LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 29/17

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today
Young man, I say to you, rise!’The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 07/11-17/:"Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us! ’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country."

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and mother’ this is the first commandment with a promise
Letter to the Ephesians 06/01-09/:"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and mother’ this is the first commandment with a promise: ‘so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free. And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published On March 28-29/17
Human Rights and Media Organizations Condemn Prosecution of Activist Ahmad Amhaz/March 28/17
Once again, disputes delay Lebanese elections/Haytham Mouzahem/Al Monitor/March 28/17
High hopes of Arab summit OK for Israel peace step/DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 28/17
US Lawmakers back measures to protect Israel by punishing Iran/Ynetnews/Associated Press/March 28/17
The Broken-wing Summit/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 28/17
Jordan between Two Summits/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 28/17
Islamism's Culture War Sets Sight on Multi-Billion Dollar Beauty Industry/Shireen Qudosi/Gatestone Institute/March 28/17
White Liberals Attack Brown Islamic Dissidents/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/March 28/17
In Interview On Iranian News Website Close To IRGC, Iraqi President 'Lauds Iran's Timely Support, Backs [IRGC Commander] Gen. Soleimani'/MEMRI/March 28/17
Who turned the world into a military barricade/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/March 28/17
Saudi Arabia and the Arab left/Ahmad al-Farraj/Al Arabiya/March 28/17
European populism on the march/Fawaz Turki/Al Arabiya/March 28/17

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published On March 28-29/17
Human Rights and Media Organizations Condemn Prosecution of Activist Ahmad Amhaz
Trump campaign advisor: Moderate Arabs will help us
Once again, disputes delay Lebanese elections
UN Chief Urges Divided Arab States to Come Together on Syria
Aoun meets President of Libyan Reconciliation Government in Jordan
Aoun meets Abadi in Jordan
Future Bloc: Amman's Summit opportunity for solidarity
Sarraf meets Moratinos, Hernando, Marotti
Sami Gemayel receives Shorter
EU will provide 62 million euros assistance to Lebanese and displaced Syrians health care
Missing man’s wife appeals to Aoun over disappearance
Report: Hezbollah threats prompt Israel to add extra Iron Dome systems on warships
Aoun, Hariri Meet Arab PMs, Bogdanov on Eve of Jordan's Arab Summit
Aoun to Emphasize Importance of 'Arab Solidarity' at Arab Summit
Hariri Says Salameh Must Stay, Promises Electoral Law, Electricity Breakthroughs
Government Approves Minister’s 'Electricity-Reform Plan'
Aoun, Hariri Relinquish Personal Rights in Case against Man Accused of Libel
EU Official Announces €62M for Health, Visits Projects in Bekaa
Bassil: Newly Approved Budget Sets Course for Reform, Financial Regulation
Report: Former Presidents, PMs Forward Letter to Arab Summit

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published On March 28-29/17
Trump Campaign Mideast Adviser Walid Phares: President Envisions Resolution to Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Through ‘Moderate Arabs’
IS Counter-Attacks to Defend North Syria Stronghold'
Arab Leaders Set to Oppose Trump Mideast Policy Shifts
No Peace Deal in Syria without U.S. Role, Says Opposition
White House Says Egypt's Sisi to Visit April 3
Ultra-Orthodox Jews Protest against Israel Military Service
U.S.-Led Coalition 'Probably' Had Role in Mosul Civilian Casualties
Amnesty Says Coalition Falling Short in Protecting Mosul Civilians
U.N. Experts Slam UAE over Arrest of Award-Winning Activist

Links From Jihad Watch Site for March 28-29/17
Canada: Imam fears backlash after London jihad attack, says he shouldn’t have to condemn jihad massacres
Nikki Haley to the UN: “The days of Israel bashing are over”
Hugh Fitzgerald: An Independent Kurdistan: Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Plan
Video: Robert Spencer on Newsmax’s Malzberg: FBI Wanted Pamela Geller and Me Dead in Garland Jihad Attack
Islamic State stones to death a youth accused of homosexuality in Mosul
UK: Muslim prisoner pours boiling fat over other prisoner’s head because of “insult to Islam”
UK Muslim used Telegram to tell Muslims to “buy a knife and stab a kafir in his guts or slit his throat”
Iran Expanding Its Interests In Canada, Endangering Dissidents and Facilitating Fifth Column
Glazov Gang: Ex-Muslim Sandra Solomon Unveils the Terror in London
UK: Muslim pol says London jihadi was “violent Christian before he was a violent Muslim”

Links From Christian Today Site For March 28-29/17
Pilgrimage and persecution: A new wave of prayer sweeping Britain
Church investigates official complaints into homophobia against gay cleric
Franklin Graham: Republicans make me 'sick' over healthcare failure
Evangelical Alliance hails Brexit 'historic moment' to speak out
French 'Spotlight' investigation accuses Catholic bishops of sex abuse cover-up
Westminster attacker was a 'violent Christian before he was a violent Muslim'
Church lawyer jailed for stealing £4million to fund lavish holidays
I'm glad Alexander Blackman is to be freed – and I'm glad he went to jail

Latest Lebanese Related News published On March 28-29/17
Human Rights and Media Organizations Condemn Prosecution of Activist Ahmad Amhaz
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 28, 2017 — We, the undersigned human rights and media organizations, condemn the arrest, detention, and prosecution of the activist Ahmad Amhaz. His arrest and continued detention is a violation of Lebanese law and Lebanon’s human rights obligations.
Amhaz was arrested on March 21 and has now spent eight days in jail. He is being charged with insulting the president of the republic and could face up to two years in jail; he is also being charged with slander and contempt of public officials. In a hearing on Monday, March 27, Mount Lebanon investigative judge Pierre Francis issued a warrant for his arrest. Amhaz’s lawyer filed an appeal for his release, but his request was denied.
We are calling for the immediate release of Ahmad Amhaz and requesting that all charged against him be dropped. We further call on Lebanon’s general prosecutor to stop bringing charges against those who criticize politicians and public officials, and will be sending him a formal letter to that effect. And we call on parliament to repeal the laws criminalizing defamation and criticism of public officials, which have no legitimate basis and are incompatible with Lebanon’s human rights obligations under international law.
We are deeply concerned about the troubling pattern of Lebanese authorities’ prosecution of those who speak critically of public officials, and the use of vague and overbroad criminal laws to target outspoken activists, human rights lawyers, and journalists for statements that are protected under international human rights law. This is only the latest case in this pattern. Increasingly, authorities are bringing charges based on online statements made on individuals’ personal Facebook or Twitter accounts.
We are further concerned at the repeated use of pre-trial detention to hold people in jail in these cases for no legitimate reason, meaning that individuals spend time in jail even if they are never convicted or sentenced. This pattern of prosecution and detention sends a clear message that those who speak out will be arrested and criminally charged, stifling freedom of expression in Lebanon.
The criminalization of free expression has no place in a rights-respecting country, Whether or not it agrees with the views being expressed, the Lebanese government should guarantee the right to speak out freely as a necessary check on the abuse of power, rather than attempting to quash criticism.
Lebanon’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression “within the limits established by law.” But the Lebanese penal code criminalizes libel and defamation against public officials and authorizes imprisonment of up to one year in such cases. Article 384 of the penal code authorizes imprisonment of six months to two years for insulting the president, the flag, or the national emblem. These laws serve no legitimate purpose and are a disproportionate and unnecessary response to the need to protect reputations and the state.
The proliferation of such prosecutions and the threat of arrest reflect an urgent need for Lebanon’s parliament to remove criminal sanctions for libel, defamation, and criticism of public officials and symbols. In the interim, authorities should stop release Ahmad Amhaz and stop bringing prosecutions in these cases.
Signatories:
Social Media Exchange (SMEX)
Human Rights Watch
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH)
March
SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom
MAP – Media Association for Peace
For more information, please contact:
Social Media Exchange (SMEX)
Lara Bitar: + 961 01 383 029; or lara@smex.org
Human Rights Watch
Bassam Khawaja: +961 78 976 099; or khawajb@hrw.org
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH)
Wadih Al-Asmar: +961 70 950 780; or walasmar@cldh-lebanon.org
March
Gino Raidy: +961 3 134 477; or giinoo@gmail.com
Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom
Widad Jarbouh: +961 1 397331; or wjarbouh@skeyesmedia.org
Media Association for Peace (MAP)
Vanessa Bassil: +961 3 582 696; or vanessa.bassil@maplebanon.org

Trump campaign advisor: Moderate Arabs will help us
Walid Phares, a terrorism expert who advised Donald Trump's campaign, describes how Trump envisages solution to Arab-Israel conflict.
Arutz Sheva Staff, 28/03/17/A terrorism expert and Fox News analyst who served as Donald Trump's Middle East adviser during the election campaign told the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat about the way in which President Donald Trump envisages a successful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). In an interview with the news outlet last week, Walid Phares, an American scholar born in Lebanon, said that Trump “told [him] personally, when [they] met in late 2015…, ‘I want the moderate Arabs to help us, meaning that they talk to the moderate Palestinians while I talk to Israel.’ That is why I believe it is his personal and strategic goal to solve this matter in a just way.” Phares also referred to America’s concern about Iran’s deployment of missile systems across the Middle East, saying, “This problem does not only concern Israel, but rather the entire region. Iran is trying to become the regional Soviet Union, and to spread its radical ideology under the pretext of fighting Israel. The Iranian regime is fighting the people in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and is oppressing Lebanese, and all this under the banner of ‘liberating Jerusalem’…”Phares maintained that if the Iranian people were to rebel against the ayatollahs who lead the country as they attempted to do in 2009, the Trump administration would back the effort. Phares also alluded to threats issued by Iranian proxy group Hezbollah to attack Israeli facilities – including the ammonia plant in Haifa. Phares warned that "any terrorist actions by anyone anywhere in the world against any nuclear reactor, or any action that causes a radiation leak that damages the region and the world, will be considered international terrorist acts requiring an appropriate response.
"If Hezbollah wishes to anger the international community, including Arab and Muslim countries, and other countries, chiefly the US, this would be unprecedentedly reckless. Hezbollah knows this, and [nevertheless] threatens such attacks. The results [of these attacks] would be devastating, mostly for Hezbollah itself. I am not saying they would be devastating for Lebanon. Perhaps the Lebanese are worried and fear the response of Israel and the international community, or of [Arab] countries in the Middle East. No. There is a clear understanding, at least here in Washington, that if this happens, the response will specifically target Hezbollah and its institutions if it threatens international security."

Once again, disputes delay Lebanese elections
Haytham Mouzahem/Al Monitor/March 28/17
Lebanon's parliamentary elections are languishing after being postponed for the third time since 2013. Officials estimate it could be months, or even a year, before they will be held. The elections were to take place between May 20 and June 21. But because of a dispute over a proposed new law regarding the elections, the country missed a critical deadline. Lebanese law states voters must be informed 90 days before an election so they can prepare for the polls. March 21 came and went with no official announcement.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and Prime Minister Saad Hariri of the Future Movement signed the decree in time, but President Michel Aoun refused twice, on Feb. 21 and March 20. Aoun declined because the elections would have been held based on the contested 1960 majoritarian (winner-take-all) law. In fact, Aoun, of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said he would prefer a vacuum to holding elections based on the default 1960 law, which was used in the 2009 elections. The law allows Muslim leaders to choose Christian members of parliament in some constituencies.
Aoun, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement are insisting on the "total proportionality" system. Hariri, Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblatt and the Lebanese Forces want either a hybrid law or the majoritarian system, which would yield the same results as before, granting their alliance — the March 14 Coalition — the majority of seats in parliament.
Rabih Barakat, a lecturer in journalism and digital media at the American University of Beirut, told Al-Monitor, “Since the Taif Agreement, the electoral laws have been tailored to the whims of some political forces that were in power post-Taif. There were no common criteria to divide constituencies and determine the size of electorates in each. Following the Doha Agreement in 2008, the political parties agreed to return to the 1960 law, which still did not reflect the real balance of power. Perhaps for that reason, Hariri and Jumblatt are refusing proportionality today because it would reduce their parliamentary blocs."
This impasse prompted Foreign Minister and FPM head Gebran Bassil to propose on March 13 yet another option suggesting the equal distribution of seats between the proportional and majoritarian systems. This would mean voting according to the majoritarian system based on 14 hybrid constituencies, provided that each sect elects its members of parliament, and adopting the proportional representation system based on five constituencies, which are the five historical governorates (Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Bekaa, and the South and North governorates).
However, most parties turned down Bassil’s proposal. His allies, including Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, parliament member Talal Arslan and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, slammed the proposal because they believe it would tarnish proportionality and fuel sectarianism. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement implicitly rejected the proposal, and so did Jumblatt and Phalangist Party Leader Sami Gemayel. The Lebanese Forces were the only ones to support Bassil’s proposal, while the Future Movement has kept mum about its stance.
Independent political analyst Yasser Hariri told Al-Monitor that most parties frowned upon Bassil’s proposal because “it caters to the Christian representation of the FPM and the Lebanese Forces and deprives other Christian forces of the possibility to win electoral seats, meaning it excludes others from fair representation. It also goes against the principle of equality, which makes it subject to appeal before the constitutional council. Besides, this proposal does not obey the rule of fair distribution of electoral constituencies, as it corners the Christian and Sunni allies of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.”
Lebanon’s system is based on sectarianism and national consensus rather than a democratic vote, and all sects and parties seek to guarantee their parliamentary seats before approving an electoral law. The majoritarian system grants the large parties the possibility of gaining all of the seats, while the smaller parties and independent candidates suffer from lack of representation in the parliament. For that reason, the proportional system would grant all parties and independents proportional representation, but the large blocs would lose some seats.
Mohammad Raad, leader of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, announced on March 17 that his party rejects electoral laws that do not ensure coexistence and fair, comprehensive representation, which he said can only be accomplished through a law based on total proportionality.
The Progressive Socialist Party and its parliamentary bloc, led by Jumblatt, expressed their fears regarding the proportionality system and Bassil’s recent proposal, and they dismissed them as attempts to marginalize the Druze minority and undermine his bloc.
Bassil also suggested establishing a Senate, as was mentioned in the Taif Agreement, as a council representing all religious sects, provided it has a Christian leader on a 50-50 basis: The speaker of parliament and prime minister are both Muslims, so if the Senate leadership goes to the Druze instead of Christians, there would be three Muslim leaders and one Christian leader: Aoun, the president of the republic. This added insult to injury, especially as the Druze were promised the Senate’s chairmanship when the Taif Agreement was signed in 1989.
There are fears of a legislative vacuum if parliament members do not extend their mandate for six months or a year. Aoun threatened on Jan. 24 to reject a potential extension and challenge its legitimacy, which could result in a political and constitutional crisis.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned March 18 that there is no time to bicker over a new electoral law, and he advised against playing with fire. He noted that the available options are “vacuum, extension or the 1960 law, and they are all bad and dangerous for the country.” He said a solution will require all parties to make concessions.
Future Movement Secretary-General Ahmad Hariri said March 18 that his party will refuse any law that jeopardizes national partnership and that a “parliamentary vacuum will have dire consequences on the country.”
To avoid such a vacuum, Machnouk said March 20 that there would be a “technical delay” of the elections for a few months to prepare for the implementation of a new electoral law. Machnouk did not set a date for the elections because it is still unclear if or when parliament might reach an agreement on a new law. Aoun responded to Machnouk that the elections should not be delayed for more than a few months after an agreement is reached. Machnouk said he expects an agreement by April and warned of a political crisis if the parties fail to give voters a three-month window before the parliament's current term ends June 21. Also, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said last week that a "technical extension" of the parliament is inescapable, and he expects to resort to this option in April. He said an extension will require the existence of an election law, or at least an agreement among the concerned parties, even if it's not complete, so parliament can approve the extension along with the new law.
It seems inevitable now that parliament will have to extend its mandate. If the political parties reach an agreement on the election law, elections would then probably be held in the fall, or in spring 2018, since it would be difficult to hold them during the winter in some mountainous villages.
However, if Aoun continues to reject the current election law or refuses to extend parliament’s mandate, Lebanon could be facing a constitutional crisis. However, the government does have the authority to hold the elections in case the president does not respond to the decree within a month of receiving it, and parliament could thus extend its term. Aoun would consider it an “illegal parliament,” as he already described it before its previous extension — although it is the same parliament that elected him in the first place.

UN Chief Urges Divided Arab States to Come Together on Syria
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - The U.N. secretary-general has appealed to Arab nations to set aside differences and help end Syria's six-year-old civil war. Antonio Guterres made the appeal while visiting the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan on Tuesday, a day ahead of attending a key annual Arab summit hosted this year by Jordan. He says Arab divisions over Syria have inadvertently given a boost to terror groups by allowing "others to intervene or manipulate situations, creating instability, breeding conflict, and facilitating the life of terrorist organizations." Turkey, Russia and Iran have become major players in the conflict that has displaced millions of Syrians. Guterres says more doors are now being closed to the displaced. He says in not helping refugees, the world is inadvertently boosting terror groups and increasing global security risks.-AP

Aoun meets President of Libyan Reconciliation Government in Jordan
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday night at his residence at the Marriott Hotel - Dead Sea with the head of the Libyan Government of National Reconciliation, NNA field reporter said.

Aoun meets Abadi in Jordan
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - President Michel Aoun met on Tuesday night at his residence in Jordan with Iraqi PM Haydar al-Abadi, NNA field reporter said.

Future Bloc: Amman's Summit opportunity for solidarity
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - Future Parliamentary bloc held on Tuesday its meeting at the Center House, headed by President Fouad Siniora. The bloc reviewed the situation in various aspects. At the end of the meeting, the MP Ammar Houry read the statement. "The upcoming Arab Summit in Amman is a vital opportunity to confirm Arab solidarity in general and the solidarity with Lebanon again, especially as the preparatory meeting of the Arab foreign ministers approved yesterday the paper supporting Lebanon unanimously. This is a positive step required at this stage after the Lebanese Arab relations have faced gaps in the past period," Houry said. The bloc pinned hopes on this summit in ending the state of fighting and bloodshed in more than one Arab country. On the other hand, Future bloc praised the step that has been taken by the government to approve the draft general budget for the first time since 2011. The bloc called on the House of Representatives to "intensify efforts to focus on the study of the draft budget in preparation for its approval.

Sarraf meets Moratinos, Hernando, Marotti
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - National Defense Minister, Yacoub Sarraf, met on Tuesday afternoon with the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, accompanied by the Spanish Ambassador to Lebanon, Milagros Hernando, with talks featuring high on issues related to the region, especially the crisis of the Syrian refugees and how to deal with them. He also received the Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, Massimo Marotti. Discussions touched on common interests as well as developments in the region.

Sami Gemayel receives Shorter
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - Head of Kataeb Party, Sami Gemayel, on Tuesday received in Saifi British Ambassador, Hugo Shorter, and reviewed with him latest developments at the Lebanese arena. MP Gemayel told Ambassador Shorter that he would continue supporting the livelihood condition of Lebanese citizens.

EU will provide 62 million euros assistance to Lebanese and displaced Syrians health care
Tue 28 Mar 2017/NNA - European Commissioner for the European Neighborhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, held a press conference on Tuesday at the headquarters of the European Union mission in Lebanon, in the presence of the Ambassador Christina Lassen, in which he briefed his visit to Lebanon. "The EU will provide in 2017 the amount of 62 million euros assistance in the field of primary health care for the Lebanese and the displaced," Hahn stressed. He said that "the country (Lebanon) is going through a new vital political stage after the election of a president and the formation of a government," pointing out that his message to the officials who he met is important, "the Union stands beside Lebanon in the process of progress, economic and social development."

Missing man’s wife appeals to Aoun over disappearance
Mohammed Zaatari/The Daily Star/March 28/17/Sidon: In 2009, Joseph Sader, a 57-year-old IT manager at Middle East Airlines and a father of three, was abducted while walking to Rafik Hariri International Airport where he worked. Eight years later, Sader’s fate remains unknown.“It is as if the earth broke open and swallowed him whole,” a member of his family told The Daily Star Sunday.Sader’s wife handed Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil a letter Sunday, addressed to Bassil’s father-in-law, President Michel Aoun, written to remind him of her husband’s plight. “Your Excellency, you are the father of all,” the letter read, harking back to one of the slogans adopted by Aoun and his supporters when he assumed the presidency. “Remember that one of your son’s fates has remained a mystery for the past nine [sic] years.”The letter was handed to Bassil while he was visiting the southern town of Maghdoushe. “It is a letter to remind [the president] that he is now in a new position: The hopes of the Lebanese are pinned on you and you are up to the task, I have no doubt,” Salma Sader, the wife of the missing man, told The Daily Star, addressing Aoun. “We hope ... that you will remember Sader’s case ... so that we will know the end of this kidnapping, no matter what it is and no matter how bitter, it is our right to know. I have ... waited for so long to know. It really has been too long.”Soon after Sader’s disappearance, a flurry of rumors spread about the case. Claims surfaced that Sader’s position at MEA allowed him to collaborate with Israeli Mossad agents, which – it was said – led to his capture by Hezbollah. Soon after the kidnapping, a sheikh close to Hezbollah seemed to confirm these claims. Hezbollah has reportedly denied the allegations. The missing man’s family has visited a host of politicians, including Speaker Nabih Berri, in an effort to push for Sader’s release, but has had little success. In February 2014, Berri signed a public prosecutor’s request to obtain public records regarding the disappearance. Even before this, Ashraf Rifi promised to pursue justice in the case during his tenure as justice minister. In an October 2011 session of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, Rifi gave testimony regarding the details of Sader’s kidnapping. “At that session, Rifi told MPs and attendees that Sader was kidnapped on the airport highway by a van with tinted windows accompanied by a four-wheel-drive car, and was driven toward the Al-Rassoul al-Aazam Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” a judicial source told The Daily Star. According to the source, Rifi added that an Internal Security Forces patrol had found the van in question to be suspicious and had followed the vehicle, before being confronted by armed men and forced to withdraw from Beirut’s southern suburbs. During the session, Rifi also claimed that Hezbollah members were present in the area a day before the kidnapping and had asked the owners of the shops along the highway to direct their surveillance cameras toward the ground the following day. Rifi is known for his fierce anti-Hezbollah rhetoric. “Let us assume that Joseph [Sader] was [in the] wrong, his errors could have been covered up for a month or a year, but not for nine [sic] years,” Sader’s wife said Sunday. “If Joseph was ... an agent or anything else, it is now the time to know the reason [for his disappearance]. But no one tells us anything and we are living in a state of constant anxiety.”

Report: Hezbollah threats prompt Israel to add extra Iron Dome systems on warships
Jerusalem Post/March 28/17 /Four ships being manufactured in Germany were reportedly each originally slated to contain a single Iron Dome launcher. The threat of Hezbollah rockets targeting offshore natural gas platforms has prompted the Israeli Navy to add an extra Iron Dome launcher to Sa'ar 6 missile ships that are currently being manufactured for Israel in Germany, Defense News reported on Monday. Defense News quoted a senior Israeli naval officer as saying that Hezbollah's arsenal of Grad rockets and longer-range projectiles prompted the change in design. The four ships being manufactured in Germany were each originally slated to contain a single Iron Dome launcher. “Because of this growing threat, we’re adding another launcher on the Sa’ar-6,” Defense News quoted the officer as saying of the ships intended to defend Israel's offshore assets. Hezbollah is known to have various long and medium-range missile systems, including the Iranian-made Fajr-5, the M-600 rockets, Zeizal-2, and the shorter-range M75 and Katyushas. But according to a senior IDF officer in the IAF’s Air Defense Division, the terror group is continuously working to acquire missiles with larger warheads and longer range.
According to Israeli estimates, Hezbollah has stockpiled more than 100,000 missiles. Last July, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Hezbollah now possesses 17 times the number of missiles it did 10 years ago when UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was adopted at the end of the Second Lebanon War. Hezbollah now has “more missiles below ground in Lebanon than the European NATO allies have above ground,” Danon said as he presented recent IDF intelligence about the terrorist organization to the Security Council, including aerial photographs revealing Hezbollah positions and statistics about the organization’s weapons stockpiles. Concerns that Hezbollah projectiles could strike Israeli natural energy fields in the Mediterranean Sea have allegedly prompted the country to make preparations for such circumstances. Earlier this year, the Shi'ite Lebanese group threatened to attack the ammonia facility in Haifa, which contains some 12,000 tons of toxic gas. The plant has since been ordered to close. Meanwhile, Israel's Navy has also upgraded its sensor system placed on the naval borders between Israel and the Gaza Strip in order to thwart attempted infiltrations into Israel and attacks against ships.
Anna Ahronheim and Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.

Aoun, Hariri Meet Arab PMs, Bogdanov on Eve of Jordan's Arab Summit
Naharnet/March 28/17/President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil arrived Tuesday in Jordan along with a Lebanese delegation to take part in the 28th Arab Summit that will kick off on Wednesday. Shortly after his arrival, Aoun met with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov who visited him at his residence at the Marriott Dead Sea Resort. The meeting was held in the presence of Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil. "We discussed the special relation between Lebanon and Russia and we have wide prospects for a fruitful cooperation between the two countries in all fields," Bogdanov said after the meeting. "We discussed the political developments in the region, including the Syrian crisis and the Palestinian cause, and of course we are trying to play a role that can help our Arab and Lebanese friends find the appropriate solutions for the crises in the region, especially in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Palestine," the Russian diplomat added. Later on Tuesday, Aoun held separate talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Libya's U.N.-backed premier Fayez al-Sarraj. Hariri and Bassil attended the two meetings.Lebanon's National News Agency said Aoun and Hariri tackled with al-Sarraj the case of missing Imam Moussa al-Sadr, who disappeared along with two companions during a 1978 visit to Libya. “The Libyan side showed responsiveness and it was agreed that the two countries should communicate over the issue,” NNA added. King Abdullah II of Jordan, Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit and a large Jordanian delegation had welcomed Aoun and the Lebanese delegation at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. Earlier in the day, Aoun told the Lebanese Cabinet that he will carry a peace message to the Arab summit on behalf of the Lebanese and will stress the significance of Arab solidarity and the importance of activating the Arab League charter.

Aoun to Emphasize Importance of 'Arab Solidarity' at Arab Summit
Naharnet/March 28/17/President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday he will carry a peace message to the Arab summit on behalf of the Lebanese and will stress the significance of Arab solidarity and activation of Arab League charter. Aoun who is scheduled to head a delegation to the summit in Jordan Tuesday afternoon, said at a cabinet session he presided at Baabda: “In my speech at the Arab summit I will carry a message of peace on behalf of the Lebanese. I will affirm the significance of Arab solidarity and the activation of the Arab League charter.”Turning to the government success at approving an annual draft budget he congratulated the ministers and hoped “it would be ratified at the parliament.”Aoun briefed the ministers on his recent visit to the Vatican and his meeting with Pope Francis. “The Pope has blessed the work we are doing and stressed the importance of unity in Lebanon, especially the Christian-Muslim coexistence. He said it qualifies Lebanon as a center for dialogue of civilizations and religions,” remarked Aoun. The President also touched on issues discussed with visiting foreign delegations that focused on a new electoral system, the Syrian refugees and Lebanon's economic needs.

Hariri Says Salameh Must Stay, Promises Electoral Law, Electricity Breakthroughs
Naharnet/March 28/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Tuesday that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh should remain in his post as he promised imminent breakthroughs regarding the stalled electoral law and the electricity plan. “I'm convinced that it is necessary for Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh to stay in his post, because he represents a guarantee for the stability of the Lebanese pound,” Hariri told reporters aboard the plane that carried him along with President Michel Aoun to Jordan for participation in the Arab Summit. Noting that Lebanon's participation in the summit with a unified delegation reflects the extent of “harmony” between him and the president, Hariri reassured that “the internal understanding among the Lebanese will soon reflect itself on the electoral law and we will finalize this issue very soon.”Asked about the letter that Lebanon's former presidents and premiers have reportedly sent to the Arab Summit, Hariri said: “There is a train moving forward in Lebanon and those who want to board it are welcome, or else let them stay in their places.”As for the new wage scale, Hariri promised that it will be eventually approved. And regarding the electricity plan that the Cabinet approved earlier in the day, the premier said citizens will start sensing improvement in power supply “as of May.”

Germany Launches Probe into 'Intolerable Spying' by Turkey
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/German prosecutors announced an investigation Tuesday into claims that Turkish agents are spying on alleged followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen in Germany. The probe came as a German state minister accused Turkey of the "unacceptable" espionage against supporters of Gulen, blamed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a failed coup attempt last year. The claims open a new front in the diplomatic row between NATO allies Germany and Turkey, whose relationship has been strained by a series of disputes centered on human rights issues. "It is clear that the Turkish secret service MIT is investigating people living in Germany," said Boris Pistorius, interior minister of the northern German state of Lower Saxony, deploring the "intensity and ruthlessness" of Turkey's pursuit of people living abroad. "It's intolerable and unacceptable," he said at a press conference. Erdogan's government had asked Berlin to help spy on about 300 alleged Gulen supporters, Pistorius said, adding that the list was handed to Germany's BND spy service, which turned it over to state governments. But Pistorius's state decided to inform the more than 10 targets in Lower Saxony, including a school and at least two companies, fearing people could suffer "retaliation" if they traveled to Turkey while unaware they were on a watch list. Turkish authorities were acting with "something close to paranoia," he said, adding that "all Gulen supporters are assumed to be terrorists and enemies of the state even though there is not the tiniest scrap of evidence.""As of today, we have no evidence whatsoever that Gulen supporters have violated any rules in any way."According to German media, Turkish officials handed the target list including names, addresses, telephone numbers and photographs to their German counterparts during the Munich Security Conference in February. Federal prosecutors will now examine how Turkey compiled such detailed information on their targets."The success of our investigation will depend largely on the information shared with us by German counter-espionage agencies," spokeswoman Frauke Koehler said about the probe into "persons unknown."Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere meanwhile warned Turkey against spying in Germany, saying "espionage activities on German soil is punishable by law and will not be tolerated by us."
- Fraying ties
Although Gulen, a 75-year-old cleric living the United States, has denied charges that he was involved in the failed coup last July to overthrow Erdogan, Ankara has cracked down hard on the preacher's followers. More than 41,000 people in Turkey have been arrested over suspected links to Gulen's movement, and 100,000 fired or suspended from their jobs. Many of them are teachers, police, magistrates and journalists. In February, German police raided the homes of four Turkish Muslim preachers suspected of spying on alleged Gulen supporters for Erdogan's government. Erdogan has in turn accused Germany of harboring Kurdish and other "terrorists", claiming that Berlin is refusing to hand over alleged suspects. Separately, the foreign ministries in Sweden and Denmark have called in Turkey's envoys over claims of Turkish spying on opposition figures living in the Scandinavian countries. Germany's foreign intelligence chief Bruno Kahl drew Ankara's ire last week when he said he did not believe that Gulen was behind the failed coup. Turkey had tried to convince Berlin that Gulen, who lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania, was behind the coup, "but they have not succeeded," Kahl told Der Spiegel magazine. Kahl said the putsch was launched by a "part of the military" that expected to be targeted in an ongoing government purge.Berlin has emerged as a strident critic of Ankara's post-coup crackdown, and is also urging Turkey to release a correspondent for the German daily Die Welt who is jailed on terror charges. Ankara has been riled by German authorities' refusal to allow some Turkish ministers to campaign in the country's Turkish communities for a "yes" vote ahead of the April 16 referendum on giving Erdogan the powers of an executive presidency.

Government Approves Minister’s 'Electricity-Reform Plan'
Naharnet/March 28/17/An electricity plan proposed by Lebanon's Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil was approved by the government on Tuesday where its articles will be studied and approved individually by the cabinet. In a session devoted to study the electricity-reform plan, the cabinet convened at the Presidential Palace in Baabda and was chaired by President Michel Aoun in the presence of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the ministers. After the session, Information Minister Melhem Riachi said: “A proposal put forward by the Energy Minister has been approved. It is part of an electricity plan that should have been completed back in 2010.“A lot of comments were made about the plan which the Energy Minister took it into consideration, especially with regard to the solicitation of bids and preparation of tenders.”“The details of the plan and the preparations will be explained during a press conference to be held soon by Abi Khalil,” added Riachi.Although the plan was approved, but each of its articles will be studied and approved consecutively by the cabinet. According to reports, Abi Khalil's “Power Saving Plan” was proposed with the aim of improving electricity production. Before the cabinet meeting began, State Minister for Parliament Affairs Ali Qanso voiced reservations as for an earlier call by Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea to privatize the sector. “We are not reassured about privatization. We are afraid of turning the commodity into a sectarian commodity,” he said. Youth and Sports Minister Mohammad Fneish said: “We have some remarks about the electricity plan which will be brought up during the meeting.”For his part, Minister of State for Planning Affairs Michel Pharaon said the plan will be approved “but there are some remarks to be taken into consideration.” Abi Khalil's plan suggests leasing three power generating Turkish vessels, instead of two already producing Lebanon's electricity, to supply the country with needed power before the summer season begins. Lebanon is plagued with frequent power cuts because of outdated and damaged infrastructure. Local generator companies have filled the gap by providing power when state electricity cuts off -- but they often charge exorbitant prices. The poor condition of the state's power infrastructure has been a major source of public frustration, and featured prominently in recent protests that saw thousands gather in central Beirut.

Aoun, Hariri Relinquish Personal Rights in Case against Man Accused of Libel
Naharnet/March 28/17/President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri have disclaimed their personal rights in the case of the young man who has been arrested over a Facebook post deemed insulting to Lebanon's top leaders, Hariri said on Tuesday. “I have agreed with the president to relinquish our personal rights in connection with the judicial prosecution of the young man Ahmad Amhaz, and we have informed the state prosecutor of this,” Hariri tweeted. Human Rights Watch had on Monday slammed Lebanese authorities for detaining and charging Amhaz, saying his arrest was part of a "troubling pattern."
"The authorities should free Ahmad Amhaz and drop the charges against him, and parliament should repeal vague and overbroad laws that criminalize free speech," said HRW's deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih. Amhaz was detained on March 21, apparently over a February Facebook post that criticized Lebanon's president, premier and speaker of parliament.On Monday, he appeared before a judge who issued a formal arrest warrant, said Ayman Mhanna, director of Skeyes, a press freedom NGO."This is the first time someone is detained pre-trial. This is why we're very concerned," he told AFP. Lebanese law criminalizes libel and defamation of the president, and those found guilty of insulting the president, flag or the national emblem face up to two years in jail. "Laws that allow imprisonment in response to criticism of individuals or government officials are incompatible with Lebanon's international obligations to protect freedom of expression," HRW said, adding that the terms "libel", "defamation" and "insult" were ill-defined in Lebanese law. Lebanese authorities have periodically detained and even sentenced citizens for criticizing public officials, but the accused are often pardoned or have their sentences commuted. Last June, a prominent lawyer was arrested after accusing government officials of possible complicity in a sex trafficking ring. And in 2014, a Lebanese web developer was sentenced to two months in jail for insulting then president Michel Suleiman on Twitter, although the sentence was eventually overturned.

EU Official Announces €62M for Health, Visits Projects in Bekaa
Naharnet/March 28/17/At the end of a visit to Lebanon, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, said that his visit came at an opportune moment, seeing as Lebanon is going through “important political changes with a new president, a government fully operational and parliamentary elections that should take place this year.”During a press conference held at the Delegation of the European Union, the Commissioner stressed that the EU “stands for Lebanon and its people with continued support for the democratic process and socio-economic development,” an EU Delegation statement said. He also said that his meetings with Lebanese officials addressed the delivery of the commitments mutually agreed at the London Conference in 2016 and under the EU-Lebanon Partnership Priorities signed late last year. The Commissioner commended the Lebanese for the efforts undertaken in hosting Syrian refugees, noting that since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the EU has allocated more than €1.1 billion euros in assistance to Lebanon to cope with the crisis. He announced a new package of €62 million euros for the health sector in Lebanon to guarantee sound access to health services for the Lebanese communities and Syrian refugees. During the day, Commissioner Hahn visited the solid waste sorting facility in Bar Elias that is constructed under a project funded by the European Union and implemented by the Economic and Social Fund for Development. The aim of the project is to assist municipal services to manage the large amount of daily waste in the three communities of Bar Elias, El Marj and Qab Elias. These communities suffer from improper management of solid waste, and struggle to deal with the additional waste caused by the influx of Syrian refugees in the region. Commissioner Hahn said that "this facility is an excellent example of an investment that goes beyond the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis." The Commissioner then visited the informal settlement in Taanayel that hosts 45 Syrian refugee families. He discussed with the refugees their concerns and daily challenges as regards mainly protection, livelihood, and access to health and education services. He also met with Syrian volunteers who are promoting access to public schools for refugee children. UNHCR Representative Mireille Girard accompanied Commissioner Hahn during this visit. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the EU has been working with and supporting UNHCR in the response to the consequences of the crisis in Lebanon. Commissioner Hahn also visited the Primary Health Care Center in Taanayel that is run under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Health. This center provides services to around 3200 patients per month, both Syrian refugees and Lebanese citizens. It is one of more than 200 centers and public hospitals that have received EU funds for new equipment, free medications and vaccines for children. The EU funding also covers training for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and health workers, as well as awareness raising sessions. This assistance is provided through UNHCR, UNICEF and WHO. In addition, the EU is supporting the Ministry of Public Health to reinforce and enlarge Primary Health Care Centers.

Bassil: Newly Approved Budget Sets Course for Reform, Financial Regulation
Naharnet/March 28/17/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said on Tuesday that the cabinet has approved the 2017 draft budget plan during Monday's meeting where “new elements to promote tax justice and abolish protected monopolies were introduced.”Speaking after an extraordinary meeting of the Change and Reform bloc, the Minister pointed out: “We underlined three old demands of the bloc namely the tax on real estate profits, raising taxes on bank profits and bank interests.”He asserted the government did not suggest the imposition of taxes that affect the public mainly the poor. The cabinet “has placed the first foundation for reform and financial regulation in the country. This is the first budget approved since 12 years,” he said. On Monday, the cabinet approved the state's annual budget, the country's first in 12 years, referring it to parliament for final ratification. “The cabinet approved the draft state budget and the deficit was greatly decreased through the debate that took place today,” Information Minister Melhem Riachi told reporters after the session. Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil will hold a press conference on Thursday, after the return of President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri from the Arab Summit in Jordan, to announce all the details, numbers, the budget deficit, the decrease in the deficit, the numbers of the budget, the revenues and the expenditure. Lebanon has not approved a state budget since 2005 due to political differences between the rival parties.

Report: Former Presidents, PMs Forward Letter to Arab Summit
Naharnet/March 28/17/A new difficulty has surfaced on the eve of the Arab summit after reports said that five former presidents and premiers of Lebanon have sent a letter to head of the Arab summit including negative positions of Hizbullah -which was interpreted as bypassing Lebanon's position, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. Lebanon's participation in the summit is keen on highlighting the image and consistent position of the country during the new term of President Michel Aoun with PM Saad Hariri's participation. But what drew the attention was a message sent to the summit by five former presidents and prime ministers which perturbs Lebanon's stance during the summit, said the daily. Credible sources told the newspaper on condition of anonymity that “ex-Presidents Amin Gemayel, Michel Suleiman and ex-PMs Fouad Saniora, Tammam Salam and Najib Miqati have sent a letter to the Arab summit.
“The three-page letter focused on five issues: Emphasizing the Taef Accord, emphasizing commitment to international resolutions particularly UN resolution 1701, illegal arms, the Baabda Declaration, the dissociation policy, spreading of the state authority and cessation of external involvements in the Syrian crisis.”
The five presidents sent copies of the letter to Aoun, Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri who have all expressed annoyance with the step which Berri described as “unprecedented step and unacceptable,” said the daily. Official sources told the daily: “The step is incomprehensible as for its content, meaning and purpose. It is also an insult to the position of the Presidency and an attempt to bypass Aoun especially that Lebanon will be represented by its president (at the summit).”They remarked that the measure will only make Lebanon look divided against itself and weaken its position in front of the world's Arab leaders.
In spite of that, Lebanon still sees an opportunity ahead mainly after the Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Jordan on Monday “unanimously” approved a clause about “solidarity with Lebanon” that is expected to be included in the draft closing statement of the upcoming Arab Summit, it added. The Arab foreign ministers met to prepare for the Arab League's annual summit, set for Wednesday in Jordan. Ex-president Gemayel meanwhile told MTV in remarks broadcast in the evening that the letter aims to "strengthen the Lebanese position.""Is it a crime to talk about the Baabda Declaration?" Gemayel wondered.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published On March 28-29/17
Trump Campaign Mideast Adviser Walid Phares: President Envisions Resolution to Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Through ‘Moderate Arabs’
Walid Phares/Ruthie Blum/March 28/17/A terrorism expert and long-time Fox News analyst who served as the new US leader’s Mideast adviser during the election campaign told the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat about the way in which President Donald Trump envisions a successful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported on Friday. According to the report, in an interview with the news outlet last week, Walid Phares, an American scholar born in Lebanon, said that Trump “told [him] personally, when [they] met in late 2015…, ‘I want the moderate Arabs to help us, meaning that they talk to the moderate Palestinians while I talk to Israel.’ That is why I believe it is his personal and strategic goal to solve this matter in a just way.” Phares also noted America’s concern about Iran’s deployment of missile systems across the Middle East, saying, “This problem does not only concern Israel, but rather the entire region. Iran is trying to become the regional Soviet Union, and to spread its radical ideology under the pretext of fighting Israel. The Iranian regime is fighting the people in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and is oppressing Lebanese, and all this under the banner of ‘liberating Jerusalem’…”
Ambassador Nikki Haley at AIPAC: Days of Israel-Bashing at UN Are Over, There Is a New Sheriff in Town
“The days of Israel-bashing are over,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley vowed on Monday. "For anyone who says...
He went on to say he believes that if the Iranian people were to rebel against the mullah-led regime, as they attempted to do in 2009, the Trump administration would back the effort. As The Algemeiner reported on Friday, hints of a shift away from the way in which the Obama administration handled the rebellion across the Islamic Republic, which was put to a violent end by the leadership in Tehran, were underway last week, when Trump extended greetings to the Iranian people – as opposed to their rulers – for the Persian new year, Nowruz. Phares also alluded to threats issued by Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, to attack Israeli facilities – including the ammonia plant in Haifa. According to MEMRI, Phares warned, Any terrorist actions by anyone anywhere in the world against any nuclear reactor, or any action that causes a radiation leak that damages the region and the world, will be considered international terrorist acts requiring an appropriate response. If Hezbollah wishes to anger the international community, including Arab and Muslim countries, and other countries, chiefly the US, this would be unprecedentedly reckless. Hezbollah knows this, and [nevertheless] threatens such attacks. The results [of these attacks] would be devastating, mostly for Hezbollah itself. I am not saying they would be devastating for Lebanon. Perhaps the Lebanese are worried and fear the response of Israel and the international community, or of [Arab] countries in the Middle East. No. There is a clear understanding, at least here in Washington, that if this happens, the response will specifically target Hezbollah and its institutions if it threatens international security.

IS Counter-Attacks to Defend North Syria Stronghold
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/Clashes raged around a key northern Syrian town on Tuesday after the Islamic State group launched a counter-attack to fend off a US-backed advance near the jihadists' stronghold Raqa.
Backed by air power from an international coalition bombing IS, the Syrian Democratic Forces are laying the groundwork for an assault on the heart of the jihadists' so-called "caliphate". A key part of the campaign is the battle for the IS-held town of Tabqa on the Euphrates River, as well as the adjacent dam and military airport. The SDF seized the Tabqa airbase late Sunday and began pushing north towards the town itself, but IS fighters doubled down on their defenses on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "The fighting is a result of IS launching a counter-offensive to exhaust the Syrian Democratic Forces around the Tabqa military airport," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the SDF was working to "consolidate its positions" near the airport ahead of a final push for the town. SDF fighters are also bearing down on the Tabqa dam after capturing its northern entrance on Friday from IS fighters.
The fight around the structure has been backed by forces from the US-led coalition, with American-made armoured vehicles bearing the markings of the US Marine Corps seen moving along a nearby road. An AFP correspondent at the dam on Tuesday said it was generally quiet around the dam itself, despite the occasional IS-fired mortar that landed in SDF-controlled parts of the riverbank. Airplanes could be heard humming above as SDF forces patrolled the northern entrance of the structure.
- 'Acceptable' water levels -On Tuesday, coalition forces could be seen standing near military vehicles less than two kilometres (one mile) from the dam, their mortar rounds casually stacked nearby. After a brief pause in fighting on Monday to allow technicians to enter the dam complex, SDF fighters resumed their operations around the structure, said spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed. "IS amassed its fighters and attacked our forces in the area, which forced us to respond and resume the operations to liberate the dam," she said. Earlier this year, the United Nations raised concern about the prospect of damage to the dam in fighting, warning that water levels -- which put pressure on the structure -- were already high.
IS has also issued warnings through its propaganda agency Amaq that the dam "is threatened with collapse at any moment because of American strikes and a large rise in water levels". On Tuesday, technicians accompanied by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent could be seen examining the dam to assess whether water levels had risen in recent days. "The explosions and the clashes are threatening the dam, and we ask for all sides to distance themselves from it," said Ismail Jassem, an engineer from the SDF-controlled Tishreen Dam in neighbouring Aleppo province.
"The water levels are acceptable now. We came to open up one of the gates to relieve the pressure," he told AFP. The SDF launched its offensive for Raqa city in November, seizing around two thirds of the surrounding province, according to the Britain-based Observatory. At their closest point, the forces are just eight kilometres (five miles) from Raqa city, to the northeast. But they are mostly further away, between 18 and 29 kilometres from Raqa. The Observatory, which relies on a network of source on the ground in Syria, said IS had deployed around 900 fighters from Raqa city to various fronts in the wider province. "Fighting is raging on every front around the city of Raqa, accompanied by non-stop air strikes," Abdel Rahman said. Syria's conflict began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 but has turned into a brutal war pitting government forces, jihadists, rebels, and Kurds against each other. UN-mediated talks between government and rebel representatives continued Tuesday in Geneva, aimed at bringing an end to the war that has killed 320,000 people.

Arab Leaders Set to Oppose Trump Mideast Policy Shifts
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/A draft statement to be put to an Arab summit Wednesday opposes plans by President Donald Trump to move Washington's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and consider alternatives to a Palestinian state. The draft, which was drawn up by the Palestinian delegation, was approved by Arab foreign ministers at an eve-of-summit meeting in the Jordanian Dead Sea resort of Sweimeh. Arab League member states "reaffirm their commitment to the two-state solution and to the right of the State of Palestine to restore its sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem," the draft says. It calls on "all countries to respect U.N. Security Council resolutions that reject Israel's annexation of occupied east Jerusalem" and "not to move their embassies" from Tel Aviv to the Holy City. Since taking office in January, Trump has indicated he is willing to break with decades of U.S. policy by moving the embassy and being open to a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if both sides agree it. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to join other Arab leaders at Wednesday's summit. Next month, he heads to the White House for his first meeting with Trump.

No Peace Deal in Syria without U.S. Role, Says Opposition
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/A political deal to end the Syrian conflict is not possible without a strong U.S. role, the opposition's chief negotiator told AFP, warning that Washington's absence was threatening ongoing peace talks. Lead negotiator for the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), Mohamad Sabra, said in an interview late Monday that the U.N.-backed talks in Geneva remained "stalled". "There can be no real and viable political solution without the presence of the Americans," he said. The United States has a "moral duty" to throw its weight behind efforts to end the six-year conflict, he added. Years of diplomatic initiatives have failed to end the war, which has killed more than 320,000 people and displaced millions since it started in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar Assad's regime. Washington has long been the biggest backer of the Syrian opposition, but it appears to be putting far less diplomatic muscle towards the rebel cause since President Donald Trump came to power in January. Two U.N.-backed taskforces co-chaired by the United States and Russia and aimed at securing ceasefires and access for humanitarian aid in Syria seem to be having less impact. At the same time, regime supporters Russia and Iran along with rebel-backer Turkey have been pushing separate negotiations in Astana since January after gains on the ground by Damascus turned the tables in the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin was on Tuesday set to host his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani for talks that are being closely watched for signs of their next moves in Syria. Closer cooperation between the two Syrian regime supporters will likely go even further in marginalizing U.S. influence in the peace process.
'No partner'
While urging Washington to be more fully engaged in the peace process, Sabra warned that a deal would be impossible "if the Russians do not withdraw their (military) support for the regime."Russia's entry into the conflict in September 2015 -- when it began launching air strikes to shore up Assad's forces -- played a significant role in turning the tide for the Syrian regime. The HNC delegation was expected to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Genady Gatilov on Wednesday, after he met with the government delegation on Tuesday. In the interview, Sabra also reiterated the HNC's often-repeated claim that the Syrian government delegation, headed by the country's ambassador to the U.N. Bashar Jaafari, was "not seriously involved" in the talks. "Until now, we don't have a partner in these negotiations," he insisted. His comments came amid a fifth round of negotiations in Geneva being mediated by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura which have remained clouded by persistent violence on the ground and deadlock over the country's political future. The government has ruled out discussing Assad's possible departure, while the HNC says it will refuse any deal that leaves him in power. Sabra insisted that "once the transitional government is formed," Assad's regime would end, and he "and his clique will be referred to a fair trial" for their crimes.

White House Says Egypt's Sisi to Visit April 3
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/The White House announced Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will make an "official visit" to Washington on April 3, ending years in which the Egyptian president had been kept at arm's length amid rights concerns. "President Trump and President al-Sisi will use the visit to build on the positive momentum they have built for the United States-Egypt relationship," the White House said in a statement Tuesday. Sisi's visit to Washington would be the first to the White House since the former army chief became president in 2014. His relations with former president Barack Obama's administration were strained by Sisi's role in ousting then-president Mohamed Morsi. In response, the U.S. had briefly suspended $1.3 billion in military aid, which was fully reinstated in 2015. From the outset, Trump has shown more willingness to engage the former general, despite repeated reports of human rights violations under his rule. He met the Egyptian leader in September, and Sisi was reportedly the first to call Trump to offer his congratulations on his November election win.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews Protest against Israel Military Service
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets of Jerusalem on Tuesday to protest against compulsory military service at a time of increased tensions between them and Israeli authorities. The protesters dressed in the dark suits and hats typical of the ultra-Orthodox community held signs, including those saying "the state of Israel persecutes Jews."Rabbis addressed the crowd, sometimes in Yiddish, while police deployed heavily in the area. "It's better to be shot than to go in the army," said one of the protesters, Aaron Roth, 45 and with a long, dark beard.
The protest was organized by particularly hardline ultra-Orthodox who completely reject the Israeli state. Military service, two years and eight months for men and two years for women, is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis. Ultra-Orthodox Jews represent about 10 percent of the Israeli population and live in compliance with a strict interpretation of Jewish laws. Some of them view military service as a source of temptation for young people who then leave the closed world of prayer and religious study. The ultra-Orthodox are exempt if studying in yeshiva religious schools, though the issue is controversial with secular Israelis and attempts have been made to remove the exemption. Regardless, they must register at the recruitment office but some, inspired by rabbis hostile to any cooperation with the Israeli authorities, refuse to and are considered deserters. Last month there were major protests in ultra-Orthodox areas across Israel, with more than 30 people arrested. There were also fresh tensions on Monday, when police arrested 22 ultra-Orthodox suspected sex offenders whose alleged crimes were known to their insular communities but concealed from the authorities. Less hardline ultra-Orthodox Jews participate in Israeli politics and wield significant influence. Ultra-Orthodox politicians have often acted as kingmakers in Israeli politics, and a number of them currently form part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition.

U.S.-Led Coalition 'Probably' Had Role in Mosul Civilian Casualties
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/The U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition said Tuesday it "probably" played a role in civilian casualties in west Mosul, as the U.N. and Amnesty International called for greater efforts to protect civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are still inside west Mosul, caught up in deadly fighting between the Islamic State group and Iraqi forces who are backed by coalition air strikes in the battle to retake the area from the jihadists. West Mosul is both smaller and more densely populated than the city's east, meaning that this stage of the battle poses a greater danger to civilians than those that came before. "We probably had a role in those casualties," Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commander of the U.S.-led operation against IS, told reporters in a phone briefing from Baghdad, referring to civilians killed and wounded by aerial bombing in west Mosul. "If those innocents were killed, it was an unintentional accident of war," he said. The coalition had previously said it carried out a strike on March 17 in an area of west Mosul in which civilian casualties were reported, and that it had opened an investigation. Iraq is also investigating civilian deaths in west Mosul, but has sought to place the blame on IS. U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said Tuesday that more than 300 civilians have been killed in west Mosul since February 17. IS has targeted civilians and used them as human shields, while strikes by anti-IS forces have also left civilians dead.
U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called on Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces "to undertake an urgent review of tactics to ensure that the impact on civilians is reduced to an absolute minimum."IS's "strategy of using children, men and women to shield themselves from attack is cowardly and disgraceful. It breaches the most basic standards of human dignity and morality," he said. Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said field research in east Mosul -- which was recaptured from IS in January -- showed "an alarming pattern of U.S.-led coalition air strikes which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside."
Jihadists deployed among civilians
"The high civilian toll suggests that coalition forces... have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," she said. In the east, the Iraqi forces adopted a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay at home, dropping leaflets into the city with safety instructions for residents. "The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area, indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties," Rovera said. Amnesty quoted Waad Ahmad al-Tai, an east Mosul resident, as saying six members of his extended family -- including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter -- were killed after they followed government advice not to flee the city. "We heard these instructions on the radio... Also leaflets were dropped by planes. This is why we stayed in our homes," he said.Amnesty said that, in many cases it investigated, east Mosul residents said IS fighters had been present in or near houses targeted in the strikes. In one case, five members of a family and their neighbor were killed in a raid on a house where IS fighters were hiding but the jihadists survived that attack, Amnesty quoted survivors as saying. That pattern has also been repeated in west Mosul, according to witnesses. Two witnesses who have now fled the city said that a building with around 170 people inside was destroyed in the Mosul al-Jadida area. One of them said that IS snipers had fired on Iraqi forces, after which an aircraft targeted them with a missile. Another man said that IS placed snipers atop a house where he was residing with more than 20 relatives. He was told that an air strike hit the house, an attack he survived because he was away at the time. More than 200,000 civilians have fled west Mosul since the battle for the area began, according to Iraqi authorities.

Amnesty Says Coalition Falling Short in Protecting Mosul Civilians
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/Amnesty International said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition was not doing enough to protect civilians in the battle to retake Iraq's Mosul with cases of entire families killed in their homes. Iraqi authorities launched the battle to retake the second city from the Islamic State group in October with support from coalition air strikes, recapturing its eastern side from the jihadists in January. Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said field research in east Mosul showed "an alarming pattern of U.S.-led coalition air strikes which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside." "The high civilian toll suggests that coalition forces... have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," she said. In the east, the Iraqi forces adopted a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay at home, dropping leaflets into the city with safety instructions for residents. "The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area, indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties," Rovera said. Amnesty quoted Waad Ahmad al-Tai, an east Mosul resident, as saying six members of his extended family -- including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter -- were killed after they followed government advice not to flee the city. "We heard these instructions on the radio... Also leaflets were dropped by planes. This is why we stayed in our homes," he said. Amnesty said that, in many cases it investigated, east Mosul residents said IS fighters had been present in or near houses targeted in the strikes. In one case, five members of a family and their neighbor were killed in a raid on a house where IS fighters were hiding but the jihadists survived that attack, Amnesty quoted survivors as saying. Rovera said the jihadist group's use of human shields amounted to a war crime, but "does not absolve Iraqi and coalition forces from their obligation not to launch disproportionate attacks."Iraqi forces have been fighting to recapture west Mosul since last month, where the United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people have remained. The United Nations said Tuesday more than 300 civilians have been killed since mid-February. The coalition has said it is investigating the recent killing of large numbers of civilians in air raids on the western district of Mosul al-Jadida.
On Sunday, the top commander for U.S. military forces in the Middle East said they would investigate the incident and "continue to take extraordinary measures to avoid harming civilians." Iraq is also probing the deadly air strikes in Mosul al-Jadida, where the number of victims is said to range from dozens to hundreds. More than 200,000 civilians have fled west Mosul in the past month, according to Iraqi authorities.

U.N. Experts Slam UAE over Arrest of Award-Winning Activist
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 28/17/U.N. experts warned Tuesday that the United Arab Emirates' arrest of an award-winning rights activist violated international law, and demanded his immediate release. UAE authorities ordered the arrest of Ahmed Mansoor just over a week ago, accusing him of using social media platforms to "sow sedition, sectarianism and hatred," according to the official WAM news agency. The U.N. working groups on arbitrary detention and on enforced disappearances, along with the U.N.'s top experts on human rights defenders, freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly and association, disputed that there were any legitimate grounds for the arrest. "We regard Mr. Mansoor's arrest and detention as a direct attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE," they said in a statement. They warned that his arrest on March 20 and detention in an unknown location since then "may constitute an act of reprisal" for his work with U.N. human rights bodies, for his statements on social media and for being an active member and supporter of rights organizations like Human Rights Watch. They also cautioned that "the fact that Mr. Mansoor is being held in an unknown location puts him at serious risk of ill-treatment and torture.""The lack of an arrest warrant or any judicial oversight of his arrest and detention represents a breach of fundamental principles of due process under international human rights law," they said. The experts called on the UAE authorities to halt all "harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders" and to respect the right to freedom of expression, including on social media. Mansoor, a 47-year-old father of four, won the 2015 Martin Ennals award, often dubbed the Nobel prize for human rights, for his efforts to introduce greater political and civil rights in the UAE.The award was named after the former secretary general of Amnesty International, and is given to human rights defenders who show deep commitment to their cause despite huge personal risk.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published On March 28-29/17
High hopes of Arab summit OK for Israel peace step
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 28, 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=53768
If the Arab summit opening in Amman Wednesday, March 9 meets the expectations of Washington and Jerusalem, the session will ratify a pivotal initiative for promoting an historic peace process between the Arab world and Israel. This effort, which matured through five months of mostly secret diplomacy, was launched by Donald Trump in November, shortly after he was elected US President.
The official Arab summit agenda covers the disastrous war crises preying on the Arab world in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, as well as economic issues. But the rulers will also quietly discuss off-stage a proposal brought by Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi to embark on steps destined to lead to peaceful relations between the moderate Arab regimes and Israel and exponentially to a resolution of the Israeli-P\alestinian conflict.
debkafile’s sources in Washington and Jerusalem report exclusively that President Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman crafted this proposal at the White House on March 14, during the prince’s trip to Washington. It was the high point of their talks, although they also aired and reached agreement on the war crises in Syria and Yemen, as well as America’s next steps against Iran on both those fronts and in the Gulf region.
President Trump arranged a dinner in honor of the Saudi king’s son that was attended by Vice President Mike Pence, the White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the president’s strategic adviser Steve Bannon and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Some of the steps decided on during Prince Mohammed’s visit have since gone into effect, with the arrival of US military forces in Syria and the Yemeni arena.
In the course of their conversation, Prince Mohammed informed Trump that his father, King Salman, had agreed on the need for the first time to amend the original 2002 Saudi peace proposal which the Arab summit ratified unchanged in 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has often said he would accept the Saudi peace plan with updated amendments. Prince Muhammad added that the United Arab Emirates de facto ruler Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and the Egyptian president had responded affirmatively to the king’s request to underwrite the proposal.
The text they agreed at this White House encounter calls for three steps to be launched without delay for promoting progress towards a historic accommodation between the Arab world and the Jewish state.
Those steps are revealed for the first time in an exclusive report appearing in the next DEBKA Weekly issue (for subscribers) out this coming Friday, March 31. If you are not yet a subscriber to this premium publication, you may click here to sign on.
debkafile also discloses here that the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas furiously rejected the Saudi peace initiative when it was presented to him in Cairo by President El-Sisi in Cairo on March 20.
In Jerusalem, our sources add that the prime minister is allowing a coalition crisis threatening his government to linger unresolved until he learns whether the Arab summit has confirmed the Saudi-Egyptian-UAE initiative in the face of predictable opposition. With this epic success in hand, Netanyahu expects his government to sail through the fracas to safety.

US Lawmakers back measures to protect Israel by punishing Iran
Ynetnews/Associated Press/March 28/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=53771
In order to prove their commitment to Israel, senior US lawmakers are seeking to build consensus among Republicans and Democrats to back legislation that would slap Iran with new sanctions during the annual AIPAC conference.
Aiming to prove their commitment to Israel, senior US lawmakers are backing bipartisan legislation that would slap Iran with new sanctions while maintaining rigorous enforcement of the landmark nuclear deal.
The measures, unveiled at the opening of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, seek to build consensus among Republicans and Democrats who are so often bitterly at odds on domestic issues. The AIPAC meeting continues Tuesday with appearances by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
During Monday's session, House Speaker Paul Ryan declared the US commitment to Israel "sacrosanct." But Ryan also derided the nuclear deal an "unmitigated disaster" that gives Iran "a patient pathway to a nuclear weapons capability."
In exchange for Tehran rolling back its nuclear program, the US and other world powers agreed to suspend wide-ranging oil, trade and financial sanctions that had choked the Iranian economy.
The House bill, which is co-sponsored by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, targets Iran's "illicit" ballistic missile development program. The measure would shut out of the international financial system Iranian and foreign companies involved in the missile program—along with the banks that back them.
The Senate legislation imposes mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure also would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.
The measure is supported by Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat.
"To combat these threats, we must harness every instrument of American power," Ryan said. "We must work with our allies—and Israel in particular—to counter this aggression at every turn."
In the opening days of the conference, Israeli leaders hoping Trump would be a rubber stamp for the Jewish state heard plenty of reassuring rhetoric. Missing from the agenda so far, however, were concrete steps advancing the Israeli government's top priorities.
The Iran nuclear deal, so despised by Israel and congressional Republicans, is solidly in place. The US Embassy is no closer to moving to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government wants. And as it has under past presidents, Washington is still telling Israel to slow settlement construction.
It is making for an unusual AIPAC conference, one relieved of the strains that marked the last years of President Barack Obama's tenure, but also filled with significant uncertainty.
Netanyahu on Monday called the US-Israeli relationship "stronger than ever."
His ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, said a day earlier that for the first time in years or even decades, "there is no daylight between our two governments."
Vice President Mike Pence said he and Trump "stand without apology for Israel and we always will."
But it's too early to tell whether Trump will ultimately fulfill Israel's wishes. And there are indications he's reconsidering several stances adopted during the campaign.
As a candidate, Trump repeatedly vowed to be the president to finally relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem, which is Israel's capital. As Pence said Sunday, that unequivocal promise has morphed into Trump now "giving serious consideration to moving the American embassy."
While candidate Trump said he'd renegotiate or dismantle the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel fiercely opposes, President Trump's administration is continuing to implement the accord while examining whether it should stand.
On Iran's missile program, however, Trump has expanded US sanctions. The administration last month responded to a missile test by hitting 25 people and entities with sanctions. But backers of the new legislation want the president to go further.

The Broken-wing Summit
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 28/17
This is the Middle East: Arabs, Persians, Turks and Kurds. But let’s put history aside to avoid the trap and analyze the present. By looking at the region’s map we realize that all wars are happening on Arab land that is being exploited by terrorists and militias, and is suffering from international meddling and sectarian conflict.
These are no exaggerations. Millions of old and new refugees are Arabs. Millions of displaced inside their countries are Arabs. So are the nations spread in camps that await aid.
Failed states in the region are Arab countries. The feeble countries that look like they have just come out of World War 2 are Arab as well. Millions of students who were deprived from schools are Arabs. The case is no different when it comes to wasted countries, fortunes and years.
These are no exaggerations. Persians are residing in their country that is trying to change contours of some neighboring countries. It is leading proxy wars and moving its militias to snatch their leaderships in the region.
Kurds who have always complained of historic and geographic injustice are now in a better condition for having a legitimate (Kurdistan) region on Iraqi territories and an army – which Americans and Russians are seeking to bring to their side – on Syrian territories.
In the region, only Arabs have a broken-wing.
Jordan seems as the ideal place to hold the post-catastrophes summit. This limited-resources country has received Palestinian refugees whose land was occupied by the Israelis. Later on, Jordan welcomed refugees from Iraq after the US invasion. It is also enduring the burden of Syrian refugees who are gazing from Jordan at the fire raging in their country.
Arab leaders know well the meaning of the Arab broken-wing in the region. Terrors can be seen by the naked idea and the summit is being held on a demarcation line. Israeli occupation is a monster that never sleeps. On the other fronts, there are many arms, militias, jets, interventions and flags.
Russia that has changed the war path in Syria is not distant from the summit as well as the US that is present in Mosul and Raqqa. There is only one candle in this darkness: ISIS defeat has begun.
The summit does not have a magic wand to treat critical diseases but it can send a message to reveal that Arabs are aware of the importance of regaining their voice and right in tackling their security, safety and rights. They also know they have the right to refuse the exploitation of Arab land through interferences, and to have a normal life like the rest of the region’s states.
The summit in Amman, in the best case, will succeed to remind Arabs that they can meet and reiterate some of their old principles. This has a major significance amid a new US administration and a major role played by Russia in the region.
In this context, the summit seeks returning the Palestinian cause as a top priority to urge Arabs to act against the Trump administration and to rescue the two-state solution that is being targeted daily by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On the Syrian file, the summit will highlight the political solution, legitimate international resolutions and the support for the Geneva process. However, an expert will realize a rising Arab tend to be more realistic and to accept the “Russian Syria” if this guarantees an upset to the plans of an “Iranian Syria”.
The summit is expected to focus again on rejecting Iranian meddling in Arab affairs and attempts to shake stability.
It would be beneficial if the summit sends a message to the key players that Arabs can be united on major issues that cause concern. It would also be beneficial to transform the summit into an opportunity on refreshing some inter-Arab relations that had relapsed. Fixing Arab ties needs a sense of reality, transparency and an agreement on long-term interests. Arabs need an exceptional decision to restore their position in the region. This will not happen unless they take a historic decision to rescue their countries from failure, dissociation and stagnation. Consensual political formulas are not sufficient – it is also necessary to carry out a thorough revision of economic options because terrorism feeds on the poor, the unemployed and the hopeless.
The condition of the broken-wing Arabs needs a summit and a decision as serious as the threats. Arabs have the right to be equivalent to the Iranians and Turks. They should either take decisions or they will end up complaining over injustice just like the Kurds.

Jordan between Two Summits
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 28/17
The Jordanian capital turned into a center of regional activity, starting with the Saudi-Jordanian summit on Monday after the arrival of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to Amman, which will be followed by the Arab League Summit that will be held on Wednesday in the Dead Sea area.
These are two important political events linked to the complicated and dangerous regional issues.
If you ask Jordan’s neighbors about their opinion on this country, the answer will mostly be the same: Jordan is the most capable country in tolerating crises and dealing with them.
Since the Palestinian refugee crisis, the fall of the West Bank, Iraq’s multiple wars and the disasters of the Arab Spring revolutions, Jordan had always been a country capable of handling upheaval.
The Hashemite Kingdom has had an alliance with Saudi Arabia for a long time now. For Saudi Arabia, Jordan has been a key regional ally since the 1960s, ever since the first war of Yemen. It has carried out significant roles while confronting dangerous crises in Iraq and Syria. Both kingdoms have carefully dealt with crises and addressed them in a realistic and calm manner.
The new aspect of relations between Riyadh and Amman is the efforts to establish a formula for long-term economic cooperation, which is not governed by support and aid.
Politically, Saudi Arabia has been very active, for months now, in weaving a network of regional and international relations. It included King Salman’s tour of the Far East where he visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and China.
After coordinating Saudi and Jordanian positions, the Arab League annual summit will be held amid difficult circumstances with four major regional wars raging in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.
Reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may attend the conference have been dismissed as rumors.
All sides have admitted however that they are surprised that he has been capable of remaining in power after six years of a massive revolution against his regime. Assad’s return to the Arab fold may be possible if he can get rid of his Iranian ally on the ground and not just by making pledges for the future.
Yet, this is unlikely because his forces are weak and Iranians control important aspects of the Syrian state through claims that they are supporting it.
At the same time, everyone is shocked by the Syrian rebels’ ability to go on with their war against Assad despite the siege imposed on them, the millions of deaths and displaced, and the failure of regional and international powers in supporting them.
In Syria, the regime and opposition both exist and no one expects a magical solution from the Russian negotiator or UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, whose attendance of the Dead Sea Arab League Summit will be his last major appearance.
Iran must be at the top of the agenda of the Arab leaders’ discussions. Tehran is close to the leaders, breathing the same air, and they can almost feel it with its strong military presence in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
There is a growing feeling at the Arab League that Iran is a threat to everyone, not just to Gulf countries, as it was thought in the past.

Islamism's Culture War Sets Sight on Multi-Billion Dollar Beauty Industry
Shireen Qudosi/Gatestone Institute/March 28/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10121/islamism-beauty-industry
The long game of Western Muslims averse to Western values, was largely unaffected by an altered political landscape as they transitioned to a new arena: culture.
"[F]ashion is one of the outlets in which we can start that cultural shift in today's society to normalize the hijab in America." — Melanie Elturk, CEO of Haute Hijab.
Beautiful Nura Afia in an advertising campaign is a far more appealing and consumer-friendly alternative to CAIR's Nihad Awad or the political complexities of the Muslim Brotherhood. The face has changed but the message is constant.
Here you have the two faces of Islamist thought, one which underscores the myth of peace while privately exiling dissenting voices as ignorant, racist or bigoted. Meanwhile, CoverGirl and other brands upholding the hijab as a new standard of beauty, ignore the hijab's very ugly origins.
As 2016 drew to a close, many people were on the edge of their seats after a defining presidential election between one choice (Clinton) who stood for the status quo and the other (Trump), seen as the harbinger of a resolute victory against radical Islam. For many Muslims, there was a third choice. Unanchored to the changing tides of elections, the long game of Western Muslims who are averse to Western values was largely unaffected by an altered political landscape. They had transitioned to a new arena: culture.
In 2016, the élite fashion label Dolce and Gabbana launched an "Abaya and Hijab Collection." Months later, at New York Fashion Week, a sartorial Mecca, hosted the first catwalk spotlighting models fully donned in hijabs.
Islamist influence is now using Western culture to solidify Islamist values in society's more coveted circles: fashion and beauty.
Left: Marks & Spencer's Paisley Print Burkini. Right: An outfit from the Dolce & Gabbana Abaya and Hijab Collection.
Melanie Elturk, CEO of Haute Hijab, a leading U.S. hijab brand, openly shared a widely held belief that "fashion is one of the outlets in which we can start that cultural shift in today's society to normalize the hijab in America."
Later in the year, CoverGirl, a popular affordable makeup line, announced Muslim beauty blogger Nura Afia as its newest "brand ambassador." A 23-year-old wife and mother, Afia hosts a YouTube channel, with over 200,000 subscribers, for hijab and makeup tutorials. She now stands with celebrities such as CoverGirl's first male makeup model, James Charles; Modern Family star Sofia Vergara and pop singer Katy Perry in a campaign that highlights brands of makeup targeted at customers who applaud surface "diversity" and "equality."
Posing together for a CoverGirl campaign aimed at portraying "diversity" were a male makeup model, a "hijabi," a Latina TV star and a pop singer. It is a visual tableau trying to appeal to an audience that prizes "diversity" -- one that sees "equality" based entirely on appearance rather than values or intrinsic worth. Rather than inquire into the marketplace of ideas that explores identity, faith and American values, we now have advertising campaigns that homogenize competing ideas into the funnel of multiculturalism. In this instance, a noted pop singer and a TV star are used as gateways to usher in the hijab as normal and perhaps even coveted.
Beauty and fashion industries in particular offer a mold in which intellectual discourse and cultural commentary is cast aside for opinion. That opinion is then shaped, packaged, and pushed as a product onto a population group already pliable to messaging. With CoverGirl's newest "brand ambassador," Nura Afia, the message echoes the mantra of hardline Islamist groups who have, since the presidential election, lost much of their political ground. Lost ground is now regained in new spheres through personalities such as Afia, without any association with political parties.
Beautiful Nura Afia in an advertising campaign is a far more appealing and consumer-friendly alternative to CAIR's Nihad Awad or the political complexities of the Muslim Brotherhood. The face has changed but the message has not.
In an earlier Refinery29 interview, Afia had this message to share:
"Islam is such a beautiful religion. It's peaceful and everyone else twists it, even within our own faith. Just from looking at social media, [I see] Muslims bash Muslims, so if that's happening I can't believe that we expect non-Muslims not to do the same. It's just how humans are, I guess. It has nothing to do with religion."
Yet, in a Facebook post just a month prior, Afia also shared this:
"If you find yourself no longer my friend on FB it's because you either shared or posted some straight up ignorant, racist, or bigoted [expletive]."
Here you have the two faces of Islamist thought. The PR-friendly face of Islamist thought underscores the myth of peace, while on the other hand Islamism exiles dissenting voices as ignorant, racist or bigoted.
Meanwhile, CoverGirl and other brands uphold the hijab as a new standard of beauty, ignore the hijab's extremely ugly origins. A handful of Islamic scholars believe the practice of hijab grew out of exclusionary practices designed to draw a distinction between "believing" women (Muslims) and "non-believing" women (non-Muslims). Islamic culture embraces piety through veiling the body of Muslim women, while at the same time it strips non-Muslim women of their dignity by seeing them as property and spoils of war to be parceled and consumed -- a practice allowed by the faith.
The origin of the hijab tradition in Islam likely pre-dates the Quran, and comes from early Islamic society. The Quran, a book that outlines civilian and military life to the most granular detail, does not offer any doctrine that specifically dictates covering the hair. The Quranic verse (33:59) believed to mandate the hijab states:
"O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful."
The practice of covering the hair grew from a slave-owning society. Speaking on Surah 33:59-60, which advises believing women to cover their bodies, Professor Barlas circulates a widely-shared view among academics:
"These are rather straightforward verses: if Muslim women don an outer garment (jil-bab), non-Muslim men will recognize them as such and not harass them. In early slave-owning societies, like Arabia, the 'law of the veil' set apart free women from slaves and therefore women who were off-limits from those who 'were fair game' (Lerner in Ahmed 1992:15). This was the society in which the first Muslim community took shape and it seems to have been under siege at the time."
Professor Barlas's assessment is debated by some Islamic scholars based on what they say is insufficient evidence; other Islamic scholars, including Professor Khaleel Mohammed, argue that the claim has merit.
The larger point is this: slavery at the time was a standard practice. It thrived culturally through acts of social and religious demarcations, such as the hijab, which became to many Muslims a sign of class supremacy, whereas women who were not veiled have been, and continue to be, harassed and attacked[1]:
"Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed..." (Surah 70, Verse 30, Al-Ma'aarej, Sahih International)
Islam, to its credit, introduced many incentives to shift away from a slave-owning society, by making it simple to free slaves. According to Hadith (Sahih Bukhari Vol 3, Book 46, Number 693), for example, Muslims are rewarded in the afterlife for the act of freeing a slave; freeing the body of a slave is like freeing one's own body from hellfire. Still, while Islam did not initiate slavery and while it did create pathways to move out of the practice, the faith never championed the right of all people to be free.
This failure is largely responsible for present-day slavery in Mauritania, a country to which devout Muslims flock to study Islam in an environment free from Western influence. This failure has also continued to permit rapes. These take place not only during wars from Sudan to Syria and the horrifying present day open enslavement of Yazidi women and children by ISIS and at international slave auctions in neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia, bit also it seems, by various migrants to Europe.
It is then a fantastic stretch of the imagination when brands such as CoverGirl try to have consumers associate "equality" and "diversity" with hijabs and make-up. It also does not mirror the "Islam of peace" that many Muslims try to emphasize.
These deeper conversations are lost when the market through which Afia reaches out is largely uninterested in history, facts or any other evidence that prompts inquiry or reflection.
For Islamists, Afia and CoverGirl make excellent proxies in the push for normalizing the rigidity in the system of Islam by making it "chic to celebrate oppression." Contrary to modern-day fantasies of the hijab "breaking barriers," the hijab historically was used as a social barrier.
Normalizing the hijab reinforces the message that if you are not covered, you are not respectable and therefore not acceptable. That is the underbelly of Islamic culture: it controls thought and movement before attempting to corral other women into submission under the spoon-fed illusion of "diversity" and "equality."
**Shireen Qudosi, Director of Muslim Matters, at America Matters, is an American Muslim raised on three continents. She is writing her first book, Islam's Origin Story.
[1] The Islamic scholar Dr. Tawfik Hamid also wrote a compelling piece, "Hijab, Even American Flag Hijab, Supports Historical Slave System." Relying on multiple Islamic sources as evidence, Dr. Hamid exposes how the "hijab is a dress code in Islam that was designed to distinguish 'free' from 'slave' women." Other modern Islamic thinkers, such as Asra Nomani and Hala Arafa add that Surah 33:59 wasn't instruction to add a new layer of fabric, but to draw closer the jilbab (a long, overflowing gown) that was common at the time. Nomani and Arafa also cite the eight times "hijab" or its variation has appeared in the Quran; each time it was not in reference to piety but to draw distinction and barriers between two things:
The word hijab, or a derivative, appears only eight times in the Quran as an "obstacle" or "wall of separation" (7:46), a "curtain" (33:53), "hidden" (38:32), just a "wall of separation" (41:5, 42:52, 17:45), "hiding" (19:14) and "prevented" or "denied access to God" (83:15)."
Multiple references, both primary and secondary sources, point back to the hijab's origin as not an act of piety, but an act of supremacy and distinction that made it easier for a slave system to thrive.
© 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.

White Liberals Attack Brown Islamic Dissidents
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/March 28/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9356/white-liberals-brown-dissidents
"[A] section of the Western left has adopted the ideology of the Salafists, Khomeinists and Islamists. It supports their blasphemy codes, and apologias for murder." — Nick Cohen, The Spectator.
"Thus the defenders of liberty are styled as fascists, while the fanatics are portrayed as victims!" — Pascal Bruckner, Perlentaucher.
"It is putting bounties on the heads of Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who are opposed to Muslim extremism (...) The document is simply an enemies' list, of the kind that fascists, Stalinists, and other totalitarian thinkers can't help producing." — Lee Smith, Tablet.
"Is the concept of holy war compatible with our ideal of religious toleration? Is it blasphemy—punishable by death—to question the applicability of certain seventh-century doctrines to our own era?" — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wall Street Journal.
Most of the solidarity to French cartoonists under threat has come from even braver -- but ostracized -- Muslim intellectuals.
At the time of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the literary "Left" stood with the Muslim "anger", not with the persecuted writer -- while all around, translators and publishers were being killed and wounded by the Iranian murderers.
In the global struggle for the confrontation of ideas between the West and political Islam, too often the Western values are represented by Muslim dissidents and downplayed by the liberals who should be safeguarding them. It is an unpleasant spectacle.
"The current situation in Europe is deeply troubling: not only are Muslim women within Europe subject to considerable oppression in many ways, such norms now risk spreading to non-Muslim women who face harassment from Muslim men. One would think that Western feminists in the United States and Europe would be very disturbed by this obvious misogyny. But sadly, with few exceptions, this does not appear to be the case". — Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The French daily Le Figaro captured the tragic condition of Muslim dissidents: "Seen as 'traitors' by their communities, they are accused by the elites in the West of 'stigmatizing'".
Le Point called it "the malediction of the dissident": "For the European left, a bright danger threatens humanity. This is not terrorism or religious fundamentalism. But dissident intellectuals in the Muslim world".
This is the meaning of a recent list of fifteen "anti-Islamic extremists," published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Among them are, for example, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch parliament and the most famous dissident from Islamic world, and Maajid Nawaz, a British Muslim who founded the Quilliam Foundation to fight radicalism, and who has been a consultant to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has attacked principled and courageous critics of radical Islamism such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali (left), a prominent ex-Muslim writer, and Maajid Nawaz (right), a moderate practising Muslim writer, radio host and politician. (Images source: Wikimedia Commons)
Nick Cohen, in The Spectator, explained:
"in the liberal orientalist world view the only 'authentic' Muslim is a barbarian. A battery of insults fires on any Muslim who says otherwise. They are 'neo-conservatives,' 'native informants,' and 'Zionists': they are as extreme as jihadists they oppose, or, let's face it, worse..."
In short, according with Cohen, "a section of the Western left has adopted the ideology of the Salafists, Khomeinists and Islamists. It supports their blasphemy codes, and apologias for murder".
The Wall Street Journal, in an unsigned editorial, attacked the report of the Southern Poverty Law Center: that "as if facing down violent Islamist fanatics isn't enough, Muslim reformers now have to dodge attacks from the American left".
Lee Smith, in Tablet, noted:
"Yet now, the SPLC is putting bounties on the heads of Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who are opposed to Muslim extremism... The document is simply an enemies' list, of the kind that fascists, Stalinists, and other totalitarian thinkers can't help producing".
Nick Cohen called it "the first fatwa of the white left". But it is not the first. That horrible document belongs to the long "flight of the intellectuals" denounced by Paul Berman: the abandonment of Enlightenment values in the face of threats to freedom of expression.
"It is time to extend our solidarity to all the rebels of the Islamic world, non-believers, atheist libertines, dissenters, sentinels of liberty, as we supported Eastern European dissidents in former times", French writer Pascal Bruckner said. Most of Western liberals are doing exactly the opposite. Not only are they refusing "to extend our solidarity" to these rebels; instead, they are actually targeting them.
The Director of the Middle East-Mediterranean chair at the Ecole Normale Superieure, and professor at Sciences-Po, Gilles Kepel , just published a book, Fracture, in which he blasts "the intellectuals paralyzed by postcolonial guilt" and the "blindness which leads them to minimize the jihadist risk". It is what Kepel in the book calls "Islamo-Leftism" ("Islamo-Gauchisme"), which currently targets Muslim dissidents to exclude them from the debate.
The debate reminds one that during the Cold War, when the Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the author of The Gulag Archipelago, was attacked by fellow writers such as Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Prize for Literature laureate and devout communist.
In 2006, a group of 12 writers put their names to a statement in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, warning against Islamic "totalitarianism". "After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global totalitarian threat: Islamism", read the appeal. "We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all". Among the 12 promoters, eight came from the Islamic world. Most of the solidarity to French cartoonists under threat has come from even braver -- but ostracized -- Muslim intellectuals. In the global struggle for the confrontation of ideas between the West and political Islam, too often the Western values are represented by Muslim dissidents and downplayed by the liberals who should be safeguarding them. It is an unpleasant spectacle.
And what was Islamo-Leftism doing? Busy targeting them. Timothy Garton Ash, a leftist opinion-maker, has asked how much the success of Ayaan Hirsi Ali depends on her beauty, and has defined her "an Enlightenment fundamentalist": "It's no disrespect to Ms. Ali to suggest that if she had been short, squat, and squinting, her story and views might not be so closely attended to".
Similar criticism against Hirsi Ali came from Ian Buruma, a Dutch "radical chic" journalist transplanted to Manhattan's Upper West Side. Ibn Warraq, another Muslim dissident isolated by the Left, attacked Buruma: "Disgraceful has been Buruma's vilification of human rights activists, especially his attacks on such heroic figures as Afshin Ellian and Ayaan Hirsi Ali". Buruma achieves his goals in a most insidious manner: hinting and insinuating.
In the German magazine, Perlentaucher, the French author Pascal Bruckner defended Hirsi Ali from the criticism of Buruma and Garton Ash:
"It's not enough that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has to live like a recluse, threatened with having her throat slit by radicals and surrounded by bodyguards. She -- like the French philosophy professor Robert Redeker who has also been issued death threats on Islamicist websites -- has to endure the ridicule of the high-minded idealists and armchair philosophers. She has even been called a Nazi in the Netherlands. Thus the defenders of liberty are styled as fascists, while the fanatics are portrayed as victims! ... It is her wilful, short-fused, enthusiastic, impervious side to which Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash object, in the spirit of the inquisitors who saw devil-possessed witches in every woman too flamboyant for their tastes".
Geert Mak, a Dutch historian, likened the film "Submission", written by Hirsi Ali, and which cost the life of the Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, to the Nazi propaganda film, "The Eternal Jew". According to Mak's "logic", Hirsi Ali "stigmatized" Muslims as Joseph Goebbels did Jews. Leon de Winter rightly attacked Mak's shameful comparison in a column for Volkskrant newspaper:
"If anything can be compared with the propaganda of Goebbels, these are the decapitation videos and anti-Semitic propaganda of Arab satellite stations in Amsterdam West. Mak turns the world upside down. Anne Frank has been abused enough".
The "Index on Censorship", in an article by the associate director of the magazine, Rohan Jayasekera, has painted Hirsi Ali as a silly girl who had allowed herself to be manipulated by a white man (van Gogh) in exploitative employment". The Index on Censorship was founded in 1972 by Stephen Spender in response to a plea from Soviet dissidents facing show trials in Moscow, on the principle that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that the international community has a duty to safeguard. What would people have said of his organization if it had blamed those Soviet writers instead of their persecutors?
Two years ago, Hirsi Ali was even uninvited from Brandeis University, one of the cradles of American academic liberalism that was supposed to celebrate her with an honorary degree. 85 of 350 professors at the Massachusetts university refused to host such a speaker on the Third World and Islam. If one reads what Hirsi Ali would have said on campus that day, the leftist fear of Hirsi Ali it is understandable:
"We need to make our universities temples not of dogmatic orthodoxy, but of truly critical thinking, where all ideas are welcome and where civil debate is encouraged.... I stand before you as someone who is fighting for women's and girls' basic rights globally. And I stand before you as someone who is not afraid to ask difficult questions about the role of religion in that fight. The connection between violence, particularly violence against women, and Islam is too clear to be ignored. We do no favors to students, faculty, nonbelievers and people of faith when we shut our eyes to this link, when we excuse rather than reflect. So I ask: Is the concept of holy war compatible with our ideal of religious toleration? Is it blasphemy — punishable by death — to question the applicability of certain seventh-century doctrines to our own era?"
Dissident ex-Muslims from the Islamic world, who have fled to the West to escape persecution and sectarianism, also see their hosts are "going soft" on their persecutors. A motion in the European Parliament to fund Hirsi Ali's U.S. security failed to reach a quorum of half the deputies in the 785-member body. She was "abandoned to the fanatics" in Europe's shameful capitulation to intimidation and threats.
Directors, actors, producers, writers, and film critics, who usually pontificate on everything and side with any minority, all stood silent when Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam and threats were made against his brave writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
In the last few months, we have seen many Western feminists, especially on the "left", standing in defense of burkini. The New York Times ran an article entitled: "At the beach with my burkini". It is the burkini and the veil, that have become symbols of human rights, and not Hirsi Ali and other Muslim feminists who fight against these religious symbols coerced on women. For many feminists and liberals, submission is demanded only by white male Christian westerners. All minorities, such as Islamic dissidents, who face this enemy are considered provocateurs. Submission of women in the Islamic world? Female mutilation such as that suffered by Hirsi Ali? Much better to rally against Dominique Strauss Khan, the French Socialist sexual predator. Hirsi Ali criticized the Western feminist silence:
"The current situation in Europe is deeply troubling: not only are Muslim women within Europe subject to considerable oppression in many ways, such norms now risk spreading to non-Muslim women who face harassment from Muslim men. One would think that Western feminists in the United States and Europe would be very disturbed by this obvious misogyny. But sadly, with few exceptions, this does not appear to be the case".
When mullahs in Iran placed a bounty of $2.8 million -- recently raised by an additional $600,000 -- on the head of a British citizen, the Muslim dissident, Salman Rushdie, for having written a novel, The Satanic Verses, a large part of London's literary "left" sided with the Ayatollah Khomeini rather than the persecuted writer. The feminist writer Germaine Greer called Rushdie a "megalomaniac, an Englishman with dark skin". Roald Dahl, the bestselling author of children's books, defined him a "dangerous opportunist". The king of the literary spy stories, John Le Carré, called Rushdie an "idiot". At the time of the fatwa, the literary "Left" stood with the Muslim "anger", not with the persecuted writer - while all around, translators and publishers were being killed and wounded by the Iranian murderers.
The Algerian writer, Kamel Daoud, in addition to the edicts of Islamic preachers in his country, had to face a far more sinuous menace in France a year ago. Daoud had the courage to break the taboo against criticizing Cologne's sexual attacks. According to Daoud, Europe welcomes immigrants with visas and material sustenance, but without addressing values. What Cologne showed, says Daoud, is how sex is "the greatest misery in the world of Allah".
First, twenty leftist academics launched an appeal in Le Monde, where Daoud was accused of a series of ideological crimes, such as "orientalist clichés", "essentialism", "psychologizing", "colonialist paternalism", which correspond, all together, to an accusation of "racism" and "Islamophobia". Then a book entitled "Kamel Daoud the Enquête Contre" -- signed by Ahmed Bensaada and with a preface of a French journalist, Jacques-Marie Bourget -- attacked "these intellectuals in North Africa, who are auxiliaries of the French neo-conservative thinkers" who need "the good negro", a "native alibi". Daoud was accused of being an instrument of "neo-colonialist thought".
"The process of Islamophobia against Kamel Daoud is worthy of the Stalinist era", wrote at Le Figaro political scientist Laurent Bouvet. In the weekly, Le Point Étienne Gernelle attacked "the fools of the regressive left". Rafik Chekkat called Daoud a "native informant", while Olivier Roy, an Islamic scholar, in an article accused Daoud of stigmatizing Muslims: "The machismo and sexual harassment exist all over the world, why isolating this phenomenon among Muslims, instead of trying to counteract all forms? Just because they are Muslims". A great number of articles in the French press attacked Daoud.
The same treatment was reserved for the deputy editor at the time of Italy's largest daily, Il Corriere della Sera, the Egyptian journalist Magdi Allam. He was targeted in an appeal signed by two hundred intellectuals, historians and writers, all belonging to the cultural milieu. Allam has also recently been attacked as a "racist" by the liberal Democratic Party in an Italian town which had wanted to honor him with the honorary citizenship:
"They imply that I have a prejudice against immigrants or Muslims and this corresponds to an offense because we speak of racism. I reminded them that I was a true Italian immigrant for reasons of study. They represent me as a terrorist but I am a victim of terrorism and of those who sow intolerance: I have been living under guard escort for 14 years".
This cowardly interdiction of Muslim liberal voices in the West went ahead with Maryam Namazie, another Islamic intellectual of Iranian origin, was "disinvited" from the University of Warwick, in England, because her lecture could "feed the Islamophobia". The left-wing press, led by The Guardian, supported the exclusion of Namazie:
"Does the withdrawal of an invitation really amount to censorship? Her words have not been banned, the state has not gagged her. Is Namazie's capacity to share her ideas diminished if she doesn't appear in front of 50-odd students? After all, she can still tweet and blog, as she showed over the weekend. If anything, the whole episode has increased her audience".
Duke University students tried to stop the talk of another Islamic dissident, Asra Nomani, author of "Standing Alone". In France, the book of the Egyptian writer, Hamed Abdel-Samad, was taken off the market because, according to the self-censoring publisher, Piranha, it would bring "water to the mill of the extreme right". A Muslim author denouncing "Islamic fascism" was repudiated by the fascist anti-fascist "leftists" because of false "Islamophobia" claims.
Self-righteous liberals love "moderate Islam" when it appears under the guise of Tariq Ramadan, whose goal has been summed up by Jacques Jomier: "His problem is not the modernization of Islam, but the Islamification of modernity". But the same liberals target as agents provocateurs those dissidents trying to modernize Islam. The fatwas of the white liberals hit hard as the violent ones of the Muslim extremists.
**Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
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In Interview On Iranian News Website Close To IRGC, Iraqi President 'Lauds Iran's Timely Support, Backs [IRGC Commander] Gen. Soleimani'
MEMRI/March 28/17
On February 12, 2017, the Iranian Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, published an "exclusive interview," datelined Baghdad and titled "Iraqi President Lauds Iran's Timely Support, Backs General Soleimani." In it, Iraqi President Fouad Masoum, according to the interview's introduction, "hailed Iran for the effectual supports it has provided for the Arab country in the fight against terrorism [and stressed] that Iranian [IRGC] commander General Qassem Soleimani is in Iraq as part of Baghdad's plans to get help from foreign military advisors."
Iraqi President Fouad Masoum in interview. Source: Tasnim, February 12, 2017
The following are excerpts from the article, in the original English:[1]
According to Tasnim, in the "exclusive interview," President Masoum "expressed his views on a range of issues, including the ties with Iran and the future of the Iraqi armed forces after an ultimate victory against Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group...
"Asked about his view on Tehran-Baghdad relations, the Iraqi president said the ties between the two neighbors 'have gone beyond ordinary political relations, and we have taken advantage of these ties to achieve our purposes. We have always gained benefits from ties with Tehran, either during our struggles against Saddam's dictatorship or after 2003.
"'We see no obstacle to Iraq becoming a major trade market for Iran, and as I said before, it is important for us to make use of Iran's economic capabilities and experience," Masoum pointed out...
"He further pointed to the plans to increase the efficiency of the Hashd Al-Shaabi forces (Popular Mobilization Units), arguing, 'Hashd Al-Shaabi forces should be given more attention. There are a number of forces that are not officially members of Hashd Al-Shaabi and are less committed to the law; this issue needs more attention. Hashd Al-Shaabi has been a basic force in the fight against terrorists and has served Iraq a lot, but at the same time, there needs to be a special military organization of its forces to prevent the membership of other people in its body, so that the image of its real forces would not be harmed. Without Hashd Al-Shaabi, Daesh could have reached Karbala and even Baghdad,' the president noted.
"Finally, Masoum hailed the prominent role of commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, saying, 'We have been in need of these (Iranian) supports and their (Iran's) capabilities and expertise, which have had an influential role in our victories in the war against Daesh. The presence of General Soleimani is also in line with plans for the presence of foreign military advisors in Iraq. The U.S. and other European countries have also military advisors in Iraq, so one cannot say that Iranian military advisors are not allowed in Iraq. This is a common issue in our view, and Iran has the same rights as the other countries.
"'The Iranian nation is a friend and brother nation. We have a lot in common with our brothers in Iran. Cultural commonalities and hundreds of kilometers of common border necessitate taking more important steps to strengthen Baghdad-Tehran relations,' he concluded."
[1] Tasnimnews.com, February 12, 2017. The original English has been very lightly edited for standardization.

Who turned the world into a military barricade?
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/March 28/17
A treacherous terror attack targeted the city of fog last week. This time the target was the British parliament, that old monument which dates back to the period between the 8th and 11th centuries AD. The oldest parliament in the world is considered a democratic council as Edward I (1272 AD) transformed it into an arena to discuss the British nation’s affairs. Khaled Masood, a man in his 50s, took to London’s streets attacking and stabbing people in city that took him in. Masood had been convicted of criminal damage and possession of weapons. He lived in the area of West Midlands. His neighbors nicknamed him “the vampire” as they only saw him at nighttime and he only wore black jackets. Masood was a lone wolf ISIS recruited. This is according to a statement by ISIS claiming the attack. The criminal was not conservative at all and was aggressive and fond of loud parties. Authorities think Masood acted alone like ISIS wolves who are either inspired to attack or attack after receiving instructions from the ISIS’ command in Raqqah. This is how the disaster unfolded. Contrary to its habit, London slept sad as this was the most violent attack in 12 years. What had targeted Belgium, France and Germany has unfortunately sneaked into London, the country of John Locke, Richard Darwin and Bertrand Russell. The birds of darkness betrayed it.
Gadget ban
Meanwhile, the American government banned travelers on certain flights bound for the US from carrying tablets and laptops in the main cabin and forced them to put them in checked baggage. This is in addition to examining all equipment they carry. The ban has been imposed on travelers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Morocco. An expressive caricature showed how travelers in the future will be boarding planes wearing clothes that barely cover them as the world is shrinking because of terrorism. Globalization patterns and breaking borders which dominated in theory during the 1990s have become part of history as this “shrinking” behavior has become a global characteristic. If someone holds Saudi Arabia accountable just because this criminal passed by the country, then let’s not forget that he grew up and lived in London for 50 years
The rise of the right-wing in Germany and France and the identity rhetoric in the US and Europe are only signs of a shrinking world. The world will start to look like a military barricade if terrorist operations gathers more pace. It is a state’s duty to protect its people within the framework of sovereignty. The measures which the West took are a reaction to a previous action, meaning the blame falls on the terrorists and not on western countries. Terrorists want to transform the world into a security and military barricade. International measures and dialogue, and pretty much governments’ daily concern across the world, revolves around security, and all this is due to terrorism.
Saudi war against terror
During the past two decades, Saudi Arabia and its international allies have fought a war against terrorism and carried out decisive operations that have crippled al-Qaeda, and is now targeting ISIS in its stronghold. Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned US President Donald Trump of terror designs saying: “Terrorist groups focus on recruiting Saudis for the purpose of gaining legitimacy considering Saudi Arabia’s status in the Islamic world.”Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the deputy crown prince’s advisor, said Prince Mohammed explained details of Saudi Arabia’s engagement in the war against ISIS and explained how the kingdom does not only contribute financially to the war but also plays a military role. The advisor revealed that during the Obama administration, the kingdom proposed sending troops to Syria to fight ISIS in its stronghold but Obama ignored the offer. Desperate attempts are made to malign Saudi Arabia after every terrorist attack. When it was reported that the London attacker had visited Saudi Arabia, some media outlets tried to promote this piece of news as evidence against Saudi Arabia. Then, official statements revealed that Masood had no criminal record in the country and only visited Saudi Arabia to teach English. If someone holds Saudi Arabia accountable just because this criminal passed by the country, then let’s not forget that he grew up and lived in London for 50 years. Why do they focus on his “unsuspicious” visit to Saudi Arabia and forget all about his long and “suspicious” stay in Britain?
London will rise and its wounds will heal. It is the city of historic enlightenment, which has enriched humanity. London has been loyal to everyone, in spite of some of its sons’ disobedience.

Saudi Arabia and the Arab left
Ahmad al-Farraj/Al Arabiya/March 28/17
The Arab left’s ideology has been distinguished for its miserable proposals. The Arab left has taught us certain political terms such as “imperialism,” “petrodollar” and “backwardness.” These terms were used to describe Arab Gulf countries in particular as Arab leftists have been skilled at insulting the Gulf region and its people. There was a time when some people in the Gulf or the Arabian Peninsula were deceived by these leftist slogans. They repeated them and even bragged about them thinking this would intercede for them. We can see these terms in some of the works of great Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani. Qabbani used these terms to implicitly hint at Arabs in Gulf countries or Bedouins as he called them. He mastered this following the Arabs’ defeat in the 1967 War and this was sort of a disadvantage in the works of Qabbani who is undisputedly considered as one of the best modern poets.
Gulf countries supported all Arab countries and were extremely supportive of the Palestinian cause, but this did not make Arab leftists forgiving towards them. They provided financial aid and took strong political stances to help other Arab countries - stances that sometimes led to crises with their western allies and led them to lose a lot. At the time when the Saudi kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries supported Arab causes through actions and not just through making statements, the Arab leftists simply ignored all this aid and boasted about some Arab countries’ and leaders’ fake glories and heroic achievements.
These leaders did not provide Arabs and their cause with one tenth of what Gulf countries provided. All they did was deliver demagoguery speeches and engage in conflicts that aimed to distract people from what really matters
These leaders did not provide Arabs and their cause with one tenth of what Gulf countries provided. All they did was deliver demagoguery speeches and engage in conflicts that aimed to distract people from what really matters. One can go back and review the speeches of late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and late Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi to clearly understand what I’m talking about. What’s strange is that the Saudi kingdom and Gulf Cooperation Council countries were accused of being an oil well! They talk as if Iraq and Libya are not oil-rich countries! Oh well, that’s the mood of the leftist wing in crisis!
Historically speaking, the kingdom, aided by its Gulf neighbors, has been the bosom which everyone resorted to. Following the defeat in 1967, the kingdom was there healing Egypt’s wounds. When disputes erupted between Gaddafi and the rest of the world due to the Lockerbie bombing, it was Saudi Arabia which saved him from that serious trouble. We must recall that when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, more than 2 million of our Palestinian brothers were living in Kuwait and despite that, the Arab leftists stood against the decision to liberate Kuwait and cheered for Saddam.
Who doesn’t remember the leftists’ chant “use chemical weapons, Saddam, from Kuwait to Dammam,” which brought all Arabist leftists’ allegations to an end? The Arab left has recently lost the spark of its miserable slogans. Some people in the Gulf continue to support these empty slogans despite the terrible failure of this ideology which no longer suits our times. The Arab left is miserable and the West left is not doing any better as the American left has shown its true colors after Donald Trump won the presidency. I will address this in my next article.

European populism on the march
Fawaz Turki/Al Arabiya/March 28/17
Don’t breathe a sigh of relief – not just yet – at the news that the ethno-nationalist, openly Islamophobic politician Geert Wilders lost in the Dutch general election on March 15. Do not yet imagine it a blow to the ascending populism that in recent years began to take root on the European continent and to encode itself deeply into the inscribed cultural norms, even consciousness, of Europeans everywhere. Wilders may have lost the election, and his party may have been shut out of joining a coalition – despite its good showing at the polls – but he said it best: “I’ll be back.” The claim echoes the muscular line that Arnold Schwarzenneger used in his role as the title character from the 1984 science fiction film, the Terminator, and used again as a signature line in the actor’s later movies.
In effect, the bleached-blond politician and provocateur, who calls migrants from North Africa “scum,” and who wants to shut mosques, ban the Quran, close the country’s borders to Muslims, and force women who wear head scarves in public to pay hefty fines, has a message to those who locked him out of power: The ranks of the extremist movement I lead will continue to grow, and next time we head to the ballot box, we’ll win.
He may, alas, be right. Wilders now leads his country’s largest opposition, and precisely because he is deprived of the responsibilities of power, he feels that he need not compromise. That way he both empowers and emboldens his loyalists and attracts others who had not voted for him but believe he ought to have been included in a coalition, into his orbit. He is now, in short, a free agent, free of restraints. Let’s face it, the xenophobic far right appeals to voters not just in the Netherlands, where Wilders has railed against those “who don’t want the Netherlands to be the Netherlands,” but to voters elsewhere in Europe. The phenomenon exists most notably in France, where Marine Le Pen, another populist upstart, will face voters next month, and in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel will face them, in uphill battle, in the fall.
Xenophobia comes with a price tag. It has a way about it of sneaking up on society, impoverishing it incrementally, rendering it a place where the unbelievable becomes believable, the unthinkable thinkable – and in time, the norm
Norm of ethnocentrism
Whatever the outcome of these two pivotal election is, ethnocentrism is now the norm in Europe, and forms a major building block of the public debate. Just as in the US last November, when Americans voted for Donald Trump because he promised that they will “get their country back” – begging the question of getting it back from whom – people in Western Europe have found leaders prepared to pander to their racialist fantasies about reclaiming their land from the foreign “other.”
In that regard, consider what was said when Michael Birnbaum, The Washington Post correspondent in Amsterdam, tracked down one Linda Muis, a well-dressed, seemingly educated 51-year-old Dutchwoman, who told him, with a straight face: “There are a lot of Muslims. There are a lot of black people. The white people, the Dutch people, they’re getting less and less.” And never mind that every economist and his uncle will tell you that immigrants put in more into society than they take out.
It is not as difficult to spout racial hatred as it is to preach human coexistence. All it takes for a politician, once he shows that he is responsive to his constituency’s malaise, is to know the way, go the way and show the way – and he is in power. And never mind that every vote is precious, and we should cast it in a well-studied, thoughtful manner.
Venomous ideologies
Who would have thought, for example, that a civilized society like that of Germany, whose contribution to the Western intellectual tradition was pivotal, would embrace, as it did in the 1930s, a venomous ideology like Nazism?
In like manner, who would’ve thought that the people of Holland, that halcyon land of canals, windmills and tulips, whence came the Dutch masters, like Van Gogh, Vermeer and Rembrandt, the land traditionally associated with tolerance, would vote in droves for someone like Geert Wilders? But there you have it.
It’s happening, folks, all over Europe, in France and Germany, in Poland and Hungary, in England and Sweden, in Austria and Switzerland, in Greece and Italy, and it’s happening, well, all over. But Xenophobia comes with a price tag. It has a way about it of sneaking up on society, impoverishing it incrementally, rendering it a place where the unbelievable becomes believable, the unthinkable thinkable – and in time, the norm.
“The best in man had lifted its mask and the time of euphemistic niceties is over,” wrote Annette Dumbach, in her reflections on Sophie Schell, the anti-Nazi activist, executed by guillotine in 1943. In short, there comes a time when the mask becomes one with the face, and political failures of that society become an emotional backlash, which is, in fact, what the current populist surge in Europe is all about. Populism, which never fails to find easy solutions to complex questions, is threatening to tear apart not only the European Union but Europe’s very political systems. And, yes, Arnold Toynbee was right: civilizations die by suicide, not by murder.