English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 31/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.may31.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
I am the true vine, and my Father is the
vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch
that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
John 15/01-08/: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He
removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he
prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word
that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch
cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and
I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever
does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are
gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father
is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News & Editorials published on May 30- 31/2021
Your Lebanon Is Holy, Defend Its Sovereignty & Independence/Elias Bejjani/ٍMay
29/2021
Health Ministry: 244 new Corona cases, 7 deaths
Lebanon Vaccinates over 10,000 in Day-Long 'Marathon'
Pope Francis to meet Christian representatives from Lebanon on July 1
Rahi Affirms: We respect friendly countries’ decision not to offer support
unless a successful government is established
Rahi: Lebanon will rise from the rubble
Devaluation of Lebanese Pound: What did the dollar record today?
Hariri to be in Beirut within 24 Hours, Says Alloush
Hariri Tweets after Rumors Say He's Being Held in UAE
Army clarifies information provided by media figure
Fneish: Problem of forming a government internal, not linked to external
pressures
Najm: President of the Republic must realize that it is not possible to form a
government that does not satisfy the international community
Salim Aoun: No solution to government crisis except though President of
Republic, PM-designate’s meeting
Hassan: Pfizer Marathon soon
Art evening in Tokyo in support of Lebanon following the Beirut Port explosion
Japanese Ambassador, Musharrafiyeh tour Ehden Reserve
Stand up, Beirut Port blast is a pure terrorist action,” Fares Saeed affirms
We are pleased with success of vaccination marathon achieved by Ministry of
Health,” Abdallah affirms
For these reasons Middle East Airlines will charge ticket prices in dollar
Lebanese cops rescue boy who was chained, arrest his mother
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on May
30-
31/2021
2 killed, at least 20 others injured after shooters fire into a crowd at
a Florida club
Ashkenazi lands in Egypt in first Foreign Minister visit in 13 years
Concerns mount about young Iranian rapper jailed for singing
Iran’s cabinet dismisses central bank chief Hemmati
Iran confirms spying, propaganda charges against French detainee
Exclusive: Iran’s Reza Pahlavi pessimistic on nuclear deal but optimistic about
future of ties with Saudi Arabia, Israel
Israeli 'Change' Bloc Steps Up Effort to Oust Netanyahu
Exiled Turkey mob boss opens new Pandora’s box with Syria claims
French detainee awaiting trial in Iran for spying, propaganda charges
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published
on May 30-
31/2021
Why Iranians will reject this sham presidential election/Dr. Majid
Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 30/2021
Tehran’s militia thugs outgun the Iraqi state … again/Baria Alamuddin/Arab
News/May 30/2021
Turkey feels the big freeze from Washington/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/May 30/2021
How did Iran target a secret CIA site in Iraq?/Seth J. Frantman/Jerusalem
Post/Mat 30/2021
Mob boss: Turkey diverted aid for Turkmen to 'Nusra' linked extremists/Seth J.
Frantman/Jerusalem Post/Mat 30/2021
The countdown to an Iranian nuclear tragedy is ticking/Bruce Portnon/Jerusalem
Post/Mat 30/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News
& Editorials published on May 30- 31/2021
Your Lebanon Is Holy, Defend Its Sovereignty & Independence
Elias Bejjani/ٍMay 29/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77734/elias-bejjani/
History teaches us that almost none of the world’s greatest nations have ever
been defeated by their rivals. All of them were first weakened and destroyed
from within, before their enemies were able to bring them to their knees. Even
medicine teaches us that when the body loses immunity it becomes vulnerable to
disease. Perhaps the best examples of this can be seen in the fall of the
Ottoman and Roman empires.
These historical and medical realities are a good example of what personifies
the pathetic derailed stances of some of our people in both occupied Lebanon and
in Diaspora. These people are destroying the Lebanese communities from within,
through their shameless collaboration and subservience to the Iranian
occupation.
“Everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (John 8-34), and every Lebanese who
betrays his people to advocate for the Iranian occupation in any way and by any
means is also a sinner too.
These mercenaries and Pharisees, are void of any kind of dignity or national
honor. Unfortunately they come from all walks of life and from all religious
backgrounds and regions.
They have sold themselves to the devil in a bid to increase their riches and
solidify their power. They steal, cheat, embezzle, betray, and change their skin
for personal interests, all at the expense of the Lebanese people and Lebanon.
They ignore Lebanon’s deeply rooted history, distinguishable identity, and they
have no respect for the sacrifices of the many thousands of Lebanese patriots
who offered themselves on the nation’s altar to enable us to be proud,
prosperous and independent.
These antagonists are thirsty for power and blood; They sold their souls and
honor for thirty pieces of silver. They have no respect for Lebanon’s 7000 years
of civilization, culture and its glorious history. They are masters in
defeatism, ignorance, cowardice and faithlessness.
Their wicked camouflage, sweet words and lies are well known to all those who
are witnesses to the truth. They have missed the fact that Lebanon’s people have
never, ever knelt and hung their heads before any tyrant, invader, occupier or
conqueror.
All foreign invaders with their armies were forced to leave Lebanon in defeat,
humiliation and a fractured dignity.
The only memory of these invaders are the primitive carvings on the “Nahr Al-Kaleb”
rocks, near the city of Beirut. These carvings should foretell to the Iranian
occupiers their fate in Lebanon and that they definitely are not going to be any
better than those who like them deluded themselves and falsely believed that
they can destroy Lebanon and subdue its people.
They have all left while Lebanon and its people still stand as proud and
patriotic as they were 7000 years ago!
We remind the Pharisees and Trojans, who apparently suffer of an advanced
selective amnesia that the people of Sidon in the year 350 BC, chose to burn
themselves and their city after their prolonged heroic resistance failed to
safeguard their city against the Persian invader Artechtahta. They preferred to
die with dignity rather than live with humiliation.
The people of Tyre followed this same pattern in 332 BC. They resisted Alexander
the Great’s mighty army for seven months refusing to surrender or kneel.
Alexander, after capturing the city crucified many of the brave Tyrians, while
enslaving others in a bid to revenge his huge loss and demeaning humiliation.
In the same context,The Maronite Patriarch Gabriel Hgola choose to be burned
(1367 AD) in Tripoli northen Lebanese City in front of the Omari mosque in a bid
to save his people from the Mamlouk’s humiliation and torture.
The same sacrifice was taken by the Maronite Patriarch Daniel Al-Amshiti in the
same place in year 1282 for almost the same reasons and for the same cause.
In principle, a man is considered defeated when winning the whole universe, if
he lacks the courage needed to witness the truth and defend God’s word. By the
same token, the brave man who honors human values and dignity, remains
victorious even when imprisoned and chained in shackles.
We remind those who are afraid to takes clear stances in life, change their skin
to suit their opportunistic interests, and lack the courage to witness the
truth, that by doing so, they are committing the worst mortal crime. Imam Ali
says in this regard: “He who accepts acts of others is considered their partner.
He who is involved in evil acts commits two sins, that of performing the act and
that of its acceptance.”
We call on our derailed leaders and politicians in occupied Lebanon to
strengthen your faith, repent for their cowardice behavior and be witness for
the truth.
We call on them not to fall into the trap of individual interests, and not to be
deceived by the golden garments and illustrious schemes of those who have been
assigned to divide our nation and communities, and spread hatred and conflicts
among its members.
These derailed and weak shepherds, “God has blinded their eyes and closed their
minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand,
and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to help them”. (John 12-39).
It is a proven fact that the coward is a blind man in both sight and discretion,
whose conscience has turned numb.
Shame on every Lebanese who keeps a blind eye towards his people who imprisoned
arbitrarily in the Syrian jails and shame on every Lebanese who does not support
human rights and does not advocate for Lebanon’s liberation.
Shame on all these Lebanese who are scared to oppose the occupation of their
country, so as not to be expelled from the heaven of opportunistic interests and
privileges provided by the occupier, or in fear of his reprisal. They have
chosen the track of sin rather than that of righteousness.
These Pharisees are destroying the country which is our holy temple. They should
be dealt with in the same way Jesus did over 2000 years ago:
“It was almost time for the Passover festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There
in the temple he found men selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and also the money
changers sitting at their tables. So He made a whip from the cords and drove all
the animals out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the
tables of the money changers and scattered their coins; and he ordered the men
who sold the pigeons: Take them out of here, stop making my Fathers House a
marketplace”. John 03-13
We call on all those who have accepted slavery, are afraid to be witnesses for
the truth, feel defeated inside themselves, have deviated from the righteous
track, camouflaging, cheating and betraying Lebanon; We call on all of them to
wake up and start thoroughly reviewing their dangerous acts! Forgiveness is
always there and Lebanon’s open loving arms will embrace them once they repent.
“If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples, you know the truth, and
the truth will set you free”. (John 8-13)
Health Ministry: 244 new Corona cases, 7 deaths
NNA/May 30/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, the registration of 244
new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases
to-date to 540,132. It also indicated that 7 deaths were recorded during the
past 24 hours.
Lebanon Vaccinates over 10,000 in Day-Long 'Marathon'
Agence France Presse/May 30/2021
Lebanon vaccinated more than 10,000 people on Saturday as part of a day-long
vaccine "marathon" organized by the health ministry to ramp up inoculation rates
in the crisis-hit country. The ministry said that by 6:30 pm (1530 GMT), 10,452
people over the age of 30 received jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine at different
facilities across the country. They were allowed to enter vaccination centers on
a walk-in basis from early Saturday morning in what health authorities have
dubbed a vaccine "marathon". The capital Beirut and some other parts of the
country were excluded from the initiative, but outgoing health minister Hamad
Hassan said there were plans for a second such event that would cover more
areas. "Some regions didn't want to participate but after today's encouraging
experience, everyone will soon take part," he said, without specifying when.
Hassan himself was inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at one of the centers
in a move aimed at encouraging hesitant citizens. Lebanon, mired in its worst
economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, has recorded 540,132 coronavirus
cases, including 7,718 deaths, since its outbreak began last year. The country
of more than six million has administered at least one vaccine dose to over
700,000 people. Firass Abiad, the head of Lebanon's main hospital for
coronavirus patients, called the day a "big success."He said 170,000 doses of
the Pfizer vaccine were expected to arrive in the country on Sunday.
Pope Francis to meet Christian representatives from
Lebanon on July 1
SBI/May 30/2021
Pope Francis announced on Sunday he would hold a meeting on July 1 in Rome to
discuss Lebanon’s dire situation with Christian representatives from the
country. Francis said after Sunday’s Angelus prayer: “I’ll meet at the Vatican
with the leaders of the Christian communities in Lebanon to reflect on the
worrying situation in the country and pray together for the gift of peace and
stability.”On April 22, the pope promised Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate
Saad al-Hariri that he would visit the country but only after political forces
put aside differences for the good of the people. Hariri told Lebanese
television afterwards that Francis would visit but only once its fractious
politicians were able to agree on a new government. “I explained to His Holiness
Pope Francis the problems we are suffering from and asked His Holiness to help
Lebanon,” Hariri said. “His Holiness the pope will visit Lebanon but after a
government is formed. And this is a message to the Lebanese, that we must form a
government so that everyone can gather … to revive Lebanon with our friends,” he
said. A Vatican statement said Francis “reaffirmed his closeness to the Lebanese
people, who are living through very difficult and uncertain times, and spoke of
the responsibility of all political forces to urgently commit themselves to the
good of the nation.” Hariri, a three-time prime minister, stepped down in 2019
after nationwide demonstrations against a political elite which protesters
blamed for dragging the country into crisis. He was nominated premier again in
October but remains at loggerheads with President Michel Aoun over a cabinet
lineup. Lebanon is still reeling from a massive explosion caused by improperly
stored ammonium nitrate at the Port of Beirut. The blast killed at least 200
people, injured more than 6,000 and rendered 300,000 others homeless. Large
sections of the port and its infrastructure were destroyed, including most of
Beirut’s grain reserves, and billions of dollars in damages were inflicted
across the city.
Rahi Affirms: We respect friendly countries’ decision
not to offer support unless a successful government is established
SBI/May 30/2021
Cardinal Bchara Boutros Rahi, Maronite Patriarch, affirms that “Lebanon will
rise out of the scrub and return to an autonomous, sovereign, free and neutral
state.” “If the ruling party realized Lebanon’s privacy and identity, it’d not
have taken the path of corruption,” said Rahi, during Sunday’s mass service.”
The Patriarch saluted the groups that “rebelled against the injustice of the de
facto situation and the quota system, because the ruling authority, which was
unable to secure the most basic necessities of life, declared its failure on its
own.”He pointed out that “the time has come to rationalize support without
touching mandatory reserves of the Central Bank, as the warehouses are full of
food and medicine, and the Lebanese people are paying the price.”“We totally
respect friendly countries’ decision not to offer support unless a successful
government is established,” Rahi added. In conclusion, he reiterated the call
for the International Conference “to resolve Lebanon’s problems and move towards
neutrality under the auspices of the United Nations.”
Rahi: Lebanon will rise from the rubble
NNA/May 30/2021
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, affirmed that "Lebanon
will emerge from the rubble and return to being an independent, sovereign, free
and neutral state."Rahi, who presided over Sunday Mass service, wished, "if the
ruling group had realized the privacy and identity of Lebanon, it would not have
taken the path of corruption."The Patriarch saluted the groups that "rebelled
against the injustice of the de facto situation and the quota system, because
the ruling authority, which was unable to secure the most basic necessities of
life, declared its failure on its own."
He pointed out that "the time has come to rationalize subsidy without touching
mandatory reserves of the Central Bank, as the warehouses are full of food and
medicine, and the Lebanese people are paying the price.""We understand the
decision of friendly countries not to provide support without forming a
salvation government," Rahi added. Finally, he renewed the call for an
"international conference under the auspices of the United Nations to solve
Lebanon's problems and move towards neutrality."
Devaluation of Lebanese Pound: What did the dollar record
today?
SBI/May 30/2021
Dollar exchange rate ranged from 12,740 to 12,790 Lebanese pounds on the black
market on the Sunday morning. In addition to the deteriorating safety
conditions, the spread of robbery and insecurity and the high rate for the
dollar are linked to increased in food prices, losses of subsidized products
from the markets and manipulation of prices in absence of Authority. Besides the
months-long political crises and other crises, the rising dollar exchange rate
and the liquidity crisis are paid for by citizens who suffer the erosion of
their buying capacity due to widespread unemployment and a loss of over 80% of
their value over the course of this crisis.
Hariri to be in Beirut within 24 Hours, Says Alloush
Naharnet/May 30/2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will return to Beirut within the next 24
hours, al-Mustaqbal Movement deputy head Mustafa Alloush said on Sunday. “He
will study the new developments resulting from Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative
and in light of that he will make new choices or a new decision,” Alloush said
in an interview with Radio All of Lebanon (93.3). “Communication with Hariri as
part of the new initiative only started 48 hours ago,” Alloush revealed,
criticizing President Michel Aoun for “sending two cabinet formats to Maronite
Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi,” adding that such a move “confirms that the
President’s camp seeks to disrupt things when they lean toward a
solution.”Alloush also underlined that Hariri is “open to working on posts and
names” but will never accept giving any camp a one-third-plus-one share nor
granting the President the justice and interior portfolios.
Hariri Tweets after Rumors Say He's Being Held in UAE
Naharnet/May 30/2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Sunday posted a morning greeting on his
official Twitter account, hours after social media rumors claimed that he was
being detained in the UAE. “Good morning. How are you today?” Hariri said to how
followers. MTV said the rumors about Hariri’s detention were launched by
supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement before being circulated by other
social media users. A source close to Hariri had overnight told al-Jadeed TV
that the PM-designate was “monitoring the social media rumors about his
detention in the UAE.”“He bemoans the feeble-mindedness of those who launched
them, whose affiliation is well-known,” the source said. “They are contributing
to aggravating tensions through publishing fake news and straining relations
with foreign countries,” the source added.
Army clarifies information provided by media figure
NNA/May 30/2021
In an issued statement today by the Lebanese Army Command’s Orientation
Directorate, it referred to certain information disclosed by a media
professional in which he claimed that one of the countries has asked the Army
Commander to form a military government, among other positions pertaining to the
military institution. “It is important for the army leadership to clarify that
all that was mentioned by said journalist are mere analyses that have nothing to
do with reality,” the statement asserted. It added that everything the Army is
doing, especially at this stage, stems from two basic matters, the first is to
protect security and stability in the country, and the second is to do
everything possible to secure aid to the military institution to enable it to
perform its various tasks. The statement continued to reiterate that “the
military institution that implements the decisions of the political authority is
completely unconcerned with all published analyses and allegations, particularly
since its first and only concern is to fortify the army and provide it with the
necessary capabilities to overcome these difficult and delicate circumstances
that Lebanon is going through.” “The army leadership also calls on everyone to
be aware of the sensitivity of the current stage and to refrain from engaging
the army in political affairs it has nothing to do with whatsoever,” the
statement concluded.
Fneish: Problem of forming a government internal, not
linked to external pressures
NNA/May 30/2021
Former Minister Mohammad Fneish pointed Sunday to “renewed efforts to form the
government through the role of House Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah,” adding,
“We provide all possible support to address the problem, which is clearly
internal and not linked to external pressures,’ while noting that "external
interventions played a role in reaching this situation." Fneish’s words came
during a political meeting held at the Imam Khomeini Cultural Center in the city
of Nabatiyeh in the South, marking the occasion of “Resistance and Liberation
Day”, in the presence of prominent figures and representative from the region.
“We entered a very serious crisis in terms of the future of the country and the
security and economy of the people. We must work to form a government to reduce
this crisis," he underlined. At the regional scene, Fneish considered that "the
struggle today is not only with the Zionist enemy, but rather the real struggle
is with this tyrannical, arrogant spread that the US administration clearly
represents, so that the region remains under shinning slogans..."“We witnessed a
shift in public opinion, and we saw demonstrations of popular support for the
Palestinian cause because it is a humanitarian issue," he said. On the Syrian
issue, Fneish affirmed “the importance of defeating the Takfiri terrorism, which
posed a threat to the region and its peoples..."
Najm: President of the Republic must realize that it is not
possible to form a government that does not satisfy the international community
NNA/May 30/2021
Head of the Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Parliamentary Committee,
MP Nazih Najm, said Sunday that “without a government, there is no solution for
anything, neither for electricity, nor for flour, nor for diesel, nor for
medicine,” considering that “all current treatment proposals are like morphine
needles and not a root solution to the problems.”“Without an executive
authority, the country is heading towards ruin," warned Najm in an interview
with "NBN" Channel earlier today. In this connection, the MP praised the efforts
of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and hoped that he would succeed in eliminating
the obstacles, while highlighting the need to help the Speaker, “as it is not
possible to ask him and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form the
government alone without the help of the remaining sides.” He also hoped that
Hezbollah Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, would “press in the right
direction on the other party so that the government can be formed.” Najm
continued to stress that "what is required of the President of the Republic,
General Michel Aoun, and the Head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran
Bassil, is know well that it is not possible to form a government that does not
satisfy the international community so that Lebanon can obtain funds from
abroad.""We do not want a government with a hundred heads that cannot work and
produce," Najm asserted, adding that "in the event of a desire to form a
government similar to the current caretaker government, it is better for things
to remain as they are today." The MP reiterated that “what is needed is a
government that produces and advances the economy,” hoping that the other
parties would meet them in this proposition, as the Lebanese are no longer able
to bear any further delay in solving their daily crises. “How will people
continue their lives if subsidies are lifted,” he questioned, calling for
“addressing people’s issues, instead of stopping at an additional minister, a
third veto power, and the number of cabinet ministers.”Najm concluded by
emphasizing that “without addressing the government dossier, all conversations
are worthless.”
Salim Aoun: No solution to government crisis except though
President of Republic, PM-designate’s meeting
NNA/May 30/2021
MP Salim Aoun stressed that "there is no solution to the current government
crisis except through a meeting between President Michel Aoun and Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri," noting that "the basis of the current problem
is the lack of trust between both parties."Speaking in an interview with “Voice
of All Lebanon 93.3" Radio Channel this morning, Aoun said: "The session that
was devoted to discussing the letter of the President of the Republic was the
one that moved the stalemate conditions in the government dossier." He
considered that "Hariri should indicate frankly what he is waiting for in
regards to the cabinet formation and what he wants, and if he actually agrees to
the 24 ministers’ formula." "Hariri does not want to form the government before
obtaining the approval of the Saudi Kingdom, and the only one benefiting from
not reaching a government is the one wishing to fail the covenant," Aoun went
on.
The MP criticized "the bad relationship between the PM-designate and the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia," noting that "Hariri has become a burden on Lebanon.”Responding
to a question regarding the "Strong Lebanon" deputies’ resigning threat, Aoun
explained that "this option exists, but its postponement is linked to the
existence of a glimmer of hope for a solution, but when this hope is
extinguished, the decision to resign is inevitable."
Hassan: Pfizer Marathon soon
NNA/May 30/2021
Caretaker Public Health Minister, Hamad Hassan, tweeted this evening: “The first
batch of one hundred and fifty thousand vaccines is now gratefully received from
Pfizer, out of the seven hundred and eighty thousand scheduled for the month of
June; Pfizer marathon coming soon; we are by your side to protect you.”
Art evening in Tokyo in support of Lebanon following the
Beirut Port explosion
NNA/May 30/2021
Lebanese Producer, Madeleine Abdel-Jaleel Umewaka, wife of Japanese Artist
Naohiko Umewaka, who is responsible for the Noah Theater, the oldest remaining
form of the ancient Japanese theater, held a Lebanese event under the headline,
"Pray for Beirut", in the most prestigious hotels in Tokyo, the proceeds of
which go to help Lebanon in wake of the Beirut Port blast last August. The event
was held under the patronage of the Lebanese Embassy in Japan, and in the
presence of Ambassador Nidal Yehia, Commercial Attache at the Embassy Bashir Bou
Rashid, and Princess Takamado in a gesture of Japanese solidarity with Lebanon.
The ceremony included a theatrical performance and Arabic music, as Japanese
Artist Midori Anoui sang songs in Arabic, accompanied by a Japanese band, with
the participation as well of Japanese Artist Shonosuke Okura, the ambassador of
Japanese heritage. The song "Beirut" by the Lebanese Diva, Fairuz, reaped a huge
audience applaud during the event. Then, a short play was shown by Umewaka,
about a stone bridge, symbolizing the call to deepen the friendship bond between
Lebanon and Japan, and to strengthen it through the traditional culture and arts
of the two friendly peoples. The proceeds of the event go to the Japanese Red
Cross and from it to the Lebanese Red Cross and "UNESCO". The organizers did not
forget the Lebanese artists and their role in the country in terms of portraying
a comprehensive civilized message, so they allocated $8,500 to the Syndicate of
Actors in Lebanon to be given to its members, particularly those who were
affected by the port explosion, and those suffering from illness and taking
chronic medication. Through this message, the organizers aimed to reinforce the
pulse of the Lebanese society, embodied by the Actors Syndicate in Lebanon,
which is the oldest in the Arab world. In appreciation of the solidarity of the
Japanese people with Lebanon in their plight, Lebanese Actors Syndicate Head,
Artist Nehme Badawi, addressed a letter of gratitude to all those who
contributed to the success of this valuable and profound initiative.
Japanese Ambassador, Musharrafiyeh tour Ehden Reserve
NNA/May 30/2021
Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs and Tourism, Ramzi Al-Musharrafiyeh, and
Japanese Ambassador Takeshi Okubo toured the Ehden reserve, accompanied by the
caretaker Minister of Labor Lamia Yammine Douaihy.
Ehden Reserve Director, Sandra Koussa, explained to Okubo the Reserve’s
importance, richness and diversity. It is worth mentioning herein that Ehden
Reserve is between 1700m and 3000m above sea level and 100km away from the
capital, Beirut. It has become a popular destination for many visitors such as
diplomatic bodies, ambassadors, consuls of the United States, Britain, Austria,
Turkey and Canada, as well as experts and scholars, researchers, students and
expatriates. Lebanon has fourteen natural reserves that form about 3% of its
area. These reserves encompass rich biological diversity with around 370
different kinds of birds and 2000 types of plants and wild flowers, many of
which are unique to Lebanon. The natural reserves are also home to thirty
species of mammals, including the wolf, hyena, wildcat, porcupine and squirrel.
Stand up, Beirut Port blast is a pure terrorist action,”
Fares Saeed affirms
SBI/May 30/2021
Former MP Faris Saeed wrote on his Twitter page: “We’re about to learn what
happened in China and reasons behind the emergence of COVID-19 epidemic, and not
one official responsible for the explosion in Beirut has been revealed yet! They
killed, blew up, and rooted Beirut out from the Mediterranean, I mean Hezbollah
and the State, and if I am mistaken, then prove me wrong!”“Martyrs’ families
have been abandoned in a situation that increases their grief in failing to
progress to the truth,” noting that “the port issue was closed and the political
forces ended up moving to the elections’ issue. Hezbollah is demanding that the
case of the port be shutdown and “compensation” distributed while the state is
busy with sharing authorities. Stand up, Beirut Port blast is a pure terrorist
action, not an accident!” Saeed concluded.
We are pleased with success of vaccination marathon
achieved by Ministry of Health,” Abdallah affirms
SBI/May 30/2021
A member of the Democratic Meeting, MP Bilal Abdullah, affirmed via Twitter: “We
are pleased with success of vaccination marathon achieved by Ministry of Health
in order to reach immunization against Covid-19.” “Such a step paves the way for
new initiatives to urge all people to register for the vaccine through the
platform so that we would be able to progressively restore our normal lives,
revitalize our damaged economy, return to universities and colleges and resume
all types of activities. Protection = vaccine!” Abdallah concluded.
For these reasons Middle East Airlines will charge ticket
prices in dollar
SBI/May 30/2021
The Chairman of the Middle East Airlines, Mohamad El-Hout, explained the reasons
behind the company’s decision to receive ticket prices in dollars starting from
June.
He said that the company pays 85 percent of its expenditures in dollars starting
from the maintenance of the aircraft, reaching the airport of the rental fees.”
El Hout said: “We are obliged to to charge the prices of the tickets in dollars
to ensure sustainability and continuity of the company.”“This decision is
limited to the Middle East Airlines, and is accompanied with price adjustments.
The aviation sector is threatened from witnessing contraction, similar to the
situation that prevailed during coronavirus pandemic.”
Lebanese cops rescue boy who was chained, arrest his mother
SBI/May 30/2021
Social media activist Abdul Kader Al-Bay posted on his personal Facebook account
a video depicting a boy chained to the wall inside a house. Al-Bay said the boy
was chained up inside a house located in the southern Lebanese village of
Jouaiyya, adding that policemen broke into the house, freed him and arrested his
mother. No further details were provided.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And
News published on May 30- 31/2021
2 killed, at least 20 others injured after
shooters fire into a crowd at a Florida club
CNN/May 30/2021
Two people were killed and at least 20 others were injured in a shooting early
Sunday outside of a billiards club in Hialeah, Florida, according to Miami-Dade
police director Alfredo Ramirez III.A white Nissan Pathfinder pulled up to the
location between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m., Ramirez said. Three people got out with
assault weapons and handguns and started firing into the crowd that was gathered
for a concert at the venue, he said.
Ashkenazi lands in Egypt in first Foreign Minister visit
in 13 years
Jerusalem Post/May 30/2021
Ashkenazi’s visit comes as Egypt advances a formal, long-term ceasefire between
Israel and Hamas following the 11-day exchange of fire that ended on May 21 with
mediation from Cairo. Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi landed in Cairo on Sunday
morning, making him the first to do so in 13 years. Ashkenazi’s visit comes as
Egypt advances a formal, long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas following
the 11-day exchange of fire that ended on May 21 with mediation from
Cairo.Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry invited Ashkenazi to discuss the
ceasefire, as well as bilateral ties between their countries. "Thank you for
your invitation," Ashkenazi tweeted to Shoukri upon his arrival in Egypt.
"During the visit we will hold a number of meetings in which we will discuss
bilateral maters, strengthening economic and trade ties, and deepen the
arrangements with Gaza and rehabilitating the [Gaza] Strip with international
enforcement."Ashkenazi said he plans to "emphasize that Israel is committed,
above all else, to bring back our soldiers and civilians held by Hamas."Two IDF
soldiers are believed to be held by Hamas since in 2014 Gaza war – Lt. Hadar
Goldin and St. Sgt. Oron Shaul – as well two civilians — Avera Mengistu and
Hisham al-Sayed. Simultaneously to Ashkenazi’s Cairo trip, the head of Egypt’s
General Intelligence Service (GIS), Abbas Kamel, arrived in Israel for meetings
with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen
and National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat. Kamel is expected to visit
the Gaza Strip in the coming days as part of Cairo’s ongoing efforts to maintain
the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Egyptian sources said on Saturday. Kamel is also
scheduled to visit Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and senior PA officials concerning Egypt’s initiative to
contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the
11-day war, the Egyptian sources told the New Arab news website. Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pledged $500 million to help reconstruction
efforts in the Gaza Strip. On Friday, Egyptian intelligence officials arrived in
the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing with Israel for additional talks
with leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions on ways of maintaining the
ceasefire. It was the third visit of its kind to the Gaza Strip by Egyptian
intelligence officials since the end of the fighting. The Egyptian security
delegation was headed by Gen. Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, who holds the Palestinian
portfolio in the GIS. The sources claimed that the delegation relayed a message
from Israel to Hamas “stop provoking Israeli officials.”The Egyptians have also
invited leaders of the Palestinian factions to Cairo for talks related to the
ceasefire and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Concerns mount about young Iranian rapper jailed for
singing
Jerusalem Post/Mat 30/2021
“I can’t breathe” said the rapper who is being compared to George Floyd. The
imprisonment of 18-year-old Iranian Sara, who is being held incommunicado
because she sings as a rapper, has stoked new worries about her condition. “This
poor female rapper from Iran still remains in detention,” women’s campaigner and
journalist Masih Alinejad tweeted Friday. “Because her rap music uses rebellious
words, neither her family nor domestic news outlets are supportive of her. She’s
alone. Help us raise her voice and be her voice,”Alinejad posted a video in
which Sara says during her arrest: “I can’t breathe.” Sara was “brutally
arrested in the city of Borazjan,” Alinejad wrote. “Her crime? She dared to sing
in a country where singing is forbidden for women. Her close friend told me: ‘No
one knows where she’s detained. We are all worried.’” Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian
dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due to repression, told The
Jerusalem Post on Saturday: “People are comparing her to George Floyd, for whom
the regime was grieving for a long time due to its anti-American intentions to
make a cruel face of America. The backward clerics in Iran are against the women
and oppose the beautiful nature of women.”“According to them [clerics], women
are the reason why men are tempted into committing sins, whether with their
beautiful voices or with their beautiful bodies or faces, and I think they’re
also offending men with their primitive thoughts because they see them without a
sense of humanity,” she said. “In fact, they are against beauty and love.”In a
third tweet on Saturday, Alinejad wrote: “I call on rappers worldwide to raise
awareness about the brutal arrest of [the] 18-year-old female Iranian rapper. As
this cartoon explains her plight in one sentence: ‘I can’t breathe.”’The Post
could not locate the last name of Sara in Persian, but her artistic name is
Solkws.
Iran’s cabinet dismisses central bank chief Hemmati
Arab News/May 30/2021
TEHRAN: Iran’s Cabinet dismissed the governor of the central bank on Sunday
after he decided to run for the June 18 presidential election, state TV
reported. The report said the decision was taken after Abdonasser Hemmati
decided to run in presidential elections and “it prevents him from having a
sufficient presence in the central bank and carrying out the serious duties and
responsibilities of the CBI chief in the sensitive areas of money and currency.”
The report also said Deputy Governor Akbar Komijani would be taking over all
responsibilities from Hemmati, who had held the position since 2018. Hemmati in
an Instagram post thanked Rouhani, and said the president has the power to
dismiss him. “I thank the president for his trust, especially in the first year
of my service.”On Wednesday, Iran’s Guardian Council — clerics and jurists who
approve presidential candidates — approved only seven out of some 590
applicants. The Council on Tuesday barred former parliament speaker Ali Larijani,
a conservative allied with Rouhani, as well as former President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad from running.
Iran confirms spying, propaganda charges against French
detainee
NNA/AFP/May 30/2021
Iranian prosecutors have confirmed a French man detained in the Islamic republic
will be tried for espionage and "propaganda against the system", his lawyer told
AFP on Sunday. Benjamin Briere, born in 1985, was arrested in Iran in May 2020,
allegedly while flying a drone and taking photographs in a prohibited area.
Espionage is punishable by death in Iran, while the charge of "propaganda
against the system" can incur a prison sentence of three months to one year.
Lawyer Said Dehghan, who also represents another French national held in the
country, told AFP the investigation had been completed and the prosecution had
confirmed the charges. "The prosecutor is preparing the indictment and sending
it to the revolutionary court for the continuation of the judicial process,"
Dehghan said. Briere, who is being held in the city of Mashhad in northeastern
Iran, was also facing charges of "corruption on earth", one of the most serious
offences under Iranian law, and drinking alcohol, punishable by flogging, but
those charges were dismissed after the investigation. The announcement comes
days after an open letter from Briere's sister, Blandine Briere, was published
by French weekly Le Point, in which she appealed to French President Emmanuel
Macron to push for her brother's release. She said the charges were "baseless"
and that Briere had become a "negotiating tool". In March, a spokesman for the
French foreign ministry said Briere was benefitting from consular support and
that its embassy in Tehran was in "regular contact" with him.
Arrests of foreigners in Iran -- especially dual nationals, who are often
accused of espionage -- have multiplied since former US president Donald Trump
in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with Iran
and reimposed harsh sanctions against Tehran. Iran has conducted several
exchanges of foreign prisoners, including researchers, with countries holding
Iranian nationals.
Exclusive: Iran’s Reza Pahlavi pessimistic on nuclear
deal but optimistic about future of ties with Saudi Arabia, Israel
Arab News/May 30/2021
DUBAI: Reza Pahlavi, the crown prince of Iran in exile, sees the outcome of the
talks on a new nuclear deal as “futile” as long as the current regime is in
place in Tehran.
“Regardless of what is trying to be negotiated here, the net outcome is that
it’s futile. The regime is simply using whatever it has as a means of blackmail
— forcing the world to deal with it so it can continue maintaining its grip on
the geopolitics of our region,” he told Arab News.
In a wide-ranging interview kicking off a second season of Frankly Speaking
video interviews, Pahlavi also talked about future Iranian relationships with
Saudi Arabia and other Middle East states, including Israel, once the ayatollah
regime has been ended, and the desire on the part of most Iranians to return to
a normal post-theocratic life. He insisted that he does not have ambitions to be
a new “shah” in Iran, and that it would be up to Iranians to choose what kind of
government they want to live under. “I’m not running for any office. My only
mission in life is to get to that finish line, which is the liberation of Iran
and, post this regime, to have an opportunity to establish a new secular,
democratic system … That day will be the end of my political mission in life,”
he said. Pahlavi, the eldest son of the late shah, was heir apparent to the
throne until the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Since then, he has lived mostly in the US as an activist/advocate against the
regime.
Pahlavi had a hard message for US President Joe Biden amid indirect talks
between Washington and Tehran on a new version of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action to regulate Iran’s nuclear industry and re-establish economic
links to the rest of the world. “This regime can’t change its behavior because
its entire existence depends on its viral state of wanting to export an ideology
and dominate the region either directly or via proxies,” said Pahlavi. “We’ve
seen in fact that (US sanctions), for the most part, increased pressure on the
regime and forced it to curtail its ability to do whatever it wanted to do. Any
relaxation (of pressure) emboldens (the regime) and enables it to further its
constant state of creating instability in the region.” Pahlavi believes that if
economic sanctions are lifted, it would only increase the potential for Iran to
fund terrorism in the region, where it has orchestrated attacks on Saudi Arabia
and other countries through its militias in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. “I
think we’ve seen that happen already once during the Obama administration, where
a tremendous amount of money was released to the regime and none of it was spent
on the people of Iran,” he said. Pahlavi looks forward to a new era of good
relations between Iran and its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, after a change
of regime in Tehran.
“Look at the way the relationship was before the revolution. When King Faisal of
Saudi Arabia passed away, there was a seven-day mourning period in Iran. That’s
the extent of what the relationship was,” Pahlavi said. “The people haven’t
changed; the regime has. And as a result of its negative impact in the region,
we can certainly anticipate a future where mutual respect and cordial
relationship will be conducive to better trade, better commerce, more
opportunities and (improvement of) people’s lives, standard of living,
healthcare, regional stability, security coordination and many (other) things.”
In a wide-ranging Frankly Speaking interview, Reza Pahlavi also talked about
future Iranian relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Middle East states. (Screengrab)
Pahlavi praised the Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the Saudi economy and
liberalize social and cultural life, as well as the Abraham Accords between
Israel and some Middle East countries. “Other nations are moving forward (in
order) not to depend on oil as a major source of revenue, readjusting their
economies and having plans for the future, and all of that in conjunction and
cooperation with each other. That’s the model to follow,” he said. “I can’t be
more happy to see that evolution, and the Abraham Accords, and everything that
comes after, because we’re in the direction of progress and regional cooperation
and opportunities.”
Pahlavi contrasted the role Iran used to play in the Gulf before the revolution
with the situation now, where the country and its people are increasingly
isolated.
“There was a time when people in Dubai were dreaming of coming to Tehran to go
to our supermarkets and shop in our stores. Today the dream of every Tehrani is
to go the furthest move away from Iran,” he said. Pahlavi insisted that there is
no deep-seated hatred on the part of Iranians for Arabs, Israelis or Americans,
pointing out that students in Tehran had recently refused to take part in
regime-organized demonstrations against foreign countries. “A nation like Iran,
which has a long history of civilization, of culture, of tolerance within
itself, has never had an issue of antagonism vis-a-vis any other culture or
nation,” he said. The regime’s theocratic rule has also alienated more Iranians
from religion, Pahlavi added. “I think religious governance has created a
situation where people are steering away from religion. In fact, there’s much
more apathy vis-a-vis any religious sentiment as a result of this regime
directly trying to force a politicized religion and impose it on the public,” he
said. “Iranians have learned it the hard way, and I think today you see that
even those who are pious in Iran don’t want this regime because they see the
damage that it causes to people’s faith and to the clerical establishment.”
The Iranian people are emerging from their own “Islamic Inquisition,” he said,
referring to the religious extremism of 16th-century Europe. Pahlavi also
attacked the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which
controls much of the country’s economic infrastructure in alliance with the
regime, as revealed in recent leaked comments by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif.
Pahlavi said: “I was glad that somebody from the regime itself is dismantling
this naive expectation by the Western world that moderates will be able to
resolve the issues should they be in a position of control. It’s a totalitarian
system at the end, depending on the decision of one supreme leader.”
He has advocated a democratic and secular system of government for his country,
either with an elected president or a constitutional monarchy. “It’s for the
people of Iran to ultimately decide the final form, so long as the content is
democratic, which is why I’ve asked my fellow compatriots — whether republicans
or monarchists — in the future to put forth their best model or proposition as
to what the final form could be,” he said. “Once the regime collapses, we
anticipate a period of transition where a temporary government will have to
manage the country’s affairs while a constituent assembly will draft a new
constitution, put to debate all these issues that are to be discussed, so that
the people of Iran ultimately have a choice of how and what would determine the
future.”According to Pahlavi, greater regional cooperation would help the Middle
East overcome many of the profound challenges it faces, such as climate change
and water shortages. “Long before we can resolve the political crisis, we should
worry about the water crisis that exists in our area. This isn’t only Iran but
many other countries also suffering from water crisis problems,” he said. “If
Iran today was a different Iran, you wouldn’t have missiles being shipped to
Yemen. We’d have scientists, including Israeli experts who are the best in the
field, working at resolving the water crisis for our respective countries.”'
Israeli 'Change' Bloc Steps Up Effort to Oust Netanyahu
Agence France Presse/May 30/2021
Israeli politicians Sunday inched closer to forming a coalition that would end
the era of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest
serving leader. Lawmakers opposed to Netanyahu were in intense talks ahead of a
Wednesday night deadline, as a ceasefire held following the latest deadly
military conflict with Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu, 71,
who faces trial on fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges which he denies,
has held onto power through a period of political turmoil that saw four
inconclusive elections in under two years. After a March vote in which
Netanyahu's Likud party gained the most seats but again failed to form a
government, former TV anchor Yair Lapid is now trying to build a rival
coalition. The centrist Lapid, 57, has until Wednesday 11:59 pm local time (2059
GMT) to build a coalition of at least 61 deputies for a majority in the 120-seat
Knesset.
Lapid is seeking to forge a diverse alliance the Israeli media has dubbed a bloc
for "change", which would include the nationalist hardliner Naftali Bennett as
well as Arab-Israeli lawmakers. In his determination to bring down the hawkish
prime minister, Lapid has offered to share power and let Bennett, 49, serve the
first term in a rotating premiership. Netanyahu, in office for 12 consecutive
years after an earlier three-year term, tried to cling to power Sunday by
offering his own, last-ditch power-sharing agreement to several former allies
including Bennett. He warned that Israel would otherwise be ruled by a dangerous
"left-wing" alliance. Lapid's possible new government would also include the
centrist Blue and White party of Benny Gantz and the hawkish New Hope party of
Netanyahu's former ally Gideon Saar. Avigdor Liberman's pro-settlement Yisrael
Beitenu party as well as Labor and the dovish Meretz party would also join the
coalition. The shaky arrangement would also need support from some Israeli Arab
lawmaker of Palestinian descent in order to pass a confirmation vote in
parliament.
'Desperate position'
The intense talks follow weeks of escalating tensions between Israel and the
Palestinians, including a deadly 11-day exchange of rocket fire from Gaza and
devastating Israeli airstrikes. The war with Hamas that ended with a May 21
truce, as well as tensions in the occupied West Bank and in mixed Jewish-Arab
towns in Israel, initially appeared to leave Netanyahu more likely to hold onto
power. But political scientist Gayil Talshir at Hebrew University told AFP on
Sunday that Israel was now "closer than ever" to a coalition of change, adding
that "Netanyahu is in a desperate position". Netanyahu's Likud party won 30
seats in the March elections but failed to form a governing coalition after his
far-right partners refused to sit with Arab factions or receive their support.
Lapid, whose party won 17 seats, was then given four weeks to form a government.
Netanyahu had previously pushed for yet another election, which would be the
fifth since April 2019. "Now that he sees a change coalition may be announced
this evening or tomorrow, he has to move forward with a more serious deal,"
Talshir told AFP. On Sunday Netanyahu offered a rotation agreement to Bennett
and Saar. But Saar rebuffed this on Twitter, writing that "our stance and our
commitment was and remains: replacing the Netanyahu regime". Netanyahu in a
subsequent video called on Saar and Bennett to "come now, immediately" to meet
him and join a three-way rotation government, warning that "we are in crucial
moment for the security, character and future of the state of Israel".
Obstacles
Lapid's "change" coalition also still faced several obstacles. Some right-wing
lawmakers object to a partnership with Arab politicians who represent a 20
percent minority of Israeli citizens. The recent Gaza conflict sparked
inter-communal clashes between Jewish and Arab Israelis in many cities. At least
one of Yamina's seven members, Amichai Chikli, told Israeli public radio he
would "absolutely" vote against the new government. Arab politicians have also
been divided about joining a government headed by Bennett, who supports
expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope
to create a future state. Lawmakers from the Arab-led Joint List with six seats
said they would be in favor of a Lapid government, but did not support one
headed by Bennett. Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamic conservative Raam party
with four seats, has said he could potentially support a coalition that would
improve conditions for the Arab community. Even with support from an Arab party,
a new coalition in Israel is unlikely to reverse years of Israeli settlement
construction or bring peace any time soon with Hamas in Gaza. Mossi Raz, a
lawmaker with the Meretz party, told Israel public radio that "a change
government will do a lot of good things. I'm not sure a peace agreement will be
one of them."
Exiled Turkey mob boss opens new Pandora’s box with
Syria claims
Arab News/May 30/2021
SADAT was founded in 2012 by a retired general and 23 officers who were expelled
from the Turkish Armed Forces due to hard-line Islamic allegiances
JEDDAH: Turkey’s notorious mafia leader Sedat Peker has resurfaced this week in
a new video accusing the country’s rulers of conspiring with a paramilitary
force to send weapons to Al-Qaeda-linked terror groups in Syria. In the eighth
video of his series released on Sunday, he claimed that Turkey sent weapons to
Al-Nusra jihadists in Syria through a paramilitary group and so-called “parallel
army,” named SADAT, formed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s adviser.
Peker, who enjoyed close connections with Turkish rulers in the past, also
detailed alleged cooperation between Turkish officials and Al-Nusra. The
fugitive mafia boss allegedly decided to send military equipment to Syrian
Turkmens and shared the plan with a deputy from the ruling government in order
to receive permission to dispatch the trucks in 2015. “They said ‘lets send
additional trucks to Syria with your aid convoy.’ We sent our trucks to Syria as
aid trucks, then we posed for photos with them. However, I thought they sent
other trucks to the Syrian Turkmen rebels,” he said. The allegations were
previously brought to the Turkish parliament by the opposition, but no further
details were uncovered following government objections.
Ahmet Davutoglu, who was prime minister between 2014 and 2016 and now leads the
breakaway Future Party, has been urged to provide accounts of the “corrupt
irregularities” in Syria. Peker alleged that the trucks sent to jihadists were
orchestrated by a group within SADAT. The consultancy group claims it is “the
first and the only company in Turkey that internationally provides consultancy
and military training services at the international defense and interior
security sector,” according to its website.
HIGHLIGHT
Mafia leader Sedat Peker claims that Turkey sent weapons to Al-Nusra jihadists
in Syria through a paramilitary group and so-called ‘parallel army,’ named
SADAT, formed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s adviser. SADAT was
founded in 2012 by a retired general and 23 officers who were expelled from the
Turkish Armed Forces due to hard-line Islamic allegiances. The paramilitary
company is closely linked to the Turkish government and allegedly played a role
in recruiting and providing training to jihadists during the Syrian and Libyan
civil wars.“They diverted aid trucks for Turkmen to Al-Nusra under my name, but
I didn’t send them — SADAT did. I was informed about it from one of our Turkmen
friends,” Peker said. Peker, whose videos have reached millions of users on
YouTube, said his videos are designed to “take revenge” against the Turkish
government and especially Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who allowed police
officers to raid his home after he fell out with the regime. In a previous
video, the mafia boss accused Erkan Yildirim, son of Turkish Prime Minister
Binali Yildirim, and former police chief Mehmet Agar, of orchestrating an
international drug trafficking scheme involving Turkey, Colombia and Venezuela.
The latest video is titled “Young trees which are grown by storms cannot be
destroyed by wind.”Peker asks a question in the clip: “Now do you know what you
need to do business in Syria?”He alleged that doing “big business” in Syria —
worth billions of dollars — requires the permission of not only the presidential
head of administrative affairs, Metin Kiratli, but also of pro-government
businesspeople Ramazan Ozturk and Murat Sancak, as well as a senior Al-Nusra
militant, Abu Abdurrahman, who is responsible for financing jihadis. Peker also
implied that the money trail could never be tracked back to the Turkish state
after it was hidden by a “corrupt network” with the help of the interior
minister. The mafia boss claimed to have opposed the aid to Al-Nusra because
they were fighting Turkmen minorities in Syria. Al-Nusra is now called Hayat
Tahrir Al-Sham and retains control in Syria’s rebel-held region. Turkey’s
alleged links with jihadists in Syria made headlines back in 2015 following
Russian claims. In December 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused
Ankara of shooting down a Russian jet near the Turkish border with Syria in
order to protect its oil supply lines with Daesh, although Turkey denied any
involvement in the incident. Russia’s defense minister also accused Erdogan and
his family of taking part in the illegal oil trade. “If you allege something,
you should prove it,” Erdogan said in response. Peker, a high-profile mafia
figure since the 1990s, says he now resides in Dubai, but regularly moves to
avoid being captured by Turkish authorities. He fled Turkey last year to avoid a
criminal investigation.
French detainee awaiting trial in Iran for spying,
propaganda charges
Arab News/May 30/2021
TEHRAN: Iranian prosecutors have confirmed a French national held in the Islamic
republic will be tried for espionage, his lawyer said Sunday, days after the
detainee’s sister appealed to France’s president to intervene. Benjamin Briere,
born in 1985, was arrested in Iran in May 2020, allegedly while flying a drone
and taking photographs in a prohibited area. A conviction of espionage is
punishable by death in Iran. Briere has also been charged with “propaganda
against the system,” which can incur a prison sentence of three months to one
year. The French foreign ministry said the spying charges against Briere were “incomprehensible.”He
had been on holiday in the Islamic Republic, the ministry said, adding it “knew
of nothing that could back up” the accusations. Lawyer Said Dehghan, who also
represents another French national held in the country, told AFP the
investigation had been completed and the prosecution had confirmed the charges.
“The prosecutor is preparing the indictment and sending it to the revolutionary
court for the continuation of the judicial process,” Dehghan said. Briere, who
is being held in the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, also faced
accusations of “corruption on earth” — one of the most severe charges under
Iranian law — and drinking alcohol, punishable by flogging, but they were
dismissed after the investigation. The announcement came days after an open
letter from Briere’s sister, Blandine Briere, was published by French weekly Le
Point, in which she appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to push for her
brother’s release. She said the charges were “baseless” and that Briere had
become a “negotiating tool.” In March, a French foreign ministry spokesman said
Briere was benefitting from consular support and that Paris’ embassy in Tehran
was in “regular contact” with him.
Arrests of foreigners in Iran — especially dual nationals, who are often accused
of espionage — have multiplied since former US president Donald Trump in 2018
unilaterally withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with Iran and
reimposed harsh sanctions against Tehran. World powers have been engaged in
negotiations with Iran in Vienna since April to try and revive the deal. The
goal is to return Washington to the agreement and lift sanctions on Tehran,
while also bringing Iran back into compliance with nuclear commitments it waived
in response to US sanctions. Iran’s negotiators have said during the talks that
Tehran is open to exchanging prisoners. Over the past two years, Iran has
conducted several exchanges of foreign prisoners with countries holding Iranian
nationals.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on May 30- 31/2021
Why Iranians will reject this sham
presidential election
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 30/2021
Iran’s presidential election will be held in less than three weeks and the
Guardian Council has approved seven individuals. Candidates in the Iranian
regime’s June 18 election include alleged mass murderers, corrupt embezzlers,
subjects of both European and American sanctions due to human rights abuses, and
people who have been implicated in foreign assassinations and bombings. The
presumptive front runner is Ebrahim Raisi, who was one of the leading
perpetrators of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
No wonder the majority of Iranians are expected to reject the election entirely.
Various Iranian officials and state media outlets have already warned of this
possibility. Beyond that, the election, which is widely regarded as a sham,
takes place against the backdrop of major uprisings.
In the final days of 2017, protests broke out in the second city of Mashhad
before immediately spreading to dozens of other cities, with democratic change
being the rallying cry. At the time, the president-elect of the main Iranian
oppositional group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam
Rajavi, called for more nationwide protests led by “resistance units” inside
Iran.
Another nationwide uprising erupted in November 2019 — and this presented the
clerical regime with an even greater challenge. The protests appeared to be
highly organized. Terrified of the breadth and organized nature of these
uprisings, authorities opened fire on crowds, killing about 1,500 people.
Persistent anger over that crackdown on dissent may have fueled last year’s
boycott of the parliamentary election. It is also now emerging as a driving
force behind the prospective boycott of next month’s presidential vote.
This fact was recently underscored by a video that circulated on social media,
in which the mothers of activists who had been killed during the November 2019
uprising made it clear that their only vote is for the overthrow of the regime.
One of the grieving mothers noted that elections have merely served as a facade
for the theocratic dictatorship over the course of four decades. “If our vote
was supposed to fix anything, it would have happened in the last 40 years, but
it did not,” she said. “The past 40 years led to November’s mass murder of the
youth, this land’s greatest treasures.”
Opposition activists have launched a nationwide campaign urging citizens to
boycott the election farce.
In recent weeks, retirees and pensioners have staged more than a dozen protests,
each spanning multiple cities. The government has offered little to no response
to their demands for an economic policy that shrinks the gap between their
stagnant income and the rising cost of living. As a result, the most recent of
these protests adopted slogans such as: “We have seen no justice; we will not
vote anymore.”Similar slogans were taken up by protesters who focused attention
on the regime’s loss of people’s savings in the stock market. Those whose
savings were stolen have joined the massed ranks of impoverished Iranians. For
them, it was clear that the regime’s graft permeated the political hierarchy and
left no one with an interest in reforming the system.
Current President Hassan Rouhani has served as the standard bearer for Iran’s
“reformist” faction over the past eight years, but he neither opposed the mass
killing of protesters nor criticized the further consolidation of national
wealth into a small number of institutions, mostly controlled by Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The NCRI has been a
leading proponent of election boycotts for many years. In 2013, it fervently
pushed back against the narrative in some Western policy circles that held that
a “reformist” president might effect meaningful change in Iran’s domestic
conduct and its relationship with the international community. This year is no
different, as opposition activists have launched a nationwide campaign urging
citizens to boycott the election farce. The vast majority of Iranians have
unequivocally rejected the reformist narrative and many have taken the logical
next step of endorsing regime change and working toward it through the mass
uprisings of 2017-2018 and 2019.
Western policymakers and the entire international community should make it clear
that they support any effort by the Iranian people to push back against state
repression and advocate for democracy. Iranian officials and media outlets have
warned about the election boycott and have implicitly raised the prospect of
launching an even more aggressive crackdown on dissent to counter what may be
the greatest challenge so far to the mullahs’ regime. Only the immediate and
overwhelming threat of a coordinated international response can guarantee that
the bloodshed in any forthcoming uprising will not be worse than that which
occurred in November 2019. If policymakers make no such threat, they will be
turning their backs on the Iranian people and thereby solidifying the position
of a nuclear-keen theocratic dictatorship that is desperately struggling to find
a lifeline.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Tehran’s militia thugs outgun the Iraqi state … again
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/May 30/2021
The Iraqi state has once again proved its impotence in the face of Tehran-backed
paramilitaries. The Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi militia confederation went on the rampage
last week after a powerful militia leader, Qassim Muslih, was detained on
charges of plotting assassinations and murdering protesters.
Militant leaders denounced the arrest as a “kidnapping” — as if Iraq’s security
forces and police had no legal jurisdiction over the Hashd! Thousands of militia
fighters flooded into the Green Zone, the heavily fortified heart of Baghdad’s
governing system, wielding RPGs and other offensive weaponry. Regular security
forces melted away, leaving militants free to menace ministries and embassies.
With Kalashnikov-wielding militias encircling his offices and family home, Prime
Minister Mustafa Kadhimi was summoned like a naughty schoolboy to meet three of
the Hashd’s most powerful leaders — Hadi Al-Amiri, Abu-Fadak Al-Mohammedawi and
Falih Al-Fayyad — to explain why their colleague had been detained. We may never
know what threats were made to the prime minister, but within hours Muslih was
duly handed over to the Hashd’s Security Directorate. The only significant
concession was that no photos of Muslih would be published, so that the prime
minister’s abject humiliation would not be carried to its excruciating extremes.
This is not the first such farce: Soon after Kadhimi began his job a year ago,
amid sincere promises to get tough with the militants, a number of Hashd figures
were arrested for firing missiles. But after another massive paramilitary show
of force around the Green Zone, Kadhimi caved in and released these criminals
into Hashd custody.
It’s as if the prime minister were trying to offer incontrovertible
demonstrations of the Hashd’s impunity! This also sets a dangerous precedent for
national unity: Hundreds of Sunnis were executed after 10-minute trials based on
hearsay evidence of Daesh sympathies, but the Hashd is proving an even greater
existential threat to Iraq’s existence than Daesh and its personnel are now
apparently untouchable. Sources I spoke to worry about whether Muslih will later
come out and flaunt his immunity; or whether he will be smuggled to Iran, like
so many other death squad commanders with gallons of Iraqi blood on their hands.
Likewise, over the past couple of years prime ministerial executive orders
demanded that these militia factions cease their independent existence, merge
into the regular armed forces, and close the hundreds of “economic offices” set
up across the country through which militants extort citizens and businesses. Of
course, these directives were ignored; instead,highway and border checkpoints
have multiplied, earning these forces more than $6 billion a year. The
constitution explicitly forbids paramilitary personnel from participating in
parliamentary elections, yet somehow they’ve become the most powerful component
of the parliament. With elections in just months, this is a body blow to the
authority and sovereignty of the Iraqi state from which it will struggle to
recover. Militias are inexorably growing stronger than the state, while also
monopolizing key state posts from the inside, leaving Iraq’s administration like
a rotten, hollowed-out tree. Ahead of these elections we can see militias
rivaling one another through a variety of strategies; in some cases
superficially distancing themselves from Iran and ludicrously portraying
themselves as Iraqi nationalists, while elsewhere seeking to enforce their
control so vigorously that citizens have only one viable choice to vote for.
The Iraqi state has once again proved its impotence in the face of Tehran-backed
paramilitaries. Muslih was charged with involvement in the killing of activist
Ihab Al-Wazni, head of the Karbala protest coordination commission, who was
murdered in front of his home on May 9 by gunmen on motorbikes. About 80
activists have been killed in such targeted assassinations. Often these killings
occurred in public places, in broad daylight, or in the presence of police.
About 600 protesters were murdered during the past two years of demonstrations,
with many killed by militia snipers and armed thugs.
I first came across Qasim Muslih a few years ago while conducting research on
these militia groups. Muslih had been a commander of one of the forces loyal to
Ayatollah Sistani, but at the behest of Hashd hardliners such as Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis
he betrayed Sistani and established a breakaway force, the Tuffuf Brigade, which
aligned itself with the nastiest pro-Iran elements. As the Hashd’s operations
commander in Anbar, Muslih became one of the principal figures overseeing the
Hashd’s fortifications on the Syria-Iraq border, which became a pivotal location
for smuggling Iranian missiles and profiteering from the full spectrum of
contraband goods. Indeed, sources close to Ayatollah Sistani asserted that they
had “nothing to do” with Muslih and “would not interfere” with any legal
measures taken against him.
Muslih is a nobody — a hired thug. He was bought off and elevated to his
powerful post purely as a ruse for sabotaging the Sistani militias. However,
when Baghdad erupts and a constitutional crisis is triggered over his mere
arrest, how much greater is the absolute impunity enjoyed by the real warlords,
terrorists and mass-murderers such as Amiri, Mohammedawi and Qais Al-Khazali?
Like death by a thousand cuts, on each successive occasion that Hashd militias
subvert the Iraqi state, we come closer to this state ceasing to exist in any
meaningful form; becoming like Syria, and perhaps Lebanon, a terrorist-dominated
vacuum with Iran as the supreme protagonist.“Who killed me?” was the dominant
slogan in recent demonstrations against the impunity enjoyed by militias and the
security forces in murdering activists and protesters. These recent actions by
Hashd militias were like a brazen admission of guilt: “Yes, we killed you, and
we will keep on killing you. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
Turkey feels the big freeze from Washington
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/May 30/2021
There are several stages in Ankara’s grasping of the changing attitude of the US
toward Turkey. During former US President Donald Trump’s time, Turkey was
hopeful that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s easy access to the White House
would be maintained, though less frequently. After Joe Biden’s election, Turkey
continued to hope that, because of its strategic location for NATO, the US would
appreciate its importance and not go far in punishing it for the steps it has
taken to distance itself from the Atlantic alliance, both in terms of defense
doctrine and the acquisition of military materiel that is incompatible with NATO
infrastructure.
Erdogan had to wait a long time for Biden to call him. The latter waited until
April 23 — more than 90 days after he took office. Furthermore, he did so only
to inform Erdogan that he would use the word genocide in his statement marking
the anniversary of the forced emigration of Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman
state. In other words, the bad news about the content of his statement was
compensated by the good news that he eventually decided to call him.
The row between Ankara and Washington grew gloomier last week, as new steps were
taken in Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 advanced fighter jet program. Frank
Kendall, Biden’s nominee for Air Force secretary, said during his Senate
confirmation hearing that he would press on with ending Turkey’s role in the
production of parts for the F-35 joint strike fighter. He had hinted in the past
that he was not in favor of a cut to F-35 procurement but, on insistent demand
by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, he promised he would do his best to halt the procurement
from Turkey as soon as possible. This includes stopping in 2022 the production
of F-35 engine and fuselage components in Turkey.
Turkey in February signed a $750,000 contract with a Washington-based company to
lobby for it staying in the program, but it has not been able to block the
process. Ankara has been duly informed of the expulsion, but the manufacture of
certain components has continued either because Turkey was the sole manufacturer
or the mother company, Lockheed Martin, could not find a suitable substitute.
The anger in the US Congress must be high because Turkey is also banned from
purchasing F-35s, while the ones already sold to it will not be delivered. A
tough legal battle is likely to be fought in the US courts to clear the
contentious issues connected to the termination of this contract.
The F-35s will be the main fighter aircraft in NATO countries for the coming 40
to 50 years, but member state Turkey, which has the largest airspace among the
allies after Canada and the US, will not be allowed to buy the most advanced
aircraft the alliance has developed. This looks like a comedy.
If Turkey cannot find a reliable alternative to the joint fighter jet project,
it will again become vulnerable.
During the Middle East crisis, Turkey asked for Patriot missiles from its NATO
allies. Some of them put the missiles at Turkey’s disposal, but others withdrew
them before the threat had diminished.
If Turkey cannot find a reliable alternative, it will again become vulnerable.
This will push it to secure its air defense with a system from sources outside
NATO. This is a paradox that Turkey will have to solve.
While Turkey badly needs to mend its relations with the US, Erdogan poured more
oil on the fire by this month saying about Biden: “You are writing history with
your bloody hands.” The State Department described this as an “incendiary
remark.”
On the question of Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 missile defense system, which
caused its expulsion from the F-35 program, international relations scholar
Henri J. Barkey last week opined that one way out of this delicate dilemma could
be to transfer the S-400 to the Turkish military base in Qatar. The US may be
open to this idea because of the headache it would give to Iran, but it is
unclear whether Russia would allow Turkey to take such a step.
Erdogan is scheduled to meet Biden at the NATO summit on June 14. Speculation
varies on whether this will be a substantive meeting or a brief encounter on the
margins of the summit.
The list of outstanding issues between Turkey and the US is long, but Ankara’s
purchase of the S-400 system and its subsequent expulsion from the F-35 project
are almost sure to be raised because of the importance the US attributes to
them. Washington is categorically opposed to the deployment of the S-400 in
Turkey.
What is certain in this turbulent atmosphere is that the Biden-Erdogan meeting
will not be a cordial exchange of views.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the
ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar
How did Iran target a secret CIA site in
Iraq?
Seth J. Frantman/Jerusalem Post/Mat 30/2021
As US and Iranian drones dueling in Iraq, is there a new drone world order
developing in the Middle East?
A scoop at The Washington Post by John Hudson and Louisa Loveluck revealed that
Iranian-backed militias were able to target a “secret CIA hangar” using a drone
in April. This attack hit a hangar in Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan region.
This is a major escalation and shows careful planning and complex know-how by
the Iranian regime and its militias in Iraq. It means that Iran was able to
transfer the drone itself to Iraq and gather the intelligence on the apparent
location of this secret site, which is inside a known US facility, and precisely
set the drone to strike it.
This kind of kamikaze drone is similar to the technology Iran used to target
Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq and similar to the kind of drones the Iran-backed Houthis
use to attack Saudi Arabia and drones that Hamas unveiled in recent attempts to
attack Israel.
Iran has thus transferred its drone threats all over the region.
The attack in Iraq is particularly interesting because US bases are supposed to
have some sort of defenses against this known and rising threat. US CENTCOM head
Kenneth McKenzie has warned for a year about the rising threats of drones in the
region. He warned in March 2020, and again in February 2021.
“We've spent billions of dollars in the Department of Defense on counter drone
systems. I'm concerned that we're still under grave threat from them. But I'm
also encouraged to see that your command has been experimenting with so many new
and more effective counter drone systems,” he told the US Senate in March 2020.
The US has sent Patriot missiles, C-RAM and other defenses to Iraq to stop
ballistic missiles and rocket threats. The US army has also acquired two Iron
Dome batteries which can be used against drones, although this is not linked to
the current threat in Iraq. The drone attack alarmed the US according to the
report. It has led to questions about the warehouse and whether Iran knew
specifically who was running the building. Remains of the drone were recovered
after the attacks. The article says that the drone was used a new method after
years in which pro-Iran militias used rockets, such as the 107mm.
The “evolving drone threat” is a major concern in Iraq. “The drone’s flight was
tracked to within 10 miles of the site, but its path was then as it moved into a
civilian flight path, the coalition official said,” according to the report.
“Preliminary analysis suggested it was made in Iran.”
The White House was unnerved. The facility was covert and the attack was
sophisticated. The April 14 attack was the first major drone attack by the
pro-Iran militias in Iraq. However, they have provided Kataib Hezbollah with
drones in the past to strike at Saudi Arabia in May 2019 and again in January
2021. Another drone was used to target Al-Asad base in May 2021.
The type of kamikaze drone used in Iraq is not known. It could be like an Ababil
or Qasef what Hamas calls its Shehab drone. This is a drone about the size of a
person with a warhead and guidance up front and two sets of small wings. It is
launched from a catapult. However, Iran has a plethora of other types of
kamikaze drones.
According to the Twitter handle Alex Almeida, the drone attack may have targeted
a hangar housing one of the CIA or Special Operation Command’s
contractor-operated turboprop aircraft that fly from the base and which are used
for reconnaissance and intel gathering missions. The US has its own drones at
the base, according to Joseph Trevithick at The Drive. He wrote in May that a
Long Endurance Aircraft Program drone crashed in July 2020. This kind of drone
is basically a small prop plane that looks no different than a civilian
two-seater aircraft but has had everything removed and flies autonomously now as
a UAV. According to online sleuths who use OSINT to find information, a hangar
was damaged by the April drone attack on Erbil airport.
According to the image showing the damage, the location is a hangar in the
central eastern part of the base near an area where chinook helicopters are
parked. This is a huge, sprawling base that has expanded with the war on ISIS
and also likely expanded as the US reduced forces in other facilities. How one
would determine to attack that specific hangar, out of dozens of other locations
and hundreds of buildings, is unclear. The particular complex is unique for
having four buildings with red-colored roofs.
If an Iranian-backed militia used a drone to target a hangar where drones fly
from, this could be one of the few instances of drone versus drone combat, using
drones to take out other drones.
Targeting US drones in Iraq using Iranian drones may be a sort of new drone
"world order", so to speak, taking place in the Middle East, especially if Iran
knew this hangar was used for surveillance droned that might one day be used
against its own forces in Iraq. The region, as it were, is now rapidly
approaching a kind of cross between The Terminator, Robocop and Skynet, as
machines are doing the fighting and people are just watching computer screens –
though we may not be there quite yet.
At the very least the US needs to be concerned that Iran is collecting
intelligence on its covert and secure sites, its hangars and other systems in
Iraq, and that Iran’s vastly expanding precision missile and drone technology
could be used more in the future.
The drones give Iran some plausible deniability because they can be launched by
Iranian proxies. However, the gyroscopes and other systems on the drones link
them to Iran, at least in the past.
It should be noted that a drone mysteriously entered Israeli airspace on May 18
and was shot down by Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said it
came from Syria or Iraq. A drone damaged a hangar in Asad base in Iraq on May 8.
The Erbil attack was on April 14. These attacks may all be linked and have an
address in Iran.
Mob boss: Turkey diverted aid for Turkmen to 'Nusra' linked
extremists
Seth J. Frantman/Jerusalem Post/Mat 30/2021
To understand what is happening in modern Turkey is to watch how one party was
able to achieve absolute power and remove “enemies” in a Stalin-like purge of
Turkish society.
In Turkey’s latest scandal the country’s leadership is accused of conspiring
with a pro-government paramilitary force to divert aid intended for the Turkish
minority in Syria, to extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham.
The revelations came out in the eighth video that Sedat Peker, reputed crime
boss and fugitive, has released slamming the government for corruption and
failings. The story of how Peker, who has been described as an ultra-nationalist
once close to the ruling AK Party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had fallen out with
the regime is complex. It is one of many instances where the ruling party’s
quest for absolute power in Turkey has alienated many of those once close to it.
To understand what is happening in modern Turkey is to watch how one political
party was able to achieve absolute power and then worked to remove a series of
“enemies” in a Stalin-like purge of Turkish society.
The AK Party began with targeting secular and left-wing protesters. After
crushing the Gezi Park demonstrations, the party set its sights on destroying
the Kurdish HDP opposition, using two elections in 2015 to provoke the end of
the ceasefire with the militant PKK.
A war began, fueled by Turkey’s growing nationalism and Islamist movements.
During the war, Turkey empowered ISIS in Syria, turned on the US, bought
Russia’s S-400 and began to support the most right-leaning Syrian rebel groups,
to co-opt them as part of Turkey’s expansion into Syria. This began with
invasions in 2016 near Jarabulus and then again in 2017 in Idlib, and Afrin in
2018, where 170,000 Kurds were expelled. Turkey’s regime used a coup attempt in
2016 to purge some 200,000 people, taking control of the judiciary, academics
and other parts of society. Independent and critical media were shut down, and
Turkey became the largest jailer of journalists. Mass trials of political
opponents began, with HDP members jailed, 60 HDP mayors dismissed, generals
accused of various plots, police purged, and students and LGBT activists called
terrorists.
The state also went after a group linked to a foreign cleric called Gulen and
invented a mythical “FETO terrorist group” it said was linked to him. Adnan
Oktar, who ran a TV station and was a reputed cult leader, was also jailed by
the regime, despite reputed ties in prior years.
Now after all that it seems the regime has turned on its own supporters, some of
whom are accused of being criminals and mafia bosses. Peker was formerly known
as a “Turkish mafia boss” with connections at the highest levels.
Kurdistan 24 said in 2017 that “Peker developed closer ties with the government
in recent years. In June 2015, the gang leader was photographed having a
conversation and shaking hands with Erdogan at the wedding in Istanbul of an
infamous pro-government social media troll who had posted the picture of a
butcher cleaver as ‘the best way to communicate’ with Kurdish rebels.”
Things began to change earlier this year and Peker began to make videos in which
he vowed to expose state corruption and other dealings. The revelations have
included stories of drug-trafficking linked directly to the top layers of
government.
On May 23 one report noted that “in a new YouTube video, the mafia boss in a
self-imposed exile has continued making allegations against people close to the
government. Former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s son is at the center of his
drug trafficking allegation.”
In his videos last week Peker took on the Interior Minister.
BBC noted that “on Sunday May 23 Turkish police detained Sedat Peker’s brother
Atilla in Mugla province, on the Aegean coast, after Sedat claimed he had sent
Atilla to kill Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali in 1996. Adali was shot
dead in Cyprus, but his killers were never identified.
According to Sedat Peker, the hit on Adali had been ordered by ex-interior
minister Mehmet Agar. He also alleged that Mr. Agar was linked to the murder in
1993 of Ugur Mumcu, another prominent journalist. Mumcu, an investigative
journalist for Cumhuriyet daily, was killed by a car bomb.”
In the latest video on Sunday, Peker made accusations “about the weapons sent to
Syria and the illegal trade carried out on the Syrian border,” according to
various accounts in Turkey.
He said that those around Erdogan have misled the president.
“I was there when you had no power. They did not have any power. I did not
expect applause, I was not in the foreground. I did whatever I could. We will
talk together in the next video,” he said.
Peker referenced Qatar and Azerbaijan in his videos, according to a transcript
at Sol TV in Turkish.
Turkey has sent troops to Qatar to support the Emirate and it is a close ally of
Doha. Turkey also sent Syrian mercenaries to support Baku in a war against
Armenia.
Peker referenced a “military unit” in Qatar and “sub-companies” in Azerbaijan.
He also mentioned a “ship carrying goods going to Israel” and Qatari money for
“Palestine.” It was not clear exactly what this connection was about.
He also spoke about Syria in his latest video. He said that weapons and military
supplies sent to Turkmen in Syria were given to Al Nusra.
This is a group that was linked to al-Qaeda in Syria and is now called Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham and controls Idlib in Syria. Turkey has worked with this group in
the past, but distinguishes it from the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels called TFSA,
a group Turkey openly backs.
Peker blamed a paramilitary contracting company called SADAT that is close to
the Turkish ruling party for diverting aid sent by Peker to Syria. He also
mentioned illegal commerce and oil trades, for which he named one man, linked to
the presidency, as dealing in.
Peker spoke about aid convoys he had sent and arranged for Syria. As a
nationalist, he supported Turkmen minorities in Syria. While he helped get he
goods for the convoys, he said they were diverted.
Peker claimed that trade with Syria was carried out through al-Nusra and the
team led by Berat Albayrak, “Where is the money going from the trade,” he asked.
Peker implied that Turkey has mishandled its role in Syria because well
intentioned support was diverted or corrupted. He spoke of commercial and
economic possibilities that have been diverted as well. He linked this with a
controversy in 2014 when Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks were
stopped near the Turkish-Syrian border, revealing that Turkey was supplying
weapons to Syria.
Peker said he was asked to help aid Turkmen and he brought them funds for
trucks.
“Something happened in my mind after the MIT trucks were caught. We are there to
raise the feelings of the society and to help our brothers there, to the
Turkmens, for the clothes, but there was too much, enough for all the fighters
there. From the radios to drones to the armored vests, there are the trucks
[full of the material we sent]. We thought about this project, we conveyed that
to our [government] deputy [minister] friend, and he also conveyed it to the
places that he should convey. Then they said, we’ll give you additional trucks,
along with your trucks….They sent weapons between our trucks via SADAT.”
It appears that SADAT, linked to the government, was able to take control of
this trade across the border and divert vehicles to al-Nusra, which became HTS.
The Sol TV article claimed “they sent weapons, vehicles to al-Nusra….’I buy all
of them with my own money…it goes on my behalf, there is no transaction, no
registration, direct transition is made. Then when I started to send a large
amount of Mitsubishi vehicles, they said, can you give it to us, I said okay.’”
What happened with the vehicles?
“Our Turkmen friends said they are Al Nusra. Allah Allah ... Our other friends
also say that these departures are going to al-Nusra. Yes. They send it…but I
did not send it by SADAT members.”
Peker said it is time to open the Pandora’s Box.
“Now, do you know what you need to do to do business in Syria?”
He named various people linked to the government.
“I’m not talking about such a business, big, illegal crude oil, tea, sugar,
aluminum, copper, second-hand vehicles. Billions of dollars of money. Who gave
the money for the Syrian struggle? The state. Who was martyred? I will now
describe the trade that is done there….After you get the approval from there,
there is the [business] group…the whole hierarchy is there. After their
approval, al-Nusra has the chief of economy.”
The implication is that while the government supported the Syrian rebels, its
huge economy was diverted to work with extremists in Syria and these corrupted
funds never made it back to the Turkish state, but were siphoned off. They even
stole from the mafia, that is how corrupt some of the state authorities were.
“Should we enter Syria? Enter. Stay. Stay, but why does the money never come to
the state, the money is still going there. But there is a trade there, big money
is made. Crude oil, copper, aluminum,” said Peker.
“In the last four years, there are so many big holdings, institutions and
organizations in this country, they all passed to this company.”
He accused the Interior Minister of knowing about this. He then referenced five
or ten families who won tenders in Libya after the government sent Syrian
mercenaries there in 2019 and 2020.
“I had an interesting incident. It is very important that we are in Libya, [the
deal is called the] Blue Homeland.”
The article then references Tripoli-based Libyan leader Fayez Sarraj who
approved the Turkish role in Libya.
News and details about Ankara’s role in Libya and support for extremists have
gone back years. Back in 2017 Hurriyet noted that HTS forces had escorted a
Turkish convoy in Idlib.
It should raise eyebrows that a writer noted: “The reason why is because Tahrir
al-Sham is a Salafist network that was formed in early 2017 by merging a number
of Syrian groups including al-Nusra, which is labeled a terror organization.
Nusra is a group that was formed as a Syrian offshoot of the Afghan-rooted
al-Qaeda. However, Nusra cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016.”
We now know that the real story may go much deeper, Ankara not only profited off
illegal trade when ISIS ran part of Syria, but continued to do nefarious deeds
in Syria after the Turkish invasion in Euphrates Shield. This transformed
northern Syria into a dumping ground for extremists, and funneled or diverted
supplies and aid to extremists, making the rebels dependent and empowering HTS.
That Turkey did this via companies set up by those close to the regime, and via
private military contractors diverting aid, even aid sent by reputed mafia
bosses, shows how entangled the regime, has been with criminality and profiting
off Syria’s suffering while fueling extremist groups.
The countdown to an Iranian nuclear tragedy is ticking
Bruce Portnon/Jerusalem Post/Mat 30/2021
President Biden recognizes that Iranian nukes are “a serious threat,” but very
strangely, some power drives him to return to the 2015 Obama-facilitated nuclear
arrangement with Iran.
President Joe Biden’s recent address to the American people proclaimed a
confident view for our nation’s future, after implementing his “America Forward”
plan. He dedicated vast monetary sums to upgrade our infrastructure and improve
our educational, health and economic wellbeing. He seemed to assure our ability
to contend with unforeseen challenges.
Yet there continues to be uncertainty and even peril surrounding Iran and its
demands to achieve total nuclearization on its own terms. This in combination
with an already enabled missile delivery capability and its proclaimed animus
toward Israel should give us pause for thought before kowtowing to Iran’s
dictates.
Further destabilization in an already shaky Middle East environment may well put
us on a war footing, sooner rather than later. Nations proximate to Israel and
Iran should in their best interest recognize their existential threats, as a
nuclear bomb-capable Iran puts them within a fallout zone. Trusting other
nations to make life and death decisions for them is the ultimate of folly.
President Biden recognizes that Iranian nukes are “a serious threat,” but very
strangely, some power drives him to return to the 2015 Obama-facilitated nuclear
arrangement with Iran, “even with the understood risks.” It’s almost as if
President Biden has an understanding with his former boss to finish what the
former started in return for a political endorsement, and to resurrect various
Obama appointees for the same or similar strategic positions involved in
diplomatic and other strategic spheres. Was this all just coincidental or just
serendipitous?
Even America is not free from Iranian wrath, as chants of “Death to Israel!”
have been occasionally followed with “Death to America!” All the while we were
called the “Great Satan.” Common sense should alert President Biden and our
nation’s leaders, including diplomatic corps, as well as our popularly elected
representatives and senators, as to what we may be risking should we just plow
forward to get a deal done.
Once nuclear bomb-capable, what alternatives would Western and European nations
possess to face off any future Iranian threat, even minor, knowing that at any
moment Iran could play the nuclear bomb card, in effect black-mailing us to
comply? Our deeply ingrained Judeo-Christian religious principles valuing “life”
within a game of chicken puts us at a disadvantage.
I SUSPECT IRAN already senses this and may even be capitalizing on our well
understood weaknesses. We can ill-afford appeasement, as history records that
this tactic may embolden an abuser and lead to war. In this case, potentially a
world war.
Israel, better than most nations, fully grasps the budding lethal consequences
of what the entire Middle East may be facing. It has little doubt been preparing
its options to deal with a nuclear-enabled, missile-enabled Iran since
neutralizing neighboring Iraq and Syria’s relatively brief venture into the
nuclear arena years ago. Its opinions and extensive intelligence machinery
should be welcomed by President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Biden before
discussions are concluded, likely this week or next week, in Vienna.Let us keep
in mind that Israel may well serve as the ultimate firewall protection before
the United States and others become vulnerable to Iran. The seasoned diplomats
representing China, Germany, France, Russia and Britain need to understand this
reality.
Quid pro quo logic only works if all parties are in acceptance of the end game
goals as well as the rules to achieve it. As it stands, Iran demands appear
significantly more than it is willing to assure. None of which includes finite
measures to reduce with the intent to eventually eliminate: 1) perceived acts of
terrorism, including from proxy terrorism; 2) human right’s abuses, including
hostage taking; 3) destabilizing militia area sponsorships; 4) inter-continental
missile development containment; 5) implementing removal of the estimated
150,000-plus missiles currently situated throughout Lebanon, as well as those
housed in Gaza; 6) granting unlimited monitoring and verification by IAEA
nuclear inspectors, which may or may not be worth the paper it is written on
should Iran become angry and unilaterally decide to withdraw from any commitment
to these various elements.
All parties to the Biden resurrection of the Obama 2015 nuclear agreement might
be best served to temporarily cease and desist and regroup before committing to
an eventual, unwinnable tragedy.
The writer is author of the geopolitical thriller First the ‘Saturday People’
and an op-ed contributor to The Miami Herald, The Washington Examiner, The
Jerusalem Post, American Thinker and other media resources.
French Judiciary Frees Extremist Antisemitic Murderer
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/May 30/2021
The murderer, under the influence of an illicit substance, was immediately sent
to a mental institution, not to prison. Who decided that? Usually, a person
arrested after a crime and found to be "under the influence" is arrested, placed
in a cell to sober up, then charged by a judge. Why was this case not treated
the same way?
Judge Ihouelou repeatedly violated the most basic rules of her profession by
behaving in a strikingly biased way. First, she refused to allow any
reconstruction of the crime. She ruled that reconstructing the crime would be
"traumatic" for the criminal. She also refused to meet the lawyers of the
victim's sister and children to hear what they had to say.
How could a Court of Appeal validate an investigation in which a reconstruction
of the crime never took place; in which the lawyers for the family were never
heard, and at the end of which, the decision was rendered solely on the basis of
a psychiatric report written months after the facts; based mainly on the
statements of a murderer, and contradicted by another psychiatric report?
"[T]his affair... is also the illustration for those who might still need it, of
the vital utility of Israel so that justice is done to the Jews all over the
world.... due to the failure of French justice". — Raphaël Nisand French radio
commentator, Tribune Juive, April 25, 2021.
A verdict based on an "acute delirium" leading to no longer being responsible
for one's actions is medically unacceptable, because cannabis does not induce
delirium, but only suspends inhibitions. "The murderer," he wrote, "clearly
discerned the reference text which could guide his action, and far from creating
confusion in him, cannabis only helped to lift ordinary inhibitions. The poison
did not alter his behavior and his judgment, it magnified them". — Charles
Melman, renowned French psychiatrist and founder of the International Freudian
Association, Tribune Juive, May 5, 2021.
On April 4, 2017 in Paris, Kobili Traore, an immigrant from Mali who became a
French citizen, tortured and murdered Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old retired Jewish
physician and educator. France's courts cleared the murderer of all charges on
the grounds that he acted under the influence of marijuana. Every year in
France, dozens of violent physical attacks against Jews take place. Pictured:
Thousands of people gather to demand justice for Sarah Halimi, at Trocadero
Plaza in Paris on April 25, 2021.
Paris, April 4, 2017. 4:00 am. A man breaks into the home of Sarah Halimi, a
65-year-old retired Jewish physician and educator. He beats and tortures her for
over an hour while reciting verses from the Quran and repeatedly shouting, "Allahu
Akbar!" [Allah is the greatest!"]. He uses anti-Semitic slurs and calls her "Sheitan"
(Satan). He throws her from the balcony of her apartment and she falls to the
ground, three floors below, dead. The police arrest him.
What happened was an unspeakable antisemitic murder. It was also the start of a
process that brought to light once again the many serious and shameful
dysfunctions that mark today's France.
The murderer, Kobili Traore, an immigrant from Mali who became a French citizen,
is a recidivist criminal who had already been arrested and sentenced by the
courts 20 times for violent assaults. He was nonetheless free. His only known
professional activity is, in two words: drug dealer. He told the officers who
arrested him that he is a drug addict and had smoked marijuana in the hours
before the murder.
As a drug dealer, convicted time and again for violent assault, he was free to
reoffend. This time, however, he committed murder.
The testimonies of Sarah Halimi's neighbors revealed that the police arrived at
the scene of the murder while she was still alive. The police officers
apparently went upstairs to her apartment door, heard her screaming and another
voice shouting in Arabic. What did they do? They went back downstairs and waited
for reinforcements -- until the victim was dead.
They left the murderer alone with his victim. Why is this not a clear case of
dereliction of duty? Yet, no investigation has been carried out to determine
what, if anything, was the responsibility of the police.
The neighbors' testimonies also revealed that Traore had met Dr. Halimi and her
daughter several times in the stairwell of the building where he had threatened
them and had called them "dirty Jews". Her neighbors added that Traore had often
visited an Islamist mosque. Three days after the murder, on April 7, Paris
prosecutor François Mollins nonetheless publicly declared that all the elements
at his disposal showed that the murder of Sarah Halimi had "no antisemitic
motive".
How could he have said that when so many elements available at the time showed
exactly the opposite? The lawyers for Dr. Halimi's sister and children fought
for more than six months before, on January 23, 2018, the antisemitic nature of
the murder was recognized by French department of justice.
Irregularities took place that were even more scandalous:
The murderer, under the influence of an illicit substance, was immediately sent
to a mental institution, not to prison. Who decided that? Usually, a person
arrested after a crime and found to be "under the influence" is arrested, placed
in a cell to sober up, then charged by a judge. Why was this case not treated
the same way? Who made that decision and why?
The judge who conducted the investigation, Anne Ihouelou, is a member of the "Syndicat
de la magistrature" (Magistrate's Union), a militant left-wing organization with
a record of supporting the actions of Islamic organizations, including those of
the Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France (CCIF, Collective against
Islamophobia in France), created by members of the Muslim Brotherhood (the
leaders of the CCIF decided to dissolve the association in November 2020). Why,
in the name of justice, would anyone entrust an investigation into the murder of
a Jewish woman by an antisemitic Muslim to a member of an organization like
that?
In addition, during the investigation, Judge Ihouelou repeatedly violated the
most basic rules of her profession by behaving in a strikingly biased way.
First, she refused to allow any reconstruction of the crime. She ruled that
reconstructing the crime would be "traumatic" for the criminal. She also refused
to meet the lawyers of the victim's sister and children to hear what they had to
say. She still has never met them. She has also never responded to letters they
sent her presenting their arguments. She did, however, ask a psychiatrist,
Daniel Zagury, for his expert opinion. His report stated that even though at the
time of the incident the killer was under the influence of marijuana and in a
state of "acute delirium", he could nonetheless be held responsible for his
actions.
Six months later, in April 2018, Judge Ihouelou requested a second expert
opinion. This time, she chose a group headed by another psychiatrist, Paul
Bensussan. His report concluded that the "acute delirium" made the murderer not
responsible for his actions, implied that Traore was not guilty and therefore
could not be tried. Ihouelou requested a third report, from a third
psychiatrist, Roland Coutanceau, who did not decide one way or the other.
Eventually she selected the conclusions of the Bensussan report, and, on July
12, 2019, in agreement with two other judges, declared the murderer not guilty
and cleared of all charges.
The file was immediately sent to the Court of Appeal. On December 19, 2019, its
decision stated that the Traore had indeed committed an antisemitic murder, but
it validated the decision of Judge Ihouelou, and said that he was not
responsible for his actions at the time of the murder and could therefore be
granted his freedom.
How could a Court of Appeal validate an investigation in which a reconstruction
of the crime never took place; in which the lawyers for the family were never
heard, and at the end of which, the decision was rendered solely on the basis of
a psychiatric report written months after the facts; based mainly on the
statements of a murderer, and contradicted by another psychiatric report?
The Court of Cassation (the highest Court in the French judicial system) was
called on to make a final decision. On April 14, 2021, it validated the decision
of the Court of Appeal. The murderer will walk free.
The French Jewish community, for four years, was virtually alone in demanding
justice for Sarah Halimi.
For six weeks after Halimi's murder, the mainstream French media did not even
mention it. The French presidential elections were close. "Two weeks before the
elections," university professor Sarah Cattan said on the French public radio
channel, France Culture, "the government did everything to prevent publicity on
an antisemitic murder". So, apparently an antisemitic murder, committed in
Paris, was hidden from the French public for political reasons.
After May 7 and the second round of the French presidential elections, France's
mainstream media continued to remain silent about the murder. The first article
about it, published on May 23, 2017, in the daily Le Monde, asked, "Was Sarah
Halimi killed 'because she was Jewish?'" Its answer seemed to be no. On June 1,
2017, a statement signed by 17 intellectuals was published in the daily Le
Figaro: "Let the truth be told about the murder of Sarah Halimi". The text spoke
of "rare barbarism" and said that the murderer had shouted "Allahu Akbar", but
the words "Islamic antisemitism" are nowhere to be found. "Denouncing far-right
antisemitism is very easy in France," said geopolitical analyst Alexandre del
Valle, "denouncing Islamic antisemitism is almost impossible. Attempting to do
so immediately arouses heated reactions from Muslim organizations, and the
mainstream media and political leaders prefer to avoid any trouble".
The decision of the Court of Appeal has caused immense outrage in the French
Jewish community. "A Sarah Halimi jurisprudence has just been created", said
Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for Halimi's children: "any person declared to be
suffering from a delusional puff because he took an illicit substance dangerous
for his health will be exempt from criminal liability". Gilles-William Goldnadel,
lawyer for Sarah Halimi's sister, called the finding an "ideological decision".
The ruling of the Court of Cassation again caused outrage in the French Jewish
community. Joel Mergui, president of the Israelite Central Consistory of France,
wrote:
"[T]his decision risks significantly eroding the confidence that the Jews of
France have in the justice of their country and in its capacity to protect
them.... The judiciary considered that the murderer did not have enough
discernment to be judged, but, according to the same judiciary, he had enough
discernment to choose his victim, remember their religion, and commit a murder
recognized as anti-Semitic".
"Deciding to take narcotics and then 'going mad' should, not in my view, remove
your criminal responsibility", said French President Emmanuel Macron, adding
that the French laws needed to be changed.
Meyer Habib, the Member of Parliament representing the Eighth Constituency for
French residents overseas (elected by French citizens residing in Cyprus,
Greece, the Vatican, Israel, Italy, Malta, San Marino and Turkey), commented
that even if the laws were changed, the murderer of Sarah Halimi would be free
anyway.
Demonstrations were organized -- in Paris and other major cities such as
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, London, New York, and Los Angeles -- to demand justice for
Sarah Halimi. Sadly, those who demonstrated were almost all Jews. The protests
are unlikely to change the situation. Legally, the decision of the Court of
Cassation cannot be reversed.
An Algerian author, Boualem Sansal, wrote a courageous article in which he
explicitly denounced:
"all those who in one way or another made it possible that one day, in France,
in Paris, an Islamist enters the home of a woman, an neighbor in this case, of
the Jewish faith, tortures her and throws her out of a window while shouting
Allahu Akbar, and is now free, free to continue his miserable existence, honored
and congratulated as one would suspect by his own for having fulfilled a
founding commandment pronounced by Allah against Jews and Christians, [and]
repeatedly recalled in his sacred book, the Koran ... The murderer is officially
authorized to continue his work of hatred and death".
Nili Naouri-Kupfer, president of the organization "Israël is Forever" wrote:
"The French government and justice department are afraid of the Muslim voters,
afraid of the Muslim street. They think it doesn't matter if a few Jews are
killed if peace can exist in their cities. They choose to sacrifice Jews rather
than face the Muslim threat, therefore there never again will be peace in
France! "
"I no longer trust the justice of my country", wrote a lawyer, Gilles-William
Goldnadel. He filed a complaint against the murderer, invoking Article 13 of an
Israeli procedural law stating that in the event of an assault on the life of a
Jew committed abroad, Israeli law applies. Francis Szpiner, a lawyer currently
serving as the mayor of the 16th arrondissement in Paris, joined in the
complaint.
A radio commentator, Raphaël Nisand, on the French station, Radio Judaïca, wrote
in the weekly Tribune Juive:
"[T]his affair is... the illustration for those who might still need it, of the
vital utility of Israel so that justice is done to the Jews all over the world.
This evidence, inaugurated with the Eichmann trial, unfortunately regains all
its force due to the failure of French justice".
A renowned French psychiatrist, Charles Melman, founder of the International
Freudian Association, observed that a verdict based on an "acute delirium"
leading to no longer being responsible for one's actions is medically
unacceptable, because cannabis does not induce delirium, but only suspends
inhibitions:
"[T]he murderer clearly discerned the reference text which could guide his
action, and far from creating confusion in him, cannabis only helped to lift
ordinary inhibitions. The poison did not alter his behavior and his judgment, it
magnified them."
Sarah Halimi is now part of the long list of Jews murdered in France by people
imbued with Islamic antisemitic hatred. Sebastien Sellam, 23, was stabbed to
death in November 2003 by his neighbor, Adel Amastaibou, who told police, "I
killed a Jew. It was what Allah wanted". He had smoked cannabis. A psychiatrist
said that he had committed a "delusional act". He was declared not responsible
for his act by the court and quickly released. Ilan Halimi, 23 as well, was
kidnapped, tortured and murdered less than three years later by a group led by
Youssouf Fofana, who claimed that he had acted in the name of Allah. The
atrocious attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19, 2012 by Mohamed
Merah left four dead: three children and the father of two of them. The attack
on a kosher supermarket near Paris also left four dead, all Jews. Mireille
Knoll, an 85 year-old woman who had survived the Holocaust ,was murdered in
Paris by her neighbor, Yacine Mihoub, a few miles from Sarah Halimi's apartment,
on March 23, 2018, less than a year after the murder of Sarah Halimi.
Every year in France, dozens of violent physical attacks against Jews take
place. The French Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community states that
44 attacks occurred in 2020, some extremely serious. Sammy Ghozlan, president of
the National Office for Vigilance Against Antisemitism, remarked that attacks
against Jews in France are far more numerous, but that their victims are often
afraid to file a complaint.
Commenting on a report on anti-Semitism in eleven European countries,
investigative reporter Judith Miller wrote on February 17, 2020: "The most
dangerous place to be a Jew in Europe is France".
"Without French Jews", said former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls after the
attack on the kosher supermarket, "France is not France".
On April 25 in Paris, Sarah Halimi's brother, William Attal, addressed a crowd.
Once again, he explained in detail the atrocities suffered by his sister and
added that a country where an antisemitic murderer can be freed by a
questionable decision of the judiciary is a fallen country. "Is France," he
asked, "still France?'
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27
books on France and Europe.
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