3.6 million Syrians under temporary protection, with a further 1 million refugees expected to arrive in the coming year. Among the study’s major findings were that 60.4 percent of Turkish respondents would refuse to live in the same building as a Syrian, 52 percent don’t want their children attending school with Syrians and 56.3 percent would avoid working with Syrians. However, while Turks view the refugees as culturally and socially distant, Syrians believe they are similar to their hosts. The biggest issue for Syrians, according to the survey, is poor employment conditions, with 36.2 percent experiencing serious problems at work. About 70 percent of Syrians in Turkey are believed to be working illegally. According to the survey, almost 80 percent of Turkish respondents said they believe most Syrians will remain in the country permanently, while 60 percent ranked the refugees as the country’s “third biggest” problem.
SPEEDREAD
● UN-backed study reveals escalating tensions as job fears mount.
● Almost 80 percent of Turkish respondents say they believe most Syrians will remain in the country permanently.
● 60 percent of respondents rank the refugees as the country’s ‘third biggest’ problem.
● The divide between Turks and Syrians has been steadily widening, says expert.
According to Erdogan, the divide between Turks and Syrians has been steadily widening.
“In 2014, 70 percent of respondents felt distant from Syrians. That number grew to 80 percent in 2017 and now has reached 82 percent,” he told Arab News. Erdogan said the scale of the refugee intake is one of the main reasons behind Syrians struggling to integrate.
“Nobody is concerned about Iranian refugees in Turkey because their population barely exceeds 50,000,” he said. However, while the survey highlighted the disdain of their Turkish hosts, half of Syrians in Turkey feel happy. “At first sight, it seems contradictory. But Syrians are living in closed communities, and have built their own ‘happiness and resilience zones,’”

Egypt's El-Sisi and France's Macron discuss Libya in phone call
The Arab Weekly/September 11/2020
LONDON: Egypt’s president received a call from French president Emmanuel Macron during which they discussed regional issues, the spokesman of the Egyptian presidency reported on Friday. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Macron discussed talks between rival Libyan administrations that took place in Morocco this week. The two presidents said they support a political solution to the Libyan crisis that is free from foreign interventions and armed militias. They also welcomed any “positive steps within the framework of constructive international efforts that seek to achieve peace in Libya, including the Cairo Declaration.”Delegates in Morocco’s coastal town of Bouznika agreed to pause peace talks on Thursday and resume discussions during the last week of September after agreeing on criteria for appointments to their country’s key institutions. El-Sisi and Macron added that coordination between the two countries should be intensified to support Lebanon overcome the repercussions of the Beirut explosion. They also agreed that the resumption of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis should be encouraged to achieve a settlement of the Palestinian issue in accordance with international resolutions.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September11-12/2020

Egypt: Elderly Christian Woman Stripped Naked and Beaten Is Denied Justice – Again
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/September 11/2020
No justice for Soa‘d Thabet.
Once again, the Egyptian court system seems committed to denying justice to Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority. For the second time in a row, a court involved in the case of the unconscionable abuse of an elderly Christian woman has just recused itself.
“The case had been postponed several times and was closed in 2017 due to insufficient evidence,” says the September 3, 2020 report. “However, the woman’s legal representatives filed a grievance reopening it again. Then, in March 2019, the Minya felony court decided to withdraw from hearing the case due to embarrassment.” After that, in October 2019, the case was postponed again, because a court member was reportedly absent; and now this.
The case concerns Soa‘d Thabet, a Christian grandmother in her 70s. On May 20, 2016, a mob of some 300 Muslim men descended on her home, stripped her completely naked, beat, spit on, and paraded her in the streets of al-Karm village (in Minya governorate) to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of “Allahu Akbar.”
Her crime? Her son was falsely accused of having a romantic relationship with a Muslim woman, which is banned by Islamic law, or Sharia—the same body of teachings that prescribes the collective punishment of non-Muslim “infidels.”
Earlier that day she and her husband had gone to local police and complained that they were being harassed and threatened by neighborhood Muslims. Police responded by also threatening and ordering them out of the station. A few hours later, the attack came. It took the same local police over two hours to appear, giving the mob “ample time,” as one Christian clergyman put it, to riot. Seven Christian homes were also burned.
Well over four years later and still no justice for Soa’d Thabet, even though her abusers are well known. Indeed, while the humiliated, elderly woman, resides outside her village for fear of “reprisals,” her persecutors still live and walk around there, freely and proudly. Meanwhile, every court involved has come up with any number of excuses not to judge the case.
It should be borne in mind that, even in Egypt, such criminal cases usually do not take years to judge: except for those who managed to escape, Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers who targeted state property or officials in 2013 were arrested years back, tried, found guilty, and hundreds even sentenced to death.
So why has it taken over four years to rule on the case of a Christian grandmother who was stripped completely naked, slapped, spat upon, and paraded in the streets?
Commenting on this delay, Adel Guindy, founding president of Coptic Solidarity and author of A Sword Over the Nile, which outlines the persecution Egypt’s Christians experienced over the course of fourteen centuries, said,
The judiciary system in Egypt, as well as the rest of the pillars of the state (often referred to as the “deep state”) have become impregnated with fundamentalist Islamic ideology, and are thus decidedly biased against Copts. The political leadership of the country takes no concrete corrective measures and, worse still, lets this ideology shape and dominate the society, through education and media.
The ongoing stalling of this relatively clear-cut case makes clear that Egypt’s Christian minorities are not just suffering from Islamists and criminals but from the entire system, a system which allows much impunity for those who would target Christians. After all, a justice that moves as slowly as a turtle—constantly recusing and delaying—is just another form of injustice.

Editorial In ISIS Weekly Al-Naba: 9/11 Was A Turning-Point In Modern Muslim History, But Al-Qaeda Sold Its Achievements To The Muslims Brotherhood
MEMRI/September 11/2020
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Ahead of the anniversary of 9/11, ISIS's Al-Naba weekly published an editorial titled "From 9/11 to the Muslim Caliphate,"[1] which described 9/11 as "a tremendous event" which caused great losses to the enemy, but also marked the beginning of the new crusades against Islam and thus caused much harm to the Muslims as well. The editorial criticizes Al-Qaeda for focusing on fighting the U.S. and its allies, while ignoring the Muslims' other enemies, and while betraying the real goal of the ongoing war between Islam and its enemies: the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate acting to exalt the word of Allah. According to the editorial, Al-Qaeda betrayed this goal when it let others reap the fruits of its victories, for example groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which actually serve their own interests and those of America. ISIS, it stresses, is the only group that has not deviated from the correct path and remains loyal to the cause of true monotheism and the Islamic Caliphate.
The following are translated excerpts from the editorial:
"The blessed 9/11 attacks were a tremendous event and a turning point in modern Muslim history. Their importance lay not in the magnitude of the direct hit on America – although their scope in terms of fatalities and damage was [indeed] great – but in the fact that they marked the beginning of the [new] crusades against the Islamic countries, wars that have been ongoing for two decades in various regions and which, with the help of Allah the Almighty, are soon to come to an end. Everyone realizes that the effects of this long war are felt not only by the crusaders, regardless of the fatalities and economic depletion they have sustained. In the Muslim countries as well, the war has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people dying or being wounded, evicted or taken captive…
"[Some jihad leaders] chose the direction of leading the jihad fighters to target America and its allies until they fell or at least were forced to leave the Muslim lands. These [jihad leaders] were guided by a 'deterministic' approach, out of touch with reality, which caused them to believe that toppling America would [automatically] result in the founding of the Islamic State, as though Islam and the Muslims have no other enemies in the world except for America…
"Many infidel countries and [political] parties used the defeat of America and its allies, who were preoccupied with the war of attrition against them, as an opportunity to increase their influence and strengthen their armies and economies. The tawaghit[2] who govern the Muslim countries took the opportunity to torment [the Muslims] for their support of jihad and the jihad fighters. Many apostate parties took the opportunity to offer their services to the crusaders in [the latter's] war against the monotheists. They offered to fight alongside them in return for their friendship and various other profits…
"The strange thing is that the leaders of Al-Qaeda let the Muslims fight a war that shed their blood, destroyed their countries and damaged their livelihood and their religion, but then prevented them from enjoying the fruits of this expensive war, and let the tawaghit and the apostates rob them [of its achievements] and erect over the bodies of the monotheists an edifice of polytheism. Some Al-Qaeda leaders believe that this war must continue even if all the monotheists are exterminated, and that it will only end when the crusaders agree to hand over the government in the Muslim countries to the polytheistic democrats, infidels, and the apostate sahawat[3] who call themselves Muslim. Only at then will the war end, [they say, but] whoever continues it after than point is a Khariji[4] whose life, property and honor are forfeit.
"While others deviated from the straight path, Allah the Almighty guided one group of jihad fighters who were determined not to spill their blood and the blood of their brothers for [any goal except ensuring that] all religion be for Allah. They are determined not to focus their fight on the crusaders alone, as some wish to do, but on all the groups of heresy and apostasy, until there is no more fitna [strife] in the world and all religion is for Allah. This incurred the hostility of all the infidel groups, without exception. Those who limited their fight to the crusaders, or to [just] some of the tyrants [i.e., Al-Qaeda], were applauded and encouraged by some groups that regard [Al-Qaeda] as nothing more than an apparatus for clearing landmines on the way to gaining profits or as a shield against the attacks of their enemies."
According to the editorial, Al-Qaeda declared it would not fight the MB governments that rose to power following the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, and thereby strayed from the right path. This, it says, means that "jihad stops the minute this despicable goal [of Islamist groups rising to power] is attained, and that all the Muslims' sacrifice and jihad is subordinated to this goal and nothing more. These criminals have acted to spread this approach everywhere, while expelling the jihad fighters who oppose it and inciting against them until they become groveling servants who agree to spill their blood for the taghout…"
The editorial concludes: "For all the [true] jihad fighters, the goal of all the wars that have been ongoing since 9/11 is the renewal of the Muslims' caliphate and the Muslims' unity. [This is the goal] for which they have sacrificed everything -- blood, efforts and property – and that is what they wish to preserve today and renew generation after generation, until Allah inherits the earth."
[1] Al-Naba, Issue 251, September 10, 2020, chat.techhaven.to/channel/greenb1rds.tm.
[2] Literally false idols, a reference to rulers who govern by manmade law.
[3] Militias in Muslim countries that fight jihadi groups.
[4] The Khawarij were an early Islamic sect that advocated excommunicating Muslims for even minor sins and were proclaimed heretical by mainstream Sunnis. Today the term is used by critics of ISIS to brand them as extremists who are beyond the pale of legitimate Islam.
 

The Fairmont Case: Egypt's Battle between Civility and Savagery
Cynthia Farahat/American Thinker/September 11/2020
Recently, Egyptian society has been consumed by a horrific rape incident, known in Egypt as "the Fairmont Case." This case has revealed cultural and ideological aliments in Egypt and has exposed the internal ideological struggle within the Egyptian government. One side defends civility and the rule of law, while the other advocates rape and savagery.
The incident was publicized in August, after a courageous rape victim sought justice for a horrific attack that occurred on February 21, 2014. During a pool party at the five-star Fairmont Nile Hotel in Cairo, the victim alleged that a group of men spiked her drink with a date rape drug and then gang-raped her in a hotel room after the party.
The alleged rapists recorded the attack and posted the video online. The online video showed nine men raping an unconscious woman and writing their initials on her body. The men are sons of Egyptian businessmen. Seven of the men fled Egypt, and the other two were arrested.
Last July, the government's National Council for Women, a body created to promote women's rights and affiliated with the Egyptian presidency, urged witnesses and victims to report sex crimes. The council's call for victims to step forward was celebrated, and many thought the trend of punishing sexual assault victims was about to end, because Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has had historic success in the area of women's rights and has appointed an unprecedented number of women to his cabinet.
What happened next was horrifying.
Six witnesses came forward to assist the National Security Agency (NSA) in bringing the alleged perpetrators to justice, but the NSA claimed that the public party at the hotel was a "sex party," thus the gang rape was "consensual." The witnesses, three men and three women, were used as scapegoats and charged with violating Egyptian family values, damaging Egypt's public image, and debauchery. To add insult to injury, the witnesses were sexually assaulted by the NSA. Three female witnesses were forced to endure vaginal exams, and three male witnesses underwent anal examinations.
Among the witnesses is Ahmed Ganzoury, AKA Ganz, a party mogul. The party where the alleged rapists met their victim was part of the Tea Dance series of events thrown by Ganzoury. The party series took its name from Victorian-era etiquette and featured live orchestras, bands, dancing, drinks, and hors d'oeuvres. Ganzoury's parties revived the European tradition in the Middle East, and the party in question featured the famous Dutch musician and D.J. Joris Voorn. Ganzoury's company, ByGanz Extraordinaire, hosts the best and most prestigious events in the Middle East, and Egypt needs businessmen like Ganzoury to lift its veil of backwardness, despair, and fanaticism. Instead, the corrupt fundamentalist wing of the Egyptian government has assaulted, defamed, and incarcerated witnesses in a conspiracy to protect alleged rapists.
This miscarriage of justice is a direct attack against President al-Sisi's attempts to modernize and deradicalize the country.
The persecution, prosecution, and sexual assault of these witnesses is a direct attack against President al-Sisi's attempts to modernize and deradicalize the country. This miscarriage of justice is a repudiation of al-Sisi's efforts, and he needs to intervene to stop it. If he allows this human rights atrocity to stand, the world will know that the Egyptian government is divided, and the side trying to legitimize rape and savagery is winning.
Egypt should immediately release the six witnesses from prison and compensate them for the destruction of their reputations and their sexual assaults. If forced vaginal and anal exams are the Egyptian government's idea of family values, then they bring shame on the entire country and prove they do not belong in the community of civilized nations.
*Cynthia Farahat is an author and a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum.

The 'Merchants of the Palestinian Issue'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 11/ 2020
Many Gulf citizens described the Palestinian leaders as "merchants of the Palestinian issue" and accused them of financial corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
"The enemy of the Palestinian cause is not Israel, but the [Palestinian] comrades, the disgraceful merchants of Palestine, who don't want the Palestinian issue to be resolved. Before you [Palestinian leaders] criticize others, you need to take a look at yourselves and your miserable situation and the condition of your people, whom you have destroyed." — Shuja Al-Hothli, Saudi journalist and author, Twitter, September 7, 2020.
Palestinian leaders have accumulated huge personal fortunes, possibly in part thanks to donations from Western taxpayers and their unenquiring governments.
Some Gulf Arabs interpreted Hamed's remarks as incitement to carry out terrorist attacks against the Gulf states. "The funny thing is that Mueen Hamed called for armed actions against the Gulf, not Israel." — Saudi social media user who calls himself inthe_shade911, Twitter, September 6, 2020.
By alienating the Gulf Arabs, the Palestinian leaders are further ravaging their own people, especially those who live and work in these countries. Abbas has already wrecked the Palestinians' relations with Israel and the US. By offending the Gulf states and depicting their residents as backward illiterates, Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian factions are convincing yet more Arabs to stay as far away from Palestinians as they can.
Palestinian leaders are continuing to show contempt for other Arabs, including those who for many years provided them with financial and political aid. On September 3, during a videoconference meeting of leaders of several Palestinian factions, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) poured scorn on the Arabs of the Gulf states by hinting that they are illiterate and uneducated. (Photo by Alaa Badarneh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinian leaders are continuing to show contempt for other Arabs, including those who for many years provided them with financial and political aid. Some Palestinian leaders are even indirectly inciting their people to carry out terrorist attacks against Gulf countries that engage in normalization with Israel.
On September 3, during a videoconference meeting of leaders of several Palestinian factions, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas poured scorn on the Arabs of the Gulf states by hinting that they are illiterate and uneducated. "There are 13 million Palestinians, and they are all educated," Abbas said in a speech he delivered from his office in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians. "We don't have illiteracy like others."
Mueen Hamed, a representative of As-Sa'iqa, a pro-Syria Palestinian Ba'athist group, is one of several faction leaders who spoke at the conference from Beirut. Hamed, too, mocked the Gulf Arabs.
Referring to the recent normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, he said:
"We blame the United Arab Emirates and the [Arab] countries that support it. As our comrades said, the Palestinian people were responsible for the advancement of all the Gulf states from 1948 and until today. Everyone acknowledges that the Palestinian worker is the most active in the Gulf. [The Palestinians] taught them how to read and write and lead."
Hamed pointed out that there are 400,000 Palestinians in the UAE "who are capable of changing the society of the Emiratis."
"Why shouldn't these Palestinians play a role? Why shouldn't the Palestinian factions be in contact with all these Palestinians so they could play an active role in preventing any country from following suit with the United Arab Emirates? The situation is dangerous."
The statements of Abbas, Hamed and other Palestinian faction leaders drew strong condemnations from many Gulf Arabs, who denounced the Palestinians as arrogant liars. Many Gulf citizens described the Palestinian leaders as "merchants of the Palestinian issue" and accused them of financial corruption and the embezzlement of public funds.
The Arabs also rejected the Palestinian leaders' claim that it was the Palestinians who contributed to the advancement and development of the Gulf states in the past five decades.
"The Palestinian factions have declared war on the Arabs," commented a Saudi social media user called Al-Sagariah. "The merchants of the [Palestinian] issue are offending the Gulf."
Some Gulf Arabs interpreted Hamed's remarks as incitement to carry out terrorist attacks against the Gulf states. "This incitement makes the Gulf states wary of the Palestinians living on their lands," wrote a Saudi social media user who calls himself inthe_shade911.
"[The incitement] authorizes the Gulf states to keep the Palestinians under constant security observation for fear that they might carry out terrorist acts under the direction of the Palestinian leaders. The funny thing is that Mueen Hamed called for armed actions against the Gulf, not Israel."
Echoing the same fear, Saudi political researcher Emad Al-Mudaifer also accused the Palestinian faction leaders of inciting their people to launch terrorist attacks against the Gulf states. Commenting on the anti-Gulf statements of the faction leaders during the virtual conference, Al-Mudaifer warned: "This is an official declaration of the desire to carry out terrorist attacks by Palestinians residing in the Gulf."
Monther Mubarak, another Saudi social media activist, sarcastically remarked:
"I have decided to establish a company named after the [Palestinian] cause. I will bring a team of the best traffickers in causes, but I'm facing a dilemma who to appoint as the company's president in wake of the fierce rivalry between Fatah and Hamas and their skills in trade. Who do you think is most fit to manage this company? Mahmoud Abbas or [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh?"
Saudi journalist and author Shuja Al-Hothli also lashed out at the leaders of the Palestinian factions and accused them of destroying the lives of their people:
"The enemy of the Palestinian cause is not Israel, but the [Palestinian] comrades, the disgraceful merchants of Palestine, who don't want the Palestinian issue to be resolved... Before you [Palestinian leaders] criticize others, you need to take a look at yourselves and your miserable situation and the condition of your people, whom you have destroyed."
Hassan Sajwani, an Emirati businessman and political activist, said that the "Palestinian leadership and their factions have shown their real colors -- inciting Palestinians living in the UAE to revolt against the UAE!"
Dr. Zayed Al-Amari, a Saudi strategist and political commentator, wrote that the Palestinian issue has become a means for Palestinian leaders to accumulate wealth. Al-Amari pointed out that former PLO leader Yasser Arafat has allegedly accumulated a wealth of $8 billion, while Abbas's wealth is estimated at $6 billion. The wealth of former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is rumored to be $5 billion, while the wealth of his successor, Haniyeh, is said to be $4 billion US dollars, he disclosed. "There are more than 1,800 billionaires living in the West Bank alone," Al-Amari noted.
It is not clear if these figures are true and it is possible that they are exaggerated. The point he and others are trying to make is that Palestinian leaders have accumulated huge personal fortunes, possibly in part thanks to donations from Western taxpayers and their unenquiring governments.
Saudi journalist Salem Al-Sehman, responding to Abbas's speech and the anti-Gulf statements made by Palestinian faction leaders, said:
"The clown Abbas and other beneficiaries of the [Palestinian] cause have to review their positions and respect the Arab and Gulf countries, particularly those that gave them money for decades. The Palestinian leaders need to hold themselves to account and solve their problems alone. Abbas – stop trading [with the Palestinian issue]."
The Gulf Arabs feel so offended and betrayed by the Palestinian leaders that they are now demanding an apology from Abbas. Nayef Al-Hajraf, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), called on Abbas to apologize "for the irresponsible rhetoric of incitement and threats against the Gulf states." Al-Hajraf accused the Palestinian leaders of making "provocative and false statements that contradict the reality and history of relations between the Gulf states and the Palestinians."
By alienating the Gulf Arabs, the Palestinian leaders are further ravaging their own people, especially those who live and work in these countries. Abbas has already wrecked the Palestinians' relations with Israel and the US. By offending the Gulf states and depicting their residents as backward illiterates, Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian factions are convincing yet more Arabs to stay as far away from Palestinians as they can.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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Bahrain’s recognition of Israel reveals a vision for the future of the region
Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab News/September 11/2020
The monumental announcement that Bahrain and Israel are establishing official relations is exciting and gratifying, both from an international relations perspective but also for me personally.
I have enjoyed a close relationship with King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain for more than a decade. We have had many conversations about Israel over the years and he has shared his paramount interest in, and authentic desire to see, the establishment of relations between his kingdom and Israel.
He has always recognized that Israel and Bahrain have more in common than differences. He holds Israel in high regard in terms of its technological prowess, healthcare innovation and military strength. He has always seen establishing relations as a win-win situation for both sides.
Today, that vision has become a reality, which I know has made King Hamad very proud and excited for what is to come from this partnership.
Moreover, this recognition shows the king’s leadership in the region and his strong vision for the future not only of the Gulf, but for the entire Middle East.
I was honored to be the first rabbi to visit the royal palace, when King Hamad invited me in 2011. During our various conversations, as well as through the actions of his government, he has consistently shown his support for Israel, and his message has been echoed by others in his government.
In 2018, for example, former Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa posted a message on Twitter in support of Israel’s military operation to expose and destroy Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels into Israel. He wrote: “Is the digging of tunnels by the organization (Hezbollah) not an open threat to the stability of Lebanon? Who bears responsibility when the neighboring countries take upon themselves the task of getting rid of the danger that threatens them?”
A few weeks later, he tweeted his support for Australia’s formal recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying: “Australia’s position does not hamper the legitimate demands of the Palestinians, and first and foremost East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. It also does not contradict the Arab Peace Initiative.”
This new partnership between Bahrain and Israel is one that we should all be excited about and grateful for. We are seeing a shift in the Gulf as more states look to normalize relations with Israel.
No Gulf leader has expressed a public desire to establish relations with Israel more than King Hamad and his government.
Between 2013 and 2015, King Hamad led the effort for the Gulf Cooperation Council to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Following his success in doing so he told me, during a meeting in his palace in Manama in 2016, that “our only hope for a strong, moderate Arab voice is a strong Israel.”
In 2017, after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, King Hamad sent an interfaith mission from Bahrain to Israel. He was the first leader from any Gulf state to do so.
In February 2018, after King Hamad invited me to bring a delegation from The Hampton Synagogue in New York to Bahrain, we flew to the Kingdom and met government officials and the leadership of the Jewish community. We met the former ambassador of Bahrain to the US, Huda Nonoo; member of parliament Nancy Khedouri; and community leader Michael Yadgar, who shared with us the country’s rich history of supporting its Jewish community. We visited the synagogue in Manama — the first in the Gulf — and the Jewish cemetery.
In 2019, Bahrain hosted the White House’s Peace to Prosperity Workshop. While that was exciting in its own right, perhaps more exciting was the fact that the Bahrain government for the first time welcomed seven Israeli journalists to the Kingdom.
I was honored to be asked to participate as part of Bahrain’s delegation and recall sitting with then Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid, who has since moved on to a new position, during the conference and asking him if he would consider giving an interview to one of the Israeli journalists I had just spoken to. He immediately said he would and that I should bring him over.
During that historic interview, he said: “Israel is part of the heritage of this whole region, historically. So the Jewish people have a place among us.”
This new partnership between Bahrain and Israel is one that we should all be excited about and grateful for. We are seeing a shift in the Gulf as more states look to normalize relations with Israel and I predict that a third will follow.
There is so much potential for economic partnership and I am very excited to see where this next chapter takes us.
*Rabbi Marc Schneier is the founder and president of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and an adviser to many Gulf leaders.

Why the US Electoral College system is problematic
Howard Leedham/Arab News/September 11/2020
In a little under two months, the US will once again put to the test an archaic electoral anomaly that has failed its democracy five times in its history and twice so far this century: The Electoral College.
When Al Gore and George W. Bush competed for the presidency in 2000, Gore won the popular vote. However, the Electoral College votes allocated to each candidate were so evenly distributed that only the state of Florida was left to try to decide the victor from the vanquished. In modern times, this was probably the first occasion that global onlookers became aware of the realities and foibles of the US Electoral College system.
More recently, in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s popular vote victory was multiples bigger than Gore’s majority, but she failed to win the 270 Electoral College seats required to win the presidency.
In all cases of popular vote defeats, the vanquished candidate owes their downfall to the Founding Fathers of the US, who developed an Electoral College scheme that was based on a mistrust of the electorate.
The root of the problem goes all the way back to the post-revolutionary war years, when George Washington and the Founding Fathers had been victorious over their British colonial masters and formed the republic. Of course, the intent behind forming a democracy where the people and not a political body got to choose the president was idealistic and attractive. However, Washington and his intelligentsia were then faced with some major constitutional, race and class dilemmas.
The presidential election process was driven by the desire to avoid having a political body (i.e., Congress) elect the country’s leader — this would have amounted to a duplication of the way the British selected their prime minister. The selection was therefore left to the people (except it wasn’t) and by a declaration that all men are created equal (except at that time they weren’t).
The problem for the Founding Fathers was that they simply could not trust the people of the original 13 states of America to elect the right president, i.e., one of them. Hence, the ingenious idea of the Electoral College was devised, whereby, according to population, each state would be allocated a specified number of seats occupied by educated men, who could decide if the state in which they sat had voted for the “right” man. They would then allocate their votes accordingly on behalf of their state. This scheme clearly worked to design because the first four presidents of the US were all Founding Fathers.
It is arguable that, given the circumstances of the time, the Electoral College represented a justifiable check and balance within the presidential electoral system. There was, after all, no electronic communication, little chance of the average voter having ever seen or heard the choice of presidential candidates in person, many could not read or write, and the voters’ access to education was limited to the upper classes.
Whichever way the Electoral College votes, the upcoming US electoral process and its fallout are going to be riveting to watch.
Today, the number of Electoral College seats is still ostensibly tied to the population within each state. However, the allocation of the individual to those seats is now either a pledged Republican or Democrat depending on the voting result within their particular state. Come this Nov. 3, a voting average of 54.7 percent of eligible Americans will go to the polls, with most thinking that their vote will count to either retaining or replacing their president; however, in many cases, it will not.
Due to the Electoral College system, any result greater than 50 percent of the popular vote in any single state commits all of the Electoral College seats in that state to the party of the favored candidate. Hence, any vote that is made in excess of 50 percent in one of these “certain” states is, in effect, wasted. This is the reason why the popular choice for America’s president can lose the election.
This impending election sees 42 of the 50 states forecast as either firmly Republican or Democrat. It therefore falls on the voting population of eight “swing states” to decide the overall outcome. In these states, the voters are considered evenly split between the parties and, based on recent voter turnout, they represent just 13 percent of America’s population with power over 25 percent (138) of the total (538) Electoral College seats.
Unless there are any surprises in the “certain” states, then current forecasts see Joe Biden needing 48 seats from the swing states in order to win the presidency. Donald Trump needs to win more: He needs a total of 83 seats on top of his certain states.
To that end, if Biden wins his certain states and Florida, which has 29 Electoral College seats, it is likely he will only need Pennsylvania for the presidency to be his. If he loses Florida, Biden will need Pennsylvania and three other swing states to win. If he loses Florida and Pennsylvania, then it will go down to the wire, with Trump only requiring another three of the remaining six states to take the White House, whereas Biden would need to prevail in at least four of them. Except — and by now you’d be expecting a surprise — two of the swing states do not have rules enforcing Electoral College individuals to vote with their party. In Georgia and Pennsylvania, it is possible that a party could win in the state, but “faithless” Electoral College voters could exercise the right given to them by the Founding Fathers to vote against the will of the electorate. This happened in 10 instances in the 2016 election.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, no one pretends that democracy is perfect. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all other forms. However, the result of this US election and the ensuing administration’s policies are pivotal for the rest of the world. To that end, it is surely worth some reflection that the world’s leading democracy persists with an electoral scheme that could produce a wholly undemocratic result for the third time this century.
What is for sure is that, whichever way the Electoral College votes, the upcoming US electoral process and its fallout are going to be riveting to watch.
• Howard Leedham MBE is a former Royal Navy Commander and British Special Forces Officer. Twitter: @howardleedham

Need for better ways to gauge threat posed by terrorists after release
Peter Welby/Arab News/September 11/2020
Nearly 2 years ago, an individual described in UK security jargon as a “terrorist risk offender” (TRO) was released from Woodhill Prison, one of Britain’s high-security jails.
For his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange, he was originally given an “indeterminate sentence,” meaning he would only be released if he could demonstrate he had been rehabilitated. This was overturned on appeal, however, and he had served 8 years of a 16-year sentence when he was set free. As with all TROs, a number of conditions were applied to his release. He appeared to be showing signs of rehabilitation. While in prison, for example, he took part in a program called “Healthy Identity Intervention,” which is designed to rehabilitate extremist prisoners. After release, he attended another, called “Desistance and Disengagement.”Participation does not mean deep engagement, of course. And neither of these programs had been evaluated for effectiveness.
A little over nine months ago, this apparent star of the TRO rehabilitation programs was at a conference for an organization devoted to the rehabilitation of offenders of all kinds. Shortly after lunch, he strapped knives to his hands and killed two of the people who had been supporting him. He wounded others before he was shot dead by police.A few months later, another TRO released on license was shot and killed by police after stabbing members of the public.
Last week, Britain’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorist Legislation published a report on the way the UK manages the risks posed by TROs after they are released from prison. It revealed a flawed system.
The early release of any prisoner, whatever their offense, is always a calculated risk.The report found the scheme that is used to evaluate the risk, known as ERG 22+, is compromised. Many assessors accept the offender’s characterization of the offense — and in some cases, even their denials of having committed any offense — when preparing their assessment of the risk they pose.
The difficulties this creates for good risk assessment ought to have been flagged up a long time ago but apparently it is common, in part because the risk assessment is prepared by a psychologist in a therapeutic environment. This requires the offender to “buy in” to the process — which they might not do if their version of events is not accepted.
The report also found that risk assessments take too much account of an offender’s good behavior in prison. This is another flawed metric, given that many extremists appeared to be model citizens before committing their offenses, successfully concealing their desire to kill people in the name of ideology.
The scheme used to manage the threat posed by released terrorists in the UK is exactly the same as the scheme used to manage the risks from those convicted of violent or sexual offenses. The effectiveness of procedures used in both of those contexts has been subject to a great deal of study and criticism for a great number of years, but the same level of scrutiny has not yet been applied to how well they work with extremist offenders.
The problem, in any case, is that extremism is complicated. There are myriad reasons why individuals get drawn into extremist behavior, including psychological factors, but there is one characteristic that marks out an extremist as different: They have subscribed to a way of viewing the world that puts them on the side of the good.
Whether their extremism is fueled by far-right attitudes, environmentalism, animal rights or extremism, they consider their actions to be for the greater good.
Even within the population of extremist offenders, the risks of reoffending vary dramatically depending on the type of offender and the individual in question.
For example, a member of a terrorist group such as the IRA or ETA might have been considered to have a high risk of reoffending in the 1980s and 1990s, but a low risk now, given that the environment in which that form of political extremism existed has changed so much.
In the aftermath of the November 2019 and February 2020 attacks in London, the CTC Sentinel, a monthly journal published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, featured a study on terrorist reengagement and recidivism in Belgium. It argued that the fear of re-offending by terrorists was much greater than the actual occurrence. It found that between 1990 and 2019, only 27 out of 557 convicted offenders returned to extremism. However, all of those who did were initially convicted before the global surge in popularity of Daesh among extremists in 2014.
The issue here is that, just as with attempts to measure the efficacy of rehabilitation programs, not enough time has elapsed to draw conclusions about the risks posed by the post-2014 wave of extremists, anywhere in the world. Most have not been out of prison long enough, if they have been released at all.
The early release of any prisoner, whatever their offense, is always a calculated risk. It is consistent with the needs of justice that these risks should be taken in circumstances where offenders have served their punishment and are deemed to have been rehabilitated.
But when it comes to ideologically motivated offenses, we need a different way of calculating the ongoing risk posed by offenders, taking into account the fundamental reason why most commit their crimes in the first place: That they believe it is the right thing to do.
*Peter Welby is a consultant on religion and global affairs, specializing in the Arab world. Twitter: @pdcwelby

Russia aims to increase its influence in Eastern Mediterranean
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/September 11/2020
Like the Soviet Union, post-communist Russia maintains a policy of fishing in the troubled waters of the Eastern Mediterranean for both geopolitical and economic gain. This has now led the West’s historical rival to come out as a peacemaker in an attempt to defuse the tension between Turkey and Greece.
After months of attempts by the EU, led by Germany, failed to bear fruit, Russia this week stepped into the fray and said it is ready to mediate between the conflicting parties. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday met with Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and afterward said that Moscow is monitoring the situation in the region and would help start a “genuine dialogue” with all parties that would generate “mutually acceptable solutions.”
Can Russia play peacemaker and lead a genuine dialogue between two NATO member states? A brief evaluation of the Russian role in the region and its relations with both Ankara and Athens could help answer this question.
Between 1960 and 1990, the Cyprus problem hampered Turkey’s relations with the West, but it also led to closer ties with the Soviet Union. Although the Cyprus issue was not a determinant in relations, the Soviets’ reaction to the Turkish military intervention on the island is noteworthy. Moscow kept a rather ambivalent attitude and initially supported the move, before calling for an international resolution to the issue.
Washington’s attitude toward Turkey caused further improvements in relations between Ankara and Moscow. President Lyndon Johnson’s letter and the US’ arms embargo on Turkey played a fundamental role in the Soviet approach. Needless to say, the main aim of the Soviet Union during the Cyprus crisis was to maintain good relations with Ankara and to exploit the Turkish-American differences. Another goal was to carve out a role in any settlement of the Cyprus issue.Experts foresee that Moscow’s attempts could complicate the process led by the Europeans.
Today’s Russia also tries to have a role in any resolution of the Eastern Mediterranean dispute at a time when Ankara and Washington are at odds with each other on several issues. Russia, which is involved in energy projects across the region, has significantly strengthened its military, political and economic ties with Turkey in recent years. Moscow and Ankara are coordinating closely on their military presence in Syria, while Turkey has purchased Russia’s advanced S-400 missile defense system and broken ground on a Russian-built nuclear power plant on its southern coast. However, experts who follow the Eastern Mediterranean theater foresee that Moscow’s attempts could complicate the European-led process at a time when the US is embroiled in an election campaign that offers Russia fertile ground.
Amid escalating tensions between NATO members Turkey and Greece over the rights to search for energy resources in the region, Ankara last week announced that Russia will hold live-fire naval exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean. A navigational notice said the Russian exercises will take place this month in areas where Turkish seismic research vessels are operating. The Turkish announcement came after the US said it was partially lifting a 33-year-old arms embargo against Cyprus. Russia maintains a sizable naval presence in the area and regularly conducts naval maneuvers, but the announcement of live-fire drills seems to be a significant message that Moscow is determined to remain a major regional player whose influence won’t be weakened by the US’ embargo move.
Greek-Russian relations should also be added to this equation. Ties between Athens and Moscow have deteriorated in recent years, following Greece’s 2018 decision to expel two Russian diplomats and ban the entry of two others. Athens was also upset by the Russian stance on Turkey’s conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a radio interview, said that the decision wouldn't harm relations with Russia and that it was an internal affair, just as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rejecting international criticism, had contended. Needless to say, the new power balances in the wider region are another contributing factor to the escalation of tensions between Moscow and Athens. Turkish-Russian rapprochement and their joint actions in the Syrian war have raised eyebrows in Athens.
NATO’s attempts to defuse the tension between Turkey and Greece — two traditional arch-foes within the alliance — are also getting complicated. A meeting between Turkish and Greek military delegations to discuss methods for reducing the risk of incidents in the Eastern Mediterranean was initially planned for Tuesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, but it was rescheduled at the last minute.
Given the failure of EU-led attempts and the US election rush, Russia seems set to take advantage of the situation and strengthen its influence in the muddy waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. However, only time will tell whether Moscow will be successful.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz