English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 14/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/12-15/:”If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 13- 14/2021
Health Ministry: 580 new Corona infections, 20 deaths
3 Rockets Fired from South Lebanon toward Israel
Lebanon spends Eid Al-Fitr under strict quarantine
Presidency Press Office clarifies issue of EDL's outstanding dues
President Aoun will not send an envoy to Paris to follow-up on Le Drian's visit to Beirut
Reports: Miqati Emerges as Candidate for PM Post
Report: Hariri Won’t Resign, Most Parties Clinging to Him
EU Sanctions on Lebanese Politicians Expected in 'Next 3 to 4 Weeks'
Driven by Despair, Lebanese Pharmacist Looks to Life Abroad

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 13- 14/2021
U.N. Security Council to Hold New Meeting on Israel-Palestinian Clashes Friday
Israeli troops enter Gaza Strip
Palestine and Israel live updates: Israeli troops enter the Gaza Strip
Israel-Palestinian Conflict Escalates as Rockets Fly, Street Violence Flares
Gaza death toll tops 100 as Israeli air strikes, Hamas rocket fire continue
Hamas Fires Large Rocket at Israel's Second Airport near Eilat
Hamas brings out high-powered rockets to hit strategic Israeli targets
Biden Talks to Netanyahu, Hopes Conflict Ending 'Sooner than Later'
Blinken Urges 'Need to End Rocket Attacks' in Call with Abbas
France Says 'Everything Must be Done' to Avert New Mideast Conflict
Iran's Former Firebrand President to Run again for Office

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 13- 14/2021
Iran cannot be trusted to obey any nuclear agreement/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 13/2021
Specter of Russian military looms over Turkish canal project/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/May 13/2021
Blinken's Non-Containment Policy Regarding China/Peter Schweizer/Gatestone Institute/May 13/2021
Move the "Genocide Olympics" Out of China/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/May 13/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 13- 14/2021
Health Ministry: 580 new Corona infections, 20 deaths
NNA/May 13/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Thursday, the registration of 580 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 534,968.
It also indicated that 20 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

3 Rockets Fired from South Lebanon toward Israel
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/May 13/2021
Three rockets were fired Thursday from southern Lebanon toward Israel, Lebanese security officials said, amid an escalating fighting between Israel and the militant Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza. The rockets were launched from the Qlayleh area north of Naqoura, near the border with Israel. Israel's army confirmed the attack and said the rockets landed in the sea. It was not immediately clear who had fired them, but two sources close to Hizbullah said the Lebanese group had no link to the incident. "A short while ago, three rockets were fired from Lebanon into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Galilee," Israel's army said in a statement. "According to protocol no sirens were sounded," it added. Several media reports said Lebanese security forces arrested those who fired the rockets. Al-Jadeed TV however said no arrests have been made but added that the Lebanese Army has deployed in the area and is following the situation closely. Al-Jadeed later reported that the army was chasing several suspects in a grove in the area. A Palestinian official meanwhile told An-Nahar newspaper that the Palestinian factions were responsible for the incident and that “their message is that the resistance is one in Lebanon and Palestine.” Al-Manar TV reporter Ali Shoaib meanwhile tweeted that the rockets did not cross the border and that the atmosphere was very normal in the area after the army’s deployment. And as MTV said that Israeli warplanes were overflying south Lebanon after the incident, Al-Arabiya TV quoted Israeli sources as saying that there will be no Israeli response. The spokesman of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Andrea Tenenti, meanwhile said that the Force, known as UNIFIL, was in contact with the Lebanese and Israeli sides and was urging them to show utmost restraint after the incident.

Lebanon spends Eid Al-Fitr under strict quarantine
Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 13/2021
BEIRUT: Eid Al-Fitr celebrations in Lebanon were very scarce on Thursday as the country was in the middle of a two-day total closure and curfew to combat the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). As people avoided gatherings in homes and public places during what is supposed to be a joyous time, one prominent religious leader expressed fear during his Eid sermon. “People will starve as a result of the errors and sins of the government, and from an explosion or social violence, which will lead to the revolt of the hungry,” said Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, grand mufti of Lebanon. “When this happens, remorse will not be helpful.” He also accused “political officials of regressing to low levels of violating the constitution, striking the judiciary, resorting to sectarian delusions, and dividing citizens.” The joy of Eid could not be seen on the faces of the Lebanese people as living conditions continue to deteriorate in a country gripped in financial and political turmoil. Authorities allowed only 30 percent capacity at mosques for the Eid prayers as worshippers spread out in the open-air squares surrounding the Al-Amin Mosque in central Beirut.
The prayers were led by Sheikh Derian as Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab were among the many who participated in the prayer. The Israeli-Gaza violence and unrest dominated the Eid sermon, but the political reality and the poor living conditions within Lebanon were also addressed in the sermon from Sheikh Derian. “The collapse and devastation that we are living through it can only be stopped by the birth of a government that addresses the corruption and decay that Lebanon has seen for the first time in decades,” Mufti Derian said. “We need a government that carries out the required reforms. Anything else counts as deception.”He also criticized “those working in public political affairs for failing their citizens when they indulged in corruption and prevented the formation of a government capable of stopping the collapse, beginning reconstruction, and seeking help from the international community.”
It was noticeable that the Arab and Islamic diplomatic presence was absent from the central Eid prayer in downtown Beirut. The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, performed Eid prayers in the garden of his residence in the Yarze district while a number of ambassadors of Arab and Islamic countries and embassy staff joined him. The embassy took the initial precautionary measures related to the coronavirus.
Measures to remove subsidies on more subsidized food commodities, fuel and medicines added even more concern to a continuing list of hardships experienced by the Lebanese people even before Ramadan. Many pharmacies closed their doors because owners did not receive the minimum needs of medicine and baby milk from agents and warehouses. Despite the complete closure, petrol stations remained busy as people fear more fuel shortages. “The ships that produce power will stop on Saturday, and the factories will follow suit,” Abdo Saadeh, president of the Association of Private Generator Owners, said on Thursday. “This means that the rationing of electric current in Lebanon may exceed 20 hours. In parallel, there is a shortage of diesel that feeds private generators, which means we are on the verge of a big problem.”
The fuel crisis affects vital sectors in Lebanon, as the secretary-general of the Lebanese Red Cross, Georges Kettaneh, announced that the Red Cross “has prepared a plan to fill its cars with fuel, and there is no crisis yet.”
The head of the Syndicate of Private Hospital Owners, Suleiman Haroun, said: “If Lebanon enters darkness as a result of not providing the funds allocated for the purchase of fuel, many patients in need of oxygen and dialysis machines will be affected.”
Haroun warned that private hospitals have generators, but it is impossible to ask hospitals to supply themselves with electricity 24 hours a day because “these generators are there to support the network and be a substitute for any malfunctions that occur.”

Presidency Press Office clarifies issue of EDL's outstanding dues
NNA/May 13/2021
The Presidency Press Office issued the following statement:
“"MTV" station broadcasted in this evening’s news bulletin, a report on official departments and institutions which have not paid their owed bills to the EDL. MTV broadcasted that among these departments is the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic. It concerns the Presidency Press Office to assert that the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic is committed to regularly organizing necessary financial transfers to pay the bills received in accordance with the funds available and forwards them to the Finance Ministry. The last accumulated bills received from the Electricity of Lebanon were at the end of the year 2020, totaling 400 million Lebanese pounds, and the General Directorate took the initiative to allocate the funds necessary to pay these bills accumulated due to the end of the year, and it is currently awaiting the implementation of the allocating process in the Ministry of Finance to pay the required value . Noting that since the beginning of the current year, no invoice has been received from EDL to the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic”.

President Aoun will not send an envoy to Paris to follow-up on Le Drian's visit to Beirut
NNA/May 13/2021
National News Agency correspondent at the Presidential Palace, reported that President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, "is not planning to send an envoy to Paris to follow up on the recent visit of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beirut," adding that "President Aoun's position is clear and was reported to Le Drian during his stay in Beirut."

Reports: Miqati Emerges as Candidate for PM Post
Naharnet/May 13/2021
Foreign efforts have been launched to find a “replacement for PM-designate Saad Hariri” and it seems that there is French-Saudi consensus on ex-PM Najib Miqati, media reports said. Noting that the efforts are “serious,” al-Akhbar newspaper said Miqati has been communicating with Washington, Paris and Riyadh. “An agreement on Miqati’s nomination is not guaranteed yet, domestically, but there is consensus in principle on him abroad, especially in Riyadh,” the daily added, quoting unnamed sources. “Hariri is not opposed to this, and perhaps he has become convinced of the impossibility of his success in his mission, mainly in light of the Saudi veto on him and secondly due to the difficulty to reach an agreement with President Michel Aoun and ex-minister Jebran Bassil,” the sources added. “Hariri will endorse Miqati’s nomination to satisfy the kingdom and to refute obstruction accusations and implicate Bassil with this designation, seeing as Miqati will not be less strict in his conditions,” the sources went on to say. According to the sources, Miqati is proposing the same initiative that he had put forward in the past, which calls for the formation of a 20- or 24-seat government comprising political and specialist ministers.

Report: Hariri Won’t Resign, Most Parties Clinging to Him
Naharnet/May 13/2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri “does not intend to step down” and “those awaiting his resignation will wait for a long time,” informed sources said. Speaker Nabih Berri is “showing decisive insistence on Hariri’s designation and does not see a replacement for him to lead the mission-driven salvation government,” sources close to Ain el-Tineh told the Nidaa al-Watan daily in remarks published Thursday. “Berri has communicated with Hizbullah’s leadership and stressed the need not to give up Hariri’s designation seeing as he is the best choice to overcome the crisis, and there was an agreement between him and Hizbullah on the issue,” the sources said. Political sources meanwhile told the newspaper that Hariri has been urged not to step down and that he still enjoys the support of Berri, Hizbullah, the Progressive Socialist Party, the Marada Movement, the Tashnag Party, the majority of MPs and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

EU Sanctions on Lebanese Politicians Expected in 'Next 3 to 4 Weeks'
Naharnet/May 13/2021 
The sanctions that the European Union is preparing against Lebanese politicians seen as blocking the formation of a new government are expected in “the next three to four weeks,” media reports said, quoting a senior EU diplomat. The reports said no specific names have been discussed and that Hungary has criticized the EU efforts against Lebanese politicians. The European Union "expressed its dissatisfaction with the political stalemate Lebanon is witnessing, and preparations have begun to impose sanctions on political officials whom it considers responsible for the obstruction,” EU's Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell announced on Monday evening. After a meeting of the foreign ministers of the bloc countries in Brussels, Borrell said: “We are working on adopting a policy of carrot and stick in Lebanon. All options are on the table in order to put pressure on the political class preventing a solution for the impasse."Borrel said he discussed the crisis with Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe last Sunday, expressing his regret that the situation in Lebanon had not improved. A European diplomat told Al-Arabiya over the weekend that the European External Action Department distributed an options paper to member states, including incentives to activate the partnership with Lebanon, if it forms a reform government. He said the paper “does not exclude the option of sanctions.We are moving forward step by step towards concrete measures.”Last week, France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said ahead of his arrival in Beirut that French travel restrictions on Lebanese officials suspected of corruption or hindering the formation of the Cabinet were “just the start.”France has been trying to force change on Lebanon's ruling class, whose corruption and mismanagement has driven the tiny country into the ground and pushed it to the verge of bankruptcy.

Driven by Despair, Lebanese Pharmacist Looks to Life Abroad
Associated Press/May 13/2021
The shelves are bare at the Panacea pharmacy north of Beirut. Its owner, Rita El Khoury, has spent the past few weeks packing up her career, apartment and belongings before leaving Lebanon for a new life abroad. For the 35-year-old pharmacist and her husband, and countless others feeling trapped in a country hammered by multiple crises, Lebanon has become unlivable. Driven by financial ruin, collapsing institutions, hyperinflation and rapidly rising poverty, thousands have left since Lebanon's economic and financial crisis began in late 2019 -- an exodus that accelerated after the massive explosion at Beirut's port last August, when a stockpile of improperly stored ammonium nitrates detonated, killing 211 people and destroying residential areas nearby. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since, with political leaders deadlocked or complacent as the country hurtles toward total collapse. Fuel supplies are running out, leaving the country at risk of plunging into total darkness as power stations and generators run dry. Now young to middle-aged professionals are leaving -- doctors, engineers, pharmacists and bankers, part of the latest wave of emigration in the small country's modern history."It's been 10 years since I opened this pharmacy. I gave it all that I could," said El Khoury, standing in her empty pharmacy. Though her career was her passion, she is armed with determination and hopes for a better future in France, where they are headed.
- LEAVING OR STAYING -
It's a question almost every generation of Lebanese has asked throughout the country's turbulent 100-year history, rife with instability and crises. The country has seen a ruinous 15-year civil war, military occupation by its neighbors, bombings, political assassinations and repeated bouts of civil unrest.
The result has been one of the world's largest diasporas relative to the size of the country -- estimated to be about three times the population of 5 million at home. There are no exact figures for how many Lebanese have left since October 2019. Some estimate up to 20% of Lebanese doctors have emigrated or are planning to leave. Out of 3,400 unionized pharmacies, around 400 have shut down and 70% of pharmacy graduates end up leaving, said Ghassan al-Amin, head of the pharmacist syndicate. Airport scenes of parents sending off their kids to work or study abroad are very common. During the civil war, which ended in 1990, tens of thousands of people left, joining previous generations of Lebanese emigrants to Latin America, Europe, Africa and Australia. The current economic crisis is unprecedented in Lebanon's modern history, and many worry the flight of educated professionals and soaring poverty this time would forever alter the identity and reputation this small country once had as the medical, tourist and banking capital of the Middle East.
El Khoury and her husband, Marcel, never wanted to leave, determined to remain close to their parents in a country that provides no social welfare for its elderly. She is an only child. Her husband has two brothers, both living in Dubai. But their resolve to stay began to crack two years ago. The economy was tanking, and hard currency was becoming scarce. In October 2019, public frustration exploded into nationwide street protests. Banks clamped down. People suddenly saw their dollar bank accounts frozen and Lebanese currency withdrawals limited, trapping all their money. The Lebanese pound, pegged to the U.S. dollar for decades, unraveled. Salaries dropped and savings evaporated. El Khoury's husband, a financial software developer, started looking for jobs abroad, but then the pandemic hit, slowing everything down. The couple decided to apply for immigration to Canada and began the lengthy paperwork process. By mid-year, drugs started disappearing from pharmacy shelves, shortages exacerbated by panic buying and suppliers holding on to the drugs, hoping to sell for higher. Six out of 10 brand-name drugs were suddenly unavailable.
"There were days when I came home crying," El Khoury said. "When I was studying pharmacy for five years, they never told me I'd have to decide who gets to have medicine and who doesn't." On Aug. 4 -- the day the of the port explosion -- she was working remotely from home when the earth shook, followed by a deafening blast. From their apartment north of Beirut's port, she saw a gigantic cloud of smoke rising above the city. The explosion triggered childhood memories during Lebanon's civil war, when her parents had her sleep behind a sofa, hoping it would protect her from the shells. The blast solidified the couple's resolve to leave. El Khoury now ridicules the word 'resilience,' often ascribed to Lebanese people for their ability to pick up the pieces and rebuild after every disaster.
"To me resilience is an excuse that we give ourselves for apathy and not doing anything," she said. "Resilience is why we keep falling lower, and we get used to every new low."
STARTING FROM ZERO -
In January, El Khoury's husband received a job offer in France. They decided to take it. She began selling her pharmacy stocks, and begin the long process of packing up a life in preparation for their departure on Saturday. "We are going to start from zero," she said. "Everything we have worked for the past 15 years, the money we have earned and saved, it's all gone and we're starting from scratch."They feel sadness, apprehension and nostalgia mixed with relief at finally taking the leap. They worry about leaving their parents behind in a country with an uncertain future but at the same time, there is excitement about what awaits. El Khoury recalls the hope and enthusiasm she felt when she first opened her pharmacy. She had just returned from a year of study in France, and the pharmacy, she felt, was her mission. That mission was cut short, she said. Hopefully, a more dignified life in France awaits. With family and friends left behind, ties with Lebanon would not be cut. She is already planning Sunday lunches with an open Skype connection between Paris and Beirut so they can stay connected with their parents. But the move, El Khoury feels, is permanent. "It would take a miracle for us to come back here," she said, then added: "A miracle or retirement."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 13- 14/2021
U.N. Security Council to Hold New Meeting on Israel-Palestinian Clashes Friday
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
Tunisia, Norway and China have requested another emergency U.N. Security Council meeting be scheduled Friday on the worsening hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, despite ongoing U.S. resistance for the body to take a role in the conflict. The session would be public and would include participation by Israel and the Palestinians, diplomats told AFP Wednesday. The Council has already held two closed-door videoconferences since Monday, with the United States -- a close Israel ally -- opposing adoption of a joint declaration, which it said would not "help de-escalate" the situation. According to a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, the idea of a third meeting in less than a week was pushed by the Palestinians. The goal of a new meeting is "to try to contribute to peace... and to have a Security Council able to express itself and to call for ceasefire," stressed another diplomat speaking anonymously. Israel has refused to allow the Security Council to get involved in the conflict, a demand Washington has so far agreed to, diplomats told AFP. According to several sources, 14 of the 15 members of the Council were in favor of adopting a joint declaration earlier Wednesday aimed at reducing tension. However, the United States saw the Security Council meeting as a sufficient show of concern, calling a statement "counterproductive," diplomats told AFP on condition of anonymity.
'Act with immediacy'
In Washington, chief diplomat Antony Blinken announced that a U.S. envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. But in a sign of frustration after the US move to block a Security Council statement, four Council members from Europe -- Norway, Estonia, France and Ireland -- issued their own joint statement later Wednesday. "We condemn the firing of rockets from Gaza against civilian populations in Israel by Hamas and other militant groups which is totally unacceptable and must stop immediately," the statement said. "The large numbers of civilian casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza, are both worrying and unacceptable. "We call on Israel to cease settlement activities, demolitions and evictions, including in East Jerusalem," they wrote. And Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour published a letter to the organization's top officials Wednesday in which he pleaded with them to "act with immediacy to demand that Israel cease its attacks against the Palestinian civilian population, including in the Gaza Strip."
Violence risks spiraling -
He also called for them to demand that Israel "cease all other illegal Israeli actions and measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, including a halt to plans to forcibly displace and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the City."When asked about the inability of the Council, the body in charge of world peace, to speak out on the Israeli-Palestinian clashes, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed hope for a turnaround soon, and added that "any international situation will always benefit from a strong and unified voice from the Security Council."U.N. Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland had warned Wednesday's meeting that the "situation has deteriorated since Monday... there is a risk of a spiral of violence," according to a diplomatic source. During a first emergency meeting on Monday, the United States also refused to back a text proposed by Tunisia, Norway and China calling on all parties to refrain from provocation. Renewed rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns has fueled growing fears that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could descend into full-scale war. The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 65 people in Gaza, including 16 children, and seven in Israel, including a soldier and one Indian national, since Monday.

Israeli troops enter Gaza Strip
AFP/May 14/2021
Israeli troops have entered the Gaza Strip as part of the ongoing military operation against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the military said on Friday. "Israeli planes and troops on the ground are carrying out an attack in the Gaza Strip," the army said in a brief message.
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed that Israeli soldiers had entered the Palestinian territory.

Palestine and Israel live updates: Israeli troops enter the Gaza Strip
The National/May 14/2021
Israeli planes and troops are carrying out attacks on the Palestinian territory
The Israeli army on Thursday told ground forces to prepare for a potential invasion of the Gaza Strip, amid calls from the UN to “step back from the brink”.
"We have the ground troops that have been told to prepare," Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told The National. "We have three brigades at the division headquarters in the Gaza area."
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Israel and the Palestinians to avoid a “descent into chaos", as the Security Council met to discuss the crisis.
The cross-border escalation came after weeks of unrest in Jerusalem reached boiling point with Israeli police storming Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
As of Thursday night Jerusalem time:
Israeli troops have entered the Gaza Strip
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll has risen to 109 Palestinians, including 28 children and 11 women
530 have been wounded mostly as a result of air strikes
Seven people in Israel killed, including one soldier, in Lod, Rishon Letzion, Ashkelon and Netiv HaAsara
At least 1,750 rockets fired from Gaza
IDF attacks nearly 1,000 targets in Gaza

Israel-Palestinian Conflict Escalates as Rockets Fly, Street Violence Flares
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
Israel and the Palestinians were engaged in an escalating conflict on two fronts Thursday, with Israeli authorities scrambling to quell riots between Arabs and Jews inside Israel after days of exchanging deadly fire with Islamist militants in Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz ordered a "massive reinforcement" of security forces to quell mob violence across the country, where police stations have been attacked and people savagely beaten on both sides. Despite global alarm and diplomatic efforts to halt the spiraling violence, which U.S. President Joe Biden said he hoped would end "sooner than later", hundreds of rockets again tore through the skies over the Gaza Strip overnight. Israel's air force launched multiple strikes with fighter jets, targeting what it described as locations linked to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. In Gaza, 83 people were reported killed since Monday -- including 17 children -- and more than 480 people wounded as heavy bombardment has rocked the crowded coastal enclave and brought down entire tower blocks. The Israeli military said it had struck Gaza targets more than 600 times, while Hamas had fired over 1,600 rockets towards Israel. Israel's civil aviation authority said it had diverted all incoming passenger flights headed for Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport to Ramon airport in the south, as air raid warnings once more went off across Israel. In southern Israel, seven people were killed, including one six-year-old, after a rocket struck a family home, the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue service said. Recent days have seen the most intense hostilities in seven years between Israel and Gaza's armed groups, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The unrest has been driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
'Preventing pogroms'
Coinciding with the aerial bombardments is surging violence between Arabs and Jews inside Israel. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that violence was at a nadir not seen for decades and that police were "literally preventing pogroms from taking place". Hundreds were protesting in the Arab town of Kafr Kassem in central Israel, burning tires and torching police vehicles, he said. He added that nearly 1,000 border police were called in to quell the violence, and that more than 400 people had been arrested. On Wednesday night, Israeli far-right groups took to the streets across the country, clashing with security forces and Arab Israelis. Police said they had responded to violent incidents in multiple towns, including Lod, Acre and Haifa. Israeli television Wednesday aired footage of a far-right mob beating a man they considered an Arab until he lay unconscious on his back in a street in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. "The victim of the lynching is seriously injured but stable," Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital said, without identifying him. A state of emergency has been declared in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, where an Arab resident was shot dead and a synagogue has been torched. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, in unusually strong language, denounced what he described as a "pogrom" in which "an incited and blood-thirsty Arab mob" had attacked sacred Jewish spaces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "what has been happening these last few days in Israeli towns is unacceptable. "Nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews, and nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs," he said, adding that Israel was fighting a battle "on two fronts."
Stalled diplomacy -
The U.N. Security Council has held two closed-door videoconferences since Monday, with close Israeli ally Washington opposing adoption of a joint declaration, arguing it would not "help de-escalate" the situation. Netanyahu spoke later Wednesday with Biden, who said that "Israel has a right to defend itself."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urging an end to the rocket attacks by Islamist groups, and that a U.S. envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions. But the Israeli government has warned that "this is only the beginning," and military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said strikes on Gaza would continue as Israel prepares for "multiple scenarios.""We have ground units that are prepared and are in various stages of preparing ground operations," he told reporters Thursday. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also threatened to step up attacks, warning that "if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it." Violence also again rocked the occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian man was killed during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers near Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said Thursday. The crisis flared last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Nightly disturbances have since gripped Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, leaving more than 900 Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Gaza death toll tops 100 as Israeli air strikes, Hamas rocket fire continue
Reuters/May 13/2021
GAZA/JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants fired more rockets into Israel’s commercial heartland on Thursday as Israel kept up a punishing bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip and massed tanks and troops on the enclave’s border. Four days of cross-border fighting showed no sign of abating, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campaign “will take more time.” Israeli officials said Gaza’s ruling Hamas group must be dealt a strong deterring blow before any cease-fire. Violence has also spread to mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel, a new front in the long conflict. Synagogues were attacked and fighting broke out on the streets of some towns, prompting Israel’s president to warn of civil war. At least 103 people have been killed in Gaza, including 27 children, over the past four days, Palestinian medical officials said. On Thursday alone, 49 Palestinians were killed in the enclave, the highest single-day figure since Monday. Seven people have been killed in Israel: a soldier patrolling the Gaza border, five Israeli civilians, including two children, and an Indian worker, Israeli authorities said. Worried that the region’s worst hostilities in years could spiral out of control, the United States was sending in an envoy, Hady Amr. Truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had yet to deliver a sign of progress. US President Joe Biden called on Thursday for a de-escalation of the violence, saying he wanted to see a significant reduction in rocket attacks. Militants fired rocket salvoes at Tel Aviv and surrounding towns with the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting many of them. Communities near the Gaza border and the southern desert city of Beersheba were also targeted. Five Israelis were wounded by a rocket that hit a building near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Hamas Fires Large Rocket at Israel's Second Airport near Eilat
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
Hamas on Thursday said it fired a large rocket at Israel's Ramon airport near Eilat, where incoming passenger flights were diverted after waves of rocket launches towards the main airport near Tel Aviv. A spokesman for Hamas' armed wing announced the launch of the 250 kilogram rocket and demanded that "all international airlines immediately halt their flights to any airports" in Israel. Hamas has fired over 1,600 rockets towards Israel since Monday, with the Israel military saying it struck Gaza targets over 600 times. Earlier Thursday, Israel's civil aviation authority said it had diverted all incoming passenger flights headed for Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport to Ramon airport, as missile sirens once more went off across Israel. International carriers were meanwhile canceling flights to Israel. Spokespeople for United Airlines and American Airlines told AFP their flights from the U.S. to Israel had been canceled "through May 15."In Gaza, 83 people were reported killed since Monday, with seven killed on the Israeli side.

Hamas brings out high-powered rockets to hit strategic Israeli targets
DEBKAfile/May 13/2021
Hamas rockets midday Thursday, May 13, ripped through Israel from the Greater Tel Aviv region to Beersheba in the south and including Ashdod, Lachish, Eylot in the Arava and the Bedouin settlements. . Iron Dome intercepted 10 over the Tel Aviv region. Hamas spokesman said: “We have a new upgraded rocket with a range of 220km and can reach any point in Israel.”
Have Hamas and Jihad got hold of more powerful rockets of longer range than before?
The answer, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, is in the affirmative. The Palestinian rulers of Gaza have begun using Fajr 5 (military codename M-75) (see attached photo) and Burkan (A-122), which reach deeper into Israel and pack a far more powerful punch.
For the first time, on Wednesday night, they shot a Fajr 5, an Iranian product with a long range and 333mm caliber which is mounted on a Mercedes Benz 2631 forward control chassis. This rocket weighs a ton, Its warhead is packed with 175kg of fragmentation warhead containing 90kg of high explosives. Hamas’ rocket engineers reduced its payload to extend the Fajr’s range to 170km – up to the shore of the Sea of Galilee in northeastern Israel –
The Palestinian terrorist organizations have not just escalated their rocket offensive, but they are now after big game, as was indicated on Tuesday when a rocket aimed at the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline set a gas container at the Ashkelon end on fire. They have been trying to hit the offshore rig of Israel’s Tamar gas field. But they have not hit this target because, even after upgrading their rockets, they are not up to the high precision capacity installed by Iran in Hizballah’s missile arsenal. Iran’s Lebanese proxy now owns a quantity of Fajr 5C rockets fitted with wit GPS guidance kits.
Hamas leaders are hoping to obtain those ultra-lethal weapon systems soon.
Burkan, a locally developed version of an Iranian weapon, is more like a bomb than a rocket. These weapons have been responsible for the gaping holes driven in the walls of Israeli buildings, which took direct hits in the last two days in the towns of Sderot, Ashkelon, Petah Tikva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yahud.
The IDF’s air campaign has caused heavy damage to much of Hamas and Jihad weapons infrastructure. And the Iron Dome air defense system has knocked down 85-90pc of the rockets aimed at populated areas. However, much of that infrastructure is still operational and the Hamas/Jihad rocket arsenal remains out of reach of aerial bombardment. IDF communiques leave the public ignorant about key elements of the Palestinian terrorists’ deadly rocket campaign against Israel. People are therefore bewildered over some of the gravest blows in the last 24 hours. IDF Spokesman Hdal Zilberman waxed eloquent earlier on Thursday about the tremendous damage the IDF is causing Hamas and Islamic Jihad senior officers, infrastructure and latterly government institutions and banks, but glossed over as misreported the rocket attack as far north as the Jezreel Valley, home to a big air base. This target is 164km from the Hamas rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the direct hits to civilians and property are proliferating as are the casualties: Seven deaths in two days and nearly a hundred injured. The IDF’s longstanding public relations tactics which tells the public as little as it can get away with is bad for morale and outdated. The military can’t control communication by mobile phones or prevent the social media rumormongering. Better to be more forthcoming for a suffering, responsible population hungry for information.

Biden Talks to Netanyahu, Hopes Conflict Ending 'Sooner than Later'
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
U.S. President Joe Biden said overnight that Israel has a right to defend itself but after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he hopes violent clashes with Palestinians will end quickly. "I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu not too long ago," Biden told reporters. "My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory."Biden said U.S. diplomacy was in high gear with national security and defense staff "in constant contact with their counterparts in the Middle East -- not just with the Israelis, but also with everyone from the Egyptians and the Saudis to the Emiratis."Biden spoke as calls grew internationally for a de-escalation of violence after intense hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have left dozens dead and hundreds injured. The Israeli army has launched hundreds of air strikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday, while Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,200 rockets, according to Israel's army, in some of the worst violence in seven years. Coinciding with the aerial bombardments is surging violence between Arabs and Jews inside Israel.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken by telephone with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, to urge an end to the rocket attacks. The rockets are being fired by Hamas, but the United States does not speak with the group, considering it a terrorist organization.  The conversation between the top US diplomat and Abbas was the first high-level call between the United States and the Palestinians since Biden was sworn into office in January. Abbas's Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the previous U.S. administration of Donald Trump in 2017, when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "I spoke with President Abbas about the ongoing situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza," Blinken posted on Twitter. "I expressed condolences for the loss of life. I emphasized the need to end rocket attacks and deescalate tensions." A readout of the call from the Palestinian presidency said Abbas had "stressed the importance of stopping the Israeli attacks on our Palestinian people everywhere, and putting an end to settler attacks and the aggressive Israeli measures against our people."
'Harrowing'
Earlier, Blinken announced that Hady Amr, the State Department official in charge of Israeli and Palestinian affairs, was leaving Wednesday to the region to urge "de-escalation of violence." The diplomat also talked with Netanyahu, again pushing for both sides to step back from fighting.
Blinken "reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence," said a State Department statement. The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had called his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz, and backed Israel's "legitimate right to defend itself and its people" while also urging steps to restore calm. Blinken described scenes of dead Palestinian civilians, including children, as "harrowing" but defended Israel's assault on Gaza in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants. "I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties, even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people," Blinken said. But the diplomat said there was a "very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets -- in fact, targeting civilians -- and Israel's response defending itself."
Biden's administration earlier appealed to ally Israel to reroute a flashpoint parade in Jerusalem and prevent evictions of Palestinians in the holy city, the immediate trigger for the new round of violence. Taking more nuance after the militantly pro-Israel administration of Trump, Blinken renewed U.S. support for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state. "This violence takes us further away from that goal," Blinken said. "We believe Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live with safety and security and will continue to engage with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional partners to urge de-escalation and to bring calm." In a statement, the White House said that during his call with Netanyahu, Biden "condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He conveyed his unwavering support for Israel's security and for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians."

Blinken Urges 'Need to End Rocket Attacks' in Call with Abbas
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said overnight he spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urging an end to rocket attacks fired from Gaza by Hamas militants amid escalating tensions with Israel. "I spoke with President Abbas about the ongoing situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza," the U.S. top diplomat posted on Twitter. "I expressed condolences for the loss of life. I emphasized the need to end rocket attacks and deescalate tensions."A statement from State Department spokesman Ned Price added that "the Secretary also expressed his belief that Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal measures of freedom, dignity, security and prosperity."A readout of the call from the Palestinian presidency said Abbas had "stressed the importance of stopping the Israeli attacks on our Palestinian people everywhere, and putting an end to settler attacks and the aggressive Israeli measures against our people."
Earlier Wednesday, Blinken said that a U.S. envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions. The top diplomat also spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and pushed for both sides to de-escalate. Since hostilities escalated on Monday evening, Hamas has fired around 1,500 rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory, according to the latest estimate by Israel's army. But Washington does not speak with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group.

France Says 'Everything Must be Done' to Avert New Mideast Conflict
Agence France Presse/May 13/2021
The international community must do everything possible to avert a new conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, France's foreign minister said Wednesday, after Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets and the Israeli army launched air strikes."The cycle of violence in Gaza, in Jerusalem, but also in the West Bank and several cities in Israel risks leading to a major escalation," Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament. "Everything must be done to avoid... a conflict" that would be the fourth such deadly confrontation in the last 15 years, he said. "It is absolutely essential that all actors -- without exception -- show the greatest restraint and refrain from any provocation and any incitement to hatred to put an end to violence whose victims are chiefly Palestinian and Israeli civilians," he said. Gaza militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, according to Israel's army, which has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip. Le Drian said that as well as talking to Palestinian and Israeli counterparts, he would in the next hours be speaking to the Egyptian foreign minister, with Cairo seeking to calm the situation. France welcomed the efforts of Egypt -- a traditional mediator and close ally of Paris -- and would seek to coordinate French efforts with those of Cairo to agree a ceasefire, Le Drian said. He said France condemned in the "strongest terms" the firing of missiles from Gaza at Israeli cities including Tel Aviv. The crisis started last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. The unrest has been driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Le Drian said that France was also "worried" over the situation in Jerusalem and said the Sheikh Jarrah evictions were "colonization and feed tensions."

Iran's Former Firebrand President to Run again for Office
Associated Press/May 13/2021
Iran's former firebrand president will run again for office in upcoming elections in June, raising the possibility of a bolstered hardline leadership at a time of tense negotiations with the West. Thronged by shouting supporters, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marched to a registration center at the Interior Ministry where he filled out registration forms. He held up his hands in a "V for Victory" salute, before addressing reporters. "My presence today for registration was based on demand by millions for my participation in the election," he said, adding that the move also came after "considering the situation of the country, and the necessity for a revolution in the management of the country."Ahmadinejad in recent years has tried to polish his hardline image into a more centrist candidacy, criticizing the government for mismanagement. The Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad has previously been banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017, although then, he registered anyway. A constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council ultimately disqualified him. Khamenei says he will not oppose the nomination of any candidate, although the electoral council may still block Ahmadinejad's candidacy. In either case, the populist's return to the political scene may energize discontent among hard-liners who seek a tougher stance against the west — particularly Israel and the U.S. Iran opened registration on Tuesday, kicking off the race as uncertainty looms over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers and tensions remain high with the West. President Hassan Rouhani can not run again due to term limits, yet with the poll just a month away no immediate favorite has emerged among the many rumored candidates. There also appears to be little interest in the vote by a public crushed by sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, many view the country's hard-liners as ascendant — even as the U.S. under President Joe Biden tries to find a way to re-enter the atomic accord. Whoever wins the June 18 vote will take over from Rouhani, a relative moderate within the Islamic Republic whose two four-year terms began with Iran reaching the nuclear deal. His time in office now draws to a close with the accord unraveled after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from it under President Donald Trump in 2018. Ahmadinejad pushed his nation into open confrontation with both the West over its nuclear program and its own people after his disputed 2009 re-election sparked the biggest mass protests since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Abroad, he became a caricature of Western perceptions of the Islamic Republic's worst attributes, such as denying the Holocaust, insisting Iran had no gay or lesbian citizens and hinting Iran could build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so. At home, however, the former Tehran mayor drew support from the countryside for his populist cash handouts and home-building programs. As his two-term presidency drew to a close and in his life after office, he also crossed the clear red line of Iran's Shiite theocracy, directly challenging Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state. Ahmadinejad entered office in 2005 and left in 2013, after the election of President Hassan Rouhani, who would go onto to make the nuclear deal with world powers. Yet even out of office, Ahmadinejad sought to reinvigorate his political fortunes in public and on social media.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 13- 14/2021
Iran cannot be trusted to obey any nuclear agreement
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 13/2021
Recent developments are pointing to the notion that an agreement on the Iran nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 world powers (the US, Russia, China, the UK and France, plus Germany) is within reach.
With the expected revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, all major sanctions against the Iranian regime will likely be lifted. While the Biden administration is declining to disclose which sanctions it is intending to remove, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani surprisingly revealed on Saturday: “We’ve reached a point where the Americans and the Europeans are saying openly they have no choice but to lift sanctions and return to the (nuclear deal), and that almost all main sanctions have been lifted and talks continue on some details.”
In spite of the fact President Joe Biden previously stated he wants a stronger deal with Iran compared to the one reached in 2015, the upcoming renewal will likely be the same as the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The Iranian authorities have been clear they would not accept a different deal that might include curbs on its ballistic missile program or address its foreign policy in the Middle East. In addition, reaching a deal in such a short period of time suggests no new issues have been incorporated in the negotiations.
So it follows that the potential deal between Iran and the six world powers will include the previous sunset clauses, which set a firm expiration date for the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, after which the country’s leaders will be free to spin centrifuges and enrich uranium to any level they desire. The potential deal will most likely once again make Iran’s military sites exempt from inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The resurrection of the nuclear deal will also allow the Iranian regime to rejoin the global financial system, giving it greater legitimacy — plus billions of dollars flowing into its treasury.
If a deal is reached quickly, what will the Iranian regime do with its nuclear program? Will it honor the terms of the deal? The regime will most likely continue its clandestine nuclear activities in spite of any deal due to the fact this is what the recent history of Iran has shown to the international community. If we recall, a year after the nuclear deal was originally signed, two credible and timely intelligence reports revealed that Iran had no intention of honoring its terms.
Firstly, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, revealed in its annual report in 2016 that the Iranian government had pursued a “clandestine” path to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies “at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.” The report added that “it is safe to expect that Iran will continue its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives.” Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Iran at the time and emphasized the significance of these findings. Secondly, a detailed report by the Institute for Science and International Security appeared to shed more light on Iran’s covert nuclear activities. It stated: “The Institute for Science and International Security has learned that Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization recently made an attempt to purchase tons of controlled carbon fiber from a country. This attempt occurred after Implementation Day of the JCPOA… This attempt thus raises concerns over whether Iran intends to abide by its JCPOA commitments… The carbon fiber procurement attempt is also another example of efforts by the P5+1 to keep secret problematic Iranian actions.”
A year after the JCPOA was signed, two intelligence reports revealed that Iran had no intention of honoring its terms. In addition, the detection of radioactive particles in Turquzabad, where Israel accused Iran of operating a secret nuclear facility, and Iran’s continued reluctance to answer simple questions about the issue point to the fact that Tehran has most likely been violating the JCPOA ever since it came into effect. After all, Iran has a history of deceiving the IAEA by conducting clandestine nuclear activities, as it did in Arak, Natanz and Ferdow.
Finally, while the nuclear deal was in effect, the Iranian regime exceeded the amount of heavy water — which can be utilized for nuclear energy or for producing nuclear weapons — it was allowed to possess. Tehran agreed to keep its stockpile of heavy water at less than 130 metric tons, but the IAEA reported in 2016 that Iran had exceeded this threshold on more than one occasion. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said at the time: “For the second time since implementation of the JCPOA began, Iran’s inventory of heavy water exceeded 130 metric (tons).”
In conclusion, if an agreement is reached, the Iranian regime will most likely continue pursuing its clandestine nuclear activities while simultaneously reaping the benefits of the deal.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Specter of Russian military looms over Turkish canal project
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/May 13/2021
In 2011, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his intention to construct what would be known as the Istanbul Canal as an alternative maritime route to the Bosphorus. Since then, the plan has been on hold due to the successive economic strains that Turkey has been under. However, with an election on the horizon, the issue has returned to the fore, most recently last month, when 104 retired Turkish navy admirals signed an online petition warning the government against amending the Montreux Convention that governs the Bosphorus strait. Though access to the Black Sea has historically concerned Russia and Turkey principally, a marked military buildup in the region has drawn international attention to the Istanbul Canal plan.
A new passageway to the Black Sea in parallel to the Bosphorus would be a huge infrastructural undertaking. The proposed 45 km sea-level waterway would connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and thus to the Mediterranean. Officially, the stated purpose of the project is to reduce the amount of maritime traffic in the Bosphorus and thereby minimize the associated risks and dangers. Each year, 41,000 vessels of all sizes pass through the strait, including 8,000 tankers carrying 145 million tons of crude oil. International pressure to increase the maritime traffic tonnage through the Turkish straits is growing, bringing with it significant security risks. It has been argued that the sustained increase of freight through the strait will eventually require a solution.
Estimated to cost between $12.7 billion and $25 billion, it is viewed by many as yet another mega-infrastructure project that the Turkish government has supported. Environmentalists, who fear the project will destroy Istanbul’s natural habitat and erode fresh water supplies, have failed to make their case sufficiently, as the government continues to seek to proceed with the project. In recent years, Turkey has built one of the world’s largest airports in Istanbul, an ambitious tunnel under the Bosphorus and one of the planet’s largest suspension bridges. Though popular with the public, these projects have made the domestic economic situation more acute; so much so that key Turkish banks have shied away from financing the canal scheme.
Despite the banks’ hesitance, the government remains confident that the project is suitably interesting to woo investors. Erdogan’s spokesman and adviser Ibrahim Kalin recently stated that the project would “certainly” attract investors and creditors when tenders are put out, especially given that the government expects the canal to provide an annual income of between $2 and $8 billion.
The canal could once again allow the entry of non-littoral states’ military vessels to the Black Sea.
With the project seeming likely to proceed, it is important to understand the military implications. Russia’s Defense Ministry last month announced that it had closed off navigation in parts of the Black Sea to foreign military and other official vessels until the end of October. This has led many in the international community to grow increasingly worried about troop build-ups in the region, especially in the context of the Montreux Convention.
Following the Ottoman Empire’s disastrous involvement in the First World War on the side of the Central Powers, Turkey’s peace was governed by the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which demilitarized the Bosphorus and Dardanelles completely. To many Turks, the Montreux Convention, which was signed in 1936, was an extension of Lausanne. Despite allowing the Turkish army to reclaim its positions in this strategic area, it limited the number and tonnage of warships from non-Black Sea powers that could enter that sea via the Bosphorus.
The continued demilitarization of the straits, according to the agreement, allows civilian vessels to freely pass through based on certain regulations. This requirement and an obligation for states not bordering the Black Sea to notify Turkish authorities before passing through the straits was observed in 2008, when Turkey barred the passage of US vessels due to their noncompliance with the tonnage limitations. This status quo is, however, increasingly in question, as a new canal in Istanbul could once again allow the entry of non-littoral states’ military vessels to the Black Sea, including aircraft carriers and submarines.
Though the rules of the Montreux Convention give Turkey the upper hand it deserves due to its geographical position, they also contribute to stability and predictability in the Black Sea. A new canal would change this. Experts argue that construction of the Istanbul Canal would effectively undermine the convention’s rules. It may be the case that, for Turkey — whose president last month unequivocally stated, “We currently have neither any efforts nor intention to leave the Montreux Convention” — a new canal is simply an infrastructural necessity that provides lucrative economic prospects. However, given Russia’s military presence in the region, particularly after its annexation of the Crimea and the recent massing of two armies and three airborne units for “combat training exercises,” plans for the new canal are geopolitically very important.
Historically, Turkey has closed the straits to Russian military shipping. However, the days of the Black Sea being an “Ottoman lake” have long since passed. It is now the growing specter of the Russian military that should concern international observers about future access to the Black Sea.
• Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator, and an adviser to private clients between London and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Twitter: @Moulay_Zaid

Blinken's Non-Containment Policy Regarding China
Peter Schweizer/Gatestone Institute/May 13/2021
"Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we're going to stand up and defend it." — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 60 Minutes interview, May 2, 2021.
For American diplomacy, this is a significant admission that America no longer wants to lead the world, but instead gracefully back away as the world's reigning superpower.
The Chinese communists in Beijing, however, are not known for either subtlety or nuance in how they handle their affairs in their own backyard. Where China is concerned, words and statements matter. Weakness displayed is weakness exploited.
To win the Cold War in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan's genius was to go further than simple containment. Reagan believed a simple containment policy would always leave you on defense. He compared it to getting possession of the football and punting on first down.
So the leaders of the free world should not only be speaking – and acting – in opposition to China's human rights abuses and expansionist, aggressive movements internationally. They should be attacking the worst, most vicious exponent of Leninism – the Chinese Communist Party – as the cause of the human rights problems and global instability that we see in the world.
It is by design and for keeps.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the goal of the Biden administration was not to "contain" China, but to protect a "rules-based order" in international relations. For American diplomacy, this is a significant admission that America no longer wants to lead the world, but gracefully back away as the world's reigning superpower. Pictured: Then US Deputy Secretary of State Blinken (right) meets with Liu Yandong, then Vice Premier of China, at the seventh US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington DC, June 24, 2015.
In various recent interviews, President Joe Biden and his top diplomat have tried to say they want China to follow "the rules" while it pushes past the United States as the dominant power in the world. That is the only way to see the signals they are sending to the Beijing regime.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Norah O'Donnell of CBS News' 60 Minutes last week that the goal of the Biden administration was not to "contain" China, but to protect a "rules-based order" in international relations:
"Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we're going to stand up and defend it."
For American diplomacy, this is a significant admission that America no longer wants to lead the world, but gracefully back away as the world's reigning superpower. Perhaps these clear signals will be seen by some western allies as merely noblesse oblige, a gentlemanly way of responding to the shoves of a bully.
Interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CNN, President Biden sounded almost apologetic for even bringing up China's human rights abuses in his first phone call with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Cooper asked, "When you talk to him about human rights abuses, is that just — is that as far as it goes in terms of the U.S.? or is there any actual repercussions for China?"
Biden's response is telling. He replied:
"Well, there will be repercussions for China, and he knows that. What I'm doing is making clear that we, in fact, are going to continue to reassert our role as spokespersons for human rights at the UN and other agencies that have an impact on their attitude. China is trying very hard to become the world leader, and goat that moniker and be able to do that, they have to gain the confidence of other countries. As long as they're engaged in activity that is contrary to basic human rights, it's going to be hard to do that. "
It is tempting to see a politician's words about diplomacy as simply tactical moves, not an honest statement of their true diplomatic intentions. President Donald Trump famously used softer words about Vladimir Putin and North Korean despot Kim Jong Un than he did about German prime minister Angela Merkel. But the Chinese communists in Beijing are not known for either subtlety or nuance in how they handle their affairs in their own backyard. Words and statements matter where China is concerned. Weakness displayed is weakness exploited. American policy towards emergent China has long been strong words matched with a policy of containment, which we should explain.
Containment means containing the geopolitical and influence advances around the world of the country in question. During the Cold War with the USSR, this not only meant that we wanted to stop Soviet tanks from going through the Fulda Gap into West Germany, but also that we wanted to limit or contain Soviet influence in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Regarding China, containment has meant supporting Hong Kong, India, Tibet, Chinese ethnic and religious minorities, Japan, and the other Asian Tigers as a bulwark against Chinese hegemony. It has meant opposing Chinese aggression and territorial claims both at the UN and with the presence of the Seventh Fleet.
To win the Cold War in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan's genius was to go further than simple containment. Reagan believed a simple containment policy would always leave you on defense. He compared it to getting possession of the football and punting on first down. This is why he not only built up American military capabilities but deployed his rhetorical arsenal against the rusting iron grip of Soviet totalitarianism. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" was his closing argument and meant more to the collapse of the Soviet Union than Pershing II missiles, as it turned out.
The fact that both Biden and Blinken tread so gingerly around Chinese expansionism and tyranny, forswearing even to use the word "containment," is because they don't want to provoke Beijing, which would take real offense at us saying it. But if they are acknowledging that Beijing wants to overtake us, and seeks to expand its model of authoritarianism around the world, how can they as putative leaders of the free world not call for containment and more? They appear to be straddling two positions while lacking the fortitude to come out and call for containment.
In the struggle against Marxism-Leninism, that second word is the most dangerous today. The Chinese communist regime is deeply Leninist in its nature and operation. Like its eponymous originator, the Leninists of China stress the dictatorial side of their "revolution," not its theoretical ideas about class or, most definitely, capital. This is the true nature of the Beijing regime and why its threats and challenges are so strong. The "Marxism" side has been somewhat cast off by the Leninist drive to punish and exploit their adversaries. Unless the nature of the Chinese system itself changes, we are going to face with this Leninist threat for decades to come. So the leaders of the free world should not only be speaking – and acting – in opposition to China's human rights abuses and expansionist, aggressive movements internationally. They should be attacking the worst, most vicious exponent of Leninism – the Chinese Communist Party – as the cause of the human rights problems and global instability that we see in the world. Human rights in China are not a "Chinese" problem, per se, they are a "Leninist" problem. It is no coincidence that what is happening in China today is similar to the attempts at control that we saw in Romania, East Germany, Cambodia and elsewhere during the Cold War.
It is by design and for keeps.
*Peter Schweizer, President of the Governmental Accountability Institute, is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow and author of the best-selling books Profiles in Corruption, Secret Empires and Clinton Cash, among others.
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Move the "Genocide Olympics" Out of China
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/May 13/2021
The letter's signatories remind the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee of their charter commitments and international obligations pertaining to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment for Genocide.
"At least one million of these victims are incarcerated in scores of concentration camps, some replete with crematoria, where they are being brainwashed, raped, forcibly aborted and sterilized, tortured, organ-harvested and forced to perform slave labor. Is that acceptable to the U.S. Olympic Committee? Would your organization want to be associated with, let alone be seen as condoning, such barbaric behavior?" — From the letter "Stop the 2022 Genocide Games" signed by at least 115 human rights and faith organizations.
"[T]he PRC has given no indication that it will abandon the genocidal oppression of Uyghurs and others, let alone dismantle the massive infrastructure used for this purpose. Rather, the CCP will no doubt exploit the 'Genocide Games' as proof that the world is indifferent to, if not actually implicitly endorsing, its crimes against humanity." — From the letter "Stop the 2022 Genocide Games."
"Then there is the matter of the Chinese Communist Party's involuntary extraction of vital organs. Eminent international human rights experts have found that forced organ harvesting is taking place in the PRC on an industrial scale. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of China's own people, ethnic and religious minorities and prisoners of conscience have been murdered to profit the CCP. Is the U.S. Olympic Committee willing to associate with the perpetrators of these crimes?" — From the letter "Stop the 2022 Genocide Games."
More than three million deaths worldwide have been caused by Communist China for failing to disclose, and even outright lying about, the human-to-human transmissibility of the Wuhan virus. Virtually every country has been victimized by what can only be regarded as Communist China's mass murder. So why should nearly 200 countries reward China with the economic bonanza and implicit legitimacy that hosting the 2022 winter Olympics would confer?
All the countries crushed both by deaths caused by Communist China's conscious export of its virus and the economic devastation that followed need to make sure that instead of being enriched and celebrated, Communist China should be held to account -- at the very least by being invoiced for the damage it caused and removed from hosting the Olympic games.
Human rights and faith groups have requested in an open letter to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee that the 2022 Winter Olympics be moved out of China because of its genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang and severe oppression of its other citizens. Pictured: Flag-bearers at a Para Ice Hockey test event for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at National Indoor Stadium on April 10, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Human rights and faith groups -- such as the Committee on the Present Danger: China's Captive Nations Coalition, Women's Rights without Frontiers, and Save the Persecuted Christians -- have requested in an open letter to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) that the 2022 Winter Olympics be moved out of China because of its genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang and severe oppression of its other citizens. The letter's 108 signatories remind the USOPC and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of their charter commitments and international obligations pertaining to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment for Genocide. The letter entitled "Stop the 2022 Genocide Games" said, in part:
"Today, we are confronting another totalitarian regime actively engaging in, among crimes against humanity, another genocide. Yet, as of now, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and its international counterpart are preparing to enable the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to receive and exploit a propaganda bonanza that will make what the Nazis enjoyed pale by comparison. That must not happen.
"As you know, the United States government has determined that the CCP is genocidally oppressing millions of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the region of western China they call East Turkistan and the Chinese Communists have branded Xinjiang. At least one million of these victims are incarcerated in scores of concentration camps, some replete with crematoria, where they are being brainwashed, raped, forcibly aborted and sterilized, tortured, organ-harvested and forced to perform slave labor. Is that acceptable to the U.S. Olympic Committee? Would your organization want to be associated with, let alone be seen as condoning, such barbaric behavior?
"The U.S. government has prohibited the importation of cotton produced in East Turkistan lest American consumers unwittingly support the CCP's slave labor practices. Western companies in China that are complying with this requirement – including some that are sponsors of the 2022 Beijing Olympics – are being punished by the Chinese government for such compliance. Does the U.S. Olympic Committee really want to side with China's slave-masters?
"That would especially be the case since the PRC has given no indication that it will abandon the genocidal oppression of Uyghurs and others, let alone dismantle the massive infrastructure used for this purpose. Rather, the CCP will no doubt exploit the 'Genocide Games' as proof that the world is indifferent to, if not actually implicitly endorsing, its crimes against humanity.
"If the Chinese Communist Party's systematic oppression of those enslaved in its Captive Nations – including not only Uyghurs, but Tibetans, Southern Mongolians and the people of Hong Kong – were not bad enough, countless millions of Chinese citizens are also victims of the CCP. China employs the world's most comprehensive state surveillance and a repressive 'social credit system' to ensure their submission. Were a Beijing Olympics to occur next year, athletes, international staff and visitors would all be subjected to these invasive and coercive totalitarian techniques, as well.
"In addition, Olympians would effectively be legitimating the CCP's assiduous persecution of millions of religious believers. Millions of Chinese Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Muslims are among those who have been subjected to CCP imprisonment, torture and executions in the last several decades.
"Then there is the matter of the Chinese Communist Party's involuntary extraction of vital organs. Eminent international human rights experts have found that forced organ harvesting is taking place in the PRC on an industrial scale. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of China's own people, ethnic and religious minorities and prisoners of conscience have been murdered to profit the CCP. Is the U.S. Olympic Committee willing to associate with the perpetrators of these crimes?"
Several countries, including the US, Canada and the Netherlands, have accused China of committing genocide -- defined by international convention as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
As well as interning Uyghurs in camps, there is evidence that China has been suppressing the Uyghur population through mass sterilizations and using Uyghurs as forced labor. In 2020, there were more than 380 "re-education camps" in Xinjiang -- an increase of 40% on previous estimates -- according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
A UN report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted, as early as 2018, that the Chinese state was holding ethnic Uyghurs and other minorities in the so-called "counter-extremism centres" and "re-education camps" in Xinjiang:
"Gay Mcdougall, Committee Co-Rapporteur for China, raised concern about the numerous and credible reports that in the name of combatting 'religious extremism' and maintaining 'social stability', the State party had turned the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region into something that resembled a massive internment camp shrouded in secrecy, a "no rights zone", while members of the Xinjiang Uyghur minority, along with others who were identified as Muslim, were being treated as enemies of the State based on nothing more than their ethno-religious identity. The Co-Rapporteur noted reports of mass detention of ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities, and estimates that upwards of a million people were being held in so-called counter-extremism centres and another two million had been forced into so-called 're-education camps' for political and cultural indoctrination. All the detainees had their due process rights violated, while most had never been charged with an offense, tried in a court of law, or afforded an opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention."
The first independent expert application of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention to the ongoing treatment of the Uyghurs in China, undertaken by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, in cooperation with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, was issued on March 8. The report stated:
"Dozens of experts in international law, genocide studies, Chinese ethnic policies, and the region were invited to examine pro bono all available evidence that could be collected and verified from public Chinese State communications, leaked Chinese State communications, eyewitness testimony, and open-source research methods such as public satellite-image analysis, analysis of information circulating on the Chinese internet, and any other available source."
According to the report's executive summary:
"This report concludes that the People's Republic of China (China) bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) based on an extensive review of the available evidence and application of international law to the evidence of the facts on the ground.
"Intent to Destroy. Under Article II of the Genocide Convention, the commission of genocide requires the 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [a protected group], as such.' The 'intent to destroy' does not require explicit statements. Intent can be inferred from a collection of objective facts that are attributable to the State, including official statements, a general plan, State policy and law, a pattern of conduct, and repeated destructive acts, which have a logical sequence and result — destruction of the group as such, in whole or in substantial part.
"High-level statements of intent and general plan. In 2014, China's Head of State, President Xi Jinping, launched the 'People's War on Terror' in XUAR, making the areas where Uyghurs constitute nearly 90 percent of the population the front line. High-level officials followed up with orders to 'round up everyone who should be rounded up,' 'wipe them out completely ... destroy them root and branch,' and 'break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins.' Officials described Uyghurs with dehumanizing terms and repeatedly likened the mass internment of Uyghurs to 'eradicating tumors.'"
The report also exposes comprehensive state policy, pattern of conduct and repeated destructive acts:
"a. Government-Mandated Homestays. Since 2014, the Government of China (Government) has deployed Han cadres to reside in Uyghur homes as monitors, resulting in the rupturing of family bonds. County governments further coerce, incentivize, and actively promote Han-Uyghur marriages.
"b. Mass Internment. In 2017, the XUAR legislature formally legalized the mass internment of Uyghurs under 'De-Extremification' regulations. The top security official and entities dispatched a manual and set of documents across the region with orders to police Uyghurs, 'speed up the construction' and expansion of the mass internment camps, 'increase the discipline and punishment' within the camps and maintain 'strict secrecy' over all information, which is not to 'be disseminated,' nor 'open to the public.' The manual outlines the complex hierarchy of officials, entities, and the centralized digital surveillance system overseeing the entire campaign.
"c. Mass Birth-Prevention Strategy. China has simultaneously pursued a dual systematic strategy of forcibly sterilizing Uyghur women of childbearing age and interning Uyghur men of child-bearing years, preventing the regenerative capacity of the group and evincing an intent to biologically destroy the group as such.
According to Government statistics and directives, including to 'carry out family planning sterilization,' 'lower fertility levels,' and 'leave no blind spots,' China is carrying out a well-documented, State-funded birth-prevention campaign targeting women of childbearing age in Uyghur-concentrated areas with mass forced sterilization, abortions, and IUD placements. China explicitly admits the purpose of these campaigns is to ensure that Uyghur women are 'no longer baby-making machines.'
"d. Forcible Transfer of Uyghur Children to State-run Facilities. Pursuant to new Government policy in 2017, China began building a vast network of massive State-run, highly securitized boarding schools and orphanages to confine Uyghur children, including infants, full time. XUAR counties receive specific quotas from higher authorities to institutionalize such 'orphans,' who often lose both parents to internment or forced labor.
e. Eradication of Uyghur identity, community, and domestic life. Pursuant to Government campaigns, local authorities have eliminated Uyghur education, destroyed Uyghur architecture and household features, and damaged, altered, or completely demolished the majority of mosques and sacred sites in the region, while closing off other sites or converting them into commercial spaces.
f. Selective Targeting of Intellectuals and Community Leaders. The intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group is further demonstrated by the Government's deliberate targeting of the guardians and transmitters of Uyghur identity for prolonged detention or death, including household heads, intellectuals, and cultural leaders, regardless of Party affiliation or educational status.
The deliberate targeting of Uyghur leaders and sacred sites evinces an intent to destroy the essential elements of Uyghur identity and communal bonds, which define the group as such."
The report notes:
"China's policies and practices targeting Uyghurs in the region must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group, in whole or in substantial part, as such.
Acts of Genocide. While commission of any one of the Genocide Convention's enumerated acts with the requisite intent can sustain a finding of genocide, the evidence presented in this report supports a finding of genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of each and every act prohibited in Article II (a) through (e).
"(a) Killing members of the group." There are reports of mass death and deaths of prominent Uyghur leaders selectively sentenced to death by execution or, for elders in particular, by long-term imprisonment.
"(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group." Uyghurs are suffering serious bodily and mental harm from systematic torture and cruel treatment, including rape, sexual abuse, exploitation, and public humiliation, at the hands of camp officials and Han cadres assigned to Uyghur homes under Government-mandated programs. Internment camps contain designated 'interrogation rooms,' where Uyghur detainees are subjected to consistent and brutal torture methods, including beatings with metal prods, electric shocks, and whips. The mass internment and related Government programs are designed to indoctrinate and 'wash clean' brains, driving Uyghurs to commit or attempt suicide from the threat of internment or the daily extreme forms of physical and psychological torture within the camps, including mock executions, public 'self-criticisms,' and solitary confinement.
"(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." The authorities systematically target Uyghurs of childbearing years, household heads, and community leaders for detention in unliveable conditions, impose birth-prevention measures on Uyghur women, separate Uyghur children from their parents, and transfer Uyghurs on a mass scale into forced hard labor schemes in a manner that parallels the mass internment. In sum, China is deliberately inflicting collective conditions calculated to terminate the survival of the Uyghurs as a group.
"(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group." The systematic birth prevention campaign in Uyghur-concentrated areas is reinforced by the mass internment drive. In the camps, Uyghur women are subjected to forced IUD insertions, abortions, and injections or medication halting their menstrual cycles, while Uyghur men of childbearing age are targeted for internment, depriving the Uyghur population of the ability to reproduce. As a result of these interconnected policies, growth rates in Uyghur-concentrated areas are increasingly approaching zero.
"(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Where detentions and forced labor schemes are leaving Uyghur children bereft of both parents, they are being sent to State-run orphanages and raised in Chinese-language environments with standard Han child-rearing methods."
The report also explains China's responsibility for genocide under the Genocide Convention:
"China is a highly centralized State in full control of its territory and population, including XUAR, and is a State party to the Genocide Convention. The persons and entities perpetrating the above-indicated acts of genocide are all State agents or organs — acting under the effective control of the State — manifesting an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group within the meaning of Article II of the Genocide Convention. This report therefore concludes that China bears State responsibility for an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs, in breach of the Genocide Convention."
Kuzzat Altay, the President of the Uyghur American Association, and his family are one of the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs targeted by the Chinese government. Altay, in an interview, told Gatestone about his father, who was taken to a camp in 2018:
"I did not know whether he was alive or dead. After two years of advocacy, I saw my father alive on Chinese State TV, denouncing me from being his son. He asked me to stop all activities against the Chinese government.
"He was released from the camp as a retired, wealthy 70 years old businessman who 'graduated' from a 're-education' camp with a tailor certificate. His leg was broken in the camp. Chinese guards forced him to stand up with a broken leg when his leg was broken. I believe Chinese guards pushed him. That's why he broke his leg.
"He is currently under house arrest. He can go outside for groceries. But I can't communicate with my father. The authorities do not allow it. My brother in the US can call him once a week. I lost contact with more than 100 relatives. It is a crime for them to contact me.
"China holds our family members hostage. If we speak up, they take our family members to concentration camps, or Chinese authorities constantly harass them, forcing them to tell us to stop. Sometimes, the Chinese police facetime Uyghurs abroad next to their family members, ask them to obey, and to stop speaking up.
"Chinese authorities call Uyghurs abroad to collect intelligence, force them to spy, and threaten them with taking family members to the camps. China launches periodic mass attacks using its social media trolls to intimidate and harass Uyghur activists.
"Uyghur refugees are very well treated in non-Muslim, Western countries, but in Muslim countries, including Turkey, Uyghur refugees are in danger. There is credible evidence that they are harassed by local authorities, arbitrarily detained and deported back to China. Many Uyghurs have been arrested in Turkey, although they have committed no crimes. China does not renew their passports, and Turkey does not grant them residence cards; thus, they cannot legally work and their status is in limbo. They fear arrest and deportation to China."
"The Chinese government wants to eradicate Uyghurs," Altay concluded. "After many Western countries have recognized the Uyghur Genocide, China forced local Uyghurs to show a 'happy face' on TikTok for Xinjiang propaganda."
Nevertheless, despite its genocide against Uyghurs and systematic repression against its other citizens, Communist China is set to host the Winter Olympics in 2022.
The letter to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the International Olympic Committee and other institutions noted:
"For all these reasons, we – the undersigned members of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and leaders of the international human rights community who also stand against the Chinese Communists' ongoing genocide and other crimes – call upon the U.S. Olympic Committee to lead an urgent international effort to relocate the 2022 Winter Games to another venue in this country or elsewhere, providing a 'Freedom Olympics' alternative to the 'Genocide Olympics.' Failing that, you are on notice that we will bend every effort to boycott the Games.
"We remind you that the 2020 Olympic Charter states: 'The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.' Honoring arguably the greatest human rights abuser in the world with the privilege of hosting the Olympics runs directly counter to the Olympic Charter. Holding the Games in Beijing does a tremendous disservice to athletes, who do not want their desire to prove themselves the world's best to be put in the service of the world's worst oppressors.
"Moreover, under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, to which both China and the United States are parties, the official designation of CCP genocide by the U.S. government requires that we 'punish' the offending regime. Specifically, Article 1 of that binding international treaty states: 'The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.'
"We are, therefore, obliged at a minimum not to reward the Chinese Communist Party with hosting perhaps the most prestigious international event in the world. Instead, we should recognize the CCP as the Transnational Criminal Organization it is and treat it accordingly."
The letter also refers to the coronavirus pandemic that originated from the Chinese province of Wuhan, caused more than three million deaths worldwide and crippled much of the world economically:
"Holding the 2022 Olympics in Beijing would amount to a vindication of the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to avoid responsibility for the ongoing, murderous coronavirus pandemic that emanated from Wuhan and was then deliberately spread around the world, thanks to the PRC allowing international flights to continue after severely restricting domestic travel. Again, the question occurs: Does the USOC wish to be remembered as standing with the millions of American and other victims of the CCP virus or with those who unleashed it?"
More than three million deaths worldwide have been caused by Communist China for failing to disclose, and even outright lying about, the human-to-human transmissibility of the Wuhan virus. Virtually every country has been victimized by what can only be regarded as Communist China's mass murder. So why should nearly 200 countries reward China with the economic bonanza and implicit legitimacy that hosting the 2022 winter Olympics would confer?
When one thinks of more than three million dead only because of Communist China's deliberate deceit -- in addition to its genocidal attacks on the Uyghurs -- it would seem appropriate to move the Olympics almost anywhere else. All the countries crushed both by deaths caused by Communist China's conscious export of its virus and the economic devastation that followed need to make sure that instead of being enriched and celebrated, Communist China should be held to account -- at the very least by being invoiced for the economic damage it caused and removed from hosting the Olympic games.
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
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