English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 27/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14/01-06:”‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 26- 27/2021
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie/Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
Ministry of Health: 280 new infections, 7 deaths
Aoun chairs Higher Defense Council’s meeting, stresses necessity of strengthening measures to combat smuggling
Aoun signs decree to refer expedited bill to parliament to approve financing card and open extraordinary credit for financing
President Aoun welcomes US Ambassador
Aoun condoles Armenian Catholics for death of Catholicos Krikor Pedrios the twentieth
LAF: Macron welcomed Army Commander, stressed support for military institution for sake of Lebanon's stability
In France, Lebanese army chief pleads for help as economic crisis worsens
US preparing Lebanon assistance package
Chronic cough fuels concerns over Hezbollah leader's health
ISF commenting on news of car bomb near Rizk Hospital: Unfounded and incorrect
WFP triples its support to Lebanese families as country faces unprecedented crisis
Bukhari discusses developments with Karami
Bogdanov discusses with Hariri's representative government of technocrats headed by Hariri
A Bipartisan Coalition Calls on Secretary Blinken and the U.S. to Aid Lebanon to Reverse Current Decline

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 26- 27/2021
US, Egypt working to ensure Palestinians, Israelis live in ‘safety’: Blinken/Reuters/26 May/2021
Palestine and Israel latest news: Jordan welcomes US move to reopen Jerusalem consulate as Blinken visits
Blinken says he discussed Egypt's human rights record with El Sisi
Jordan's king welcomes US move to reopen consulate in Jerusalem
Antony Blinken hails Egyptian ceasefire mediation efforts on Cairo visit
Israeli president to visit Washington within weeks
IAEA head says Iran’s uranium enrichment program ‘very concerning’
One dead, two injured in blast at petrochemical facility in Iran’s Asaluyeh
Top Iraqi militia commander arrested amid stand off with government
US change of posture encourages Qatari shift on relations with Egypt
Several killed in San Jose, California, rail yard shooting
Canadian Statement on Syria’s upcoming presidential elections

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 26- 27/2021
For Israelis, one more battle in a forever war for survival/The alternative would be another Holocaust/Clifford D. May/The washington Times/May 26/2021
Egypt’s transition away from American weapons is a national security issue/Bradley Bowman/Maj Jared Thompson/Ryan Brobst / Defense News/May 26/2021
Iran Continues to Extort the International Atomic Energy Agency/Andrea Stricker/Policy Brief/May 26/2021
Biden's Palestinian Mission is Doomed to Fail/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/May 26/ 2021
From air defense to 'occupation': The plan for endless war in Gaza/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/May 26/2021
Media Weep for Palestinians, Ignore Genocide of Christians in Africa/Raymond Ibrahim/May 26/2021
Understanding Iranian policies after Gaza/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/May 26/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 26- 27/2021
Hezbollah’s Liberation & Resistance Day Is A Big Lie
Elias Bejjani/May 25/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75168/elias-bejjani-hezbollahs-bogus-liberation-resistance-day-3/
Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating the so-called “Liberation & Resistance Day.”
Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.
On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425.
This miscalculated and hasty withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.
During the last 21 years many Israeli officials and politicians from all parties openly and harshly criticized Barak’s Government (Barak was PM at that time) hasty and unwise decision through which Israel’ abandoned its ally the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and gave Hezbollah all south Lebanon and the entire Lebanon on a plate of sliver.
The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon.
The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal.
Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army’s withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies.
At the same numerous reports published in German and other western media facilities indicted with proves that Israel forged a secret deal with Hezbollah and its masters The Iranian Mullahs that arranged for the withdrawal.
The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the “Shabaa Farms occupation big lie” and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.
Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both its puppet Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of “Liberation & Resistance Day”.
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region.
In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.
Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track.
This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel.
This Iranian mullahs’ terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion.
Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples’ lives, safety, security and livelihood.
It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last 19 years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs’ fundamentalist republic.
Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah’s current odd and bizarre status?
Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005).
During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.
But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner.
If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 200 thousand missiles and force the Iranian “Wilayat Al-Faqih” religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate Lebanon’s decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah’s emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah’s schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them. This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able to refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the “Taef Accord,” which called for the disarmament of all militias.
Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese – Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and too attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and keeps on threatening the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his Iranian orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the “Security Zone” and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.
This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.

Ministry of Health: 280 new infections, 7 deaths
NNA/May 26, 202
The Ministry of Public Health announced 280 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 539271.
7 deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours.

Aoun chairs Higher Defense Council’s meeting, stresses necessity of strengthening measures to combat smuggling
NNA/May 26, 202
The Supreme Defense Council convened today at the Presidential Palace, at 12:00pm, in a session chaired by President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and attended by Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab.
The Council decided to request security, military and customs agencies to maintain communication and coordination to increase their effectiveness in combatting smuggling and to work to anticipate operations by exchanging information, in addition to monitoring any suspicious plans, while taking utmost measures and procedures against violators.
At the beginning, President Aoun indicated that “The issue of combatting smuggling is one of the priorities in order to preserve the Lebanese state’s reputation on one hand, and financial revenues on the other, especially in the current difficult economic conditions which Lebanon passes through”.
“The measures have already been taken, but there are still gaps which must be filled, especially since smuggling operations are carried out by effective and organized networks which are experienced in this issue, and according to innovative and sophisticated methods. Contacts which have been made must be accompanied by practical measures to restore confidence to the taken measures. In this context, the priority is to install scanners along land and sea crossings, in conjunction with coordination between security apparatuses to achieve greater effectiveness” the President added.
President Aoun also stressed the need to strengthen measures to combat smuggling, noting the uncovering of the smuggling of tons of Keif Hash which were intended to be smuggled through Sayda Port to Egypt. Such and achievement, which was achieved despite the meager means available, gradually restores confidence in the Lebanese monitoring of crossings.
For his part, Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, affirmed that people should understand the right to protest and object against the delay in forming the government and difficult social and living conditions, “However, people also must be protected from insecurity. What is required today is proactive security, and intensified patrols to protect the Lebanese and Lebanon”.
Deputy Prime Minister, National Defense and Foreign Affairs Minister, Mrs. Zeina Akar, Finance Minister, Ghazi Wazny, Interior Minister, Mohammed Fahmy, Economy and Trade Minister, Raoul Nehme, Public Works Minister, Michel Najjar, Energy Minister, Raymond Ghajar, Health Minister, Hamad Hasan, Justice Minister, Mary-Claude Najem, and Culture and Agriculture Minister, Abbas Mortada, attended the meeting.
Also attending were: Army Chief of Staff, Major General Amin El-Aram, Director General of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, Director General of Internal Security Forces, Major General Imad Othman, Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, Secretary General of the Supreme Defense Council, Major General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, Government Commissioner to the Military Court, Judge Fady Akiki, Chairman of the Customs’ Supreme Council, Ret. Brigadier Assad Toufaili, Acting Director General of Customs, Raymond Khoury, Assistant Director General of State Security, Brigadier Samir Sannan, Army Intelligence Director, Brigadier Antoine Kahwajy, Head of Information Branch in Internal Security Forces, Brigadier Khaled Hammoud, Head of Information Branch in General Security, Brigadier Youssef Medawar, Presidency Director General, Dr. Antoine Choucair, and the President’s Security and Military Advisor, Ret. Brigadier Paul Matar.
Statement:
After the meeting, Major General Al-Asmar, read the following statement:
“At the invitation of His Excellency President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, the Supreme Defense Council convened in a meeting attended by Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, ministers and heads of security and military agencies, to discuss measures taken to combat smuggling operations and other security issues.
At the beginning of the session, the President indicated that “The issue of combatting smuggling is one of the priorities in order to preserve the Lebanese state’s reputation on one hand, and financial revenues on the other, especially in the current difficult economic conditions which Lebanon passes through”.
President Aoun said: “The measures have already been taken, but there are still gaps which must be filled, especially since smuggling operations are carried out by effective and organized networks which are experienced in this issue, and according to innovative and sophisticated methods. Contacts which have been made must be accompanied by practical measures to restore confidence to the taken measures. In this context, the priority is to install scanners along land and sea crossings, in conjunction with coordination between security apparatuses to achieve greater effectiveness”.
His Excellency also stressed the need to strengthen measures to combat smuggling, noting the uncovering of the smuggling of tons of Keif Hash which were intended to be smuggled through Sayda Port to Egypt. Such and achievement, which was achieved despite the meager means available, gradually restores confidence in the Lebanese monitoring of crossings.
Then, the Prime Minister said: “It is clear that popular movements began today, protesting against the current living and social situation, and loss of medicines and basic goods, in parallel with the delay in forming the government until today.
This comes with financial decisions taken by the Central Bank regarding subsidies, despite failing to implement the financing card for which the draft law is ready to be addressed in the Parliament. We are today facing a difficult situation. The Lebanese face great difficulties in securing medicine, benzene and diesel due to monopoly and storage, and after the BDL stopped subsidies on most food, consumer and meat items.
Thus, popular movements have the right to raise their voices to form a government which will secure, at minimum, a bit of relief. A government which will follow-up on the negotiations which we have started with the IMF, and implement reforms which we have achieved and which also need to be completed, so that a breakthrough occurs.
On the other hand, there is fear of exploiting these movements and diverting them from their true goals to invest in politics or to drive the country to chaos, God forbid, and return to riots, cutting-down roads, burning tires, and destroying public and private institutions, while we are on the verge of summer season, a season which is promising according to our data.
Hence, it is required to ensure complete security stability, prevent road blockage, pursue security breaches and suppress any attempt to tamper with security or stability in any area. We notice an increase in individual accidents, shootings, thefts and encroachment on properties and individual freedom, in addition to monopoly by some merchants and some owners of gas stations and companies, in addition to the continuation of smuggling movements. What is required is strictness and intensification of patrols in neighborhoods, pursuing shooters and smugglers, controlling monopoly and smuggling, preventing thefts and securing freedom of movement on roads.
It is unacceptable that whenever a group of individuals think of blocking a road, the state will provide them with protection, instead of protecting the Lebanese society. We are facing great challenges and we fully understand peoples’ rights to object and protest against the delay in forming the government, in addition to the difficult social and living condition. However, people also should be protected from insecurity.
Here, I would like to praise security apparatuses which are doing their work in pursuing breaches, and arresting violators with remarkable speed. What is required today however, is pre-emptive security, and intensified patrols to protect the Lebanese and Lebanon”.
Afterwards, the Interior Minister presented his report following his communications and coordination with relevant authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after the issued decision to prevent the entry of Lebanese agricultural goods. The data contained in the report revealed that, following immediate measures and procedures taken by security, military and customs agencies, several smuggling operations were seized, especially prohibited items. The report also concluded proposing some recommendations distributed on immediate, medium and long-term measures within one-year period from the commencement of their implementation.
After deliberation, His Excellency the President saw importance in setting priorities and implementation needs at all levels, and requested concerned parties to draw up a road map according to available capabilities.
Then, the Prime Minister decided to take into consideration the proposals contained in the Interior Minister’s report, and he will give his directives to concerned ministries to put them on the right track as soon as possible.
The Finance Minister stated that the process of investigating optical detectors (Scanners) based of Decree No. 6748 of 30/7/2020 has become underway and it is expected that the tender will be launched after preparing the book of conditions within a maximum period of one month from its date through the Tender Department.
In addition, the Health Minister tackled the challenges and difficulties faced by the health and hospital sector, especially the process of financing materials, supplies and medicines in light of the financial crisis which the country is passing through.
The Health Minister also presented the procedures and decisions he issued in this regard, and requested the BDL to facilitate the financing process for the health sector according to priorities and needs, provided that this is done in coordination with the Health Ministry.
Security, military and customs agencies were also asked to maintain communication and coordination with each other to increase their effectiveness in combatting smuggling and to work to anticipate operations by exchanging information and monitoring any suspicious plans. Concerned agencies were also asked to take utmost measures and procedures against violators”.-- Presidency Press Office

Aoun signs decree to refer expedited bill to parliament to approve financing card and open extraordinary credit for financing
MEM/May 26, 2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, signed Decree No.7797 of May 26, 2021, to refer an expedited bill to the Parliament aiming to approve the financing card and open an extraordinary additional credit to finance it.
US Ambassador:
President Aoun met US Ambassador to Lebanon, Mrs. Dorothy Shea, and the new deputy of the US Diplomatic Mission in Lebanon, Mr. Richard Michaels, today at Baabda Palace. The meeting addressed Lebanese-US relations and means of developing these relations, in addition to general affairs.
Congratulation Cables:
In addition, the President received a congratulatory telegram from Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad on the occasion of Liberation and Resistance Day. The telegram read: “I offer you and the Lebanese people my warmest heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of the Resistance and Liberation Day, the 21st anniversary of the great victory and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the Lebanese territories. The liberation of southern Lebanon constitutes a milestone that confirms that the occupation, no matter how long it lasts, will end as long as the right-holders believe in their cause, cling to their rights and resist by all means. The Lebanese people and the resistance men wrote with their blood and soul the most wonderful epics of heroism. Their sacrifices will remain a beacon for all resistance fighters who reject occupation and humiliation. To you my best regards, with all the affection and appreciation”.
President Aoun also received congratulatory telegrams on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr:
President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, Abdel Majid Tebboune, wrote: “It is my pleasure for me and our Islamic nation to receive the happy Eid al-Fitr, to express to you in the name of Algeria a people and government and in the name of myself, with sincere congratulations and best blessings, asking the Almighty to restore this blessed occasion on you with good health and wellness and on your brotherly people prosperity and for our whole nation in goodness and blessings, and more solidarity. Please accept, Your Excellency the President and my dear brother, my sincere words of appreciation and respect”.Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan Abdul Rahman, wrote: “It is my pleasure to congratulate you on the blessed Eid Al-Fitr day sending my sincerest congratulations and best wishes. I ask God Almighty to bless you and your people with all good, happiness, security and prosperity, and on the peoples of the entire Islamic nation with goodness. Please accept with highest respect and appreciation”. Moreover, Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, and Kyrgyzstani President, Sader Zaparov, sent congratulations.-- Presidency Press office

President Aoun welcomes US Ambassador
NNA/May 26, 2021 
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, on Wednesday welcomed US Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, accompanied by Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Michaels.
Discussions reportedly focused on the US-Lebanese bilateral relations.

Aoun condoles Armenian Catholics for death of Catholicos Krikor Pedrios the twentieth
MEM/May 26, 2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received this afternoon at Baabda Palace, a delegation from the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate, including Archbishop George Asadurian, MP Jean Talouzian, Father Ravi Hovhansian, Mehran Bukharian and Joe Zulikian. The mourning was conveyed to the President by the Catholicos of the Cilicia House of Armenian Catholics, Patriarch Krikor Pedros the twentieth, who passed away on Tuesday noon. The delegation briefed President Aoun on the arrangements made for the funeral, which will be held at 10:30 before noon next Saturday in the Cathedral of St. Gregory and Mar Elias the Prophet in Beirut. For his part, President Aoun expressed his sorrow for the absence of Patriarch Krikor, noting the achievements he made during his presidency of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate, and the presence which distinguished him on the spiritual and national levels. The President conveyed his warm condolences to the Armenian Catholics, asking God to have mercy on his soul, in the world of eternity.

LAF: Macron welcomed Army Commander, stressed support for military institution for sake of Lebanon's stability
NNA/May 26, 202
The Army Command announced via Twitter that "French President Emmanuel Macron received Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, and discussed with him the conditions of the Lebanese Army and the challenges it faces at this stage."
Macron reportedly stressed "the importance of supporting the Lebanese Army, given its role in the stability of Lebanon."

In France, Lebanese army chief pleads for help as economic crisis worsens
MEM/May 26, 2021
Lebanon's army chief Joseph Aoun warned France on Wednesday that an economic crisis had put the military on the verge of collapse and Paris offered emergency food and medical aid for troops in hopes of preserving law and order, sources said, Reuters reports. France, which has led aid efforts to its former colony, has sought to pressure Lebanon's squabbling politicians who have failed to agree on a new government and launch reforms to unlock foreign cash. Discontent is brewing among Lebanon's security forces over a currency crash wiping out most of the value of their salaries.
In unusually outspoken comments in March, Aoun said his warnings to Lebanese officials that this could lead to an "implosion" had fallen on deaf ears. According to three people with knowledge of his visit to Paris, Aoun told senior French officials that the situation was untenable.
"We're worried because the Lebanese army is the backbone of the country," said one person familiar with meetings on Wednesday that included President Emmanuel Macron. Two sources said France would provide food and medical supplies for military personnel, whose salaries had fallen five or six fold in value recently, forcing many to take extra jobs. One of the sources said France was working to arrange a conference in June that would seek to mobilise the international community to support the army. Lebanon's pound has crashed 90% since late 2019 in a financial meltdown that poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. The army has long been viewed as a rare institution of national pride and unity. Its collapse at the start of the civil war, when it split along sectarian lines, catalyzed Lebanon's descent into militia rule.In a statement after meeting with counterpart Francois Lecointre, Aoun said the Lebanese army was going through "a great crisis which is set to get worse." Macron's office said in a statement that France would continue to support the Lebanese army.

US preparing Lebanon assistance package
Bryant Harris/The National/May 26/2021
State Department readies Lebanon aid while pressuring Lebanese leaders to form functioning government
The US is developing a humanitarian aid package for the Lebanese public amid political gridlock and a spiralling economic crisis, a key US diplomat revealed on Wednesday. David Hale, who stepped down as the undersecretary of state for political affairs earlier this month, said the State Department’s work on the assistance package was likely ongoing. “As I was leaving office, we were working on developing a package, which I’m sure my colleagues are continuing to develop on an urgent basis and getting the support of the Senate,” Mr Hale said at a virtual panel hosted by the Middle East Institute. “We’re ready to help, but we can’t do it without a Lebanese partner. I agree that there can be no bailout, but I also agree this is a time for strong humanitarian support.”Secretary of State Antony Blinken had asked Mr Hale to visit Lebanon at the start of Ramadan last month in one of his last regional trips as undersecretary, as the country’s political and economic crisis has continued to deteriorate. Mr Hale offered a grim assessment of the political elite’s ongoing failure to form a government following his trip, during which he met many Lebanese leaders.
“I encountered, from many of them, a real lack of a sense of urgency, which lies at one of the roots of the problem we’re facing," Mr Hale said. “I called publicly and privately for greater flexibility by those leaders to overcome the Cabinet impasse that is impeding economic reform. And unfortunately, I have not seen the flexibility that is needed in the past month since my visit.” Mr Hale, a career diplomat who has lived in Lebanon for eight years, left his position as undersecretary of state earlier this month after the Senate confirmed Victoria Nuland as his replacement.
He remains employed by the State Department and is currently working on a book about Lebanon in his capacity as a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Wilson Centre. “I have never seen that level of despair in the country – since the end of the civil war, anyway, in 1990,” Mr Hale said. “They’re suffering because Lebanese leaders have failed to meet their basic responsibility to put the country’s interests first.” Although President Michel Aoun appointed Saad Hariri to form a new government after former prime minister Hassan Diab resigned after last year’s port blast that tore through Beirut, Lebanese leaders have yet to coalesce into a Cabinet. The caretaker government has little authority to provide basic services to the Lebanese populace or to enact the economic reforms needed to unlock financial assistance and loans from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.
As the economic crisis worsens, mass protests have swept through the country while the price of consumer goods has skyrocketed. “Lebanese popular demands are very well known: transparency, accountability and an end to endemic corruption and mismanagement,” Mr Hale said. He also warned Lebanon against postponing the parliamentary elections that are currently slated for 2022 as the Lebanese political elite continue to jockey for power. “One key element of US foreign policy will have to be to really insist that those elections occur on time,” he said.

Chronic cough fuels concerns over Hezbollah leader's health
The National/May 26/2021
Nasrallah had denied suffering from Covid-19 two weeks ago and apologised for his chronic coughing during a televised appearance. Concerns over Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s health spread on social media hours after he appeared to suffer from a cough during televised remarks on Tuesday. Nasrallah had denied suffering from Covid-19 two weeks ago and apologised for his chronic coughing during a televised speech. He said at the time the cough was caused by a lung infection. Following Tuesday’s appearance, his son, Jawad Nasrallah, sought to reassure supporters, tweeting “just an allergy, rest assured”. Nasrallah’s public remarks were his first since the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas ended in a ceasefire and also marked the withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon in 2000. He said he should have appeared on TV earlier to comment on the fighting but had delayed his appearance due to illness. Nasrallah seemed fatigued and spoke slowly during his 100-minute speech. His appearance raised concerns on social media among the party’s supporters over his health condition. Nasrallah warned Israel against future attacks on Jerusalem, describing its battle with Hamas as a clear victory for the “resistance” axis. Hezbollah fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006, and Nasrallah threatened that the group and its regional allies will be seeking to establish new red lines, adding that serious Israeli attacks against holy sites should be met with a regional war.

ISF commenting on news of car bomb near Rizk Hospital: Unfounded and incorrect
NNA/May 26, 2021
The Internal Security Forces announced via Twitter that "the news circulating [over WhatsApp] about the presence of a car bomb near Rizk Hospital is unfounded," calling upon the citizens not to spread news of the sort before having confirmed their validity, in order to avoid sowing fear among the population, especially in these delicate circumstances.

WFP triples its support to Lebanese families as country faces unprecedented crisis
NNA/May 26, 2021
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started scaling up its support to a crucial national social support scheme in Lebanon to assist families struggling to make ends meet amid a severe economic downturn, skyrocketing inflation and a collapsing Lebanese pound. WFP will support an additional 195,000 people, aiming to reach a total of 300,000 people per month through the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP) of the Ministry of Social Affairs which is developing the national social protection framework and strategy. To address inflation and increased food prices in Lebanon, WFP will provide each family with a cash top-up of 200,000 LBP that can be used in shops or at cash machines (ATMs). “It gets harder by the day for Lebanese people to put food on the table, so this assistance comes just in time,” says WFP Representative and Country Director in Lebanon Abdallah Alwardat. “Meanwhile, we are monitoring the overall conditions of the families receiving our assistance to make sure they can feed themselves properly and avoid the anguish of not knowing where their next meal is coming from.” Since 2014, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs, WFP has been the backbone of sustaining the food assistance component of the National Poverty Targeting Programme, reaching more than 105,000 people every month through e-cards which can be used to buy food. This support provides a lifeline for Lebanese families living meal to meal.
WFP repeatedly increased monthly cash assistance transfers throughout 2020 to keep up with rising prices: from LBP40,500 in 2019 to 100,000 LBP for each member of a family that holds the NPTP e-card. “We stand ready to help the people of Lebanon navigate these challenging times,” says EU Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf. “We are committed to strengthening Lebanese social protection systems, including reforming the National Poverty Targeting Programme. We are following this closely with the United Nations and World Bank Group, as part of our joint effort on reform, recovery and reconstruction following the Beirut blast.” WFP is implementing the scale-up thanks to generous contributions from the European Union, Germany, Canada, Norway, Italy, and France. WFP aims to reach 750,000 Lebanese across the country through various interventions. “We support a whole-of-Lebanon approach and leave no-one-behind approach, because we include everyone in this project,” says Ambassador of Germany in Lebanon Andreas Kindl. In addition to direct food assistance to the poorest Lebanese families, WFP is also strengthening the capacity and sustainability of the Government of Lebanon’s National poverty targeting programme. As well as training the Ministry of Social Affairs’ social workers, WFP is providing a robust payment delivery platform, monitoring results, building digital systems, and providing technical support. “The compounded crises facing Lebanon nowadays have led to a dramatic increase in poverty rates and exacerbated vulnerabilities among the residents of Lebanon,” says Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Ramzi Moucharafieh. “The Ministry of Social Affairs, in collaboration with WFP and through the generous support of donor community, is trying to guarantee food security and achieve a comprehensive social protection strategy that is a basic right for everyone, to allow them to live in dignity.”-- WFP Lebanon

Bukhari discusses developments with Karami
NNA/May 26, 2021
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari, on Wednesday welcomed at his Yarze residence MP Faisal Karami.
Discussions reportedly touched on most recent political developments in Lebanon and the region.

Bogdanov discusses with Hariri's representative government of technocrats headed by Hariri
NNA/May 26, 2021
The media office of PM-designate Saad Hariri announced, quoting a statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that "the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Middle East and African countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, received today (Wednesday) the Special Representative of the PM-designate and Head of the Future Movement Saad Hariri, George Shaaban. During the meeting, there was an in-depth exchange of views on the situation in the Middle East, with a focus on the situation in Lebanon. In this context, the discussion mainly dealt with the task of forming a government of technocrats headed by Saad Hariri, capable of solving the pressing and acute economic and social problems facing Lebanon.""The Russian side affirmed its steadfast principled position in support of Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, as well as its upholding the stability of friendly Lebanon," the statement added.

A Bipartisan Coalition Calls on Secretary Blinken and the U.S. to Aid Lebanon to Reverse Current Decline
May 26, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: joanna@theresolute.group
Washington, D.C. - The Lebanese Information Center (LIC) would like to thank members of the U.S. Congress for their support of two letters to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. These letters detail the current, precarious state of Lebanon and outline recommendations for U.S. involvement to encourage democracy and oppose the destabilizing and anti-democratic influence of Hezbollah in the region.
The letters to Secretary Blinken were signed by a bipartisan coalition including the U.S.-Lebanon Friendship Caucus, the Chair and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Global Counterterrorism, and other key members of Congress.
“The situation in Lebanon is deteriorating rapidly and this trajectory was only accelerated by the explosion in the port of Beirut and its ripple effects,” LIC President Dr. Joseph Gebeily said in a statement. “As usual, Hezbollah is capitalizing on the unrest to increase its control within the Government of Lebanon. An advancing Hezbollah is dangerous beyond Lebanon and threatens the United States’ interests and its allies. That is why we’re asking for deliberate action from the U.S. Government.”
The long-awaited Lebanese recovery remains a crucial element for the stability of the Middle East and for the protection of the United States’ regional allies and their interests.
The letters detailed several recommendations. 1) The formation of a coalition of countries to support stable democracy in Lebanon through economic measures, 2) Robust humanitarian efforts to immediately assist the Lebanese people, 3) Re-engage its longtime partnership with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), a consistent military ally combating extremism in Lebanon, 4) Apply public pressure for a full, independent, transparent investigation in the explosion in the port of Beirut.
“We believe these actions would be steps in the direction of reversing the current trajectory in Lebanon and the region.” Dr. Gebeily explained. “But the LIC would encourage an additional and vital first step – holding new elections before the formation of a government. Without this step, we do not believe Hezbollah’s grip on the Lebanese Government will be lessened.
The Lebanese Information Center played an integral role in garnering support for the effort. LIC mobilized its Washington relationships and grassroots chapters in states across the country to build awareness with members of Congress and secure key signatures. “It’s a testament to the power of this issue and the ability of the LIC to get things done on Capitol Hill on behalf of democratic interests in Lebanon,” said Tony Ziade, LIC’s Director of Congressional Relations.
“Lebanon is a key centerpiece of stability in the Middle East,” Dr. Gebeily emphasized. “Promoting transparent and democratic government remains vital to the interests of the United States and we look forward to seeing this letter bear fruit to that end.”
###
The Lebanese Information Center in the U.S. is the largest grassroots organization of Americans of Lebanese descent, committed to building a free, sovereign, and democratic Lebanon for the good of the Lebanese people and in the interest of the United States of America.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 26- 27/2021
US, Egypt working to ensure Palestinians, Israelis live in ‘safety’: Blinken
Reuters, Cairo/Published: 26 May ,2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met top officials in Cairo on Wednesday during a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up a ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian militants.
Egypt has longstanding relations with both sides in the conflict and played a key role in brokering the Gaza ceasefire after 11 days of violence, in coordination with the United States. In a brief visit, Blinken met President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and intelligence head Abbas Kamel at the presidential palace. The United States and Egypt are working together to let Israelis and Palestinians live in safety and security, Blinken said addressing US embassy staff in Cairo. “And we’ve had in Egypt a real and effective partner in dealing with the violence, bringing it to a close, relatively quickly. And now, working closely together build something positive,” he said. Blinken arrived in Egypt after stops in Jerusalem and Ramallah and is due to visit Jordan. On Tuesday, he pledged that the United States would provide new aid to help rebuild the Gaza Strip, including $5.5 million in disaster relief and nearly $33 million for the UN Palestinian aid agency there. He also said the United States intended to ensure that Hamas, which controls Gaza and is listed by Washington as a terrorist organisation, did not benefit from humanitarian aid. Yehya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, said the group welcomed Arab and international efforts to rebuild the enclave. “We will ease and facilitate the task for everyone and we will make sure that the process will be transparent and fair and we will make sure that no penny goes to Hamas or Qassam (the Hamas armed wing),” Sinwar told a news conference. “We have satisfactory sources of money for Hamas and Qassam. A major part of it from Iran and part in donations from Arabs, Muslims and liberals of the world who are sympathetic to our people and their rights,” he added. Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and has security contacts with Hamas, is likely to have a role in channeling aid, a senior US State Department official said earlier.During the fighting, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and its Sinai Peninsula in order to provide medical aid and evacuate the wounded.It also sent a security delegation to Israel and Gaza to reinforce the ceasefire after it came into effect on Friday.

Palestine and Israel latest news: Jordan welcomes US move to reopen Jerusalem consulate as Blinken visits
The National/May 26/2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with King Abdullah in Amman after praising Egypt as a 'real and effective partner' during a visit to Cairo. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday as part of his four-country tour of the Middle East to shore up a ceasefire that ended 11 days of fighting in Israel and Palestine. In Amman, Jordan's King Abdullah told Mr Blinken he welcomed the administration's move to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem, according to Jordanian state media. Mr Blinken travelled to Jordan from Egypt, where he hailed Cairo's role in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Mr Blinken hailed Egypt as a “real and effective partner” after meeting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his foreign minister, Sameh Shukry. His visit came after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, where he reaffirmed Washington's controversial plan to reopen a consulate in the disputed city, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Mr Blinken said his government was seeking $75 million from Congress for the Palestinians and promised to rally international support for Gaza without aiding Hamas.

Blinken says he discussed Egypt's human rights record with El Sisi
The National/May 26/2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he had a lengthy discussion with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi about Cairo's human rights record. Speaking to reporters in Amman after a flight from Cairo, Mr Blinken also said he raised with Mr El Sisi the issue of Americans who had been detained in Egypt.Mr Blinken also said some aid has already begun to arrive in Gaza.

Jordan's king welcomes US move to reopen consulate in Jerusalem
The National/May 26/2021
Jordan's King Abdullah told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken he welcomed the administration's move to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem, state-run media said. Mr Blinken told King Abdullah, however, that the reopening of the consulate in Jerusalem would take a bit of time. Mr Blinken said on Tuesday that the Biden administration would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which had served as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians until former president Donald Trump shuttered it in 2019.

Antony Blinken hails Egyptian ceasefire mediation efforts on Cairo visit
The National/May 26/2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday hailed Egypt as a “real and effective partner” in ending the 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Mr Blinken met President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his foreign minister, Sameh Shukry, after landing in Cairo on the latest stop of a tour of the Middle East to cement the Cairo-mediated ceasefire. The most senior US official to visit Egypt since President Joe Biden took office in January, Mr Blinken spent nearly two hours with Mr El Sisi before heading to meet US embassy staff. Both the US and Egypt, he told staff at the embassy, “believe strongly that Palestinians and Israelis deserve equally to live in safety and security, to enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity and dignity. And we’re working on that together”. An Egyptian presidential statement said Mr El Sisi had told the US official that the "latest developments emphasise the importance of immediate action to resume direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis with effective American involvement to get them back to the negotiating table". The two sides, it said, also agreed to bolster co-ordination to strengthen the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and launch the reconstruction efforts in the coastal enclave. Mr Blinken’s stop in Egypt, along with the two recent phone calls between the two countries’ presidents, signalled warming ties, helping to allay Cairo’s concerns over the Biden administration’s focus on human rights and its opposition to Russian arms deals.

Israeli president to visit Washington within weeks
AFP/May 26/2021
Israel's President Reuven Rivlin will visit Washington within weeks, his office said Wednesday, in the first such trip by a high-ranking Israeli official to meet US President Joe Biden. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended the invitation to Mr Rivlin as they met on the second day of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas that rules Gaza. "Secretary Blinken conveyed President Biden's invitation to visit the United States before the end of his term of office" on July 5, the president's office said in a statement. Mr Rivlin, whose post is largely ceremonial and cannot be renewed, "accepted the invitation and asked Blinken to convey to the president that he will gladly visit before his presidency ends". Mr Blinken met Mr Rivlin before travelling on to Egypt and Jordan. During his visit, the US secretary of state reiterated support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas, which he said must not benefit from the aid effort to rebuild Gaza. Eleven days of Israeli air strikes and artillery fire since May 10 killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, authorities in Gaza say. Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian national and two Thai workers, medics say.

IAEA head says Iran’s uranium enrichment program ‘very concerning’
Reuters, Zurich/ 26 May ,2021
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency called Iran’s uranium enrichment program “very concerning” in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday. Iran was enriching uranium at purity levels that “only countries making bombs are reaching”, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the newspaper. His comments come as Iran and global powers negotiate in Vienna to work out steps that it and the United States must take on sanctions and nuclear activities to return to full compliance with its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers. The United States withdrew from the deal in 2018, prompting Iran to steadily overstep the accord’s limits on its nuclear program designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb - an ambition Tehran denies. “A country enriching at 60 percent is a very serious thing — only countries making bombs are reaching this level,” Grossi told the newspaper. “Sixty percent is almost weapons grade, commercial enrichment is 2, 3 (percent).” He said it was Iran’s “sovereign right” to develop its program but added: “This is a degree that requires a vigilant eye.”Grossi said most measures that Iran had taken could be reversed relatively easily, but he added that the level of research and development that had taken place was an issue. “You cannot put the genie back into the bottle — once you know how to do stuff, you know, and the only way to check this is through verification,” he said. “The Iranian program has grown, become more sophisticated so the linear return to 2015 is no longer possible. What you can do is keep their activities below the parameters of 2015.”

One dead, two injured in blast at petrochemical facility in Iran’s Asaluyeh
Al Arabiya English/26 May ,2021
One person died and two others were wounded in an explosion at a petrochemical complex in southern Iran on Wednesday, state news agency IRNA reported. The governor of the city of Asaluyeh in Bushehr province, where the explosion occurred, said the incident was due to the explosion of the oxygen transmission pipeline to two petrochemical companies in the city. “Currently, a technical emergency working group has been formed to investigate the cause of the accident, and after clarifying the dimensions of the accident, information will be provided,” Abdolnabi Yousefi told IRNA. On Saturday, three people were injured when the Abadan Refinery in southern Iran exploded due to excessive heat, Iranian media reported. In 2020, Iran witnessed a series of mysterious fires and explosions across the country, some of them at sensitive military and nuclear sites.

Top Iraqi militia commander arrested amid stand off with government
Sinan Mahmoud/The National/May 26/2021
Qassim Musleh held on terrorism charges as Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi pledges investigation into unlawful armed groups
Iraqi security forces arrested a senior paramilitary leader on Wednesday in a move that will raise tension with powerful Iran-backed militias accused of attacks on international troops and killing hundreds of protesters and activists.
The arrest puts Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi's loyalist security forces in the army and counter-terrorism services directly at odds with the militias that make up an organisation of state-sanctioned groups. Qassim Musleh, leader of Popular Mobilisation Forces operations in Anbar, was reportedly arrested by troops from the Interior Ministry. The reasons behind Mr Musleh’s arrest is still unclear but an arrest warrant, widely circulated on social media and confirmed by a court official, said he was wanted over terrorism charges. Mr Al Kadhimi said a person was arrested in accordance with terrorism laws and based on complaints made against him. The person is under investigation by a joint committee from the Joint Co-operation Command, Interior Ministry and Military Intelligence Services, National Security and PM Security Department, he said. Mr Al Kadhimi said armed groups were a "dangerous violation to the Iraqi constitution and valid laws" and ordered an immediate investigation. Official sources told The National that Mr Musleh was arrested in connection with the murders of activists. "A mutual military and security committee has been formed to lead the investigation in the case," a government source told the Iraqi state news agency. The influential Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq accused Mr Al Kadhimi of deliberately going for PMF senior leaders and demanded the immediate release of Mr Musleh. “We will not be silent about the hostile approach of some figures who work for the benefit of the enemies,” it said. The UK backed Mr Al Kadhimi's investigation. "Iraqis have called for a state where those who break the law are held to account," it said on Twitter. "No one should use force and threats to impede criminal investigations." In a show of force, the PMF posted fighters around its headquarters inside Baghdad’s Green Zone on Wednesday night.
Mr Al Kadhimi’s office and foreign embassies are also inside the zone.
The Counter-terrorism Service, Federal Police and army also posted personnel inside and outside the Green Zone. Security force convoys of more than two vehicles have been banned from entering Baghdad or moving in its streets, says a government order seen by The National.
Alarmed by the developments, the UN special representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plaeschert, said on Twitter that “any arrest case should run its course, as goes for any Iraqi". "And surely, nobody should resort to a show of force to get their way,” Ms Hennis-Plaeschert said.
“Such behaviour weakens the Iraqi state and further erodes public trust. State institutions must be respected at all times. Nobody is above the law." Since taking office in May, Mr Al Kadhimi has tried to rein in militias backed by Tehran but has so far failed. Mr Musleh also runs a militia group called Al Tufuf, which worked alongside Iran-backed groups in Al Qaim, a strategically important town on the border with Syria. On Tuesday, security troops killed two protesters in Baghdad who were demanding justice for scores of assassinated activists.
The demonstrators carried pictures of the dead and shouted, "Who killed me?"
Mr Al Kadhimi repeatedly promised investigations into protesters' deaths.
In June 2020, the country's counter-terrorism force arrested 14 militiamen from Kataib Hezbollah, which has a prominent role in the PMF. The men were accused of planning a rocket attack on Baghdad's Green Zone but they were released days later and the case was dropped.
Mr Musleh's arrest was in connection with a recent rocket attack against the Iraqi-US base at Al Asad, security officials told Reuters. His troops are stationed not far from the base. Members of the paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces take part in their graduation ceremony at a military camp in Karbala last month. In December, security troops arrested Hamid Al Jazairi, the former deputy commander of Al Khorasani Brigades, another prominent Iran-backed group, and more than a dozen of his followers. The following day, the group’s commander, Ali Al Yassiri, was arrested. Officials said they were arrested over corruption charges. When Iraqi security forces crumbled in mid-2014 as ISIS swept through northern and western Iraq, volunteers and militias answered a call from the country’s influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, to join the fight.
Some of the groups were newly formed and loyal to Mr Al Sistani, and refrained from attacking international forces or killing protesters. But they have since moved closer to Iraq's Defence Ministry leaving other, more powerful groups such as Kataib Hezbollah and Al Tufuf to continue operations on Iran's behalf. As major military operations ended and ISIS was declared defeated in late 2017, many Shiite militias competed for lucrative government rebuilding deals in the liberated areas, many of which were in ruins. Some of the Iran-allied faction within the PMF are accused of assassinating activists and protesters since 2019, when pro-reform, anti-Tehran rallies broke out.

US change of posture encourages Qatari shift on relations with Egypt
The Arab Weekly/May 26/2021
CAIRO – Qatar has moved quickly to repair its troubled relationship with Egypt after it sensed a shift in the US administration’s stance towards Cairo during and after the Gaza crisis. The Egyptian presidency said in a statement that the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, extended on Tuesday an invitation to Egyptian President Abdelfattah el-Sisi to visit Doha. Sisi received Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who delivered a message to him from Sheikh Tamim. The head of the Qatari State Security (Intelligence Service) Abdullah Al-Khulaifi, accompanied the Qatari foreign minister who is on a regional tour, during his meeting with Sisi, although Khulaifi was not present during other legs of the foreign minister’s trip that included Tripoli and Khartoum. This, according to analysts, reflected Qatar’s serious intent to open a new chapter with Cairo.
While the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attended the meeting, the presence of the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Abbas Kamel and the announcement that the visit by Khulaifi would last two days beyond the Qatari foreign minister’s visit, indicated that serious security talks are scheduled between the two parties. It also suggested that Khulaifi is now tasked with addressing Egypt’s lingering reservations about Doha’s relationship with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the international organisation of the Brotherhood. Doha’s backing for the Brotherhood, its hosting of a number of leaders of the Islamist organisation and its blatant interference in the internal affairs of Egypt were among the sources of frustration that still bothered Cairo about Qatar’s attitude.
After the second call by US President Joe Biden to President Sisi within a few days, the Qatari position changed, as Doha sensed that a major change was in the making in Washington’s approach towards the Egyptian regime and that it was necessary to make its own adjustment.
The Egyptian presidency said that the message Sisi received from Sheikh Tamim stressed the Qatari ruler’s “aspiration to enhancing discussions between the two countries on ways to develop bilateral relations, as well as discussion of regional and international developments and coordination of related positions in a way that serves the aspirations of the two countries.”Sisi’s visit to Doha, if it takes place, would be his first to Qatar since his election as president in 2014. It would confirm that the two countries have overcome their past difficulties. After the Al-Ula summit in the Gulf, Doha did not rush to cosy up to Cairo for a number of reasons, including Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its backing for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But the Gaza war, Washington’s attention to the crisis, the confirmation of Egypt’s role as one of the pillars of security in the eastern Mediterranean, US praise for Cairo’s role in Libya and the indications of rapprochement between Cairo and Ankara, all eventually convinced Doha to sidestep its traditional reservations and embark on reconciliation with Egypt. On January 5, the “Al-Ula” statement was issued by the Gulf summit announcing the end of sharp crisis that broke out in mid-2017 between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt and which lead to the closing of airspace and severing of diplomatic relations between Doha and the Arab quartet. On February 23, two official delegations from Qatar and Egypt held talks in Kuwait on joint mechanisms and procedures for putting into practice the “Gulf Reconciliation Statement”, amid Egyptian-Qatari praise for the improved relations since the completion of the reconciliation. Egyptian sources revealed to The Arab Weekly that since then, there have been intensive official contacts between the two countries to coordinate their response to regional crises. This helped bridge the political divide between Doha and Cairo as illustrated by Qatar’s position on the Gaza war, which did not include the customary media criticisms of Cairo. The same sources added that Qatar was keen to listen to the Egyptian viewpoint on serious cooperation on issues such as the Gaza Strip, Libya and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Doha reacted favourably to Cairo’s recent moves to reach a ceasefire between the Hamas and Israel and did not try to obstruct them.
Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Al-Orabi confirmed that talks were held between the foreign ministers of Egypt and Qatar “dealing with coordination regarding the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the mechanisms for stabilising the ceasefire on the part of Hamas, which maintains close ties with Doha, especially that Qatar wants to participate in any Egyptian moves in the Gaza Strip ”.Orabi told The Arab Weekly that Cairo, is willing to deal with the changes in Gaza in cooperation with Doha, pointing out that the Qataris cannot alone influence Hamas’ decisions, as Egypt’s proposals require support by other regional powers. These countries include in particular Iran and Turkey, both of whom have strong ties to Qatar. Cairo also needs Doha to exert pressure on Hamas and control its behaviour during the next stage so as to be able to build on the Gaza war and the success of the Gaza reconstruction process. It is expected that the rapprochement between Cairo and Doha will also affect certain regional balances, especially those involving certain parties that have benefited from the continuing tensions between them. It will particularly vindicate Cairo’s opposition to the exploitation of Islamist groups.

Several killed in San Jose, California, rail yard shooting
NNA/REUTERS/May 26/2021
Several people were killed and others were wounded when a gunman opened fire in a light rail yard in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, the county sheriff’s office said. Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy Russell Davis told reporters that there were “there are multiple injuries and multiple fatalities” and the shooter was now dead. “I can’t confirm the exact number of injuries and fatalities,” he said. The shooting took place a little before 7 a.m. PT (1400 GMT) at a light rail yard run by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority near the city’s main airport. “The shooter is no longer a threat, and the facility has been evacuated,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo wrote. San Jose, a city with about 1 million residents, lies at the heart of Silicon Valley, a global center of technological innovation and home of some of America’s biggest tech companies. Davis said he would share more information later. A local ABC News affiliate reported that the building was not open to the public, so the shooter would have needed employee access or to have broken in.

Canadian Statement on Syria’s upcoming presidential elections
May 25, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
Global Affairs Canada today issued the following statement:
“Canada denounces Syria’s decision to hold presidential elections tomorrow, May 26, amidst ongoing human rights abuses and grave violations of international law perpetrated by the Assad regime. Free and fair elections will not be possible until an inclusive constitution is drafted that can form the basis of a credible pathway towards a political settlement or transition, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (UNSCR 2254).
“As is made clear by UNSCR 2254, free and fair elections must allow for UN monitoring and for all Syrians, including refugees and internally displaced persons, to participate, without fear of persecution. They must also encourage the meaningful participation of women and be free from the intimidation tactics we have seen during early diaspora voting. Credible elections must allow for genuine political discourse between candidates, whose nominations should be transparent and not at the mercy of the regime in power. In the absence of any of the above conditions, tomorrow’s elections cannot represent the will of the Syrian people and Canada does not recognize their legitimacy.
“These elections do not signify the end of the Syrian people’s struggle. Canada encourages the international community to refuse any normalization of relations with the Assad regime, which refuses to engage meaningfully in the negotiation of a political solution and continues terrorizing its electorate with chemical weapons, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture.
“Canada reiterates its support for the UN Special Envoy for Syria’s efforts to promote a Syrian-led political process, based on UNSCR 2254, that promises future prosperity for all Syrians and protects their rights and dignity, including the right to vote in free and fair elections. We urge the Assad regime to engage meaningfully in this process.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 26- 27/2021
For Israelis, one more battle in a forever war for survival/The alternative would be another Holocaust
Clifford D. May/The washington Times/May 26/2021
In the 1930s, the Nazis declared: “The Jews do not deserve to live!” They acted on this conviction, and by the mid-1940s six million Jews had been murdered.
Today, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran declare: “The Jewish state does not deserve to live!” They are attempting to act on this conviction — with rockets fired from Gaza last week, perhaps precision-guided missiles (PGMs) from Lebanon next year, and maybe nuclear warheads from Iran down the road.
Some of Israel’s critics acknowledge that Israel’s enemies intend to replace the Jewish state with an Islamic state but are not overly troubled by that. Others assert that “Death to Israel!” can be accomplished without the deaths of too many Israelis — though how many would constitute too many they don’t specify.
And then there are those who concede that while a second Holocaust in less than a century would be unfortunate, Israelis may be able to avoid that fate if they will make the concessions demanded of them.
In particular, Israelis are instructed to “end the occupation.” To Hamas, that means Jewish exodus from Israel. Some Hamas sympathizers suggest it might be sufficient if Israelis only withdrew from the territories taken in the defensive war of 1967.
In 2005, Israelis not only ended their occupation of Gaza — which, it should be remembered, they had seized not from Palestinians but from Egypt — they also evicted the territory’s Jewish communities. Hamas soon took power and began firing missiles over the border and digging tunnels under it.

Egypt’s transition away from American weapons is a national security issue
Bradley Bowman/Maj Jared Thompson/Ryan Brobst / Defense News/May 26/2021
Egypt announced an agreement this month with France to purchase 30 French-made F3-R Rafale fighter jets in a deal reportedly worth $5 billion. The agreement is part of a larger trend in which Egypt is purchasing fewer weapons from the United States and more from Russia and France.
To be sure, from an American perspective, Russia is an adversary while France is a NATO ally (and economic competitor). However, if those two countries continue to displace the United States in the Egyptian arms market, Washington’s influence in Cairo could wane. That would undercut core U.S. national security interests. At the center of this challenge is Washington’s longstanding efforts to balance security interests with human rights concerns when it comes to arms sales.
The sale, announced on May 4, brings the total Egyptian Rafale fleet to 54 aircraft, building upon a 2015 sale in which Egypt became the first foreign customer for the Rafale. The Rafale is a fourth-generation multirole fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation, and has been ordered by the French, Egyptian, Qatari, Indian and Greek militaries. In addition to advanced sensors, targeting systems and weapons, the F3-R model gives Egypt access to capabilities the United States has refused to sell Cairo in the past, such as long-range air-to-air missiles.
Egypt’s purchase of French-made fighters alone does not necessarily constitute a major development or concern, but the deal’s significance grows when understood as part of Cairo’s larger shift away from American arms. In fact, the last major U.S. aircraft sale to Egypt came in 2010 with the transfer of 20 F-16Cs. The following year, Arab Spring protests led to the election of President Mohammed Morsi. In 2013, then-Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi deposed Morsi and took the presidency for himself. In response, the Obama administration froze a significant quantity of aircraft, tank and missile sales to Egypt for two years until relations improved.
After that freeze, Cairo escalated its efforts to diversify its arms suppliers. From 2009 until Sisi came to power in 2014, U.S. sales made up 47 percent of Egypt’s arms imports, but slid to only 14 percent in the 2015-2020 time period, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The primary beneficiaries were Russia and France.
In 2015, for example, Egypt procured around 50 MiG-29Ms from Russia in addition to the 24 Rafales from France. Then, in 2018, Egypt started acquiring between 24 and 31 first-rate Su-35 air superiority fighters from Russia, a deal that may trigger U.S. sanctions. Egypt is reportedly looking to expand its Rafale fleet even further to between 72 and 100 units, including the forthcoming F4 variant. Egypt could soon have as many operational fighters from non-U.S. countries as from the United States. That deprives Washington of a variety of diplomatic, security and defense-innovation base benefits, which instead go to other countries, including adversaries.
Moreover, Cairo’s move away from American military equipment goes beyond just fighters.
Egypt acquired two helicopter assault ships from France and outfitted them with 46 Ka-52 attack helicopters from Russia. Egypt also ordered the S-300VM, one of Russia’s more formidable air defense systems, a potential concern in the context of Israel’s qualitative military edge.
These shifts away from U.S. arms are notable given the fact that Washington provides Egypt up to $1.3 billion in annual foreign military financing, designed to fund Egyptian purchases of U.S.-origin military equipment.
In a changing Middle East arms market, these details regarding Egypt’s arms purchases highlight a perennial dilemma for the United States in balancing national security interests and human rights concerns.
Egypt is a strategically located regional power that wields significant diplomatic, security, economic and cultural influence in the Middle East. The most populous country in the Arabic-speaking world, Egypt shares borders with Israel, Libya, Sudan and the Gaza Strip. And the 1979 American-brokered peace agreement between Egypt and Israel remains one of the leading sources of stability in the troubled region.
Challenges remain between Egypt and Israel, particularly in people-to-people relations. Nonetheless, the two governments have maintained a quietly constructive relationship for the most part, encouraged by their respective relationships with Washington.
Egypt also controls the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints and trade routes, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and beyond. The canal carries over 10 percent of global trade. Cairo also provides U.S. Navy vessels expedited access through the Suez Canal, a privilege that proved valuable as the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group rushed toward the Arabian Sea in May 2019 during a period of increased tensions with Iran.
For these and other reasons, maintaining a close security partnership with Egypt supports American national security interests. Any additional weakening in the U.S.-Egypt relationship would be a serious concern for Americans and Israelis — as well as a potential boon for Russia and China.
At the same time, Egypt’s checkered human rights record has created tension with Congress and successive U.S. administrations of both parties. A State Department report published last year detailed a range of continued human rights issues in Egypt. Clearly, curtailing or threatening to curtail U.S. arms sales did not incentivize Cairo to markedly improve its human rights record.
Curtailing U.S. arms sales did, however, appear to motivate Egypt to increase its purchases of weapons from other countries who would not make demands Cairo finds irksome.
In Paris and Moscow, Cairo found partners that suffered no such inhibitions regarding Cairo’s human rights record — a point French President Emmanuel Macron made clear in a December meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Moreover, neither France nor Russia share American concerns for Israel’s qualitative military edge.Washington will continue to promote its interests and principles when it comes to Middle East arms sales. Recent history, however, suggests such efforts will only become more difficult in the future.
*Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where U.S. Air Force.
*Maj. Jared Thompson is a visiting military analyst.
*Ryan Brobst is a research analyst. The views expressed in this commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Defense Department or the Air Force. Follow Bradley on Twitter @Brad_L_Bowman. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Iran Continues to Extort the International Atomic Energy Agency
Andrea Stricker/Policy Brief/May 26/2021
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran agreed on Monday to extend for one month a monitoring agreement that was set to expire over the weekend. The IAEA’s director general, Rafael Grossi, reached the deal with Iran last February, when Tehran pulled out of a supplementary monitoring agreement with the IAEA called the Additional Protocol (AP) and stopped observing extra monitoring provisions specific to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the Iran-IAEA arrangement reached in February, Tehran would destroy the IAEA’s data and monitoring records if Iran did not receive sanctions relief from the United States and other world powers within 90 days. Now, Iran essentially threatens to erase the data around June 24 if Washington does not lift sanctions. The content of the bridge agreement remains secret, but Grossi has characterized it as a “stop-gap measure” to maintain insight into Tehran’s nuclear activities – insight that would be lost without the AP and JCPOA monitoring.
The arrangement appears to deal with real-time remote electronic and surveillance monitoring of Iran’s enrichment levels, as well as video monitoring of Iran’s activities at centrifuge R&D sites and sites such as uranium mines where the IAEA currently has no physical access due to Tehran’s drawdown of its safeguards commitments. Under the regime’s ongoing adherence to the IAEA Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, the agency maintains physical access to Iran’s facilities that use nuclear material, such as the Natanz and Fordow enrichment plants and associated nuclear fuel cycle facilities.
The IAEA wants to use the footage and data collected under the bridge agreement, which Tehran threatens to erase, to “reconstruct” what happened at certain sites over the past months and to “reconcile” the agency’s own estimates. Grossi believes the IAEA is “flying blind” if it cannot reconcile its estimates with data collected in Iran, due to the depth and breadth of the Iranian nuclear program.
The Islamic Republic’s threats to destroy safeguards data amount to unprecedented extortion of the IAEA. Tehran has also put the agency in the position of permitting Iran to pick and choose which safeguards obligations it will fulfill. This sets a negative precedent for other states, which may also seek piecemeal safeguards. The Biden administration should not grant Iran sanctions relief, which would reward and incentivize the clerical regime’s nuclear extortion. Lifting sanctions would effectively foreclose any chance that the regime will cooperate with the IAEA’s ongoing safeguards investigation, which is examining Tehran’s undeclared use of nuclear material at covert sites. Independent experts assess that the IAEA still needs to visit some 17 to 21 suspicious nuclear sites identified in a cache of Iran’s secret nuclear files. As underscored by the regime’s latest threat to destroy monitoring data, the international community still has no confidence that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is peaceful.
The United States and its European allies should halt the Vienna negotiations to reestablish the JCPOA, in an effort to oblige Iran to come clean to the IAEA about its nuclear activities. Americans and Europeans need to use the upcoming June 7 meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors to develop a consensus on referring Iran to the UN Security Council for sanctions for Tehran’s failure to maintain IAEA inspection standards.
*Andrea Stricker is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she also contributes to FDD’s Iran Program, International Organizations Program, and Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). For more analysis from Andrea, the Iran Program, the International Organizations Program, and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Andrea on Twitter @StrickerNonpro. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_Iran and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Biden's Palestinian Mission is Doomed to Fail
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/May 26/ 2021
The big problem, though, with Mr Biden's commitment for the US to work with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza is that the ability of Mr Abbas's organisation to exercise any influence over Gaza is virtually negligible.
While Mr Abbas continues to indulge in the fiction that he is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the reality so far as Gaza is concerned is that it is the Islamist leaders of Hamas who exercise total control over Gaza.
The jubilant celebrations that took place among Palestinians when the ceasefire finally took hold were not held to express their relief that the fighting was over. The celebrations took place as a demonstration of support for Hamas's role in launching a massive attack on Israel.
The bad news for Mr Biden is that Hamas not only has zero interest in working with the US and other aid agencies on reconstruction projects in Gaza and other Palestinian territories. It has no interest in resolving tensions with Israel.
[T]he main objective of the Hamas movement, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US and a host of other Western governments, is the complete destruction of the state of Israel, an ambition it shares with Iran, Hamas's close ally and benefactor.
Indeed, Israeli intelligence officials believe Iran deliberately used the recent bout of fighting to test Israel's air defence systems with a view to improving Hamas's capability to inflict maximum damage on the Israeli people in any future conflict.
The fundamental problem with the Biden administration's approach to relations with the Palestinians is that they are investing all their political capital in the ability of the Palestinian Authority, which is headed by the ineffectual Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, to help achieve their goals. Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets with Abbas give a joint statement, on May 25, 2021 in Ramallah.
To judge by the jubilant Palestinian celebrations that greeted the ceasefire that ended 11 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip, US President Joe Biden's belief that the agreement presents a "genuine opportunity to make progress" on resolving tensions between Israel and the Palestinians seems naively optimistic.
Moreover, the same can be said of the president's pledge to provide Gaza with humanitarian and reconstruction aid to help the Palestinian residents in the wake of the latest outbreak of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.
Speaking shortly after the ceasefire had been implemented, Mr Biden said the White House would work with the United Nations and other international aid organisations "to provide urgent humanitarian assistance and mobilize international support for the people of Gaza and the efforts to rebuild Gaza."
The American leader has now followed this up by promising to end Washington's "years of neglect" of the Palestinian cause. To this end the White House is sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a hastily-arranged Middle East tour to maintain the "quiet intensive diplomacy" that took place during the Gaza violence.The fundamental problem with the Biden administration's approach, though, is that, in their effort to rebuild relations with the Palestinians, they are investing all their political capital in the ability of the Palestinian Authority, which is headed by the ineffectual Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, to help achieve their goals.
As Mr Biden emphasised last weekend, "We will do this in full partnership with the Palestinian Authority."
The big problem, though, with Mr Biden's commitment for the US to work with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza is that the ability of Mr Abbas's organisation to exercise any influence over Gaza is virtually negligible.
While Mr Abbas continues to indulge in the fiction that he is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the reality so far as Gaza is concerned is that it is the Islamist leaders of Hamas who exercise total control over Gaza.
The jubilant celebrations that took place among Palestinians when the ceasefire finally took hold were not held to express their relief that the fighting was over. The celebrations took place as a demonstration of support for Hamas's role in launching a massive attack on Israel.
Mr Abbas's impotence as a leader was graphically demonstrated during the fighting when he was reduced to the status of a bewildered bystander as Hamas directed its relentless bombardment of Israeli towns and cities.
The bad news for Mr Biden is that Hamas not only has zero interest in working with the US and other aid agencies on reconstruction projects in Gaza and other Palestinian territories. It has no interest in resolving tensions with Israel.
On the contrary, the main objective of the Hamas movement, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US and a host of other Western governments, is the complete destruction of the state of Israel, an ambition it shares with Iran, Hamas's close ally and benefactor.
The profound influence Iran exercises over Hamas and other Gaza-based Islamist groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was demonstrated by the estimated 4,000 rockets that were fired at predominantly civilian Israeli targets during 11 days of intense bombardment.
Israeli defence officials have concluded that the majority of these rockets have been built in Gaza based on designs and technology provided by Iran.
As a result, Hamas has acquired the ability to strike targets deep within Israel, whereas previously the organisation's home-made Qassem missiles could only strike Israeli targets close to the Gaza border, such as the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon. Of particular concern for Israeli defence officials was Hamas's attempts to use Iranian-made "kamikaze" drones to attack Israeli targets. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have successfully used their newly-developed drone technology in Yemen, where the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have used the weapons to attack targets in Saudi Arabia, including oil facilities in the Gulf. The Israeli military has confirmed that Hamas attempted to penetrate Israel's vaunted Iron Dome system by directing a battery of Iranian-made drones at Israel.
At one point, the threat from the barrages Hamas directed at Israel war led Israeli commanders to deploy its missile interceptors on the back of frigates patrolling the Mediterranean coast to defend gas installations and the mainland.
Even though the Israeli military was able to thwart the Hamas drone attack, the overall Hamas campaign has been hailed by Iran as a "historic victory" over Israel. Indeed, Israeli intelligence officials believe Iran deliberately used the recent bout of fighting to test Israel's air defence systems with a view to improving Hamas's capability to inflict maximum damage on the Israeli people in any future conflict. Consequently, far from seeking to improve relations with Israel, so long as Hamas remains the dominant force in Palestinian politics, Mr Biden's naive hope of rebuilding Washington's ties with the Palestinian people is doomed to fail. Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

From air defense to 'occupation': The plan for endless war in Gaza
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/May 26/2021
The occupation narrative is designed to press Israel into always having to take full responsibility for Gaza, which will always be “occupied” no matter what the Jewish state does.
In the wake of the recent Gaza war, several narratives have emerged that are preparing the ground for the next war and guarantee to give Hamas more legitimacy, even as it fires thousands of rockets at Israel’s cities.
The narratives include arguments that Israel’s Iron Dome somehow is perpetuating the conflict and that Israel continues to “occupy” Gaza, despite it being controlled by the Hamas terrorist group.
The twin theories present a recipe for endless war. On the one hand, there is a theory that Israel’s success in defending its civilians against rockets somehow reduces the threat the Jewish state feels from Hamas rockets. On the other hand, regardless of Israel’s actions, it is argued that it will always be “occupying” Gaza.
The occupation narrative is designed to press Israel into taking full responsibility for Gaza. Some commentators don’t even mention Hamas’s control of Gaza as a factor in the conflict.
When the Turkish army was expelled from Palestine in 1918, it was not still defined as occupied by Turkey. When the British mandate ended in 1948, it was not still “occupied” by the UK. When Egypt was pushed out of Gaza in 1967, it was not still occupied by Egypt.
Only Israel, upon leaving Gaza, is said to still be “occupying” it. This is not just because of Israel’s naval blockade off the coast. You can blockade something or interdict weapons flow and not be “occupying” it. Even though dozens of countries recognize “Palestine” as a country, Gaza is still “occupied.”
It stands to reason that Gaza will always be “occupied,” no matter what Israel does. Israel can’t recognize Hamas-run Gaza as a state, because then it will be accused of doing what South Africa did by recognizing a “Bantustan.” It doesn’t even matter if Israel recognizes the Palestinian Authority as a state, since the PA doesn’t control Gaza.The “occupation” argument is designed to give Hamas a “right to resist” occupation. This creates a Catch-22 situation. Israel left Gaza, but Israel is said to “occupy” it so that people can excuse terrorism against Israel from the coastal enclave. Then Israel has to blockade it, and the blockade is used as further evidence of “occupation.”
UNWRA's Gaza Director, Matthais Schmale, Matthais Schmale, hinted at some of the Catch-22 aspects of these narratives in a series of tweets. He began a thread of tweets because of recent comments he made on Israeli TV that had been slammed. On Tuesday he made several key arguments about the recent conflict in Gaza.
“Military precision and sophistication are never a justification for war. Many people were killed or have been severely injured by direct strikes or collateral damage from strikes. In a place as densely populated as Gaza, any strike will have huge damaging effects on people and buildings,” he wrote.
“The terror from the sky that we have just experienced amounts to a form of collective punishment of the civilian population,” Schmale wrote. “This must never happen again.... Wrong to reduce Gaza situation to humanitarian crisis... crucial to put this brutal conflict in context of 14 years of blockade, succession of conflict, Great Marches of Return and devastating COVID impact... the blockade must be lifted and a meaningful political process must resume to lead to a just solution.”
He then wrote that he fully agreed with a tweet accusing Israel of a “brutal colonial occupation... in that the context in Gaza does not start with the blockade 14 years ago but with the Nakba more than seven decades ago. And Israel must be held fully accountable for all its brutal measures against Palestinians.”
Yet, just days before, he said that his impression was that Israel was very sophisticated in the way it carried out airstrikes in Gaza, with few exceptions, avoiding civilian targets.
As for Hamas, he said “you cannot work in a place like Gaza without coordinating with the local authorities – that’s true for any autocratic regime of this nature.”
The narrative here purposely ignores Hamas, not even using the word “Hamas.” It presents the “problem” as the “Nakba,” which means it presents Israel’s existence as the problem. Agreeing with the term “colonial” in relation to Israel indicates this as well.
While the argument denies any justification for war, there is no mention of the 4,000 rockets Hamas launched, because that is apparently not called a war. When Hamas attacks Israel, it is not a “war,” but when Israel responds with airstrikes, it is “war” and “collective punishment.”
THESE NARRATIVES essentially create a recipe for endless conflict, not an end to conflict.
Israel’s Iron Dome is said to be a problem because it doesn’t force Israel to deal with Gaza politically. But how would Israel have dealt with Gaza without Iron Dome amid the launching of thousands of rockets? It would have been compelled to invade the Gaza Strip.
This appears to be the real goal of those who object to the Iron Dome air defense system, and who claim Gaza is under Israeli occupation. No more airstrikes, only ground control by Israel of Gaza as was the case before 2005, is acceptable. It’s unclear why those who agitate for an end to “occupation” also want more occupation, unless the overall agenda is not only endless conflict but also the one-state solution now being advocated by some.
Recent reports by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have tried to paint all of Israel, Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank as part of the same territory, essentially looking at it as one state. Paired with terms like “colonial” and dismantling the Iron Dome, the aim seems to be to force Israel to reoccupy Gaza, and that the end goal is war until Israel ceases to exist.
The idea that the Jewish state has to coexist with a radical Islamist group like Hamas, which fires thousands of rockets at airports and civilians in cities, is part of the agenda here. Some have even argued during this last confrontation that Hamas was justified in targeting Tel Aviv because it contains Israeli military buildings.In essence, this argument says Hamas can fire rockets at millions of people, if there are a few buildings used by the IDF, but Israel cannot harm any civilians in targeted airstrikes in Gaza – in fact, the airstrikes themselves are condemned as “collective” attacks.
This essentially is an argument that says Israel must not have any air defense; Gaza must not be blockaded, so Iranian missiles can flow to Hamas; Hamas has a “right to resist occupation” and can fire rockets anywhere in Israel at Israeli civilians; and Israel must not carry out any “war” or retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza to stop it. There is no conclusion based on that logic that does not involve endless war. This is because the argument doesn’t demand that Hamas stop the rocket fire, nor does it put any onus on the terrorist group governing Gaza. It appears that these arguments are designed to justify more Hamas attacks based on various excuses, and viewing any Israeli retaliation as “illegal,” “occupation” and “war.”
There is no evidence that this paradigm, suggesting endless war, will lead to peace.

Media Weep for Palestinians, Ignore Genocide of Christians in Africa
Raymond Ibrahim/May 26/2021
If all human lives are equally valuable, as the so-called “mainstream media” pretend, why do they highlight some while completely ignoring others?
Take the recent Israeli/Palestinian conflict. For two weeks, day after day, hour after hour, the media showed emotionally-charged videos, pictures, and provided regular updates of Palestinian lives lost, with 248 being the most recent figure.
If the average American was asked why the media so dwelled on this conflict, including by providing regular and updated statistics, their response would likely be that any human death is a terrible and therefore newsworthy matter—hence the media are only doing their job, objectively and fairly.
But if that was really the case, why do the media completely ignore so much other suffering and death—often exponentially worse than what the Palestinians experienced in both quality and quantity—around the world?
Consider the ongoing genocide of Christians in Nigeria, for example. In that west African nation, 248 is about the number of Christians killed by Muslims every few weeks, going back for some two decades now. According to the most recent report, between January and April of this year alone, 1,470 Christians were hacked to death. On average this comes out to about 368 Christians killed every month for four months straight.
According to a more general report, “Not less than 32,000 Christians have been butchered to death by the country’s main Jihadists” between just 2009 and the first quarter of 2020; 13,000 churches were additionally destroyed by “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims since just 2016.
It is only slightly better for Christians in other sub-Saharan nations: in Mozambique, the Central African Republic, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burkina Faso, Muslims are terrorizing and slaughtering Christians, and have been for many years now.
Yet one expects that only a tiny, miniscule percentage of those Americans who heard about the Palestinians ever heard about the slaughter of tens of thousands of Christians all throughout Africa, since the media seldom report on and certainly never dwell on the latter.
This is all the more irresponsible considering that the reason Christians are being brutally slaughtered—because they are Christians, because Muslims are taught to hate and subjugate the “other”—is certainly more newsworthy, than, say, why Palestinians get killed (terrorism crackdowns and other mundane factors)
Is the media racist, then? Do black lives not matter?
In fact, no lives intrinsically matter for the media; only those that can help push a certain narrative have any value for and are therefore worth reporting by the media. And, increasingly, wherever one looks, that narrative is about demonizing the innocent and/or law-abiding and exonerating the guilty and/or law-breaking. Thus, every year in America, several thousand blacks, including children, are tragically killed by other blacks (324,000 between just 1979 and 2014). The media could care less. Yet, when one black man, George Floyd, was inadvertently killed during an arrest, the media went ballistic in an effort to further the narrative that all police are “racist.” Of course, the media never cared about George Floyd; they only cared about using him to demonize the police, whose job it is to maintain law and order.
Similarly, the media do not care about the Palestinians; they only care about using them to demonize Israel, which is also trying to maintain law and order, including by defending itself against nonstop terrorist attacks from its Muslim neighbors.
From here, one also understands why it is that when the shoe is on the other foot—when the guilty butcher the innocent, as Muslims are doing to Christians, not because they are trying to maintain law and order, but because they hate “infidels”—the media is silent: that status quo is apparently fine as is and requires no attention, certainly no amelioration.

Understanding Iranian policies after Gaza
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/May 26/2021
There is no reason to be surprised about what is happening in the Middle East and the Gulf. All there is to it is that there is a war or there are wars, that Iran is waging on several fronts, from Yemen to Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It wants to assert that it is the main actor in the region. The recent bombing of the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq or what happened in Gaza, can only be understood against the background of this multifaceted war. In Palestine, the essentially-Iranian rockets of “Hamas”, threatened Tel Aviv and closed Ben Gurion Airport in Lod for several days. The message seems very clear, that the “Islamic Republic” has what it takes to respond to Israel in its own territory and that it is capable of reprisals.
Iran has already taken revenge for everything it has been exposed to recently, starting with the theft of files related to its nuclear programme in 2018 to the assassination of its most prominent nuclear scientist, Mohsen Nour Bakhsh, in a location not far from Tehran … in mysterious circumstances.
In any case, Iran taught Israel an important lesson and revealed that its proxies allow it respond without the need for direct Iranian military intervention.
There are Palestinians who are willing not only to hijack the Jerusalem uprising for the sake of Iran. These Palestinians are also ready to sacrifice every citizen in Gaza and every building and public facility there in order to prove that they are at the service of the Iranian expansionist project in the region.
With its Iranian missiles, “Hamas” hijacked the uprising of the people of Jerusalem, which had triggered a wave of international sympathy with the Palestinians and their cause. The people of Jerusalem have proven that they can resist injustice of all kinds, including the injustice inflicted on them by the Donald Trump administration, which moved the US embassy to the holy city and recognised unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, the people of Jerusalem could not prevent Hamas from hijacking their uprising. The anger of Jerusalemites was directed as much at the Palestinian National Authority, as it was toward Hamas.Their uprising was against the occupation and the Palestinian political behaviour in general in light of the blockage of all options before the President of the National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas “Abu Mazen”, who had invoked Jerusalem as his reason to postpone the Palestinian legislative elections!
The Hamas rockets came to take the uprising of the people of Jerusalem to the place where Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it to be. The salvoes caused the Israeli right-wingers to huddle around the prime minister who had been abandoned in favour of the centrist Yossi Lapid.
The biggest loser now seems to be the Palestinian National Authority and Abu Mazen, in particular. It is true that US President Joe Biden contacted Abbas recently, but it is also true that the President of the National Authority has no means whatsoever to influence events. These can be influenced by the one who owns missiles, which today means “Hamas”. In the final analysis, the decision of “Hamas” is an Iranian decision. And these days, it is more Iranian than ever.
What applies to Palestine applies to Iraq, where Iran is establishing new militias that are more effective than those affiliated with the broad umbrella of “the Popular Mobilization Forces”.
These militias bomb American targets, such as the US embassy in Baghdad or military bases housing Americans. The important thing is that Iran, through these militias, can say that Washington must yield to its demands for a return to the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 without any amendments, with all that means in terms of lifting the sanctions imposed by the Donald Trump administration.
These sanctions have exhausted the Iranian economy and exposed its vulnerability.
Iran’s insistence on staying in Syria, through its militias and the groups affiliated with the “Revolutionary Guards”, cannot be separated from the war waged by the “Islamic Republic”.
The same applies to the Houthis’ continued launching of missiles and drones towards Saudi territory. Who are the Houthis? Where did they get their missiles and drones? The answer is one word: Iran. Likewise, it is not possible to separate the Lebanese collapse and the obstacles that President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil are putting in front of efforts to form a government, led by Saad Hariri, outside the war waged by Iran on several fronts. Had Hezbollah been willing to accept it, a Lebanese government would have been formed long time ago. However, what happens to Lebanon and to the Lebanese is among the least concerns of Iran. Lebanon is nothing but a battle-field just like the one in Gaza.
In the Gaza war, Lebanese soil was used in the sense that Hezbollah allowed Palestinian factions to fire a few rockets towards Israeli territory. The militant party sent the message that Iran wanted to send.
The substance of that message is that Gaza did what it did to Israel by relying on just about 4,000 rockets, so what if Hezbollah also fired its own rockets?
Well, the new US administration wanted to avoid the Middle East and the Gulf. It paid attention to Iran and its nuclear programme. It was attentive to Yemen from a humanitarian perpsepective. But it could not follow this policy for long. The Middle East ended up taking Washington by storm.
It is not known what the Biden administration will do after it has sent its Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo and Amman.
What can Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “Abu Mazen” do for it after Hamas snatched Palestinian decision-making away from it?
The Biden administration needs a different approach. It is not enough to announce its support for the two-state option in order for it to find a magic solution in Palestine, where Hamas was able to keep Benjamin Netanyahu afloat politically.
A Palestinian state is the last option “Bibi” wants to discuss. The Israeli prime minister does not want to hear about anything except new settlements and transforming Palestine into a land without its people.
There is nothing wrong with the Biden administration borrowing some pages from the policy manual of the Trump administration towards Iran. The Trump administration was able to contain Iran and reduce its hostility, based on its full knowledge of Iranian behaviour in the region.
The starting point is realising that what is more important than the Iranian nuclear programme at the present time are the Iranian missiles and the militias that are fighting the wars of the “Islamic Republic” throughout the region.
If there is a lesson that can be learned after the Gaza war, it is that Iranian missiles are supposed to be on the table in any negotiations of any kind with Iran. Iran wages a war, many wars… What will America do?