LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 28/17
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the
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Bible Quotations For
Today
You received without payment; give without
payment
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
Matthew 10/08-15/:”Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out
demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or
silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or
sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food. Whatever town or village
you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you
enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it;
but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.If anyone will not welcome
you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that
house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.”
Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in
Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah
Acts of the Apostles 09/19b-30/:”And after taking
some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples
in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues,
saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not
this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And
has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief
priests? ’Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who
lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. After some time had
passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They
were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his
disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall,
lowering him in a basket. When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join
the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he
was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and
described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him,
and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and
out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke
and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. When the
believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to
Tarsus.”
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on August 27-28/17
UN Chief Looks To Discuss Gaza, While Israel
Focuses On Lebanon, Syria/Jerusalem Post/August 28/17
Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East Agent, Emissary and Hammer/Ben Hubbardaug/ New
York Times/August 27/17
An Open Alliance with Qatar is Better/Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/August
27/17
Christians Who Libel Israel: The Iona Community/by Denis MacEoin/Gatestone
Institute/August 27/17
Is the world waiting for a time when there are no more Palestinians left/Tariq
A. Al-Maeena/Al Arabiya/August 27/17
The true meaning of ‘jihad’ and the Brotherhood’s big con/Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al
Arabiya/August 27/17
Qatar submits to Iran and loses the Gulf/Mohammed Al-Hammadi/Al Arabiya/August
27/17
"It's a War on Christians": Muslim Persecution of Christians, April 2017/Raymond
Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 27/17
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on August 27-28/17
Lebanese Army Announces Ceasefire in ISIS Border Battle
Lebanese General Security… Dismantling Cells, Negotiating with Extremists
Bodies 'Likely' Belonging to Captive Troops Found after Army Declares Ceasefire
Israel to Press U.N. Chief on 'Blindness' on Hizbullah
U.S. Says UNIFIL Chief 'Blind' to Hizbullah Arms
Raad: Any Hesitation on Golden Equation Subjects Country to More Threats
Nabatieh Town Lebanese-Syrian Clash Escalates into Road Blocking
Street Art Brings Color to Rundown Beirut Suburb
FPM Ministers Visit Army in Ras Baalbek in Show of Support
Lebanese Army: Remains of 8 people found in Arsal outskirts, transferred to
Military Hospital for DNA tests
Riachi: Where is the wisdom in letting Daesh go after discovering our soldiers'
fate?
Tueni: May God rest our martyrs' souls, it is a sad hour
Bou Assi: We are all sons of kidnapped soldiers' families
Bassil, Abi Khalil inaugurate water project in Aynata
Lebanon's Defense Minister inspects military front in Ras Baalbek
UN Chief Looks To Discuss Gaza, While Israel Focuses On Lebanon, Syria
Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East Agent, Emissary and Hammer
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on August 27-28/17
Regime Forces Expand alongside Jordan Border
Regime Forces Delve in ISIS Enclaves in Badia
Iraqi Military: Most of Tal Afar Captured from ISIS
Russia’s Lavrov begins Gulf tour to discuss Qatar crisis
Saudi Ambassador to US Stresses Strong Defense Ties between Riyadh, Washington
Erdogan to Discuss with Abbas Efforts to End Palestinian Authority-Hamas
Division
France Prepares for Post-ISIS Phase in Iraq
Report: Trump Asked Attorney General about Dropping Arpaio Case
Venezuelans Learn to Shoot, Fight at War Drills to Defy Trump
Pro-Saleh Colonel among 3 Dead in Clashes with Allied Yemen Rebels
Tillerson Slams N. Korea Missile Test but Still Seeks Talks
Israel Finalizes Deal for 17 More F-35 Stealth Fighters
Iraqi Forces Poised for Victory over IS in Tal Afar
Merkel Backs Libyan Coastguard but Warns against Abuses
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on
August 27-28/17
Lebanese Army Announces Ceasefire in
ISIS Border Battle
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/The Lebanese army announced on Sunday that a
ceasefire in its battle to expel ISIS terrorists from its eastern border with
Syria got underway at 7:00 am.
The truce was declared to pave the way for final negotiations linked to the fate
of soldiers abducted by the terrorists in 2014.The army did not mention whether
the ceasefire would include the Syrian side of the border where the “Hezbollah”
group and Syrian regime forces were battling ISIS in the al-Qalamoun region. The
two allied sides had announced a ceasefire in the Syrian region earlier this
week. The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and “Hezbollah” and
Syrian forces, launched separate but simultaneous offensives against an ISIS
enclave straddling the border. The Lebanese soldiers at the heart of
negotiations with ISIS were kidnapped by the group in wake of clashes with the
military after it and other militants overran in 2014 the northeastern border
town of Arsal. ISIS abducted a number of servicemen in wake of its retreat from
the battle. The fate of the nine soldiers held by ISIS has been unknown since
2014. Defense Minister Yaacoub al-Sarraf stated on Sunday that there can be
negotiations over anything before the fate of the detainees is revealed. “We
would not have been able to reach this point without the Lebanese army,” he
stated. The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating its attack with
“Hezbollah” or the Syrian regime. Any coordination between the Lebanese army and
either the Syrian regime or “Hezbollah” would be politically sensitive in
Lebanon and could jeopardize the sizeable US military aid the country receives.
A Western diplomat praised the Lebanese army’s performance in the border battle
in “a risky and complex operation” that the diplomat said would have been
“simply unimaginable” a decade ago, reported Reuters on Sunday. “We see no
evidence of substantive cooperation (between the army and Hezbollah),” the
diplomat added. A source familiar with the talks said there has been some
communication between the Lebanese army and “Hezbollah” in the run up to the
simultaneous ceasefires on Sunday. Later on Sunday, Foreign Minister Jebran
Bassil congratulated the Lebanese army on its victory against terrorism.He said
while visiting a military base in the eastern Ras Baalbek region that the army
deserves the credit in ridding Lebanon of terrorists.
Lebanese General Security… Dismantling Cells, Negotiating
with Extremists
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/Beirut- Lebanese head of General Security Maj. Gen.
Abbas Ibrahim’s announcement on Saturday that the institution he runs is now
close to end the file of the abducted Lebanese soldiers reflects the level of
progress that touched the tasks of the directorate since the appointment of
Ibrahim in his position five years ago. “We will not rest until we uncover the
whereabouts of the abducted soldiers. We are very close to ending this file,”
Ibrahim said on Saturday, adding that what the General Security and other
security apparatus have accomplished is a national achievement for the state and
all the Lebanese. “We will not allow any threat to harm Lebanon even if we had
to pay our blood and lives for this,” he said. Ibrahim was speaking on the
occasion of the General Security’s 72nd anniversary in the presence of President
Michel Aoun. Mounir Akiki, a retired General from the General Security Forces
and current Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Al Amn Al-Am” magazine told Asharq Al-Awsat
that since his appointment in 2011, Ibrahim placed a five-year strategy with an
aim to develop the institution at the logistic level and to build and improve
its human capacities. At the administrative level, Akiki said that Ibrahim’s
plan includes “modernizing the structure of the General Security by establishing
new directorates to meet the expanding needs of issuing passports, residencies
and visas,” particularly with the presence of large numbers of Syrian refugees,
who presented additional pressure on the directorate. At the security level,
Akiki said that the number of General Security personnel grew from 4 to 7
thousand in five years, allowing the directorate to expand in the framework of
an official security plan placed earlier by the Lebanese government. According
to the retired general, Ibrahim also succeeded in solving the country’s very
complicated security files. “Ibrahim is currently handling three files: the
Lebanese soldiers abducted by ISIS since 2014, the file of the Aleppo
patriarchs, and the file of the Lebanese photojournalist Samir Kassab,” who was
taken hostage by ISIS in northeast Syria three years ago.
Bodies 'Likely' Belonging to Captive Troops Found after
Army Declares Ceasefire
Naharnet/Associated Press/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/ Lebanese security
forces on Sunday found six bodies “likely” belonging to Lebanese troops abducted
by the Islamic State group in 2014, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas
Ibrahim announced. Speaking at the sit-in tent of the relatives of the kidnapped
soldiers in Riad al-Solh Square, Ibrahim said two more bodies were expected to
be unearthed by the Lebanese army and General Security agency. Ibrahim said IS
fighters who had surrendered led his agency and the Lebanese army to the
remains.“We’re almost certain” that these bodies belong to captive troops,
Ibrahim told reporters, although he called for awaiting DNA tests for the final
confirmation. “This file has been closed with a dark chapter… and we have had
unconfirmed information on the fate of the captive troops since mid-February
2015,” Ibrahim added, addressing the families of the soldiers. “In my name, and
in the name of the Army Commander, I address a great salutation to the families
of the troops over their resilience and patience and they should be proud of
their sons,” Ibrahim added. Relatives of the hostages had gathered for hours in
the blistering heat on Sunday to await news of their loved ones, sitting in
tents they erected three years ago during protests to pressure the government to
find the troops. Ibrahim also noted that the corpses were found “in Lebanese
territory,” while saying that Lebanese authorities do not have information about
the fate of Samir Kassab, a Lebanese cameraman who went missing in Syria, and
two Syrian bishops believed to be kidnapped by extremists. “We do not and will
not bargain and we’re in the position of the triumphant party who can impose its
own conditions,” Ibrahim went on to say. He had earlier in the day announced
that the fate of the Lebanese troops would be unveiled on Sunday. The
announcement follows a declaration by the Lebanese army on Sunday morning that
it was pausing its offensive against IS militants along the border with Syria to
allow for negotiations on the captive troops. The armed forces launched their
campaign against IS militants entrenched in the mountainous outskirts of the
towns of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa on Lebanon's eastern border on August 19. Nine
troops were believed to still be held by IS after militants overran the Lebanese
border town of Arsal in August 2014 and kidnapped around 30 soldiers and police.
Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds, while 16 were
released in a prisoner swap with al-Nusra Front in December 2015. The army had
said the remaining missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive
against an estimated 600 IS fighters in the hilly border region. An army source
told the AFP news agency on Sunday that its command had agreed to IS' request
for a ceasefire in order to get more information on the missing soldiers.
"Abbas Ibrahim has been authorized to negotiate with them for information on the
kidnapped soldiers," the source said.
"In the meantime, the battle has stopped. If we find any ulterior motives or if
we are dissatisfied with the solution, the army will continue its fight," the
source added.Hizbullah launched its own simultaneous attack against IS from the
Syrian side of the border in an area known as west Qalamun.
Hizbullah's War Media channel also announced a freeze in fighting on Sunday. It
said the unilateral pause was "in the framework of a comprehensive agreement to
end the battle in west Qalamun against Daesh (IS)."Two sources with close
knowledge of Hizbullah's operations in the area told AFP that fighters from the
group were searching west Qalamun for the bodies of the missing soldiers. The
army says its nine-day assault has squeezed IS into 20 square kilometers out of
120 held by the jihadists in the outskirts of Baalbek and al-Qaa. Six soldiers
have been killed since the start of the assault, which the army has insisted is
not being coordinated with Hizbullah. Syria's al-Ikhbariya TV quoted an unnamed
Syrian field commander as saying the militants have been driven out of some 200
square kilometers (77 square miles) in Syria. Syrian media say around 400
militants and their families are expected to be evacuated toward Deir Ezzor, a
city in eastern Syria that is mostly controlled by IS.The Central Military
Media, an outlet run jointly by Hizbullah and the Syrian army, said the Sunday
cease-fire will pave the way for a comprehensive agreement to end the fighting
in the area. And a Lebanese military source told AFP IS would quit territory it
held in eastern Lebanon. "When this happens, Daesh's military presence in
Lebanon -- its control of geographic territory -- will be finished," the source
said. But the source warned that IS still had "sleeper cells" in Lebanon.
Source
Israel to Press U.N. Chief on 'Blindness' on Hizbullah
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/ Israel will press U.N. Secretary
General Antonio Guterres on what it says is Hizbullah's arms buildup in Lebanon
during his first visit to Israel since taking office, the deputy foreign
minister said Sunday. Guterres was due to arrive in the evening for meetings
with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and officials, with the visit scheduled to
continue through Wednesday. The trip comes as the U.N. Security Council debates
renewing for a year the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as
UNIFIL, with a vote expected on August 30. The U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, Nikki Haley, has blasted the commander of the UNIFIL peacekeepers,
accusing him of turning a blind eye to alleged Hizbullah weapons smuggling.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric has however said: "We have full
confidence in (the commander's) work." Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi
Hotovely told public radio on Sunday: "Haley was right.""We shall not allow this
blindness to continue," she said, adding that Hizbullah's alleged deployment
along Lebanon's border with Israel would be a "very central issue" in the
discussions with Guterres. "He will meet the head of military intelligence and
receive a briefing, and also meet the prime minister, and I am sure that he will
not leave here with the feeling that the mandate given to the U.N. is being
implemented on the ground," Hotovely said. Beyond meeting Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, he is also expected to hold talks with Palestinian premier
Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Guterres has
told the Security Council that he intends to look at ways in which UNIFIL could
beef up its efforts "regarding the illegal presence of armed personnel, weapons
or infrastructure inside its area of operations."
U.S. Says UNIFIL Chief 'Blind' to Hizbullah Arms
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/Associated Press/August 27/17/The United States
has blasted the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, accusing
him of turning a blind eye to Hizbullah weapons smuggling. U.S. ambassador Nikki
Haley said the 10,500-strong UNIFIL force was "not doing its job effectively"
and singled out its Irish leader, Major General Michael Beary. "What I find
totally baffling is the view of the UNIFIL commander General Beary," Haley told
reporters, accusing him of ignoring Hizbullah's arms dumps. "He seems to be the
only person in south Lebanon who is blind. That's an embarrassing lack of
understanding on what's going on around him," she said. Asked about Haley's
sharp criticism, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said of Beary "we
have full confidence in his work." Beary pushed back this week on U.S. and
Israeli criticism. The Irish general told The Associated Press that his force
has no evidence of weapons being illegally transferred and stockpiled in the
area, and that "if there was a large cache of weapons, we would know about
it."Haley was speaking at U.N. headquarters as member states debate the future
of UNIFIL, which is deployed to keep the peace on Lebanon's southern border with
Israel. The existing mandate, last modified in 2006, expires at the end of the
month, and the United States would like to see its language toughened.
Washington wants the U.N. force to take a tougher line on Hizbullah. Israel
alleges that Hizbullah is restocking its arms dumps and missile batteries in
southern Lebanon, under the eyes of Blue Helmet peacekeepers. But Russia, which
is allied with Iran and thus with Hizbullah in support of regime forces in the
conflict in neighboring Syria, wields a U.N. Security Council veto. And U.S.
allies France and Italy, which have hundreds of soldiers in the U.N. force that
would be in danger if it clashed with Hizbullah, are also concerned. "Since 2006
there has been a massive flow of illegal weapons to Hizbullah, mostly smuggled
in by Iran," Haley alleged. "They openly threaten Israel. Hizbullah is a
terrorist organization that is very destabilizing to the region," she added.
Haley said the mandate obliges UNIFIL to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces to
disarm illegal groups and that she would seek to underline this in the renewal.
Raad: Any Hesitation on Golden Equation Subjects Country to
More Threats
Naharnet/August 27/17/MP Mohammed Raad, the head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to
Resistance parliamentary bloc, warned Sunday that “any hesitation” regarding the
so-called “army-people-resistance equation” would subject Lebanon to new
threats. “The equation that always leads to victories in a country such as
Lebanon is the resistance-people-army golden equation,” Raad said. He cautioned
that “any hesitation in committing to this equation would subject the country to
more threats and attacks, and would encourage the aggressors to violate
Lebanon’s sovereignty.” Referring to the victories over the Islamic State group
in the offensives that have been launched by the Lebanese army on the Lebanese
side of the border and by Hizbullah and the Syrian army on the Syrian side of
the border, Raad said “this will go down in Lebanon’s history and in the record
of the new presidential tenure in Lebanon.”Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah had recently stirred controversy in Lebanon by adding the Syrian army
to the so-called army-people-resistance equation. Some also accused him that his
real equation also involves Iraq's Shiite militias, Yemen's Huthi rebels and
Iran's Revolutionary Guard.'
Nabatieh Town Lebanese-Syrian Clash Escalates into Road
Blocking
Naharnet/August 27/17/A clash between residents of the Nabatieh town of Sir al-Gharbiyeh
and a number of Syrian refugees has left several people wounded from both sides,
the National News Agency reported on Sunday. “The violence erupted after a
verbal dispute between the Syrian Ahmed Ata and a number of the town’s young men
before escalating into a fistfight involving the of sharp objects,” NNA said. A
group of young men then gathered and attacked the Syrians, blocking the public
road that links Sir al-Gharbiyeh to the town of al-Qusaibeh. Patrols from the
army and the Internal Security Forces eventually arrived on the scene and
reopened the road, arresting a number of those involved in the clash, the agency
added.
Street Art Brings Color to Rundown Beirut Suburb
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/Seen from the highway out of
Lebanon's capital Beirut, the Ouzai neighborhood is a jumble of haphazard
construction, but venture inside and its low-slung buildings transform into
street art canvases. Artists taking part in the "Ouzville" project have painted
walls in brilliant blues, reds, yellows and greens, adorning others with
enormous murals, doodles, and cartoon characters. The project is a breath of
fresh air for Ouzai, a rundown and largely informal neighborhood on the
Mediterranean coast south of Beirut.
It was once a sleepy seaside village, with long stretches of beach that
attracted sunbathers from miles away. But during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war,
civilians displaced from elsewhere built slapdash housing in the area, often
without permits, to accommodate their needs. For decades, the neighborhood chaos
of jumbled buildings and the web of electrical wires hanging overhead have been
among the first things visible from planes landing at Beirut airport. Ayad
Nasser, the property developer behind the Ouzville project, was born in Ouzai in
1970 but moved overseas during the civil war. He said each landing at the nearby
airport was a painful reminder of the neighborhood decline. "Every time, I was
sad landing here. I said, 'I'm going to take care of Ouzai,'" he told AFP.
'Brought joy'
Nasser launched his project 18 months ago, inviting Lebanese and international
street artists to beautify parts of Beirut -- Ouzai in particular. "I felt that
the most abandoned area in Lebanon is Ouzai," Nasser said in English. "It's been
40 years that nobody is taking care of it: not the government, not the local
parties, not even the local peoples." He worked with Ouzai residents to identify
streets and buildings to be brightened up with bursts of color. Around 140
buildings have now been painted, with a handful done by the residents
themselves. From the street below her first-story home, Jumana Yunis can be seen
preparing green beans for lunch, framed by a large window in the bright yellow
outer wall of her building. Below the window is a large mural of a girl's face,
rendered in serene shades of turquoise and royal blue. At 38, Yunis has spent
her whole life in Ouzai and is raising her four children in the home where she
was born. For her, the Ouzville project has "brought joy" to a neighborhood she
loves. "You're happy when you go outside and see the colors, even if sometimes
it's strange. You feel that this is a new neighborhood," she told AFP. "Lots of
new people came to the neighborhood, and we got to meet strangers. It's really
lovely, the neighborhood has flourished with the colors." Nasser said part of
the project's goal is to "break the stereotype" of Ouzai, which many in Lebanon
see as a slum to be avoided. Much of the $140,000 (120,000 euros) he has spent
on the project has gone on hosting people elsewhere in Lebanon and abroad at a
local fish restaurant to encourage them to engage with Ouzai's residents.
'Like Disneyland' -
Rania al-Halabi, an amateur artist participating in the project, admits that
Ouzai is "an area that we usually only enter with a car, in the best of
circumstances."But she said the project inspired her from the minute she heard
about it. "Color can make everything in life beautiful, and this is something
that will certainly change everyone's lives," she said, as she daubed green
paint around a stark face several meters high. While residents welcome Nasser's
initiative, they note it underlines the relative absence of local services --
although municipal workers were digging up a street when reporters visited
recently. "It should be the municipality that does this kind of work, not just
here in our area," said Zakaria Kobrosly, a 57-year-old fisherman, whose home is
meters from the shore. And the project's future will depend on residents'
willingness to continue the work. Nasser plans to bow out after he launches a
crowd-funding campaign later this month to raise $35,000 towards continuing the
project. Laila Slim, 51, preparing parsley for a salad next to the salmon-colored
outer wall of her home, gestured to an area where the paint was peeling. "The
project is very lovely, but with the humidity, it is damaged already. I hope
they will come back again," she said. Kobrosly said the project had improved the
neighborhood's social fabric.People used to socialize in their houses, now you
find them out in the street below together," he said. "It has calmed people's
nerves... they've started to get to know each other." The best view of Ouzai, he
said, is from his fishing boat out in the Mediterranean. "You can see it all
together, with all the colors. It's like Disneyland or something!"
FPM Ministers Visit Army in Ras Baalbek in Show of Support
Naharnet/August 27/17/Five Free Patriotic Movement ministers on Sunday visited
the army’s operations room in the eastern border town of Ras Baalbek in a show
of support for the military’s border offensive against the Islamic State group.
The delegation comprised Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Defense Minister
Yaacoub al-Sarraf, Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil, Tourism Minister Avedis
Kedanian and Economy Minister Raed Khoury. “Entire Lebanon is living a new
victory, which was achieved by Lebanon alone. The same as it was the only
country to triumph over Israel, Lebanon is now winning against takfiri terrorism
with its own capabilities and strength,” Bassil told reporters. “Our thoughts go
to the captive troops, the cameraman Samir Kassab and the two bishops,” the FM
added. Sarraf for his part said “there will be no negotiations over any issue
before the fate of the captives is unveiled.” After ousting IS from much of the
eastern border region in a nine-day offensive, the Lebanese army announced
Sunday a ceasefire aimed at allowing for negotiations over the fate of nine
troops kidnapped by the jihadist group in 2014. Hizbullah, which declared a
simultaneous ceasefire in its anti-IS assault on the Syrian side of the border,
is reportedly involved in the negotiations.
Lebanese Army: Remains of 8 people found in Arsal
outskirts, transferred to Military Hospital for DNA tests
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - Within the framework of following-up on the fate of the
kidnapped soldiers by Daesh terrorists, Army units found the remains of eight
bodies in the locality of Wadi al-Dib in the outskirts of Arsal, which were
transferred to the Central Military Hospital to conduct DNA tests and verify
their identity, an Army Command communiqué indicated on Sunday. A statement will
be issued immediately when the DNA test results are out, the communiqué added.
Riachi: Where is the wisdom in letting Daesh go after
discovering our soldiers' fate?
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - "Where is the wisdom in letting Daesh go after discovering
the fate of our soldiers?" questioned Information Minister, Melhem Riachi, via
Twitter on Sunday. "Wisdom lies in their captivity, trial..and destruction!" he
exclaimed.
Tueni: May God rest our martyrs' souls, it is a sad hour
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - "May God rest the souls of our martyrs, for it is a sad
hour, but we pride ourselves in them for sacrificing their lives for our sake
and the future generations to come," said State Minister for Combating
Corruption, Nicola Tueni, via Twitter on Sunday. Tueni expressed his deepest
condolences to their families, wishing them patience and solace in coping with
their huge loss.
Bou Assi: We are all sons of kidnapped soldiers' families
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - "We are all sons of the families of our kidnapped
soldiers," deemed Social Affairs Minister, Pierre Bou Assi, via Twitter on
Sunday.
Bassil, Abi Khalil inaugurate water project in Aynata
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - Pursuing their Bekaa tour on Sunday, Foreign Affairs and
Expatriates Minister, Gebran Bassil, and Water and Energy Minister, Ceasar Abi
Khalil, inaugurated the Ain Daher water project in the village of Aynata, in
presence of several of the region's dignitaries. Bassil and Abi Khalil inspected
the tunnel from which 6,000 cubic meters of water flow daily.
Lebanon's Defense Minister inspects military front in Ras
Baalbek
Sun 27 Aug 2017/NNA - Defense Minister, Yaacoub Sarraf, visited on Sunday the
Military Front Command in Ras Baalbek where he toured the front lines, namely
Hills of Halimat al-Kabu and Qara separated by the Maratibia Valley, where the
fifth phase of the miliatry operations was supposed to be carried out.
UN Chief Looks To Discuss Gaza, While Israel Focuses On
Lebanon, Syria/
الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة يريد أن يبحث مع الإسرائيليين ملف غزة في حين تركيزهم
هم على لبنان وسوريا
Jerusalem Post/August 28/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=58207
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Israel on Sunday evening for
his first visit in his current position, with Israeli diplomatic officials
saying that while Jerusalem is keen on discussing Hezbollah and the dangers
presented by Iran in Syria, the UN chief will want to focus on the situation in
Gaza.
Guterres is scheduled to meet on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
who is expected to give Guterres the same message he gave Russian President
Vladimir Putin last week, and which he sent to Washington the week before:
Israel will not tolerate a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria. In
addition, he will raise the issue of Iran building missile factories in Lebanon.
The reason this message is important to pass onto Guterres is twofold, according
to one senior Israeli diplomatic official.
On the one hand, the UN head meets regularly with world leaders and can relay
this message on further; and secondly, because if Israel is forced to take
military action in Syria, the chances are good that this would then go to the UN
for condemnations and Security Council resolutions.
“His visit gives us an opportunity to with Guterres to focus on Hezbollah and
the situation in Syria, Guterres is especially interested in the situation in
the South, and while he will not travel to the northern border during his
two-day trip, he is scheduled to go to Gaza on Wednesday, shortly before
departing.
According to diplomatic officials, Guterres will not meet any political leaders
there, but rather limit the visit to meeting with UNRWA officials and focusing
on UN projects in the Strip.
While he will not travel to the northern borders, Guterres is scheduled to
receive an in-depth briefing on the situation in Lebanon and Syria from the head
of military intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Herzl Halevi. Guterres will also receive a
security briefing from Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.- Gen. Yair Golan, and from
Maj.-Gen. Yoav “Poli” Mordechai, coordinator of Government Activities in the
Territories.
In addition to going to Gaza, Guterres will also tour the Israeli communities
near the Gaza Strip, and will be taken to a Hamas terrorist tunnel.
Characterizing Guterres’s visit as “very important,” Deputy Foreign Minister
Tzipi Hotovely said Israel is in the midst of trying to get the UN to update and
strengthen UNIFIL’s mandate in southern Lebanon, and that it is clear to
everyone that Hezbollah is violating the conditions of UN Security Council
Resolution 1701. That resolution set the terms for the end of the Second Lebanon
War in 2006, and called for the disarming of forces in Lebanon.
UNIFIL, she said, has turned a blind eye to the arming of Hezbollah in southern
Lebanon, and this “needs to change.”
Another issue that Israel will raise with Guterres, Hotovely said, is the
anti-Israel bias of the world body. For too many years, she said, the UN has
pointed a finger at Israel, while “ignoring the real problems in the region.”
She said the time has come to state clearly that if this does not end, the UN
will not only lose its integrity, but also a big chunk of its financial support.
She said that the US is wagging the threat of withholding funds to the UN if its
treatment of Israel doesn’t change. She said that this should provide Guterres
with the necessary motivation to implement the changes toward Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said that Guterres, a former
Portuguese prime minister, has in general “tried to be objective” on Israel.
“We expect the secretary general to be objective; we don’t expect that he will
support Israel,” Danon said. “When he took over the job he said he will treat
Israel like all other counties in the UN. If he lives up to that commitment,
that would be a great achievement.”
Danon said that the general sense in Jerusalem is that Guterres is trying to
give Israel a feeling that it is being treated equally in the UN. Israel is not
against criticism in the UN, Danon said, as long as it is “reasonable” and not
“done in an obsessive manner, as is usually the case.”
Danon said that there was no doubt that statements about the UN from US
President Donald Trump, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and some
congressional representatives about the need to alter the UN bias against Israel
has had an impact on him as well.
“Our position is that we are not against the UN, or that it should be closed,”
he said.
“Our position is that it should be more effective. UNIFIL is a perfect example.
We are not against UNIFIL; we welcome its presence. But it needs to do a lot
more than it’s doing.”
In addition to meeting Netanyahu on Monday, Guterres will also meet President
Reuven Rivlin, opposition head Isaac Herzog, and the families of the soldiers
whose bodies are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, he will go to Yad Vashem, as well as to Mount Herzl, where he will
lay a wreath on the grave of Shimon Peres, with whom he was friendly, and of
Theodor Herzl.
In the evening he is scheduled to take part in an innovation exhibition with
Netanyahu at the Israel Museum.
On Tuesday, Guterres is scheduled to travel to Ramallah for meetings with
Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
On Wednesday, in addition to going to Gaza, the UN chief is also expected to
deliver a speech at The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot that
focuses on antisemitism.
Danon said that Guterres has made some comments over the last eight months in
office that pleased Israel, and others that did not.
For instance, Guterres said at a World Jewish Congress gathering in March that
“Israel needs to be treated like any other UN member state,” and that it has an
“undeniable right to exist and to live in peace and security with its neighbors.”
He added that “the modern form of antisemitism is the denial of the existence of
the State of Israel.”
And in January, after a UNESCO vote in October expunged a Jewish connection to
the Temple Mount, Guterres said in an interview that it is “completely clear
that the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.”
On the other hand, on the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, he issued a
statement saying, “This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and
development burden on the Palestinian people. Among them are generation after
generation of Palestinians who have been compelled to grow up and live in ever
more crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no
prospect of a better life for their children.”
He continued: “The occupation has shaped the lives of both Palestinians and
Israelis. It has fueled recurring cycles of violence and retribution. Its
perpetuation is sending an unmistakable message to generations of Palestinians
that their dream of statehood is destined to remain just that, a dream; and to
Israelis that their desire for peace, security and regional recognition remains
unattainable.”
Danon took issue with the secretary-general’s statement at the time, saying: “It
is preposterous to blame terrorism and violence in the Middle East on the one
true democracy in the region.”
Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East Agent, Emissary and Hammer//حزب
الله وكيل ومطرقة ورسول وعميل إيران في الشرق الأوسط
Ben Hubbardaug/ New York Times/August 27/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=58204
BEIRUT, Lebanon — For three decades, Hezbollah maintained a singular focus as a
Lebanese military group fighting Israel. It built a network of bunkers and
tunnels near Lebanon’s southern border, trained thousands of committed fighters
to battle Israel’s army and built up an arsenal of rockets capable of striking
far across the Jewish state.
But as the Middle East has changed, with conflicts often having nothing to do
with Israel flaring up around the region, Hezbollah has changed, too.
It has rapidly expanded its realm of operations. It has sent legions of fighters
to Syria. It has sent trainers to Iraq. It has backed rebels in Yemen. And it
has helped organize a battalion of militants from Afghanistan that can fight
almost anywhere.
As a result, Hezbollah is not just a power unto itself, but is one of the most
important instruments in the drive for regional supremacy by its sponsor: Iran.
Hezbollah is involved in nearly every fight that matters to Iran and, more
significantly, has helped recruit, train and arm an array of new militant groups
that are also advancing Iran’s agenda.
An Israeli Merkava tank with its cannon twisted like a pretzel is displayed at a
war museum operated by Hezbollah near the village of Mleeta in southern Lebanon.
Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Founded with Iranian guidance in the 1980s as a resistance force against the
Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah became the prototype for the
kind of militias Iran is now backing around the region. Hezbollah has evolved
into a virtual arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, providing the
connective tissue for the growing network of powerful militias.
Months of interviews with officials, fighters, commanders and analysts from nine
countries, and with members of Hezbollah itself, bring to light an organization
with new power and reach that has not been widely recognized. Increasingly,
Iranian leaders rely on it to pursue their goals.
Iran and Hezbollah complement each other. Both are Shiite powers in a part of
the world that is predominantly Sunni. For Iran, a Persian nation in a mostly
Arab region, Hezbollah lends not just military prowess but also Arabic-speaking
leaders and operatives who can work more easily in the Arab world. And for
Hezbollah, the alliance means money for running an extensive social services
network in Lebanon, with schools, hospitals and scout troops — as well as for
weapons, technology and salaries for its tens of thousands of fighters.
The network Hezbollah helped build has changed conflicts across the region.
In Syria, the militias have played a major role in propping up President Bashar
al-Assad, an important Iranian ally. In Iraq, they are battling the Islamic
State and promoting Iranian interests. In Yemen, they have taken over the
capital city and dragged Saudi Arabia, an Iranian foe, into a costly quagmire.
In Lebanon, they broadcast pro-Iranian news and build forces to fight Israel.
The allied militias are increasingly collaborating across borders. In April,
members of a Qatari royal hunting party kidnapped by militants in Iraq were
released as part of a deal involving Hezbollah in Syria. In southern Syria,
Iranian-backed forces are pushing to connect with their counterparts in Iraq.
And in the battle for Aleppo last year — a turning point in the Syrian war —
Iranian-supported militants hailed from so many countries their diversity amazed
even those involved.
“On the front lines, there were lots of nationalities,” said Hamza Mohammed, an
Iraqi militiaman who was trained by Hezbollah and fought in Aleppo. “Hezbollah
was there, Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis – everyone was there, with Iranian
participation to lead the battle.”
Mr. Nasrallah delivered a televised address during a June rally in Beirut.
Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The roots of that network go back to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, when
Iran called on Hezbollah to help organize Iraqi Shiite militias that in the
coming years killed hundreds of American troops and many more Iraqis.
Recent wars have allowed Iran to revive and expand the web, and some of the
groups Hezbollah trained in Iraq are now returning the favor by sending fighters
to Syria. More than just a political alliance, Hezbollah, whose name is Arabic
for Party of God, and its allies have deep ideological ties to Iran. Most
endorse vilayat-e-faqih, the concept that Iran’s supreme leader is both the
highest political power in the country and the paramount religious authority.
They also trumpet their goal of combating American and Israeli interests, while
arguing that they fill gaps left by weak governments and fight Sunni jihadists
like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Many wonder what these tens of thousands of experienced fighters will do after
the wars in Syria and Iraq wind down. Hezbollah leaders have said they could be
deployed in future wars against Israel.
But Tehran’s rising influence has made both Iran and its allies a target, the
focus of military and diplomatic action by Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United
States, all of which consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
For Hezbollah, moreover, expansion has come with a cost. The grinding war in
Syria has saddled it with heavy casualties and growing financial commitments.
In an interview, Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general,
proudly acknowledged his organization’s efforts to pass its rich militant
experience to other Iranian-aligned forces.
“Every group anywhere in the world that works as we work, with our ideas, is a
win for the party,” he said. “It is natural: All who are in accordance with us
in any place in the world, that is a win for us because they are part of our
axis and a win for everyone in our axis.”
The Lebanese and Hezbollah flags outside the mountainous bunker complex at the
war museum operated by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Credit Sergey Ponomarev
for The New York Times
War Without Borders
Hezbollah has become active in so many places and against so many enemies that
detractors have mocked it as “the Blackwater of Iran,” after the infamous
American mercenary firm.
The consequences are clear far from Hezbollah’s home turf.
In an expanding graveyard in the Iraqi city of Najaf, a militia fighter, Hussein
Allawi, pointed out the headstones of comrades killed abroad. Some of the graves
were decorated with plastic flowers and photos of the dead.
“This one is from Syria, that one is from Syria — we have a lot from Syria,” Mr.
Allawi said.
Many had begun their careers as he did. After joining a militia, he received
military training in Iraq. His most experienced trainers were from Hezbollah.
In recent years, much of the world has focused on the Sunni jihadists who have
traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State. But less attention has
been paid as Iran fired up its own operation, recruiting, training and deploying
fighters from across the Shiite world.
At the heart of that effort, Hezbollah has taken on increasingly senior roles in
ventures once reserved for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — the force
that helped create Hezbollah itself.
In Iraq, Iran has redeployed militias originally formed to battle American
troops to fight the Islamic State. It has also recruited Afghan refugees to
fight for a militia called the Fatemiyoun Brigade. And it has organized a huge
airlift of fighters to fight for Mr. Assad in Syria. The Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps provides the infrastructure, while commanders from Iran and
Hezbollah focus on training and logistics.
Militiamen interviewed in Iraq described how they had registered at recruitment
offices for Iranian-backed militias to fight the Islamic State. Some were
trained in Iraq, while others went to Iran for 15 days of drills before flying
to Syria to fight. More experienced fighters took advanced courses with Iranian
and Hezbollah commanders in Iran or Lebanon.
Iran rallied the combatants with cash and religious appeals, effectively pitting
one international jihad against another.
For Ali Hussein, an Iraqi high school dropout, the battle began after the
Islamic State stormed into northern Iraq in 2014 and he went to the recruitment
office of an Iranian-backed militia to sign up to fight the jihadists.
But first, Mr. Hussein was told, he had to fight in neighboring Syria, against
rebels seeking to topple the government. He agreed and was promptly launched
into an extensive, Iranian-built network of loyal militants scattered across the
Middle East.
He was bused to Iran with other recruits and airlifted to Syria, where he
received military training and lectures about holy war. After a month on the
front lines, he returned to Iraq with $1,000 and a newfound ideological fervor.
“I want to continue fighting jihad until victory or martyrdom,” he said.
Phillip Smyth, a University of Maryland researcher who studies militant groups,
said more than 10,000 Iraqi fighters were in Syria during the battle for Aleppo
last year, in addition to thousands from other countries.
Officers from Iran coordinated the ground forces with the Syrian military and
the Russian air force while Hezbollah provided Arabic-speaking field commanders,
the fighters said.
Iraqi militia leaders defended their role in Syria, saying they went to protect
holy sites and fight terrorists at the request of the Syrian government.
“If anyone asks why we went to Syria, ask them what allowed the Americans to
occupy countries,” said Hashim al-Musawi, a spokesman for an Iraqi militia
active in Syria. “We didn’t sneak in, we entered through the door.”
Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon have surfaced on Iraq’s battlefields, too.
Ali Kareem Mohammed, an Iraqi militia sniper, recalled a battle with the Islamic
State in central Iraq when the jihadists kept sending armored cars filled with
explosives that his comrades’ weapons could not stop. They called for help, and
a group of Lebanese fighters brought advanced antitank missiles.
“Everyone knew they were Hezbollah,” Mr. Mohammed said. “If anyone came with a
suicide car, they would hit it.”
Today, his group uses the same missiles without Hezbollah’s help, he said.
Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah with portraits of Mr. Nasrallah at a June rally
in a Beirut suburb. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Other Hezbollah relationships extend further afield, including with the Houthi
rebels in Yemen who stormed the capital, Sana, in 2014, later toppling the
government and prompting an air campaign by Saudi Arabia and its allies aimed at
pushing the rebels back.
Although the Houthis follow a different sect of Islam, Iran and Hezbollah have
adopted the Houthi cause in speeches by their leaders, raising the group’s
profile. They have also provided some military and logistical support. Ali
Alahmadi, a former Yemeni national security chief, said that Houthi fighters
began receiving military training in Lebanon as early as 2010 and that two
Hezbollah operatives were arrested in Yemen in 2012 and returned to Lebanon
through Oman.
“We sent them to Oman with a verbal message to their bosses: Stop meddling in
Yemen,” Mr. Alahmadi said.
Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’JULY 15, 2017
In Afghanistan, U.S. Exits, and Iran Comes InAUGUST 6, 2017
After the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Hezbollah
operatives went to Iraq to help organize militias to fight the Americans with
roadside bombs and other insurgency tactics.
Some of those militiamen now lead forces that have made common cause with
Hezbollah again, this time in Syria.
“Today, we have one project in the region,” said Jaafar al-Husseini, the
military spokesman for another Iraqi militia that works with Hezbollah. “The
threat in Syria, the threat to Hezbollah and the threat in Iraq have convinced
us that we need to coordinate and work together more.”
A Hezbollah operations center, hidden deep within a mountainous bunker complex,
at the war museum operated by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Credit Sergey
Ponomarev for The New York Times
Bleeding for Assad
While Hezbollah has extended its regional reach, it has made its greatest
foreign investments — and paid the highest costs — in Syria, and its
intervention there has reshaped the group.
Its leaders have portrayed the war as a conspiracy by Israel, the United States
and Saudi Arabia to use extremists to destroy Syria and weaken the pro-Iranian
axis in the region. This, in their view, makes their intervention an extension
of the “resistance” against Israel.
But that argument falls flat for many in the region, who see a military force
built to fight Israel turning its guns on fellow Muslims.
That was the feeling for many in Madaya, a Syrian mountain town that had joined
the uprising against Mr. Assad in 2011. Four years later, the government decided
to squeeze the rebels out and imposed a siege. Snipers moved in, and the
fighters unleashed religious battle cries, letting Madaya’s residents know they
were under siege by the Party of God.
“It was a spiteful siege,” said Ebrahim Abbas, a computer technician who took a
bullet in his gut during the operation, in 2015. Aid shipments were cut off, and
malnutrition spread.
Hezbollah went to Syria aware that if Mr. Assad fell, it would lose its only
Arab state sponsor and the weapons pipeline from Iran. So Hassan Nasrallah,
Hezbollah’s secretary general, consulted with officials in Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps, and they made a commitment to back Mr. Assad,
according to Iranian officials and analysts close to the group.
Since then, Hezbollah has deployed as many as 8,000 fighters to Syria at any one
time, analysts say. Now, with the immediate threat to Mr. Assad gone, many
suspect that Hezbollah will maintain a permanent presence in Syria. It has
organized Hezbollah-style militias among Syrians, evacuated border communities
it considered a threat to Lebanon and established a branch of its Mahdi Scouts,
a long-term investment in the cultivation of fighters.
Syria has given a new generation of Hezbollah fighters extensive experience,
including in offensive operations and in coordinating with the Syrian military
and the Russian air force.
But many have also returned in coffins, and their faces are enshrined on martyr
posters throughout Lebanon.
In May, hundreds of people wearing yellow Hezbollah sashes crowded into a
community hall in Natabiya in southern Lebanon to pay their respects to the
group’s wounded fighters — 18 of them at this particular ceremony, many from
battles in Syria. Five were in wheelchairs, one missing a leg, another missing
two. Others leaned on canes and crutches.
When the Lebanese national anthem played, only six could stand up.
Some analysts say the group has lost 2,000 fighters or more in Syria and that
more than twice that many have been wounded — a substantial toll for a force
that analysts say can draw on a maximum of 50,000 fighters.
In an interview, Sheikh Qassem, Mr. Nasrallah’s deputy, denied that Hezbollah
had long-term ambitions in Syria. He also declined to discuss any numbers
related to fighters, other than calling reports of more than 2,000 dead
“enlarged.”
“In the end, we consider the results that we reached in Syria much greater than
the price, with our respect to the great sacrifices that the young men of the
party put forward,” he said.
Hezbollah fighters led a tour for Lebanese and foreign journalists in July at
the Lebanese-Syrian border. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Strained Resources
Hezbollah has long put great resources into supporting the families of its dead
fighters. It also takes care of the wounded, although they pose a different
challenge, returning to their communities as reminders of war’s cost.
se families is expensive, and there are now more on Hezbollah’s payroll than
ever before. Running a war and other international operations also drives up
costs at a time when the United States has targeted the group’s finances.
Hezbollah’s leaders have acknowledged that most of the group’s budget comes as
cash from Iran. But residents of Hezbollah communities say they have felt the
pinch in recent months, with less money in the economy as the party cuts
spending.
Hezbollah’s success has multiplied its enemies. The more it grows, the more they
want to destroy it.
“If you wait for the Iranian project to mature and take hold, you will see that
this ragtag militia has become a competent military with ideological leadership
and with what I would call a social support system,” said Anwar Gargash,
minister of state for foreign affairs in the United Arab Emirates, which is part
of the coalition fighting Iranian-aligned rebels in Yemen. “The Iranians have
done it before.”
Israel, too, has been worried about Iran’s expansionism in Syria, through
Hezbollah.
One concern is that Hezbollah has been able to move missile batteries into
Syria, giving it another potential platform for attacks on Israel besides
Lebanon.
A cave once used by a Syrian militant group near the border between Lebanon and
Syria. It was captured by Hezbollah. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York
Times
Hezbollah forbids its fighters to speak with outsiders, but through an
acquaintance I met two fighters in April who agreed to speak on the condition
that I concealed their identities.
One, with a pistol in his belt and flecks of white in his black beard, showed me
videos of himself fighting in Syria and said he had joined the party at age 15
to fight Israel.
I asked if fighting other Muslims in Syria was different from fighting Israel,
and he said it was the same battle: “Nothing has changed for us; we are still
the resistance.”
He denied sectarian motivations. But he held no sympathy for Syrians who opposed
Mr. Assad, and he dehumanized the rebels.
“I get disgusted by the way they look, their long beards and shaved mustaches,”
he said, referring to the grooming practices of some conservative Muslims.
“If it were not for Hezbollah,” he added, “Syria would have fallen a long time
ago.”
Asked about the use of siege tactics in Syrian towns like Madaya, one fighter
claimed that it had been the rebels who had caused the hunger, by hoarding food.
The other chalked it up to the cost of winning the war.
“Either you are strong or you are weak, and if you are weak you get eaten,” he
said. “Now, Hezbollah is strong.”
Hezbollah fighters escorted a convoy of journalists in July near the
Syria-Lebanon border. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The Home Base
It is from Beirut that Hezbollah runs the wide-ranging political, social and
military operations that give it power at home and increasing clout abroad.
Hezbollah does not control the state as much as maintain the power it needs to
block any effort to undermine its force, diplomats and Lebanese officials said.
The center of its operations is the southern suburbs of Beirut, which serve as
the party’s headquarters and a virtual diplomatic district for its regional
allies. Inside, Hezbollah bureaucrats run a private school system and social
services network. Representatives of Iraqi militias and Yemen’s Houthi rebels
maintain a presence. And a range of satellite television stations run by
Hezbollah and its allies blanket the region with pro-Iranian news.
The party’s history has helped solidify its place in Lebanon.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Iranian leaders sent officers from
the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to organize Shiite militias in the
Lebanese civil war. The result was Hezbollah, which also began waging a
guerrilla war against the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s withdrawal, in 2000, helped enshrine Hezbollah as the centerpiece of
the resistance. Its reputation was further burnished in 2006, when it fought
Israel to a standstill in a 34-day war that killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and
dozens of Israelis.
Some suspected that the war’s destruction would be the beginning of the end for
Hezbollah. But Iran flooded the country with money, underwriting an enormous
reconstruction campaign and also helping the party expand its military.
While Hezbollah has extended its regional reach, it has made its greatest
foreign investments – and paid the highest costs – in Syria, and its
intervention there has reshaped the group. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New
York Times
Few checks remain on Hezbollah’s domestic power.
But the group’s activities abroad remain troubling to many Lebanese, while its
strength poses risks for the country.
Hezbollah has more than 100,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel, in
addition to 30,000 trained fighters and a smaller number of reservists, said
Brig. Gen. Ram Yavne, the commander of the Israeli Army’s strategic division.
Israel also says Hezbollah is so integrated into the Lebanese state that it may
not differentiate between the two in a new war.
For now, Hezbollah appears to be avoiding escalation with Israel in order to
focus elsewhere. And the party’s political clout in Lebanon has many political
figures here finding ways to work with the group.
Alain Aoun, a Christian member of Parliament from the president’s party, said
that Hezbollah kept its domestic and regional activities separate and that he
considered it a valuable political partner.
But he said that calls for Lebanon to contain Hezbollah were unrealistic after
decades of support from Iran and Syria, and that confrontation with the United
States and Israel had helped it grow.
“All these countries contributed for 30 years to creating this power, so now you
say, ‘Go, Lebanese, and fix this problem,’ ” Mr. Aoun said. “It is bigger than
us.”
**Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Nour Youssef from Cairo,
Karam Shoumali from Istanbul, Falih Hassan from Baghdad, and Ian Fisher from
Jerusalem.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
August 27-28/17
Regime Forces Expand alongside Jordan Border
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/Beirut-
Syrian regime forces expanded on the eastern border with Jordan and curbed
control of the Free Syrian Army whose factions stated on Saturday that the
regime attacks are targeting Wadi Mahmoud, south east Damascus
countryside.Information contradicted regarding the regime advance to this
strategic area. Lions of the East Army reported that fierce clashes are ongoing
between the Free Syrian Army and regime forces in Wadi Mahmoud and Swaida
countryside in an attempt by the regime forces to move forward to that region.
Reliable sources said that regime forces seized the region while Saad al-Haj,
spokesman for Lions of the East Army, stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that the regime
only advanced to regions where the tribal army backed off, denying an expansion
in the border region. “The conflicts zone is 17 kilometers away from the border
with Jordan,” he added. Haj stressed that the strategic importance of this
region is that it is near the border with Jordan. “The regime is bragging every
time it advances in a hill,” he continued. On the contrary, “Hezbollah” war
media reported that the regime forces and its allies have laid hands over Ghadir
Mahmoud and Wadi Mahmoud near the Saudi-Jordanian border. The regime forces now
have control over 40 kilometers of the eastern border line with Jordan, revealed
Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman. He declared to Asharq Al-Awsat
that “the regime is mobilizing forces and conducting operations in that region
to fully restore control over the border line with Jordan and to close faction
outlets.” Jordan and Syria share 370 kilometers land border.
Regime Forces Delve in ISIS Enclaves in Badia
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/London, Beirut- Syrian regime and allied forces
advanced in Badia, east Hama city. They seized one of the last enclaves of ISIS
in a desert area, mid of Syria, stated the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Pro-regime sources said that the overall space of the seized enclave is around
2,000 square kilometers. Last week, regime forces and allies besieged ISIS
extremists after they advanced in the south to join the group near Al-Sukhnah in
Homs – the enclave extends from west Sukhnah to the nearby Hama. Syrian regime
forces – supported by Russian air force and Iran affiliated armed men – seized
Sukhnah this month, which was the last village in Homs under ISIS control.
Throughout the past year, ISIS lost ground to separate campaigns whether the
Syrian regime forces and its allies or opposition armed groups supported by the
US. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the military operations of
the regime forces against ISIS in the Syrian areas, as the regime forces managed
to restore control of tens of thousands of square kilometers, and they
approached to end the presence of ISIS in two new provinces. “The regime forces
and their allied militia armed men of Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian, Lebanese, Afghan
and Palestinian nationalities, and with the air cover of Russian and the
regime’s warplanes, managed to restore control over an area of about 34 thousand
square kilometers of the areas controlled by the group in Syria,” documented the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The regime forces-held areas have become
more than 77 thousand square kilometers of the whole area of the Syrian
territories, with a control percentage of about 42% of the geographical area of
Syria. This large advancement of the regime forces within 15 weeks exceeds the
area controlled by the regime forces in entire Syria during the months preceding
it.
Iraqi Military: Most of
Tal Afar Captured from ISIS
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/The Iraqi military announced on Sunday that its
forces have captured the majority of the northwestern city of Tal Afar from the
ISIS terrorist group. All 29 neighborhoods in Tal Afar city had been taken back
from the terror group, the military said in a statement. The battle for the city
was kicked off only eight days ago. Fighting was however ongoing in al-Ayadiya,
a small area 11 kilometers northwest of the city, where terrorists who fled the
district’s city center were hiding out, Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier
General Yahya Rasool said. Iraqi forces were waiting to retake the area before
declaring complete victory in the offensive, he said. Tal Afar was the latest
objective in the US-backed war on the terror group following the recapture in
July of Mosul, where it declared its self-proclaimed “caliphate” over parts of
Iraq and Syria in 2014. The offensive on Tal Afar, which lies on the supply
route between Syria and the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul, started on August
20. Up to 2,000 terrorists were believed to be defending the city against around
50,000 attackers, according to Iraqi and western military sources. Such a quick
collapse of ISIS in the city would confirm Iraqi military reports that the
terrorists lack command and control structures west of Mosul. Residents who fled
Tal Afar days before the start of the offensive told Reuters that the militants
looked “exhausted” and “depleted”. Tens of thousands of people are believed to
have fled in the weeks before the battle started. Remaining civilians were
threatened with death by the terrorists, according to aid organizations and
residents who managed to leave. Iraqi military investigators said Friday they
have discovered two mass graves near a former ISIS prison outside Mosul that
contain the bodies of 500 ISIS victims. The Media Cell Security Investigation
team said in a statement that one grave near the Badoush Prison site contained
the bodies of 470 prisoners killed by ISIS. It said a second grave contained 30
victims. Authorities were continuing to look for more graves. ISIS has scattered
mass graves across Iraq and Syria.
The Associated Press last year documented and mapped 72 of them. For at least 16
of the Iraqi graves, officials do not even guess the number of dead. In others,
the estimates are based on memories of traumatized survivors, ISIS propaganda
and what can be gleaned from a cursory look at the earth. But even the known
numbers of victims ranges from 5,200 to more than 15,000.
Russia’s Lavrov begins Gulf tour to discuss Qatar crisis
Staff writer, Al Arabiya EnglishMonday, 28 August 2017/Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov arrived in Kuwait on Sunday as part of a Gulf tour that the
Russian foreign ministry said would also include the UAE and Qatar to discuss
the Syrian issue and the Gulf crisis. The Russian ambassador to Kuwait, Alexei
Solomatin, told the Kuwaiti newspaper ‘Al-Jarida’ that “the visit comes within
the efforts of Russia to support the Kuwaiti mediation to solve the crisis.”The
ambassador added that the visit will address the situation in Syria and discuss
international and regional issues of common concern.
Saudi Ambassador to US Stresses Strong Defense Ties
between Riyadh, Washington
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/The ambassador stressed during his visit and talks
with US air force officials the strong defense ties between Saudi Arabia and the
US. Upon his arrival at the exercise hall, Prince Khalid was received by
Commander of Nellis Air Force Base Major General Peter Gersten and then met with
a number of Saudi pilots. The ambassador voiced his gratitude to the pilots,
highlighting the sacrifices they made in protecting and defending their nation’s
security and stability.“The Kingdom’s leadership, headed by Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosque King Salman bin Abdulaziz, will not spare an effort in bolstering
the capabilities of its citizens in various civil and military fields,” said
Prince Khalid. The “Red and Green Flag 2017 joint military exercises strengthen
our ability to work together against terrorist groups, including ISIS,” the
envoy said through the Saudi Embassy’s official Twitter account.
Erdogan to Discuss with Abbas Efforts to End
Palestinian Authority-Hamas Division
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/Ramallah – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will
underline during upcoming talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the
need for Hamas to dissolve its administrative committee in the Gaza Strip. This
should be followed by general elections. Only then will the Palestinian
Authority (PA) reverse the measures that it has taken against the
Hamas-controlled coastal strip, an informed Palestinian source revealed. Abbas
and Erdogan are scheduled to meet next week. The source made its statements
after Hamas’ branch in the West Bank exerted pressure on its Gaza branch to hold
reconciliation with Abbas. Erdogan had offered a mediation to end the divide
between Abbas and Hamas and the dispute over Gaza. “Turkish officials informed
the PA that they will provide guarantees for the formation of a consensus
government in Gaza and that they will follow up on the issue. However, they want
to discuss how to meet Hamas’ demand that its employees will remain in positions
they currently occupy,” added the source. Hamas is leaning towards complying
with the Turkish mediation, asking that the guarantees not affect its employees.
The source noted however that this issue will be difficult to resolve because
the Palestinian government will face challenges in taking in all the Hamas
employees at one go. “The PA cannot act as Hamas’ ATM. The current proposal was
made by Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdullah,” said the source. The premier
suggested that Hamas allow PA employees to return to their old jobs and that
they be given priority in filling vacancies. The proposal was rejected by Hamas.
Abbas will meanwhile listen to and discuss Turkish proposals to end the
Palestinian divide. The president is however insistent on the roadmap that he
had placed to end the dispute, revealed informed sources. “The president set a
roadmap that starts with dissolving the administrative committee and allowing
the formation of a national unity government that includes Hamas. This will be
followed by general elections. Without this, there can be no solution,”
explained the sources. “Whoever wins the elections will run the country,” they
added, warning that Abbas will continue with his measures against Gaza until his
roadmap is accepted. Abbas had taken a series of measures against Gaza, such as
cutting salaries and forcing employees to retirement, in an effort to pressure
Hamas to end its takeover of Gaza and restore it to the PA. The measures were
announced after Hamas announced the formation of a government committee aimed at
managing the ministries in the Gaza Strip. The step was seen by the PA as a coup
against the consensus government. A Hamas source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
movement will await the results of the Abbas-Erdogan talks before taking any
stance.
France Prepares for Post-ISIS Phase in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17/Paris- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian
and Defense Minister Florence Parly arrived in Baghdad on Saturday before
heading to Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, in the framework of the
French efforts to prepare for the post-ISIS phase, Iraqi military sources said.
At a joint press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibarhim al-Jaafari, Le
Drian uncovered France’s intentions in Iraq by saying: “We are present in war
and we will be present in peace.”Le Drian’s statement reveals that from one
part, France wishes to contribute to the national reconciliation efforts in
Iraq, but also to play a role in the reconstruction efforts estimated at between
$700 and $1000 billion. According to a foreign ministry statement, France will
grant a 430 million euro loan to Iraq before the end of the year. A French
source close to the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that Paris wants to reap the
political, economic and financial fruits of what it cultivated in Iraq in the
past three years, adding that its target is to build “long-term relations” with
Baghdad at all levels. Also, Paris sees that Iraq currently faces three main
political challenges: “The Kurdish upcoming referendum and its repercussions at
the regional and internal levels, the government’s capacity to implement a
reconciliatory policy that could gather all elements of the Iraqi society, and
finally an agreement on a structure to administer Mosul and Nineveh, both
characterized by their religious diversity.” According to Paris, the current
blazing file is certainly the Kurdistan Region’s upcoming referendum on
independence, scheduled for Sept. 25. Similar to other regional and
international parties, France sees in this referendum an “imminent threat,” and
considers itself a “friend of the Kurds” since the 1990’s and of being capable
to influence them. However, Paris “supports the Kurdish rights of
self-administration but in the framework of the current Iraqi Constitution.”
Report: Trump Asked Attorney General about Dropping Arpaio
Case
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/Donald Trump asked Attorney General
Jeff Sessions about dropping a criminal case against controversial ex-sheriff
Joe Arpaio, a close ally of the Republican president who has since received a
pardon, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Trump was advised that closing
the criminal contempt case against Arpaio, who was convicted for ignoring a
court order to stop detaining illegal migrants, would be inappropriate, said the
Post, citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of the conversation. The
president decided to let the case go ahead, but said he would pardon Arpaio if
necessary -- one source said Trump was "gung-ho" about the idea, the Post said.
Trump has received pushback on the pardon by members of his own party -- most
recently from the highest ranking Republican in Congress, Speaker of the House
Paul Ryan. "The speaker does not agree with this decision," Ryan spokesman Doug
Andres said in a statement late Saturday. "Law enforcement officials have a
special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States,"
Andres said. "We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is
diminished by this pardon."
Both Republican senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, earlier
criticized the presidential pardon. Trump's reported chat with Sessions over
Arpaio stands as evidence of the inability -- or unwillingness -- of the
71-year-old billionaire U.S. leader to maintain the traditional distance between
the White House and the Justice Department on specific cases. It also bears
similarities to two situations that have dogged Trump for months. One is his
alleged bid to influence a federal inquiry into his onetime national security
advisor Michael Flynn, and his bid to persuade high-level officials to downplay
the possibility of collusion between his campaign team and Russia, which is
still under investigation. The 85-year-old Arpaio, a divisive figure who was
once dubbed "America's toughest sheriff," was granted a presidential pardon on
Friday -- the first since Trump took office, and one that seemingly did not
follow regular protocols. "He kept Arizona safe!" Trump tweeted, calling Arpaio,
the former sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, a "patriot." Arpaio had been
due for sentencing in October. The move ensured he would serve no time in
prison. Both Trump and Arpaio pushed the "birther" conspiracy theory that former
president Barack Obama was not born in the United States. They also found common
ground on the campaign trail on illegal immigration. The move however earned
immediate scorn from Democrats, some Republicans and rights groups, who said
Trump skirted the normal procedures by not consulting the Justice Department
before granting clemency. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told the Post:
"It's only natural the president would have a discussion with administration
lawyers about legal matters. This case would be no different."
Venezuelans Learn to Shoot, Fight at War Drills to Defy
Trump
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/Venezuelan troops taught civilians
how to shoot rifles, fire missiles and engage in hand-to-hand combat during
drills held in defiance of U.S. sanctions and President Donald Trump's threat of
military action. War planes, tanks and 200,000 troops of the National Bolivarian
Armed Forces (FANB) deployed along with 700,000 reservists and civilians as
socialist President Nicolas Maduro launched two days of military exercises. In a
Caracas military academy, soldiers taught civilians how to use their fists,
rifles, ba zookas and anti-aircraft guns and supervised them on obstacle
courses. "Yankees out!" 60-year-old Erica Avendano yelled as she bashed a rag
dummy with her rifle on an assault course. "I hope nothing will happen, but we
are ready for anything," she told the AFP news agency.
'Possible military option'
Trump warned earlier this month that the United States was mulling a range of
options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if
necessary."Top U.S. officials later played down the threat. "No military actions
are anticipated in the near future," said US national security adviser HR
McMaster.
But Trump's tough talk bolstered Maduro's oft-repeated claim that Washington is
plotting to topple him and wants to grab control of Venezuela's oil -- the
largest proven reserves in the world. Gregorio Valderrama, a 23-year-old father
of three, received a shooting lesson from soldiers on Saturday. Valderrama said
he was there to learn "to defend my country and my family." "We may not know how
to handle a rifle and when to shoot, but here we are learning," he added.
Military loyalty
Elected in 2013, Maduro, the political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, has hung
onto power despite food shortages and social upheaval. His grip is largely
thanks to the support of the military, which holds vast powers in his
government, including over food distribution. The opposition has repeatedly
called on the army to abandon Maduro but so far he has faced only low-level
dissent. Military analyst Rocio San Miguel judged the weekend's exercises to be
"mere propaganda" rather than a meaningful challenge to Trump. She said they
aimed to discourage "any disloyalty in the ranks of the FANB, which is a worry
for the intelligence services," and "to reinforce the anti-imperialist line."On
Thursday, the president warned the armed forces not to break ranks. "This is no
time for any fissures," he said in a speech to the top military brass. "Never
before has Venezuela been threatened in such a way."
'Financial blockade'
Tension surged again however when the White House on Friday unveiled its
first-ever sanctions to target Venezuela as a whole, rather than just Maduro and
his inner circle. The measures ban trade in new bonds issued by the Venezuelan
government or its cash-cow oil company, PDVSA. That could choke off access to
New York debt markets and raise the risk of Venezuela being forced into default.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces support "all measures
being implemented to counter the financial blockade."
International pressure
Venezuela's center right-led opposition and international powers including
Washington say Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship. Maduro's
opponents accuse military police and pro-Maduro militia of beating and killing
anti-government protesters who are demanding elections to replace him.
Protest clashes have left 125 people dead so far this year, according to
prosecutors. Maduro says the violence and the economic crisis are a U.S.-backed
conspiracy. On Friday, he accused opposition leaders in his country of pushing
for the U.S. sanctions and called for legislative speaker Julio Borges to be
tried for treason. Also on Friday, Maduro called an "urgent" meeting of American
companies that buy Venezuelan oil and hold Venezuelan bonds to discuss the
sanctions.
Pro-Saleh Colonel among 3 Dead in Clashes with Allied
Yemen Rebels
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/A Yemeni colonel loyal to former
president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two rebels have been killed in clashes, Saleh's
party and a news agency said Sunday, in an unprecedented escalation of violence
between the allies. Colonel Khaled al-Rida was killed in clashes in the
rebel-held capital Sanaa late Saturday, a statement released by Saleh's General
People's Congress party said. Rida was the deputy head of foreign relations in
the party. While the statement did not name the Huthi rebels, it accused a
"group that knows no morality or oaths" of being behind the killing -- a
thinly-veiled reference to the Huthis, who over the past week have lashed out at
Saleh as a "back-stabber" and "traitor" as tensions rise within the rebel
alliance. The rebel-run Saba news agency said two members of the Popular
Committees, a triba l alliance largely dominated by the Huthis, were killed late
Saturday in Sanaa. A source within the GPC said the clashes erupted at a rebel
checkpoint in the southern neighborhood of Hadda after a dispute between
fighters manning the checkpoint and armed supporters of Saleh who were driving
by. Saleh and his one-time foe Abdul Malik al-Huthi joined ranks in 2014 in a
shock alliance that drove the internationally recognized government out of Sanaa
and into the southern province of Aden. A war of words between Saleh and rebel
leader Huthi has escalated in the past week. The two have publicly accused each
other of treason, with Saleh hinting his allies were merely "a militia" and the
rebels warning the former president he would "bear the consequences" of the
insult. The Huthis reportedly suspect Saleh has been negotiating with a
Saudi-led military coalition that supports the Yemeni government. Saleh,
meanwhile, is said to be displeased with the Huthis' newfound power in the
capital, where they run a number of key offices. The war between the government
of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, backed by the coalition, and the rebel camp
has killed more than 8,300 Yemenis since 2015 and pushed the country to the
brink of famine.
Tillerson Slams N. Korea Missile Test but Still Seeks
Talks
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
declared Sunday that North Korea's latest missile test was a "provocative act"
but said he still hopes to persuade Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table.
Earlier this month, Washington's top diplomat suggested a diplomatic opening
might be close after North Korea reacted to a new round of United Nations
sanctions with what he termed "some level of restraint."And on Tuesday U.S.
President Donald Trump seized upon the lack of immediate North Korean missile
tests as evidence that the country's leader Kim Jong-Un "is starting to respect
us."But on Saturday, true to recent form, North Korea test-fired three
short-range ballistic missiles, with Kim apparently thumbing his nose at calls
for him to send Washington a signal that he is serious about nuclear
disarmament. "The firing of any ballistic missile is a violation of U.N.
Security Council resolutions," Tillerson told Fox News Sunday. "We do view it as
a provocative act, a provocative act against the United States and our allies."
But he added, "We continue to want the Kim regime to understand (there) is a
different path that he can choose."Asked whether he and Trump had been too quick
to imagine that Kim might be ready to show restraint, Tillerson said: "I don't
know that we are wrong ... I think it's going to take some time to
tell.""Clearly they are still messaging us as well that they are not prepared to
completely back away from their position," he said. "Having said that, we are
going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it,"
Tillerson said, "working with allies, working with China as well, to see if we
can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table, begin a dialogue on
a different future for the Korean peninsula and for North Korea."
Israel Finalizes Deal for 17 More F-35 Stealth Fighters
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/Israel has finalized a deal to
purchase 17 more F-35 stealth fighters in addition to 33 of the ultra-high-tech
jets already ordered, the defense ministry said Sunday. Israel has already taken
delivery of five of the jets, made by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin and the most
expensive in history, beginning in December. The aim of the purchase is to allow
Israel to maintain its military superiority in the turbulent Middle East,
particularly regarding its arch-foe Iran and the S-300 anti-aircraft system
delivered to it by Russia. It had previously announced its intent to purchase 17
more planes, bringing the total to 50."The F-35 will be a key element in
assuring Israel's defense both along our borders as well as far from them,"
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. The cost of the next batch of 17 F-35s
will be less than $100 million each, the ministry said, a significant reduction
from the initial 33 planes. Those were purchased at an average of about $110
million each. The cost of the jets has been sharply criticized, including by
U.S. President Donald Trump. Israel's first jets are to be operational
this year. While other countries have ordered the planes, Israel -- which
receives more than $3 billion a year in U.S. defense aid -- says it will be the
first outside the United States with an operational F-35 squadron. Among its
main features are advanced stealth capabilities to help pilots evade
sophisticated missile systems. The single-pilot jets can carry an array of
weapons and travel at a supersonic speed of Mach 1.6, or around 1,200 miles per
hour (1,900 kilometers per hour). The pilot's helmet, at a cost of about
$400,000 each, includes its own operating system, with data that appears on the
visor and which is also shared elsewhere.
Thermal and night vision as well as 360-degree views are possible with cameras
mounted on the plane.
Iraqi Forces Poised for Victory over IS in Tal Afar
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/Iraqi forces backed by local militia
and a U.S.-led coalition were poised Sunday to drive the Islamic State group
from the city of Tal Afar, dealing another blow to the jihadists. Just a week
after authorities announced an offensive to push the jihadists from one of their
last major urban strongholds in Iraq, the Joint Operations Command said Iraqi
forces held all 29 districts of the city and were pursuing final clearing
operations. Pro-government fighters could already be seen celebrating, flashing
victory signs as their tanks rolled through the streets, waving Iraqi flags and
taking down black IS banners from buildings and lamp posts. The offensive comes
just weeks after Iraqi forces retook second city Mosul from IS, in their biggest
victory since the jihadists seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in
mid-2014. Much of that territory has since been retaken with support from
coalition air strikes and IS is also facing a major U.S.-backed offensive
against its de facto Syrian capital Raqa. The loss of Tal Afar, in northern Iraq
between Mosul and the Syrian border, will deprive IS of what was once a
significant hub for movement between the Syrian and Iraqi components of the
self-styled "caliphate" it declared three years ago. On Saturday, Iraqi forces
reached Tal Afar's Ottoman-era citadel and took control of the city center.
Government troops and units of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition
launched the assault last Sunday after weeks of coalition and Iraqi air strikes.
Progress in Tal Afar has been far more rapid than in Mosul, which fell to Iraqi
forces only after a grueling nine-month battle. Officials have said they hope to
announce victory by Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday set to start in Iraq on
September 2. The next target in the area was the town of Al-Ayadieh 15
kilometers (10 miles) north of Tal Afar and strategically located on the road
between the city and the Syrian border.
Next target -I
n the whole Tal Afar region, "1,155 square kilometers (445 square miles) of
1,655 square kilometers (640 square miles), or 70 percent of the area, have been
taken" the JOC said late on Saturday. Pro-government forces faced an obstacle
course of roads blocked with earth embankments and strategically parked trucks,
as well as sniper fire and mortar shelling during the battle for Tal Afar.
Troops also said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by IS to
launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape. Most
of the city's 200,000-strong population had fled after IS seized it. Until its
takeover by IS, Tal Afar was largely populated by Shiite Turkmen, whose beliefs
are considered heretical by the Sunni jihadists of IS. Officials have said the
capture of the city would make it even more difficult for the jihadists to
transport fighters and weapons between Iraq and Syria. The jihadist group has
lost much of the territory it controlled and thousands of its fighters have been
killed since late 2014, when the U.S.-led international coalition was set up to
defeat the group. Once Tal Afar is retaken, Baghdad is expected to launch a new
offensive on Hawija, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the Iraqi
capital. The coalition has announced carrying out strikes near Hawija in recent
days, including two that killed IS fighters and destroyed a command post.
IS is also present in the vast western province of Anbar, where it controls
several zones along the border with Syria, including the al-Qaim area.
Despite its losses in Iraq and Syria, IS has continued to claim responsibility
for attacks carried out by its members or supporters abroad, including this
month's deadly attacks in Spain and knife attacks in Russia and Brussels.
Merkel Backs Libyan Coastguard but Warns against Abuses
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 27/17/German Chancellor Angela Merkel on
Sunday said the Libyan coastguard should be supported in its efforts to stem the
flow of migrants to Europe, but warned that rights abuses would not be
tolerated. A day before a Paris summit on the migrant crisis, Merkel said the
Libyan coastguard had to become capable of patrolling its waters and should be
given "the necessary equipment to do its job". "At the same time, of course we
also consider it of the utmost importance that the Libyan coastguard adheres to
international law, both in its dealings with refugees and migrants as well as
non-governmental groups," she told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "Should any
doubts be raised about this, then we will investigate the allegations," she
vowed. The Libyan government sparked controversy this month when it barred
foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, claiming that charity
boats active in the search and rescue zone were facilitating illegal migration.
The move was welcomed by Italy, the main port of arrival for migrants from north
Africa, but several NGOs have since suspended their sea missions, accusing the
Libyan coastguard of making threats and creating a hostile environment in the
Mediterranean. So far this year more than 100,000 people have made the perilous
journey from Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration,
and the European Union is eager for Libya to clamp down on the influx. Over
2,300 have died attempting the crossing. "We cannot allow the business of people
smugglers who have the deaths of so many on their conscience," said Merkel.
French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting talks on the crisis at the Elysee
Palace on Monday, with Merkel and her Spanish and Italian counterparts in
attendance. Libya's unity government chief Fayez al-Sarraj and the leaders of
Chad and Niger will also attend the gathering. Merkel, who is campaigning for a
fourth term in next month's general election, told Die Welt am Sonntag that she
had no regrets about her bold move to open Germany's borders to refugees in
2015. "I would make all the important decisions of 2015 again in the same way,"
she said. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, mainly from
Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, deeply divided Germany and hurt Merkel's approval
ratings.But as the influx has slowed in recent months, Merkel's popularity has
rebounded and her conservatives are comfortably leading in the polls ahead of
the September 24 vote.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on August 27-28/17
An Open Alliance with Qatar is Better
Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 27/17
Saudi Arabia revealed the involvement of a cell
of five Saudis who are spying for Iran and their formation of a terrorist cell
in the Kingdom aimed at carrying out terrorist attacks, bombings and
assassinations of Sunni religious figures (as revealed by Asharq Al-Awsat).
Bahrain announced the arrest of seven out of ten people who formed an
Iran-operated terrorist cell affiliated with the al-Ashtar Brigades that is
blacklisted by the four counter-terrorism countries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. This cell is operated by a fugitive in
Iran, who has been sentenced to 90 years in jail on terrorism-related charges
and who enjoys close ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Throughout all these developments, Qatar completely flipped the script by
returning its ambassador to Tehran, saying that it “looks forward to bolstering
bilateral ties with the Iranian republic in all fields.”
The truth is, whether Qatar has an ambassador in Tehran or not and whether
Tehran has an ambassador in Doha or not, the two countries’ pursuit to preserve
balanced ties, even during the worst times in the region, has not stopped.
Despite the barrel bombs between Doha and Iran, in Syria in particular, so far
none of them have exploded. In fact, they have cooperated in the displacement of
the residents of Kafraya, al-Foua, Madaya and al-Zabadani. The displacement saw
cooperation between Qatar and al-Nusra Front on the one hand and Iran and
“Hezbollah” on the other. Were it not for the special Qatari-Iranian relations,
such an agreement would never have taken place.
In my estimation, Qatar did well in returning its ambassador to Tehran and it
did well when it strengthened its alliance with Iran. The worst that its
neighbors have suffered over the past two years are the double standards and
under the table dealings that Qatar is so adept at.
The Qatari policy is famous for its contradictions and one of the strengths of
its foreign policy. The best example of this is its housing of an Israeli
diplomatic office, its eventual expulsion of the members of this mission and
bringing in Hamas under its financial and diplomatic wing.
The new chapter in the Qatari alliance with Iran is that it is taking place
directly, clearly and frankly. It is therefore proving right the four countries
that have boycotted Doha.
How can we possibly believe Doha’s trick of withdrawing its ambassador from
Tehran when a major security agreement between the two sides still stands. One
of the most important articles of this agreement is confronting any danger that
threatens either country’s national security. This explains Qatar’s minor
participation in Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen against the Houthis. This
also explains why Doha chose to side with the Houthis against the Arab Coalition
and in favor if its Iranian alliance. This stems from its need to defend Iranian
national security.
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries are not losing much in Qatar’s clear and
open leaning towards the Persian bank of the Arab Gulf. Its stance may be
provocative as Iran is the spearhead of global terrorism and an alliance with it
will put Qatar in the same boat. Iran is working on spreading chaos and
destabilizing regional and international security. If Qatar wants to be in the
same boat, then it is confirmation that it is adopting a policy that is harming
the region and the world. It is confirmation of the fears that pushed the four
boycotting countries to sever ties with it. These countries had eyed
suspiciously Doha’s ties with Iran and they had to treat Qatar as a “fraternal”
state as part of the Arab-Iranian confrontation. This strategy was unfortunately
proven wrong after Doha took advantage of the Gulf umbrella to conceal its
strategic ties with Iran. Had Qatar not returned its ambassador to Tehran and
affirmed its keenness on bolstering its alliance with Iran, it would have
embarrassed the four boycotting countries because of the lack of evidence of its
suspicious ties with Iran. Doha is however exposing itself one time after the
other and it is presenting generous gifts to the four countries. Shouldn’t we
after all this say “Thank you, Qatar”?
Christians Who Libel Israel: The Iona Community
by Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/August 27/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10895/iona-community-israel
"Why Gaza does not have bomb shelter[s]? Hamas
took control of Gaza Strip in 2005 following Israeli withdrawal. However,
hostilities never ended... Had Hamas built bomb shelters, the causalities would
have been reduced. It seems Hamas does not pay much attention to the number of
dead Palestinians." — Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, journalist, Arab News, 2014.
Israeli soldiers do not set out to kill Palestinian children. Palestinian
terrorists, however, knowingly and with malice aforethought, shoot, blow up, and
slit the throats of Israeli children. You come from a Christian community, yet
you appear to show compassion only for Palestinian children. If you do have
feelings for Jewish children, I have never heard you say so.
Israeli children are never taught to hate and kill Palestinians. Their schools
inculcate peace-making and the Jewish ethic of tikkun olam, "repairing the
world," making it a better place. No international body has ever shown
otherwise. But there is a vast body of evidence showing that Palestinian
teachers and leaders do the exact opposite. British and other foreign aid money
paid to the Palestinian Authority goes "into Palestinian schools named after
mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and
encourage pupils to see child killers as role models."
You have close connections to the Palestinian people and ought to have influence
on them, to preach a Christian message of love and brotherhood. Are you willing
to tackle them on their destructive use of children as cannon fodder and their
educational system that turns little boys and girls into Jew-hating fanatics?
Will you have the humility to apologize to the Jews of Israel for your
unjustified accusations, to speak with them, to meet senior officers in their
military, and to learn at first-hand how they work for eventual peace, however
many times their efforts to bring it are thwarted by Palestinian rejection? I
think you owe them that.
The Iona Community, about which I have written here before, is an ecumenical
Christian fellowship in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, but its main
activities take place on the island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides, which is seen
as a place for spiritual retreats. It has an international reputation for
preaching love, a spiritual vocation, and fellowship among Christians. To me
however it is also deeply anti-Semitic through its extreme hatred for the state
of Israel and its one-sided support of the Palestinian narrative – according to
the definitions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and
the US State Department.
The Abbey of the Iona Community, on the island of Iona, Scotland. (Image source:
Akela NDE/Wikimedia Commons)
Earlier this year, Sammy Stein, chairman of Glasgow Friends of Israel,
complained to the group about remarks made at a meeting addressed by Iona's
Leader-Elect, Dr. Michael Marten. Marten had argued[1] more than once that
Israeli soldiers routinely and deliberately shoot Palestinian children, while
knowing that they are children. In a reply[2] to Mr. Stein, Marten and the
Reverend Peter Macdonald, the community leader, asserted that Marten's statement
had been true, and tried to back up their vilification by referencing a number
of media and UN reports, including anti-Israel NGOs such as B'Tselem and
Electric Intifada. I was asked to respond to their diatribe; the result is the
letter below. Will Macdonald and Marten, take in what it says and find a more
honest way to express Christian concern, not just for the children of Gaza and
the West Bank, but for Jewish children murdered in their beds and at school by
Palestinian terrorists?
Dear Rev. Macdonald and Dr. Marten,
Earlier this year, you co-signed a letter to Mr Sammy Stein, Chairman of Glasgow
Friends of Israel, in which you cited sources and made statements regarding the
belief that "Israeli military forces routinely attack children", regularly
shooting and killing them. Mr Stein has asked me to respond to your letter,
which I believe to be anti-Semitic under the most widely accepted definition of
the term, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition, signed by
and accepted by 32 countries, including the UK and the European Parliament, and
therefore having force in the jurisdiction in which you live and act. I am not
Jewish, but for most of a long life I have defended Israel as the only safe
haven for Jews and Middle East Christians, faced on all sides by violent enemies
and by the rapid recrudescence of vicious anti-Semitism across Europe as well as
a centuries-old hatred of Jews across the Islamic world.
I would ask you not to make a knee-jerk dismissal of my arguments before you
come to them, and I ask you to reflect on what I have to say and to pray about
it. For I hope to show how far you stand as Christians from a fair, honest, and
compassionate understanding of the sufferings endured by the people of Israel,
whether they be Jews, Muslims or Christians. I say that because Israel is quite
literally the only country in the Middle East and far beyond that provides
freedom of religion and equal rights for all its citizens. As a former lecturer
in Arabic and Islamic Studies, a Middle East historian, and the holder of a
doctorate in Iranian Studies, I make that statement in the firm understanding
that it is true.
The limited sources you cite in evidence of routine attacks on Palestinian
children include several, such as B'Tselem and Electric Intifada, that are
notorious as anti-Semitic and unreliable in the extreme. As an academic, I would
not touch them with a bargepole. It is also vital to ask why you do not cite a
single Israeli or pro-Israel source in an attempt to seek a balanced approach to
the issue. When you wrote your letter, I believe you had already made up your
mind and showed no interest in a more informed examination. Three of the sources
you cite are dated from 2014, from the time of a war that was started by Hamas,
disseminating information that was even then unreliable.
Yes, Palestinian children are often killed. The real questions are: why are they
killed, who kills them, and whether the Israeli army, the Israel Defence Force (IDF),
has a policy that leads to routine killings. Before going further, I assure you
that no such policy exists or has ever existed. As I shall show, the exact
opposite is true. I also want to ask why you do not once mention the frequent
deaths of Jewish children by Palestinian terrorists. I shall return to that
later, but I would like to know why your reported compassion for dead children
recognises only Palestinian children, not Jewish boys and girls who have had
their throats cut while asleep in bed or blown to pieces by suicide bombers
seeking paradise by slaughtering Jews. Do you care about them at all? How far
does Christian love extend?
In 2015, a body known as the High Level Military Group (HLMG) visited Israel six
times in the wake of the 2014 war with Gaza, to which conflict several of your
sources refer. The HLMG is made up of eleven former senior military personnel
who issue reports on conflicts between democratic armies and terrorist
organizations. These officials had held top positions in the US, British,
German, Spanish, French, Indian, Australian and Colombian defence forces and
were, they said, afforded a level of access to the Israeli military that was
"undoubtedly in excess of what our own countries would afford in similar
circumstances." They included a former chairman of NATO's Military Committee,
Klaus Naumann, and sometime commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col.
Richard Kemp. All were from NATO and other democratic countries. Unlike
yourselves and the commentators you cite, these are individuals of deep
experience in warfare and in the command of soldiers in combat. Like yourselves,
I am not a military expert, so I have a high appreciation of their insights into
the IDF. I trust that you too will show respect for their conclusions.
Their 80-page report on the Israel Defence Force and its third war with Hamas in
2014 should surprise if not shock you with information that calls into question
your portrayal of Israeli soldiers. It will only have such an import however, if
your minds and hearts are open to the possibility that your judgement may be
grossly distorted. You may also like to read and ponder on an article by this
author, asking whether Israel committed war crimes in that war – an allegation
which all the evidence, confirmed by the HLMG report, disproves.
In its report, the HLMG states:
We can further be categorically clear that Israel's conduct in the 2014 Gaza
Conflict met and in some respects exceeded the highest standards we set for our
own nations' militaries. It is our view that Israel fought an exemplary
campaign, adequately conceived with appropriately limited objectives, displaying
both a very high level of operational capability as well as a total commitment
to the Law of Armed Conflict. The IDF not only met its obligations under the Law
of Armed Conflict, but often exceeded these on the battlefield at significant
tactical cost, as well as in the humanitarian relief efforts that accompanied
its operation. (p. 11)
On the other hand, they say the following about Hamas, an internationally
identified terrorist group that started this war as it did two earlier
conflicts:
Hamas in turn not only flagrantly disregarded the Law of Armed Conflict as a
matter of course as part of its terrorist-army hybrid strategic concept, but
rather it abused the very protections afforded by the law for military
advantage.
Embedding its entire military machinery in civilian locations and sensitive
sites, including those of the United Nations, Hamas indiscriminately targeted
Israeli civilians throughout the conflict with extensive rocket fire and
willfully sought to draw the IDF into battle in a prepared urban stronghold amid
the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, for which it located its
operational headquarters in Gaza's main hospital.
It is important to note that Hamas's strategic concept actively seeks the death
of its own civilians as an advantageous reinforcement of its strategy aimed at
the erosion of Israel's legitimacy. (p. 11)
So high were Israel's standards that even the HLMG's rapporteur, Davis Lewin,
was concerned that "Some of the precautions were so extensive they worried that
they could become norms in international law in terms of having to fight their
own battles elsewhere." It is Israeli policy to warn enemy civilians of
impending attacks by dropping thousands of leaflets, making telephone calls,
sending text messages, and even dropping projectiles called "knocks on the roof"
to give residents advanced warnings to evacuate the premises. This practice
alone makes Amnesty International's accusation of "callous indifference" to
civilian deaths utterly indefensible. Giving advance warning of attacks is
disadvantageous for the Israeli Air Force in two ways: it warns Hamas fighters
and rocket-launching teams that they have been spotted and designated as
targets, and it allows Hamas to order civilians to remain in buildings or go
onto flat roofs to dissuade Israelis from firing. This policy of warning
civilians of a coming attack is stated clearly in Israel's Manual on the Rules
of Warfare (2006).
Hamas does the exact opposite, not just with its indiscriminate rocket attacks
on Israeli civilian centers, but in its callousness regard for its own
civilians, including children. There is overwhelming evidence that Hamas used
human shields in various ways. Children have been used to protect fighters, who
physically hold them or open fire right next to them.[3] Numbers of civilians
have been ordered onto roofs, to remain in homes that may be targeted. Hamas
places rocket launchers inside or directly next to civilian sites. There is much
evidence that Hamas military structures, rocket launch pads, and command centers
have been situated directly in or next to civilian dwellings, a church,
hospitals,[4] mosques, and schools.[5] Even the UN has admitted this. If you
will take the care to watch the videos I have linked to, you will see stark
evidence of those crimes.
Does it not shock you to learn that Hamas fired rockets from 31 UN facilities,
41 hospitals, 50 children's playgrounds, 85 medical clinics, 248 schools, 331
mosques, and 818 other civilian sites. One report reads that "Hamas uses UN
facilities, schools, children's playgrounds, water towers, mosques and countless
other active civilian facilities as launching sites for rockets and attacks. In
this operation [2014 war] alone, Hamas has launched above 1,600 rockets from
civilian sites."
This is historically a deliberate Hamas policy, as is clear from a 2008 video of
a speech by Fathi Hammad, the Hamas Interior Minister:
"The enemies of God do not know that the Palestinian people have developed their
methods of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become
an industry, at which women excel, as do all the people living in this land. The
elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahidin [i.e. the jihad fighters] and the
children. This is why they have formed human shields [duruq bashariyya] of the
women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahidin, in order to challenge the
Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We
desire death, just as you desire life.'"
Read that again -- "they have formed human shields [duruq bashariyya] of the
women, the children...." -- and you are outraged that Palestinian children are
killed, and blame that on soldiers in an army that goes morally far beyond any
other army in the world, and that puts its own troops' lives in danger in order
to avoid hurting enemy civilians?
In your letter, you say nothing about Hamas or the Palestinian Authority which
carry out or condone terror attacks, frequently inciting their own children to
carry out stabbings or teaching them to become suicide bombers. As far back as
2014, Hamas killed 160 Palestinian children used to build terror tunnels, some
of which ended under Israeli kindergartens. You say not a word about any of
this.
It is a matter of record that Islamic terrorists use children from an early age
as fighters and suicide bombers, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip, Syria, Iran, and elsewhere. Iran used children to explode
landmines during its war with Iraq, and is still calling for young boys to fight
in Syria. ISIS has used around 1,500 children (as young as seven) as fighters,
suicide bombers, and executioners, putting them in harm's way and causing severe
mental illness for any who may survive.
These things are well known across the world. I do not doubt that you condemn
this. But Hamas, whom you do not condemn, is part and parcel of the
international Islamic terrorist campaign against the West. Their use of children
falls into the same category as that of the Taliban, ISIS, and other murderous
criminal enterprises. Yet you criticize Israel whose soldiers fight to defend
their people from this evil.
Israel builds bomb shelters to protect its civilians, including children, from
Hamas rocket attacks. Most Israelis have a small shelter in their homes: "In
1951, three years after the State of Israel declared its independence, the
country instituted a civil defense law requiring all homes, residential
buildings and offices to be equipped with shelters or 'safe rooms'." In Sderot,
however, close to the Gaza border, Jewish children have a mere 15 seconds to run
from playgrounds to shelter. On July 2, 2016, in Sderot, a Hamas rocket landed
directly in an early childhood development center. A 2012 study showed that
almost half all pre-teen children living in Sderot suffered from post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Writing in Arab News in 2014, journalist Abdulateef Al-Mulhim asked a simple
question:
"Why Gaza does not have bomb shelter[s]? Hamas took control of Gaza Strip in
2005 following Israeli withdrawal. However, hostilities never ended. In one of
the conflicts around 1,500 Palestinians lost their lives and the Israeli side
sustained few casualties. Undoubtedly, Israel is militarily more powerful than
Hamas. Had Hamas built bomb shelters, the causalities would have been reduced.
It seems Hamas does not pay much attention to the number of dead Palestinians
You do not even refer to these facts or mention other places inhabited by
children, and instead blame Palestinian children's deaths on Israeli soldiers.
This is morally irresponsible and reprehensible, and I do not hesitate to call
you out for this transparent obliquity.
I mentioned above the many deaths of Israeli children at the hands of
Palestinian terrorists who deliberately set out to take innocent lives. Allow me
to mention just a few, and then to ask you why, to my knowledge, you have never
condemned your Palestinian friends whose schools, television and radio
broadcasts, political speeches, and religious sermons encourage their fellow
citizens to go out to kill Jews, telling their own children that they should
regard murderers as role models and aspire to carry out similar attacks once
they are old enough.
In May 1974, three armed members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine entered Netiv Meir elementary school in Ma'alot in the Western Galilee
and took over 115 people hostage. The victims were male and female student
visitors from a religious high school together with escorts. Of the 115
hostages, 105 were children. The siege lasted two days, with demands made for
the release of 23 terrorist prisoners. When IDF soldiers stormed the building,
25 hostages, 22 of them children, were killed, while 68 were injured. In the
struggle, the terrorists killed children with grenades and automatic weapons.
(For a full account of the massacre, see here.)
Between 2000 and 2005, the Second Intifada -- an outbreak of senseless violence
targeting Jewish civilians -- hundreds of children were murdered in suicide and
bus bombings, car shootings, and sniper fire. See Here for some of them. In
March 2011, five members of a religious Jewish family, the Fogels, were
slaughtered in their beds in Itamar by Hakim Awad, an 18-year-old Palestinian.
He cut the throats of the father, and the mother, then proceeded to do the same
to 3-month-old Hadas, 4-year-old Elad, and 11-year-old Yoav. Three other
children, who were not at home, survived but were mentally scarred for life.
Last year, a 13-year-old Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffe Ariel, was stabbed to death
while sleeping in her bed after a 19-year-old Palestinian man broke into her
family home. Her mattress and the floor of her room were covered in blood.
Israeli soldiers do not set out to kill Palestinian children – the moral
qualities of the Israeli military have been made clear above. Palestinian
terrorists, however, knowingly and with malice aforethought, shoot, blow up, and
slit the throats of Israeli children. You come from a Christian community, yet
you appear to show compassion only for Palestinian children. If you do have
feelings for Jewish children, you never say so.
Israeli children are never taught to hate and kill Palestinians. Their schools
inculcate peace-making and the Jewish ethic of tikkun olam, "repairing the
world," making it a better place. No international body has ever shown
otherwise. But there is a vast body of evidence showing that Palestinian
teachers and leaders do the exact opposite. British and other foreign aid money
paid to the Palestinian Authority goes "into Palestinian schools named after
mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and
encourage pupils to see child killers as role models." Last summer, "a Gaza
kindergarten graduation ceremony sponsored by the Islamic Jihad, featured
children dressed in military fatigues, holding toy weapons, acting out attacks
on an Israeli army base, firing mortar shells, planting explosive devices,
kidnapping soldiers and even delivering mosque sermons that praise martyrdom."
In 2012, senior Hamas commander Zaher Jabarin told Hamas' Al-Quds TV that Hamas
labors "day and night" to educate Palestinian children in Gaza to become suicide
bombers. In 2013, Gaza's Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV showed children singing the
virtues of suicide attacks, and wishing to blow themselves up to "liberate"
Jerusalem and Palestine.[6]
You have close connections to the Palestinian people and ought to have influence
on them, to preach a Christian message of love and brotherhood. Are you willing
to tackle them on their destructive use of children as cannon fodder and their
educational system that turns little boys and girls into Jew-hating fanatics?
Will you have the humility to apologize to the Jews of Israel for your
unjustified accusations, to speak with them, to meet senior officers in their
military, and to learn first-hand how they work for eventual peace, however many
times their efforts to bring it are thwarted by Palestinian rejection? I think
you owe them that. Surely, that is what Jesus would have done.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin
[1] Cited in private letter by Mr Stein and in letter signed by Marten, shared
with author.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See also here.
[4] See also here.
[5] On all of these, see here.
[6] See also here, here, and especially here, where a Hamas fighter uses a
little girl to fire a sub-machine gun at Israeli troops.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Is the world waiting for a time when there are no more
Palestinians left?
Tariq A. Al-Maeena/Al Arabiya/August 27/17
Every day, Palestinian civilians are being murdered in cold blood by the
ruthless and heavily armed Israeli forces operating in occupied Palestine.
Coupled with the viciousness of the armed Israeli settlers who have illegally
encroached on Palestinian lands, the situation is beyond dire. It is a holocaust
of some proportions as ethnic cleansing is in full swing under the patronage of
Benjamin Netanyahu, who will undoubtedly one day be charged with having
committed crimes against humanity. And yet, the world watches in silence.
Along with thousands of illegal settlers, Netanyahu is calculatedly following
the game plan set by his mentor Ariel Sharon, a former Israeli prime minister
who once said in a recorded interview: “I don’t know something called
International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that)
will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child are more dangerous
than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations
will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an
Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him
suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians in Rafah in
1956.”
Israeli brutality has reached its peak in recent years with the uncensured daily
murders of Palestinian civilians. Crimes against women and children have reached
unprecedented levels. In a span of three days, Israeli Occupation Forces shot a
13-year-old Palestinian girl because she “wouldn’t stop.” They then tried to
cover up the documented video clip by falsely claiming that she was attempting
an attack, when in reality she was on her way to her friend’s house.
The next day, Israeli occupation forces beat, and then kidnapped a Palestinian
girl near the illegal Israeli Jewish settlement of Itmar, south of the West Bank
city of Nablus. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli occupation forces called on
the girl from a distance of about 50 meters and asked her to raise her hands and
sit down. The girl obeyed the order and did all that she was ordered to do by
the heavily armed and intimidating Israelis. They then approached the girl, beat
her, blindfolded her and took her to an unknown place. In justifying their
actions, the Israeli media reported that Israeli occupation army sources claimed
that the girl was kidnapped because she had a knife with her. As has been their
recent modus operandi, the Israeli forces failed to provide any proof that the
girl was indeed carrying a knife.
Two Palestinian brothers, unarmed and on their way home, were accosted by the
Israeli Occupation forces and shot. Mousa Khadour was killed, while his brother
Raghad was seriously injured. Their other sibling Majd had been killed by the
Israelis two months earlier.
Israeli terrorism
Iyad Hamed was another unfortunate victim of Israeli terrorism. He was gunned
down by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Silwad. In the face of
overwhelming evidence, the army was forced to admit that the victim had not, in
fact, been a terrorist and was not carrying a weapon. Witnesses reported that he
had lost his way, panicked when he saw the soldiers, and tried to run to safety,
whereupon he was shot in the back. This was corroborated by medics who examined
his wounds on the scene. What makes the case of Iyad Hamed tragically
significant is that he had a mental disability. He was a simple-minded father
who was on his way home from the store to deliver candy to his children, who
themselves had special needs, before, as a witness stated, he was murdered and
“the candies he bought for his children were mixed with his blood.”
Israeli Occupation forces executed four Palestinians in less than 24 hours,
including one with Jordanian citizenship. Among the victims was a 15-year-old
Palestinian boy, Mohammed Rugby who was the third victim executed in a terror
swoop. The following day, an Israeli settler ran over and killed a six-year-old
Palestinian girl with his car as she stood in front of her home.
Sabra, Shatila, and Jenin are not the only reminders of mass murder against the
Palestinian population. Such atrocities continue unabated and unchecked today
with sinister intentions. Such acts of calculated violence have not escaped the
attention of those who have not been swayed by the propaganda of the Israeli
government. A German diplomat was incensed and asked me angrily: “Have Arabs
lost their soul? Don’t they see what is going on in Gaza and the rest of
Palestine today? The Nazis used similar tactics: terror, intimidation and
finally murder. Today, the Israelis expect the world to apologize for those sins
of long ago, while they brazenly keep committing similar ones.”
What is the rest of the world waiting for? For a time when there are no more
Palestinians left? Have those hapless people reached the point of no return?
The true meaning of ‘jihad’ and the Brotherhood’s big
con
Mohammed Al Shaikh/Al Arabiya/August 27/17
The most important weapon in the hands of terrorists is to violate and abuse the
term “jihad” and link it to terrorist and suicide attacks. Leaders of the
terrorist Muslim Brotherhood were the first to exploit and violate this noble
concept since the beginning of their terrorist operations, when they
assassinated Egyptian prime minister El Nokrashy Pasha in mid-20th century.
Since that time, terrorist operations began to pick up pace. The deceitful
Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi tried to give doctrinal legitimacy
to suicide operations to make it look legitimate jihad in Islam.
Jihad in Islam - as it is known - has its conditions, specifications and
caveats. Since early times, the scholars of Islam had thought through these
stipulations. Throughout history, jihad was not associated with indiscriminate
killing of people or deliberately bringing about destruction. It was not until
this ridiculous organization came along to preach what was not even mentioned in
the Quran. Nevertheless, the Muslim Brotherhood became very popular and young,
ignorant people lined up in queues to become suicide bombers, in order to enjoy
the pleasures of Paradise. Muslim Brotherhood exploited the repressed sexuality
of the youth and their tendency to commit violence for the benefit of the
organization. For bringing about revolution, Muslim societies need to follow the
obligation of obedience of Sunnis towards their guardian, and the impossibility
of dissent against it. Salman al-Awda has published a book called Questions in
the Revolution in which he cites all the evidence on this issue, interprets some
of them and completely discredits others. The government censored his book and
prevented him from selling it in libraries. Nasser al-Omar also issued an
inflammatory book against the Shiites titled The Reality of Shiites in the
Country of Monotheism, in which he launched an atonement campaign against them,
although they are native citizens of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a basic
constituent of society.
Misleading
Such misleading calls made it easier for ISIS to attract Saudis to conduct
suicide attacks in mosques of the Shiite community in the Kingdom. It goes
without saying that the legitimate jihad in Islam is to be under the banner of
the guardian or with his permission. Therefore, all those who call for jihad,
whether through a sermon, a public statement, or a book; instigate against a
constituent or group within a society, or foment a culture of hatred to provoke
young people and pave the way for their recruitment to terrorist movements,
should be prosecuted, because they have a central role in creating the
atmosphere of terrorism. Al-Qaradawi cannot be tried and punished because he
lives in a state that believes in his doctrine. As for the Saudi instigators, it
is time to try them and hold them accountable, especially since evidence
condemns them and their terrorist operations, their seditious practices and
their suspicious relations in the cradle of Qatar. Their punishment is a duty
and an obligation.
Qatar submits to Iran and loses the Gulf
Mohammed Al-Hammadi/Al Arabiya/August 27/17
Anyone who is more biased to a country other than his homeland or submits to a
stranger is the one who loses out. Any state that goes hand in hand with
foreigner against its brothers and neighbors is also at a loss.
Qatar’s crisis has revealed several crises which the Gulf intellectual and Arab
intellectual suffer from. Some of these crises are related to specifying
priorities, stop making mistakes, understanding the geographic surrounding and
differentiating between the enemy and the friend and between those who wish well
and others who wish evil. There are other crises pertaining to loyalties and
affiliations and to visions and stances. This is in addition to crises
pertaining to reasoning, understanding interests and arranging options, such as
what comes first, money or the homeland? It’s such a real and huge crisis that
the Gulf has seen nothing like and may see nothing like. It showed us a lot as
it’s only through it that we learnt things we would not have learnt through
compliments. There are many details we would not have realized if we had kept
silent over Qatar’s destructive role in the region and the world and if the four
countries hadn’t made their decision to boycott Doha or if they hadn’t announced
the real reasons they decided to boycott it. If none of this happened, we would
still be deceived by Qatar and its command which showed us that the affairs of
Gulf and Arab countries are the least of its concerns and that it’s been working
to serve the interest of their enemies or rather to serve the interest of anyone
who has ambitions in the region.
A swamp of conspiracy
Qatar is involved, or actually drowned, in a swamp of conspiracy against its
brothers and neighbors. This is why the scandal shocked the Qataris more than it
shocked the rest of the world. Instead of stopping what it’s doing, Qatar chose
to be stubborn and arrogant and decided to keep walking down this wrong path.
Its submission went as far as requesting from the Iranian regime to let it open
its embassy in Tehran. Less than two years after summoning its envoy in Iran
following the attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in
Mashhad, Doha decided to return its envoy without providing details or making
clarifications. The logical explanation is that after its relations with its
neighbors and brothers went bad, Qatar started to get closer to Iran and
submitted to it. Doha also hopes to enhance bilateral relations with it in all
fields while losing the Gulf. What kind of policy is this? What sovereignty does
Qatar speak of? Who benefits from this step which even the Iranians mocked?
Mustafa Abdali, an Iranian political analyst, warned of rapprochement with Qatar
and called on his government not to forget that Qatar supports terrorism!
Qatar’s understanding of regional affairs is shallow, as Doha has taken foolish
decisions, such as reopening the Iranian embassy. Is this a logical move?
"It's a War on Christians": Muslim Persecution of
Christians, April 2017
by Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/August 27/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=58199
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10902/war-on-christians-persecution
"The shopkeepers returned, trapped him in his home, set the room on fire and
locked it. They stayed outside the room and did not allow any of the family
members or local residents to unlock the room to save Ameen's life." The man was
burned alive. — Pakistan Christian Post.
Mike said that five uniformed railway transport officers stood by idly watching
the attack. According to a local Orthodox priest, "There are gangs of these
young fellows of Muslim background who have been harassing people they identify
as Christian... You don't hear about it because no one's reporting it." —
Sydney, Australia.
According to a new study, 59% of Indonesians who responded to a survey have
carried out acts of intolerance against non-Muslim minorities, and religious
radicalization is on the rise. Only 11% of Indonesians are strongly opposed to
an Islamic nation that governs according to strict Islamic law, Sharia. Around
11.5 million Indonesians are "spiritually" ready to make radical fundamental
changes in Indonesian society. "They want to adopt laws inspired by Sharia, and
their demands will become more and more radical," said a spokesperson for the
statistical study. — Indonesia.
As in former years, Easter was under attack in various Muslim nations, most
spectacularly in Egypt. On April 9, two Coptic Christian Orthodox churches
packed with worshippers for Palm Sunday Mass, which initiates Easter holy week,
were attacked by Islamic suicide bombers. Twenty-seven people—mostly
children—were killed in St. George's in Tanta, northern Egypt. "Where is the
government?" an angry Christian there asked AP reporters. "There is no
government! There was a clear lapse in security, which must be tightened from
now on to save lives." Less than two hours later, 17 people were killed in St.
Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria. Since the original building, founded by the
Evangelist Mark in the first century, was burned to the ground during the
seventh century Muslim invasions of Egypt, the church has been the historic seat
of Coptic Christianity. Pope Tawadros, who was present—and apparently
targeted—emerged unharmed. About 50 Christians were killed in the two bombings,
126 wounded and many mutilated. (Graphic images/video of aftermath here).
A few days earlier, on April 1, 3,000 fatwas [opinions by Islamic authorities]
inciting the destruction of churches in Egypt had been circulated throughout
Egypt. A number of Egyptian Christians interviewed after the twin bombings said
that government-funded mosques regularly incite hatred and violence for
Christians over their loudspeakers. In other mosques, according to Michael, a
middle-aged Christian, "there are prayers to harm Christians. "They incite to
violence, youths are being filled with hatred against us and acting on it. It
concerns us all. It leads to terrorism and to Christians being targeted."
Separately a Christian woman said, "The problem starts at school where children
are treated differently. In school some refused to speak to me because I was a
Christian."
In Nigeria, Muslim Fulani herdsmen randomly opened fire on a Christian village.
According to Bishop Bagobiri, "The attack came when the people were in the
church for the Easter Vigil celebration." The Muslim gunmen killed "at least 12
persons on the spot, with many injured," including women and children. Instead
of celebrating Easter Sunday, the bishop and a local priest presided over the
burial of "at least ten Catholics." The bishop publicly accused the local
governor, a Muslim, of complicity with the perpetrators and bias against their
victims.
In Pakistan, a "major terrorist attack" targeting Christians during Easter
celebrations was foiled, according to the nation's military. An Islamic militant
was killed and four soldiers injured during the raid. Among the Muslim
terrorists arrested was a female second-year medical student who said she was
preparing to "martyr" herself as part of a suicide attack on a church during
Easter Sunday. Last year in Lahore, an Easter Day Islamic attack left more than
70 people dead.
In Indonesia, 300 Christians from two churches remain sealed by authorities in
West Java, celebrated their fifth Easter by protesting outside the presidential
palace in hopes that the president lifts a banning order preventing them from
holding services in their own houses of worship. Both churches are legally
registered but "are being persecuted by local authorities who refuse to allow
them to worship in their own churches, after citing opposition by local
Muslims," according to the report. One church, in order to open, had to agree
that a mosque could be built next to it. The church officials agreed and the
mosque was built, but the church remains closed.
In Seville, Spain, men, shouting "Allah is great" during a Good Friday parade,
prompted a mass stampede that left 17 people hospitalized. The report notes that
"the eight people arrested are not of Arabic origin;" however, as many Muslims
are not Arabs, that leaves many other possibilities.
The rest of April's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world
includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: A Christian boy was murdered "by Islamic extremists hoping to intimidate
Christians" according to a report. Gamal, 16, described as being "loved by all
his friends and teachers at school" and "a very peaceful and polite person," was
found by his family in a village in Upper Egypt "with his throat slit and lying
in a pool of blood" four days after the Palm Sunday church bombings. According
to the slain boy's father, the Islamic State was responsible: "They are the only
ones who slaughter people like that. They slaughtered my son because of his
faith in Jesus Christ. It's a war on Christians, and all honest people should
stand up to those who are waging this war."
Another report, based on eyewitness testimonials, gives the details—including
demands of conversion to Islam—behind the slaying of one of several Christians
killed by ISIS-linked Muslims in el-Arish, Egypt last February:
Two Isis fighters wielding guns approached their target. Bahgat Zakhar, 58, was
an Egyptian Copt on a "kill list" and the terrorists had been tracking him for
days.... Bewildered, the polite veterinary surgeon stood up to shake the hands
of the jihadists. They rammed him into the concrete terrace. "Repent, infidel.
Convert and save yourself," one of the men said, pressing the gun barrel to Mr.
Zakhar's temple and forcing him to his knees. The father-of-two shook his head,
an eyewitness later told the family. So they shot him and strolled off. "They
didn't even run."
Sudan: In response to the Islamist government's ongoing attempts to purge the
nation of all Christian vestiges—which includes a recent decision to demolish 25
churches on claims that they were built on land intended for other use—on April
3, Christian minorities gathered around the Evangelical School in Omdurman for a
peaceful protest against its illegal appropriation by a Muslim businessman.
Police came to arrest the men, while a mob armed with knives and other weapons
attacked and beat the women. A number of Christian men from the nearby Bahri
Evangelical School rushed in to help the women. One church elder was stabbed to
death during the clash, another wounded, hospitalized, and later released.
Pakistan: When Ameen, 45, an impoverished Christian husband and father could not
make his instalment payments to Muslim shopkeepers, they and their accomplices
raided the Christian man's home, beat him with sticks and cricket bats, and
threatened to kill him if he did not instantly finish his payments (Ameen had
nothing and had already sold some of his possessions to make ends meet). Early
the next morning, on April 4, "the shopkeepers returned, trapped him in his
home, set the room on fire and locked it," says the report. "They stayed outside
the room and did not allow any of the family members or local residents to
unlock the room to save Ameen's life." The man was burned alive. His three
children who were present during the ordeal were left "traumatized" and "shocked
after witnessing the brutal death of their father," said his widow.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Sites and Symbols
Egypt: One week after the two churches were bombed on Palm Sunday, militant
Muslims attacked the police checkpoint guarding the entrance to the St.
Catherine Monastery in south Sinai, one of the world's most important Christian
sites. At least one policeman was killed and four others wounded in the attack.
Founded in sixth century, St Catherine's, one of the world's oldest monasteries,
is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
world heritage site. Muslim militant groups around the Sinai regularly refer to
it as a premier infidel site that needs to be demolished.
In a separate incident, on April 13, shortly after Christian villagers held a
prayer service in the home of a local Christian, a Muslim mob burned three
Christian homes and injured eight Christians, including two women, in the
village of Kom El-Loufy, in Egypt's Minya Governorate. One of the Christians
present spoke on condition of anonymity: "We asked the local security
authorities to grant us a permit [to] hold prayers and they agreed. They granted
us a permit to hold these prayers and the security forces came to secure the
mass. At about 10:00 a.m., after the worship ended, we started on our way to our
homes. Then, a mob of Muslims gathered and began to attack us and our homes.
They hurled stones at our homes and set fire on three houses owned by
Christians." The village, which holds about 1,800 Christians, has no church and
local Muslims and governors refuse to allow one to be built. A similar attack
occurred less than a year earlier; the homes of four Christian brothers were
plundered and torched on the rumor that they were attempting to build a church
in the village. Another Christian eyewitness present said "All these attacks
occurred despite the presence of the police in the village. There are eight big
cars from the central security and more than 15 police cars. I don't know why
the police haven't arrested anyone who [has] attacked us till now."
Uganda: Muslims armed with swords and clubs tore through a Christian pastor's
property, attacking his church, farm, and home. The pastor, Christopher Kalaja,
a married father of six, said, "As they were approaching, they were shouting
'Allah Akbar' and immediately started cutting down the trees on my farm, and
thereafter pulled down the church building. I then took off for the sake of my
life." He filed a lawsuit against the vandals, prompting police, who were
initially unresponsive, to visit the site and summon the suspects. "Since then,
I have been receiving threats that they will come for my life, that they will
soon destroy me completely." Driven from his home, he and his family have since
taken refuge inside a thatched hut of a friend. This is only the latest attack
on him and his family from the residents of the predominantly Muslim region: "My
outreach to Muslims has led to all these fights that I have been receiving from
the Muslims. These people have been hunting for me since the early '80s. And as
a result, they even managed to kill my mother by poisoning, and after the death
of my mother, they went ahead and killed my livestock. They are provoking me to
leave the area."
Saudi Arabia: A towering concrete sculpture that had long stood by a
governmental building in the city of Buraydah was demolished after
residents complained that it resembled a Christian cross. A book about Saudi
Arabia published 30 years ago describes Buraydah as "a hotbed of fundamentalism
even in the most normal of circumstances."
Muslim Contempt and Hate for Christians
Australia: In Muslim enclaves of southwest Sydney, Christians are regularly
warned (by both Muslims and Christians) not to wear overtly Christian symbols
such as crucifixes. One Australian man of Greek Orthodox heritage discovered too
late what happens to those who ignore the warning. Mike, 30, wore a large cross
while traveling on a train from Belmore Station, Sydney, with his girlfriend.
Suddenly four young men of "Middle Eastern" appearance violently ripped the
crucifix from around his neck, threw it to the ground and stomped on it, while
yelling "F*** Jesus" and making references to "Allah." They then punched and
kicked him, including in the face. When his girlfriend attempted to defend him,
two Arabic-speaking women attacked her. Mike said that five uniformed railway
transport officers stood by idly watching the attack. According to a local
Orthodox priest, "This is not an isolated incident. There are gangs of these
young fellows of Muslim background who have been harassing people they identify
as Christian... You don't hear about it because no one's reporting it." He said
there have been at least three other similar attacks around public transport in
southwest Sydney recently: "It's like their territory; they don't want
Christians or other types of infidels there... "
In Muslim enclaves of southwest Sydney, Christians are regularly warned not to
wear overtly Christian symbols such as crucifixes. A Greek Orthodox man wearing
a crucifix necklace was recently violently assaulted by four Muslim men who
yelled "F*** Jesus", while he was traveling on a train from Belmore Station,
Sydney. Pictured: All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, Belmore, Sydney, Australia.
(Image source: Sardaka/Wikimedia Commons)
Pakistan: Despite several promises to reform, schools continue to "teach their
children to hate Christians and other religious minorities," a new investigation
found. Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace said the government
has failed to keep its promise of eradicating religious "hate material" from
textbooks used in schools, which it vowed to do after a deadly Taliban attack on
a school in 2014, when Islamic gunmen killed 132 students. According to the
report, however, "instead of minimizing hate materials and discouraging
religious extremism, the opposite seems to be occurring with a growing trend
toward a more biased curriculum and more religious extremism being taught in
Pakistan's public schools."
Indonesia: According to a new study, 59% of Indonesians who responded to a
survey have carried out acts of intolerance against non-Muslim minorities, and
religious radicalization is on the rise. Only 11% of Indonesians are strongly
opposed to an Islamic nation that governs according to strict Islamic law,
Sharia. Around 11.5 million Indonesians are "spiritually" ready to make radical
fundamental changes in Indonesian society. "They want to adopt laws inspired by
Sharia, and their demands will become more and more radical," said a
spokesperson for the statistical study.
Central Asia: When a Muslim family in an unidentified Central Asian nation
learned that their deaf daughter, Saida, had become Christian, they demanded she
renounce Christ. She refused, was beaten, and had to be hospitalized in
intensive care.
United States: Ehab Abdulmutta Jaber, 45, a Muslim man, recorded himself on
Facebook Live brandishing a gun outside a Christian event and warning viewers
during a profanity-laden declaration to "be scared." Because a Christian event
in Sioux Falls featured a former Muslim-turned-Christian pastor who spoke
unflatteringly against Islam, the local Islamic Center denounced the event as "Islamophobic."
According to the report, "Jaber had been spotted filming the event with his cell
phone in the back of the room and was advised by a security guard that recording
was not allowed. The Facebook Live video shows Jaber filming the cover of his
Koran before scanning the crowd of approximately 500 people.... After being
ejected from the gathering because he was carrying a firearm, Jaber recorded
another Facebook Live video in his car in which he brandished several handguns
and rifles, warning viewers amid expletives to 'be scared.'" He was charged with
one count of making terrorist threats.
Pakistan: Armed Muslim men broke into and robbed a Christian household before
kidnapping the family's 14-year-old daughter at gunpoint. Although cash and
jewelry were taken, the family says that Maria was the primary objective for the
3 am raid: they heard men outside the house shouting, "Have you got the girl
yet?" They said one of the kidnappers was a Muslim neighbor named Amjad, who had
apparently taken a liking to Maria. The family was told to forget about the girl
–that they would never see her again -- and were threatened with death if the
matter was reported to police. Although the parents immediately contacted
police, they, as is typical in such cases, did little. "Every day I am without
my daughter I feel like dying," said Maria's mother. "I asked the men to take me
and leave my children but they stole my eldest child from me." Up to 700
Christian girls are kidnapped, raped and forced into Islamic marriages each
year, according to a 2014 report.
In a different incident, the father and brothers of a Muslim woman assaulted a
21-year-old Christian man, stripped him naked, and burned him with fiery hot
iron rods for being involved in a romantic relationship with her. Although he
survived, he suffered severe burns. His family has since been pressured to drop
the case by both the assailants and the police.
Tanzania: Two years ago, a nine-year-old Muslim girl came to disrupt a church
service at the Free Pentecostal Church. Pastor Yohana Madai, who was preaching,
went outside where the girl was banging on the door, took her by the arm before
she could run away, and brought her to local government leaders. The next day
the girl's mother went to police and filed a charge of child abuse. She said the
pastor had removed her daughter's veil and had touched her breasts. Although a
conviction would have carried a 30-year prison sentence, the case was eventually
dropped for lack of evidence and witnesses. However, after the officer in charge
was transferred to another area, the mother—this time accompanied by an Islamic
sheikh and other Muslims—filed charges again against the pastor. After several
more hearings—in which the accuser again could not produce any witnesses or
evidence—the judge dismissed the charges. Nonetheless, as the pastor walked out
of the courtroom, he was arrested again on unspecified charges and jailed.
According to a statement from the leaders of the Pastors Alliance of Zanzibar,
they "went there on Friday [April 7] to question officials and struggled much to
help Pastor Madai be released, but we found that it was a religious matter with
the purpose of persecuting the Christians. We were not given a hearing. Those
handling the case are all Muslims.... They have started with Pastor Madai, and
tomorrow they will arrest another.... [I]f the case is manipulated, pastor Madai
will be sentenced to not less the 30 years in jail according to Tanzania and
Zanzibar laws."
Europe: According to Martin Kugler, an Austrian historian who also serves as
head of an anti-discrimination group, Christians are increasingly being
marginalized on the continent while Muslims are treated with great respect.
Europe's elites are pressuring Christians into hiding their faith while
permitting Muslims to display theirs. Whereas it was long believed that secular
Europe would no longer offer special accommodation to any religion, the
establishment has gone out of its way to accommodate Islam. It has for instance,
removed crosses from public places but allowed the Islamic veil. "If Christians
had the freedom to follow their conscience, with their schools and their
rights," Kugler said, "it would be much easier for them to confront the rise of
Muslim culture."
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by
Muslims is growing. The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random
but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or
location.
Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on
Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
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