LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 30/17
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations
The greater you become, the more humble you should be; then the Lord will be pleased with you
Sirach 3/17- My child, be humble in everything you do, and people will appreciate it more than gifts. The greater you become, the more humble you should be; then the Lord will be pleased with you. The Lord's power is great, and he is honored by those who are humble. Don't try to understand things that are too hard for you, or investigate matters that are beyond your power to know. Concentrate on the Law, which has been given to you. You do not need to know about things which the Lord has not revealed, so don't concern yourself with them. After all, what has been shown to you is beyond human power to understand. Many people have been misled by their own opinions; their wrong ideas have warped their judgment. Stubbornness will get you into trouble at the end. If you live dangerously, it will kill you. A stubborn person will be burdened down with troubles. Sinners go on adding one sin to another. There is no cure for the troubles that arrogant people have; wickedness has taken deep root in them. Intelligent people will learn from proverbs and parables. They listen well because they want to learn.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 29-30/17
Hizballah: Resistance to Logic/Elie Aoun/November 29/17
Thamer al-Sabhan: Firebrand Saudi Minister who Led Campaign against Hizbullah, Iran/Associated Press/Naharnet/November 29/17/
How the Fall of Finance Led to French Tech's Rise/Pascal Emmanuel Gobry/Bloomberg/November 29/17
France Submits to Terrorism, Muslim Anti-Semitism/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
Egypt: Saving the Sinai/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
Germany: Surge in Migrant Attacks on Police/"Migrants Have No Respect for Us"/Germany: Surge in Migrant Attacks on Police/"Migrants Have No Respect for Us"/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
Sweden's New Government Censorship/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on November 29-30/17
Aoun: Hariri to Stay as Premier, Crisis Will Be Solved
Aoun kicks off official visit to Rome, affirms Hariri's resumption of country's leadership
Aoun Travels to Italy for Meetings
Hariri Says Resignation Crisis Ends Next Week if 'Positivity' Continues
Grand Mufti Warns Against Interference in 'Others' Affairs'
Report: Berri Denies Possibility of Cabinet Reshuffle
Lawyers Seek Shutdown of 'Beirut-Based Saudi Opposition TV'
Judge Prosecutes Satirist Ziad Itani over 'Collaboration with Israel '
Journalist Ayoubi released on bail
Riachy, US Ambassador tackle general developments
Hamadeh, private school teachers agree to halt strike
Canadian Ambassador visits Civil Aviation Directorate at Rafic Hariri International Airport
Canada's Ambassador follows up on program aiming at involving women in social stability in Baalbek
Thamer al-Sabhan: Firebrand Saudi Minister who Led Campaign against Hizbullah, Iran
Hizballah: Resistance to Logic

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 29-30/17
US Pentagon: 26,000 US Troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria
Turkish Gold Trader Admits to Conspiring to Avoid US Sanctions against Iran
Washington Asks Europe to Confront Tehran
Egypt’s Security Forces Announce Foiling Terrorist Schemes against Vital Targets
British PM Theresa May arrives in Saudi Arabia on official visit
UAE minister says Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq free to travel
Yemen: Deadly clashes erupt between Houthi, Saleh supporters in Sanaa
Bahrain presents Iraq with list of persons wanted for terrorism
UAE, Saudi Arabia rise while Qatar drops in prosperous nations index
Trump Urges China to Press N. Korea, Promises 'Major Sanctions'
Palestinian Factions Ask Egypt to Delay Gaza Handover
Britain's May in Riyadh after Surprise Baghdad Visit
BosnianCroat war crimes convict dies after taking 'poison' in court: TV
Gunmen kill intelligence officer at Islamabad Shi'ite mosque
Fatah says Hamas 'not committed' to unity deal ahead of key deadline

Latest Lebanese Related News published on November 29-30/17
Aoun: Hariri to Stay as Premier, Crisis Will Be Solved
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 29/17/President Michel Aoun stressed on Wednesday that Saad Hariri will stay the Prime Minister of Lebanon as he stressed that the political crisis that followed his resignation will be over within days. “Hariri will certainly stay the prime minister of Lebanon and the political crisis will be solved in a matter of days,” said Aoun in talks to the Italian daily La Stampa. “The crisis is behind us now. PM Saad Hariri will continue the path of leadership in Lebanon,” he added. Turning to Hizbullah and its role in Lebanon, the President said: “Hizbullah has fought the Islamic State terrorists inside and outside Lebanon. When the war against terror ends, Hizbullah fighters will return back home.”The daily added quoting Aoun as saying that talks between Lebanon's political parties have been concluded and that there is broad consensus. Aoun had arrived in Rome on Wednesday meeting the invitation of Italian President Sergio Matarella. The two men are scheduled to hold talks at the Italian presidential palace on the Lebanese-Italian relations and means of developing them in all fields, the National News Agency said. Aoun will meet Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and a number of Italian officials, it added. Hariri announced he was resigning Nov. 4, but walked it back after returning home last week. The original announcement, made from the Saudi capital of Riyadh, was widely seen as orchestrated by Saudi Arabia to pressure Lebanon's politicians into taking stronger measures to contain Hizbullah's influence. Hariri said Monday he wanted to send a "positive shock" across Lebanon through his resignation, and denied that Saudi officials forced him to resign. Hariri has demanded that Hizbullah remove itself from regional conflicts, from Syria to Iraq and Bahrain and Yemen. Hizbullah denies playing a military role in Yemen but has fighters in both Iraq and Syria. Hariri said Monday that he will resign if Hizbullah refuses to accept a new power-sharing arrangement for Lebanon, speaking as consultations got underway in Beirut between political leaders over the government's future.
The premier said Hizbullah appeared receptive to dialogue, but said he would resign if the group and Iran did not agree to rebalance Lebanon's political configuration. He did not elaborate on the new arrangement he was proposing.

Aoun kicks off official visit to Rome, affirms Hariri's resumption of country's leadership
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, First Lady Nadia Al-Shami Aoun, and an accompanying delegation, kicked off an official visit to Italy on Wednesday during which the President is scheduled to meet with Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. The President Aoun will also be inaugurating the international Med Dialogues conference which will be held by the Italian foreign ministry and the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) between November 30 and December 2. It will be the third time that Mediterranean and world leaders, the heads of international organizations, dozens of representatives from the economic and financial sector, experts and analysts will gather in the Italian capital. The resulting exchange of ideas is meant to provide solutions to the many tensions in the region and to remember that there is 'Beyond Turmoil, a Positive Agenda'. Italian newspaper, La Stampa, shed light on the paramount importance of the President's visit to Rome, especially in the promotion and development of relations between the two countries. "We have steered clear from the recent crisis, and Prime Minister Saad Hariri will resume his leadership of Lebanon," Aoun told the Italian daily La Stampa. He added that the future of the Middle East would be based in Beirut, "which is a model of coexistence in the region." "Diverse Lebanese communities have lived together for centuries, and this will continue," Aoun said. "Christians will return to both Syria and Iraq. Terrorism has made us realize that the closer Europe and the Mediterranean countries are to each other, the bigger attention they will get from the world," Aoun added. The President also described the historical relations between Lebanon and Italy for centuries as a "close friendship". In response to a question about his position from Hezbollah and its involvement in regional crises, especially at a time when Prime Minister Hariri adheres to the dissociation of Lebanon from regional conflicts, the President said, "Hezbollah has fought terrorism in Lebanon and abroad. When the war against terrorism ends, Hezbollah fighters will return to their homeland."

Aoun Travels to Italy for Meetings
Naharnet/November 29/17/President Michel Aoun left Beirut on Tuesday for a three-day official visit to Rome at the invitation of his Italian counterpart Sergio Matarella, who will hold talks at the Italian presidential palace on the Lebanese-Italian relations and means of developing them in all fields, the National News Agency reported. NNA added that the discussions will also highlight the latest developments in Lebanon and the region. Aoun is scheduled to meet Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and a number of Italian officials, it added. President Aoun is accompanied by an official delegation including First Lady Nadia al-Shami Aoun, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Lebanese Ambassador to Italy Mira Daher. Aoun is scheduled to inaugurate Thursday the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Conference in the Italian capital and deliver a speech on behalf of Lebanon, in the presence of the Italian president and a number of officials from European and Mediterranean countries, said NNA. The conference will be held for the third time in Rome and will address issues of interest to countries on both sides of the Mediterranean basin. The most important of these is how to maintain the political stability of these countries in order to provide opportunities for exchange, dialogue and common security through building strategies to combat terrorism and illegal migration. The meeting will be attended by Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abu el-Gheit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, and representatives of several Gulf Arab states and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, as well as Italian officials and Lebanese and Arab figures. The program of President Aoun's visit includes a meeting with the Lebanese community in Italy.

Hariri Says Resignation Crisis Ends Next Week if 'Positivity' Continues
Naharnet/November 29/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri reiterated Wednesday that “things are positive” in the ongoing consultations over his government's future. “As you are hearing, things are positive, and God willing we will announce good news to the Lebanese next week should the positivity continue,” Hariri told reporters in a brief chat after he attended a ceremony celebrating the Prophet's Birthday at the Mohammed al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut. Asked whether he will reverse his resignation permanently next week, Hariri said: “If things are positive, God willing I will.” As for the possibility of holding a cabinet session next week, the premier said: “Let us see how things go and if they take a positive course.”Hariri had said Monday that he would resign if Hizbullah refuses to accept a new power-sharing arrangement for Lebanon. The premier announced he was resigning Nov. 4, but walked it back after returning home last week. The original announcement, made from the Saudi capital of Riyadh, was widely seen as orchestrated by Saudi Arabia to pressure Lebanon's politicians into taking stronger measures to contain Hizbullah's influence. Hariri said Monday he wanted to send a "positive shock" across Lebanon through his resignation, and denied that Saudi officials forced him to resign.Hariri has demanded that Hizbullah remove itself from regional conflicts, from Syria to Iraq and Bahrain and Yemen. Hizbullah denies playing a military role in Yemen but has fighters in both Iraq and Syria.

Grand Mufti Warns Against Interference in 'Others' Affairs'
Naharnet/November 29/17/Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan stressed on Wednesday Lebanon's need to adhere to its dissociation policy stressing that Lebanon stands behind its premier Saad Hariri after his decision to suspend his resignation pending talks. Lebanon “urgently needs complete commitment to the dissociation policy to deter harm and preserve the country's internal stability,” said Daryan in a televised address marking the Prophet Mohammed birthday. “We have been through a worrying crisis when PM Hariri resigned, but we support his every move. The Lebanese are united around him today,” he added. Stressing the need for distancing Lebanon from the regional crises, the Mufti sad: “We need a safe, stable and united Lebanon that distances itself from the surrounding crises. Beware of involvement in the crises of others.”Pointing to President Michel Aoun's consultations with political parties, Daryan expressed hopes the talks turn productive “to distance the reasons that prompted Hariri to resign.”

Report: Berri Denies Possibility of Cabinet Reshuffle
Naharnet/November 29/17/As the cabinet gears up for an expected meeting next week, Speaker Nabih Berri said it is unlikely for a “governmental reshuffle or formation of a new government” to take place mainly after the reigning confusion that gripped the country and ended with PM Saad Hariri delaying his plans to resign. Speaking to his visitors, al-Joumhouria quoted the Speaker who stressed saying: “No, there will be no Cabinet rehuffle or any change. This subject is not put out for discussion.”“We can barely carry one watermelon in one hand, which is the government. How can we change the government or form a new one?” added the Speaker. Berri's remarks came about Prime Minister Saaad Hariri's suggestion that a government reshuffle would be possible. The Cabinet is expected to meet next week to catch up on delayed talks following Hariri's resignation on November 4, which he later put on hold pending talks. Berri, who expects the cabinet to convene next week, commented on the idea of staging early parliamentary elections, he said it would have been possible if Hariri did not retract his resignation “I would have been one of the strongest advocates of bringing the elections closer,” to spare the country from any economic collapse he said. "The elections need a general consensus, and I have no problem with the decision," he said.

Lawyers Seek Shutdown of 'Beirut-Based Saudi Opposition TV'
Naharnet/November 29/17/A number of lawyers have filed a lawsuit with the Lebanese judiciary, demanding the shutdown of the Saudi opposition Nabaa TV, which “broadcasts illegally from Beirut,” media reports said. In the lawsuit, the lawyers called for “halting the illegal broadcasting of a channel that spreads sedition and lies, advocates terrorist militias, and harms Lebanon's official ties with the Gulf states,” LBCI television reported. The suit was referred by the prosecutor's office to the relevant authorities in order to launch a probe, the TV network added.
The development comes amid high tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in connection with Hizbullah's role in Lebanon and the region.The kingdom accuses Iran-backed Hizbullah of offering support to Yemen's Huthi rebels and backing militant cells in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Judge Prosecutes Satirist Ziad Itani over 'Collaboration with Israel '
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 29/17/Investigative Judge Peter Germanos indicted on Wednesday detained prominent writer and actor Ziad Itani of collaboration with Israel and the possession of narcotics, the National News Agency reported. Germanos referred Itani to the Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghaida, added NNA. Lebanese authorities arrested Itani on Friday on charges of "collaborating" with Israel and gathering information on political figures, judicial sources have said. Itani was detained "after several months of monitoring, follow-up and investigations within and outside" Lebanon, said the State Security Directorate General. It said Itani, who is in his 40s, was questioned "on charges of collaborating and communicating with the Israeli enemy". He had allegedly confessed to having been "tasked to monitor a group of high-level political figures" and their associates. The security services also said he had been assigned the job of collecting information on "two prominent political figures" whose identities would be disclosed at a later stage. Lebanon, which technically remains at war with its southern neighbor, upholds a boycott of Israeli products and of contact with its nationals. Itani has shot to prominence in recent years because of a series of comedy plays on Beirut, its customs and the transformations it has undergone in recent decades. The works -- particularly "Beirut Tariq al-Jdideh", which refers to a majority-Sunni neighborhood of the city -- have been very well-received.
Before becoming an actor, Itani worked as a reporter with Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen television channel and with various regional newspapers.

Journalist Ayoubi released on bail
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Journalist Ahmad Ayoubi, secretary general of the National Initiative Movement, was released on Wednesday on a LBP 500,000 bail, as per a decision by Beirut investigating judge, Charbel Abu Samra.
Ayoubi was arrested on November 16 after defaming the President of the Republic and a sister country.

Riachy, US Ambassador tackle general developments
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Information Minister, Melhem Riachy, welcomed at his ministerial office on Wednesday, US Ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard. Talks between the pair reportedly touched on general developments.

Hamadeh, private school teachers agree to halt strike
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Higher Learning and National Education Minister, Marwan Hamadeh, met on Wednesday with a delegation of private school teachers representing the teacher's syndicate. Hamadeh and the delegation agreed to halt the previously planned strike pending the decision of the legislative body concerning the implementation of law item 46 in agreement with concerned institutions and parent committees.

Canadian Ambassador visits Civil Aviation Directorate at Rafic Hariri International Airport
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Newly appointed Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Emmanuelle Lamoureux, visited on Wednesday the Civil Aviation Directorate at Rafic Hariri International Airport accompanied by the Embassy's Executive Director for Middle Eastern Affairs, Sen Boyd, and an accompanying delegation. Civil Aviation General Director, Engineer Mohamad Shehabuddin, and Vice- President of Rafic Hariri International Airport, Engineer Youssef Tannous, welcomed Lamoureux before she met the administrative and substantive units' heads at the airport. Shehabuddin welcomed the Canadian Ambassador and the accompanying delegation, praising "Canada's efforts to enhance cooperation between Lebanon and Canada." The airport heads assured the Canadian side that "Lebanon is exerting a lot of efforts to enhance safety and security and to provide assistance to all foreign airlines including the Canadian Airlines -- if flights between the two countries are conducted." The Canadian Ambassador and the accompanying delegation also toured the airport's air traffic and radar centers of the Department of Equipment Maintenance.

Canada's Ambassador follows up on program aiming at involving women in social stability in Baalbek
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Emmanuelle Lamoureux, on Wednesday visited Baalbek's Lebanese Association for Studies and Training in the context of following up on a program aiming at boosting women's participation in social stability -- a program supported by the Canadian government, implemented by the association, and funded by Global Affairs Canada. In the same context, the ambassador held a meeting with the presidents of the municipal councils, as well as with economic and social figures in the region. Discussions focused on the influx of Syrian refugees and their impact on the region, its economic, social, and agricultural sectors.

Thamer al-Sabhan: Firebrand Saudi Minister who Led Campaign against Hizbullah, Iran
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 29/17/
Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince relies on a small core group of advisers, none more provocative than Thamer al-Sabhan, the fiercely anti-Iran government official whose fingerprints were on the hurried and ultimately unsuccessful resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri earlier this month.
As Saudi minister for Gulf affairs, al-Sabhan has a hand in helping shape the kingdom's high-stakes gambles to counter rival Iran.For days before Hariri's surprise resignation, which the kingdom is widely believed to have orchestrated, al-Sabhan issued threats against Lebanon's government as well as Iran and its ally Hizbullah via Twitter, unnerving many Lebanese who feared being dragged yet again into the forefront of the Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy. Three months earlier, al-Sabhan had been sent to Beirut to meet with Hariri and deliver a blunt warning against concessions that could favor Iran's allies in Lebanon. Hariri's resignation, announced from Riyadh on Nov. 4 on a Saudi-owned TV station, seemed to confirm fears that the kingdom's rivalry with Iran could destabilize yet another country in the region, this time Lebanon's delicate power-sharing system. Mediation by France, a close ally of both Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, helped reverse the resignation, which Hariri suspended after his return to Beirut. Though Saudi Arabia may have succeeded in pressuring Hizbullah and bringing attention to the Shiite militant group's expanding regional footprint, the kingdom's political moves in Lebanon were largely seen as a debacle that backfired.
The 50-year-old al-Sabhan was at the center of it all. Al-Sabhan traveled in March to Washington with Mohammed bin Salman, who in July was named crown prince and heir to the Saudi throne. It was a pivotal visit that would cement Riyadh's relationship with the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump.
A subsequent trip to Washington earlier this month, however, didn't go as well. Days after Hariri's resignation, al-Sabhan met with officials from the State Department, Pentagon and the White House National Security Council.
Instead of raising support for the resignation, al-Sabhan was given an earful from U.S. officials who chided him and pressed him to stop his provocative tweets, according to Arab media reports and a person privy to the meeting's outcome, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the encounter. They also asked who gave al-Sabhan the right to undermine Lebanon's stability at a time when Washington was backing the Lebanese armed forces and the country was hosting more than a million Syrian refugees.
The 32-year-old Saudi crown prince's hawkish policies toward Iran are largely embodied and amplified in al-Sabhan. Nowhere is that spelled out more clearly than on Twitter, where al-Sabhan has referred to the Iranian-backed Hizbullah — which means "Party of God" in Arabic — as the "Party of Satan."
A few days before Hariri's resignation, al-Sabhan warned in an interview with Lebanon's MTV that there would be "astonishing" developments to “topple” Hizbullah in Lebanon. He also said that Lebanon's government — headed by Hariri — would be dealt with as a hostile government that's declared war against Saudi Arabia because of Hizbullah's power-sharing role.
"It is up to (Lebanon's) leaders to decide whether it is a state of terror or peace," al-Sabhan wrote on Twitter two days after Hariri's resignation. Al-Sabhan, who as Saudi Arabia's military attaché in Lebanon in 2014 and 2015 monitored Hizbullah, was fed information by some Lebanese politicians about the group's role in the Syrian civil war, according to a Lebanese man who frequently spoke with al-Sabhan during his time in Beirut. Al-Sabhan would often chat with politicians, journalists and businessmen at a cafe in Beirut's upscale Verdun neighborhood, said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
"He is a tightlipped person. He listens more than he talks," the Lebanese man said. After his stint in Lebanon, al-Sabhan was appointed Saudi Arabia's first ambassador to Iraq in more than 25 years. But just nine months into the job, Iraq's government demanded that al-Sabhan be replaced after he sparked an outcry for alleging the government refused to provide him better protection in the face of what he claimed were plans by Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups to assassinate him. He also called on Iraq's government to exclude Shiite paramilitary groups from the military campaign against the Islamic State group.
Al-Sabhan was recalled and appointed to his current ministerial post, where he has used Twitter to vocalize the kingdom's brash anti-Iran rhetoric.
He's also been sent on missions far and wide. He was spotted last month in the Syrian city of Raqa with a U.S. official after the Islamic State group's de facto capital was recaptured by Syrian U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces. In Saudi Arabia, al-Sabhan has sat in on high-level meetings and welcomed Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi when he visited the conservative Sunni Muslim country in a first ever such trip. He was also present at the patriarch's meeting with King Salman. Al-Sabhan has also sat in on the king's meeting with Turkey's foreign minister in June, the crown prince's meeting in August with influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and meetings with Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. On Twitter, al-Sabhan has openly tried to call the shots in Lebanon, demanding that Hizbullah be kicked out of the government and calling on the Lebanese to confront the militant group. He even got into a Twitter spat with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. In one of Nasrallah's speeches, he described al-Sabhan as "zaatout," a derogatory Arabic term that means variously "little monkey with lots of hair" or an "adult who behaves like a child."
Al-Sabhan responded with a tweet of his own. "If an incompetent man criticizes me, this is proof that I am a whole man," he wrote. Former minister Wiam Wahhab, a Hizbullah ally, described al-Sabhan in a television interview as a "monster on the loose."
"I hope that Thamer al-Sabhan paid the price for such militia-style behavior," he said.

Hizballah: Resistance to Logic/ايلي عون:حزب الله المقاوم للمنطق
Elie Aoun/November 29/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=60685
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that “military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
Most fighters, whether they are American, Lebanese, Israeli, or of whatever nationality, had been sacrificed as “pawns” -- while they were deceived in the name of “duty” or a “cause.” One example is Hizballah.
We are told that Hizballah played a role in fighting “terrorism” and that its existence is necessary or is “linked” to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In reality, both of these issues are the result of a political decision, more than a military one. When there is a political decision to allow terrorism to spread or to engage in a war for a certain purpose, then terrorism and war do take place.
TERRORISM
We all heard how Hizballah and the Lebanese Army fought Da’esh forces and removed them from Lebanon. What we did not hear is an explanation as to how Da’esh entered Lebanon in the first place and occupied a portion of its territory without a single bullet being fired against them entering -- at a time when we were told that the Lebanese Army and Hizballah were patrolling the Lebanese-Syrian border?
Civilian and military personnel who died to remove Da’esh did not die in fighting terrorism. Rather, they died as a result of a political decision that allowed Da’esh fighters to enter Lebanon. No intelligence or military officer, and no politician would answer the question: who had authority to cause both Hizballah and the Lebanese Army to stand down when Da’esh entered the country?
If Hizballah’s presence in Syria was “necessary” to fight terrorism or radicalism, why did not their leadership go to Syria to do what was “necessary“? If their presence was to fight “radicalism” and prevent it from entering Lebanon, why then did Da’esh enter Lebanon? If their presence there was a pre-emptive measure, can any foreign force enter Lebanon to fight Hizballah using that same logic?
To those Hizballah members who fight for Syria and/or Iran, if they apply for Syrian or Iranian citizenship, will it be granted to them? If yes, why do not they do so and legitimately fight for their new country from its territory? If not, why are they willing to die for a foreign regime that lacks respect to them and refuses to even grant them citizenship and whatever “benefits” that come with it?
It is clear that Da’esh spread so quickly in Arab countries in the same manner as it entered Lebanon: it was simply allowed to do so without a legitimate fight because of a political decision. When that regional decision changed, Da’esh was “eliminated” in a very short period of time.
Although it was Da’esh fighters that executed a number of Lebanese army personnel, the primary murderers are those who made the political decision that led to this outcome. In the end, neither the primary nor the secondary murderers were punished.
THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
We are then told that Hizballah’s existence is “linked” to the “Arab-Israeli conflict.” However, of more than 20 Arab nations, can anyone explain how many of them are today in a genuine “conflict” with Israel? Some Arab nations have peace treaties while the vast majority are in a state of non-aggression with Israel. Does this look like a “conflict”?
If we want to look at the Lebanese-Israeli “conflict,” here are few questions that need to be answered:
About a year ago, when an Israeli surveillance drone hovered over Lebanon at a low altitude for about seven hours, why did not the Lebanese Army or Hizballah make a single attempt to fire at it -- when both tell us that Israel is an “enemy“?
If Israel is an enemy, can the Hizballah leadership explain to us who truly rules Israel so we can better understand our “enemy”?
Almost every Israeli leader involved in an invasion of Lebanon was a Freemason: Yithak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu are all Freemasons. Is that information important? If yes, why does not Hizballah mention it? If not important, why not?
http://lefemineforlife.blogspot.com/2008/05/freemason-israel-prime-ministers-1948.html
During the June 2006 war between Hizballah and Israel, we all heard about the Hizballah missile that hit an Israeli military ship and the Qana massacre. What we were not told is that since a military ship has a radar system, why would anyone on the Israeli ship turn off the radar system allowing the Hizballah missile to hit its target without any alarm or attempt to fire a counter-missile?
With regard to the Qana massacre, did Hizballah fighters fire missiles from nearby the location where civilians were hiding causing the Israeli military to respond to that same location, bringing about the massacre?
With regard to those who were arrested by Hizballah as Israeli spies, or by Israel as Hizballah spies, were they actually spies or “coordinators” used until their roles came to an end?
CONCLUSION
In summary, there is no genuine conflict, only a “managed conflict” fought by “dumb, stupid pawns” causing “collateral damage” and leading to a pre-arranged outcome or a commonly agreed-upon agenda.
Few years ago, I wrote that the agenda for the Middle East is to create some form of a union similar to the European Union. Recently, “terrorism” was used as a justification for the formation of NATO-style Islamic and Arabic military coalition announced from Saudi Arabia. In reality, “terrorism” was not the reason. Regional union/federation is the reason, and terrorist groups were created to assist towards that end.
In the same manner, Hizballah exists and is preserved in its present form to justify certain ends -- none of which relates to the wellbeing of misguided Hizballah members or to Lebanese sovereignty.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 29-30/17
US Pentagon: 26,000 US Troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria
Asharq Al Awsat/November 29/17/US Democratic and Republican legislators pressed the Department of Defense (DOD) to declare that actual number of total US troops outside the country. The DOD issued a report where it stated that US has a total of 26,000 troops spread across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which is far higher than any number previously admitted. The report admitted that there are now 8,892 US troops in Iraq, 15,298 in Afghanistan and 1,720 in Syria, based on information from the Defense Manpower Data Center. The information was publicly released last week in November, as part of the DOD's quarterly count of active duty, reserve, guard and civilian personnel assigned by country by the Defense Manpower Data Center. However, the numbers are current as of September 30. The report did not include number of special operations forces or temporary personnel rotating into or out of the country in the official figures, so, military experts and analysts believe the actual number could be even higher. Congressmen questioned the actual numbers of US troops outside the country especially after four US soldiers were killed in the Niger last month. Defense Department's acknowledged that there were seven troops stationed there, and, when asked about the number of troops serving in certain war zones, Pentagon's official response was that “force management levels” caps set under former President Barack Obama. Around the end of Obama's presidency, DOD announced that the number of US troops in Iraq is 2,662, however, Defense Manpower Data Center announced in December 2016 that there are 6,812 troops in Iraq. The new report, however, puts the series of troops as 1,720 in Syria as well as three civilians, and 8,892 in Iraq. As for Afghanistan, there are 15,298 active avocation members of the military on the belligerent and another 1,202 Defense Department civilians, making it a total of 16500 US.

Turkish Gold Trader Admits to Conspiring to Avoid US Sanctions against Iran
Asharq Al Awsat/November 29/17/A Turkish-Iranian gold trader has admitted to conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran, a US prosecutor said on Tuesday. He said that Reza Zarrab pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran and will testify against a Turkish bank official who is charged with arranging illegal transactions involving American banks. Zarrab will describe a multibillion-dollar international money laundering scheme “from the inside,” Assistant US Attorney David Denton said during his opening statement in the New York federal court trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy general manager of Turkey’s Halkbank. Atilla’s lawyer, Victor Rocco, attacked Zarrab’s credibility in his opening statement, telling jurors that Zarrab was prepared to lie to avoid jail time. US prosecutors have charged nine people in the case, though only Zarrab and Atilla are known to be in US custody. The other defendants include the former head of Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan, and the former economy minister of Turkey, Zafer Caglayan. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s government has said the case was fabricated for political motives, adding to tensions between Ankara and Washington.

Washington Asks Europe to Confront Tehran
Asharq Al Awsat/November 29/17/“We are committed to addressing the totality of the Iranian threat,” Tillerson said, calling on European partners to stand up to “all of Iran’s malign behavior.”Speaking at the Wilson Center in Washington, the US top official noted that the nuclear agreement was no longer the only pillar of US policy towards Tehran, pointing out that Washington was committed to face the Iranian threat in all its forms. “Europe and the United States don’t want another nuclear threat like North Korea, nor are any of our nations at ease with Iran’s attempts at hegemony in the Middle East through support for terrorist organizations, militias on the ground in Iraq and Syria, and an active ballistic missile development program,” he stated. In the same context, the US Secretary of State emphasized that with the defeat of ISIS on the ground, the UN-led Geneva talks were the basis for rebuilding Syria and finding a political solution, which should not include a role for Assad or his family in power. He also said that the United States and its European allies “agreed to hold Bashar Assad responsible for the crimes he committed against his people, through the imposition of sanctions.”

Egypt’s Security Forces Announce Foiling Terrorist Schemes against Vital Targets
Cairo - Mohammed Abdu Hasanen/Asharq Al Awsat/November 29/17/Egyptian security authorities said Monday that they succeeded in foiling terrorist schemes aimed at carrying out a series of hostilities against vital targets and churches, announcing the death of 11 "terrorist elements" during security raids in Ismailia, east of Cairo. Egypt has been witnessing sporadic terrorist acts, especially in northern Sinai, that have increased over the last four years after the isolation of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, who belongs to the "banned" Muslim Brotherhood. On Friday, Bir al-Abed village north Sinai also witnessed the worst terrorist attack at a mosque as gunmen killed more than 300 worshipers. No organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement issued by Egypt’s Ministry of Interior on Monday said that police were still identifying the suspected militants killed in the raid in Ismailia province after they opened fire on security forces approaching the hideout. The raid on the hideout was part of a security campaign in the province of Ismailia around the Suez Canal, separating the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of the country, and in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya. Police were pursuing leaders of "terrorist groups in North Sinai that aimed to carry out a series of hostile operations targeting important and vital buildings and churches," the statement said. Security forces were able to identify "a group of these elements and the hideouts they were using to hide, train, and store means of logistic support ahead of smuggling them to terrorist groups in North Sinai.”The statement said police also arrested six suspected militants and three people thought to have smuggled communications equipment to them. It said weapons, ammunition and communication devices were recovered. On the other hand, forces of the Third Field Army killed three terrorists and arrested five others in Central Sinai, said the military spokesman on Tuesday.Colonel Tamer Rifai added in a released statement that a small truck loaded with a large quantity of explosive materials was seized. Eight hotbeds and 4X4 vehicle along with three motorcycles were also destroyed by the forces, he pointed out. The army forces will maintain their efforts for uprooting terrorist and criminal elements from Sinai, Rifai stressed.

British PM Theresa May arrives in Saudi Arabia on official visit
Al Arabiya/November 29/17/British Prime Minister Theresa May has arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh on an official visit on Wednesday night. Upon her arrival at King Salman Airbase, she was received by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh region; Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a number of officials. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud received May at his palace in Riyadh and has held talks in the presence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During the meeting, they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two countries and means of enhancing them, in addition to discussing developments in the region. British Ambassador to the Kingdom Simon Collis, Vice President of State Office Joanna Bain, Military Adviser John Clarke and Deputy National Security Adviser Christian Turner attended from the British side.

UAE minister says Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq free to travel
Al Arabiya/November 29/17/The United Arab Emirates has denied reports that Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq is barred from travelling outside of the country in contrary to his previous comment to Al Jazeera earlier in the day.Shafiq, an ex-air force commander and presidential candidate, said earlier he had planned to return to Cairo in the coming days from his current location in the UAE, as he intends to run in the presidential election early next year. “The UAE confirms that there is no obstacle to the departure of the Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shafiq from the state,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash tweeted on Wednesday.

Yemen: Deadly clashes erupt between Houthi, Saleh supporters in Sanaa
Al Arabiya/November 29/17/At least 15 people were killed after deadly clashes broke out on Wednesday between forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh and armed groups of the Houthi militias in southern Sanaa, a correspondent for Al Arabiya has reported. The clashes began in the vicinity of Saleh Mosque south of the Yemeni capital. The clashes continued for hours, and have expanded to include other areas of the capital, killing and wounding several on both sides. Informed sources said the clashes broke out after the guards of the Houthi mosque were prevented from put surveillance cameras over the minarets of Saleh mosque to monitor the area. Meanwhile, forces of the Republican Guard clashed with armed groups of Houthi militias who were trying to storm the home of Brigadier Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, brother of the deposed president.Local residents said clashes continued sporadically in the neighborhoods surrounding the house. The streets in which the clashes are taking place have been closed, amid talks of mediators trying to contain the situation.

Bahrain presents Iraq with list of persons wanted for terrorism
Al Arabiya/November 29/17/The Bahraini ambassador to Baghdad, Salah al-Maliki, announced that his country has submitted to the Iraqi authorities a list of people wanted by the Bahraini judiciary authorities currently residing in Iraq. Al-Maliki said that the wanted people stand accused of committing acts of terrorism in Bahrain and have fled to Iraq. In his statement, Maliki added that those wanted are currently plotting harmful acts in Bahrain and some neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The ambassador said that they also seek to abuse Iraqi Bahraini bilateral relations. The charges, he concluded, were criminal and not political saying that they are substantiated.

UAE, Saudi Arabia rise while Qatar drops in prosperous nations index
Awad Mustafa/Al Arabiya/November 29/17/The United Arab Emirates was ranked the most prosperous country in the Arab World in the 2017 Legatum Prosperity Index issued Wednesday. The annual report issued by London based think tank Legatum Institute ranked the UAE at 39 globally jumping from 41 in the 2016 edition. The Middle East and North Africa region has seen significant growth in the living standards of its citizens, the report stated. The UAE saw the greatest increase in standard of living in the world in the last ten years; and there has also been an increase in people’s satisfaction with their standard of living right across into North Africa, it added. Saudi Arabia ranked third in the Arab world making seven jumps from 85 globally to 78 in this years report.
Saudi reforms already have impact
According to Legatum Institute’s Senior Fellow Stephen Brien, the Saudi economic reform helped launch the country in the prosperity report of 2017. “The reform program started to show some signs,” he told Al Arabiya English. “We can see it in two areas, one is in the economic quality where we see barriers to trade getting less with the Kingdom getting higher scores for that as a result of the government reforms and encouraging the development of the private sector in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “We also see it in people’s attitude, there is a more positive attitude, we use the Gallup world poll survey to look at people’s happiness, sense of positivity etcetera and what we are also seeing in Saudi an improvement there,” he said. The third reason, he said, is that there is an improvement on their education. “It’s a binary issue of King Fahad University getting ranked top 200 in the world and that being recognized,” Brien said. “That’s more in the longer term investment that the Saudi government put in to education that the Saudi government is seeing bearing fruit in this index”.
Qatar ranked second but corruption increases
Qatar, which ranked second in the Arab world and 47 globally, on the other hand was the fastest faller globally in the governance index according to the 2017 report. The Qatari government was perceived as more corrupt than last year, the report stated. “What we are seeing is that there are three areas where Qatar has fallen, one of them is the perceived independence of the judiciary, which is based on an expert panel looking at judicial practices across the world,” Brien said. “As well a weakening in the rule of law has been registered and also, perhaps most importantly, a sharp rise in perception of corruption in the nation. The three of those combine in the governance index to weaken it,” he added. Brien said that data for the index is mostly collected from publicly available sources and other worldwide reports like the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.The report also stated that Qatar, with in the business environment index, saw a large fall in investor protections. Qatar, the report said, saw its score fall, as resolving insolvency became more difficult. According to Brien the diplomatic crisis between Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt will have an effect next year but for now it did not affect this year’s ratings.

Trump Urges China to Press N. Korea, Promises 'Major Sanctions'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 29/17/U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose additional "major sanctions" against North Korea on Wednesday in response to its latest groundbreaking missile test. "Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the provocative actions of North Korea," Trump tweeted. "Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!" Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained that the sanctions would be announced by the U.S. Treasury and would target "additional financial institutions." This suggests that secondary measures could target foreign banks that still deal with North Korea. A Chinese bank has already been hit in this way. "We have a long list of additional potential sanctions," Tillerson told reporters. Asked how long Washington could continue to mount peaceful pressure on Pyongyang without resorting to military action, Tillerson said: "Diplomatically, we keep working at it every day." During his call with Xi, the White House said Trump urged Beijing to use "all available levers" to press North Korea. On Tuesday, Pyongyang fired what is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting Washington. The U.S. president has threatened North Korea with "fire and fury" if it continues to threaten the United States or its allies with work toward an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear payload. The latest test came after a more than two-month pause, which had prompted speculation that talks could end the nuclear standoff. Since coming to office, Trump has ratcheted up the diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime of Kim Jong-Un, demanding he abandon nuclear and ballistic weapons. As part of that effort, Trump has repeatedly pressed China to break trade ties with its dependent neighbor and has applauded countries for shuttering Pyongyang's diplomatic installations, which have long been used to gather illicit finance. Earlier this month, Trump declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism -- a symbolic move, but one which amps up diplomatic pressure on the regime. The U.N. Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting later Wednesday to discuss the response to Pyongyang's latest test.

Palestinian Factions Ask Egypt to Delay Gaza Handover
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 29/17/Rival Palestinian factions jointly agreed Wednesday to ask Egypt to postpone the handover of the control over Gaza from Hamas to Fatah as part of a reconciliation agreement, they said. "Hamas and Fatah are asking Egypt to postpone the transfer of the government roles from December 1 to December 10 in order to finalize arrangements to ensure the completion of national reconciliation steps," said a statement from Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip.A Fatah official confirmed the Hamas statement in remarks following a joint meeting in Gaza City. The decision comes after mutual accusations of failure to respect the accord which would see Hamas handing over all governing duties in the enclave to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. The handover would have ended the Islamist movement's decade-long control of the coastal territory. Sharp disagreements remained between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas, particularly over the fate of public employees in Gaza and security control of the enclave.

Britain's May in Riyadh after Surprise Baghdad Visit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 29/17/British Prime Minister Theresa May landed in Riyadh Wednesday for talks with the Saudi king and crown prince, with Yemen's brewing humanitarian crisis and the kingdom's sweeping reforms topping her agenda. May flew in to the Saudi capital on the second leg of her Middle East tour, following a surprise visit to Baghdad where she met her Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi and hailed recent military gains against the Islamic State group. The official Saudi Press Agency confirmed her arrival in Riyadh, where the British leader promised to raise concerns over the Yemen crisis during meetings with King Salman and the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia is Britain's largest trading partner in the Middle East, and London has signed off on more than £3.3 billion ($4.4 billion/3.7 billion euros) worth of arms sales to Riyadh since March 2015. During that time a Saudi-led coalition has embarked on a bombing campaign in Yemen that has been condemned for contributing to a humanitarian disaster. The war has killed some 8,600 people, while a further 2,000 have died of cholera. May insisted that she would send a clear message to the Saudi leadership. "I'm very concerned about the humanitarian crisis that has developed in Yemen, particularly most recently," May said in comments from Iraq to the BBC. "That's why the strong message I will be giving to Saudi Arabia tonight is that we want to see Hodeida port opened for humanitarian and commercial access. "That's important. I think the international community is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen."
Yemen blockade
Earlier this month, the coalition battling Shiite Huthi rebels a blockade on Yemen's ports and airports in response to a missile fired by the Iran-backed rebels that was intercepted near Riyadh airport. It eased the blockade allowing a U.N. plane carrying vaccines to land Saturday in rebel-held Sanaa and on Sunday a vessel carrying wheat docked at Saleef Red Sea port, also in the Huthis' hands. But little aid has entered through the Red Sea port of Hodeida, the main conduit for U.N.-supervised deliveries of food and medicine. Separately, during talks in Riyadh, May is expected to express Britain's support for Prince Mohammed's ambitious reform drive, which include a historic decision allowing women to drive from next June. May left London late Tuesday for a three-day visit to the Middle East in a bid to bolster regional ties. May's visit to Iraq came as government forces backed by an international coalition have ousted IS from swathes of the country it controlled since 2014 -- and focus in the West now centers on preventing returning jihadists carrying out attacks. Britain, which took part in the U.S.-led Iraq invasion of 2003 which toppled the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein, has played a key role in the coalition battling IS. The British leader will be in Jordan on Thursday on the final leg of her tour for meetings with King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Hani Mulki.

BosnianCroat war crimes convict dies after taking 'poison' in court: TV
Wed 29 Nov 2017/ NNA - A Bosnian Croat wartime commander died after swallowing what he said was poison in a U.N. war crimes courtroom on Wednesday after losing an appeal against a 20-year prison sentence, Croatian state TV said. Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital in the Hague after he was seen drinking from a flask or glass as a U.N. judge read out the ruling against him and five other suspects, state TV reported, citing unnamed sources. The apparent courtroom suicide, which was broadcast on a video feed, came in the final minutes of the last judgment at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which closes next month. "I just drank poison," he said. "I am not a war criminal. I oppose this conviction." After gulping down the drink, Praljak sat back down and slumped in his chair, a lawyer who was in the courtroom at the time said. U.N. court representatives and Dutch hospital officials declined to comment on his condition. Croatian General Marinko Kresic, speaking earlier on Croatian TV, said he had spoken to the wife of another defendant, Milivoje Petkovic, who was in The Hague. "She confirmed that he drank the poison and that he is in a very grave health condition," he said.--REUTERS

Gunmen kill intelligence officer at Islamabad Shi'ite mosque
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on worshippers at the entrance of a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Wednesday, killing an intelligence officer at the scene, police said. Three or four attackers on two bikes shot at members of the minority Shi'ite community who were leaving evening prayers in a residential neighbourhood, police official Ghulam Qasim said. A member of Pakistan's domestic Intelligence Bureau among the worshippers got hit several times and died later in hospital, Qasim said. "We're not sure yet whether it is a sectarian incident," Qasim added. "The man who died got five or six bullets. That seems to make him a target." No group immediately claimed responsibility. Attacks are rare in the capital, but Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated Sunni Muslim sectarian groups are active in the country. Four other people were being treated for bullet wounds, police said.-- REUTERS

Fatah says Hamas 'not committed' to unity deal ahead of key deadline
Wed 29 Nov 2017/NNA - Fatah's top negotiator said Wednesday that rival movement Hamas was "not committed" to a landmark Palestinian reconciliation agreement, two days ahead of a key deadline to implement the accord. "Hamas is not committed to the agreement it signed in Cairo to end the division," Azzam al-Ahmad, chief negotiator for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, told AFP. "Until this moment, the problems and obstacles from Hamas are still there and are increasing." Under the agreement, Hamas is due to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority by Friday after a decade of dominance there, but doubts have emerged over whether it will occur. Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian Authority employees were prevented from returning to work at a number of ministries in the Gaza Strip in another sign of tension ahead of the deadline. An Egyptian-mediated deal signed in October is aimed at ending the decade-long feud between Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, and Islamist movement Hamas. Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since seizing it in 2007 in a near civil war with Fatah, leaving the Palestinians with two separate administrations. Problems in implementing the October accord have included how to resolve the issue of two separate civil adminstrations as well as security control of the Gaza Strip, with Hamas refusing to disarm.--AFP

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 28-29/17
How the Fall of Finance Led to French Tech's Rise
Pascal Emmanuel Gobry/Bloomberg/November 29/17
France is emerging as a major European tech hub: La French Tech, as it is known, is improbably beating out Germany and rivaling London for funding levels and company valuations. A significant portion of France’s most talented young people now want to work in an innovation ecosystem rather than in secure jobs in government or traditional industries. The reason for the shift is not Emmanuel Macron, the reformer who has become French president. It long predates his rise.
Instead, it has its roots in the 2008 financial crisis. In most countries, the dot-com bubble, for all the waste, at least left behind infrastructure and a generation of battle-hardened entrepreneurs; in France, however, the adoption of the internet was delayed by the French government’s home-grown substitute, the Minitel. The belief that the internet was a fad remained after the dot-com bubble burst, hurting investment and entrepreneurship.
Between London, with the built-in advantage of the English language for going international, and Berlin, with its reputation as a hipster mecca, France was on no one’s radar. But the collapse of Lehman Brothers and its repercussions showed young French graduates that betting on entrepreneurship and innovation was not just exciting or potentially rewarding, but actually less risky than more conventional paths. I witnessed this first-hand as a student at a top French business school at the time, watching classmate after classmate spurn solid offers from top firms to go start a company, even in the midst of a historic downturn.
It’s hard to underestimate the impact of such a cultural shift. Those who study Silicon Valley’s success return to culture as the X factor; after all, so many other places have talent and capital but have failed to replicate its genius for innovation. Silicon Valley’s unique blend of relentless pragmatism in trying new things, healthy disrespect for conventional thinking, and eagerness to work very long hours contrasts with the cliché of the French conception of work, which prides security, hierarchy and work-life balance. But the new French entrepreneurs are of a different breed.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems mature over a long period of time. Silicon Valley became a global innovation powerhouse over many years, as startups followed Hewlett Packard in the 1970s and talent attracted more talent. France now seems to have momentum. According to market research firm CB Insights, 700 new venture deals happened in France in 2017 compared with 251 in just 2015. France has its own unicorns such as Criteo, an ad-tech firm that gives Google and others a run for their money, and car-share service BlaBlaCar, which is expanding internationally after becoming a phenomenon in France.
There are now ventures that seek to spark other big successes. Xavier Niel, France’s most notorious tech billionaire, is behind transformative initiatives, such as Kima Ventures, a seed fund that shook up the space by investing small amounts of money in startups at a very high clip. There is also 42, an innovative engineering school that, unlike the traditional French grandes ecoles, focuses exclusively on computer engineering and draws on students from unconventional backgrounds; and Station F, a lavish startup campus which claims to be the biggest incubator in the world.
France is a more hospitable place for entrepreneurs these days. Its reputation for red tape and onerous taxes is now less and less deserved; the past decade has seen real reforms. These have been slow, gradual and unnoticed, but their cumulative effect is important. Ten years ago, getting in touch with someone about taxes involved collating countless paper forms and standing in line for hours at the tax office; today, anybody can log onto their account with the finance ministry, send an email and get an answer within the day. Incorporating a business is much less tedious than it used to be. A myriad of these sorts of small changes can add up to a more significant shift than big-ticket reforms.
The French government hasn't stopped meddling, though, and its moves to encourage investment into innovative companies have been a mixed blessing, with frustratingly complex schemes and frequent changes putting a damper on certainty. But there have been noteworthy successes, such as tax-advantaged venture capital funds that provided a cushion when other sources of capital withdrew to safety in the wake of the crisis. BPI France, a public venture fund, contrary to all likelihood, became a very useful actor in the ecosystem. Far from engaging in industrial policy, BPI France is instead mostly a follow-on investor, boosting the impact of private capital rather than deterring it by picking winners and losers -- a recipe similar to the public venture funds that were key to Israel’s “start-up miracle” in its own build-out phase.
Despite his conventional background as an elite-educated bureaucrat-turned-investment banker, Macron likes to associate himself with this new, dynamic French business culture. The techies and entrepreneurs, in turn, are happy for his attention. His reforms, cutting and simplifying onerous corporate taxes, and making the labor market more flexible, should be good for la French Tech -- but only if they go far enough.
Before the financial crisis, France already had the two main underlying assets of a major tech center: quality infrastructure and top-level universities. It now has a better regulatory environment and has awoken the animal spirits of entrepreneurship. But the ecosystem is still fragile: Most of the new investment comes from corporates and foreign investors, who will retreat if there is a global downturn of if France proves unable to reform. If the money dries up too soon, la French Tech might still be seen as just a fad. But if it doesn’t, a lot of clichés about France might need updating.

France Submits to Terrorism, Muslim Anti-Semitism
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11392/france-terrorism-muslims-antisemitism
In France, since 2012, more than 250 people were killed by Islamic terrorism -- more than in all other European countries combined.
No other country in Europe has experienced so many attacks against Jews. France is a country where Jews are murdered because they are Jews.
"Muslim believers know very well what is happening. Only a minority is violent. But as a whole, they do not ignore that their birthrate is such that one day, everything here will be theirs". — Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg.
In Bagneux, France, on November 1, 2017, a plaque placed in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young Jew murdered in 2006 by a "gang of barbarians", was destroyed and covered with graffiti. When a few days later, another plaque replaced it, the French government issued a statement that "hate will not win".
There are many signs, however, that hate has already won and that France is sick. If these signs were already obvious a decade ago, they are even more obvious today. Voluntary blindness prevented them from being addressed.
Ilan Halimi was taken hostage in January 2006, then viciously tortured for three weeks. He was eventually abandoned, dying, on the edge of a road and died a few hours later.
Most of kidnappers, who were arrested a few days after the murder, were Muslims. They immediately confessed. They said they had chosen Halimi because he was a Jew and they thought that "all Jews have money". Some added that Jews "deserve to suffer".
They were tried behind closed doors. The leader, Youssouf Fofana, spat his bile against Jews and vehemently shouted the name of Allah during the whole trial, so the court could not hide that he was an Islamic anti-Semite. He was sentenced to "life" in prison -- which in France means 18 to 20 years. If he had not assaulted his guards in the prison, he would already have be released. The other members of the gang, described by the prosecutor in a watered down way as "thugs looking for easy money", were quieter and were handed down relatively light sentences. Today, almost all "the barbarians" are free.
Even books, accentuating the whitewash, describe the crime as just an ugly "sign of greed" among "poorly educated young people".
In 2014, director Alexandre Arcady made a movie -- 24 Days: The True Story of the Ilan Halimi Affair -- to draw attention to what he perceived as a growing danger for Jews and for the French in general. The movie was a flop; almost no one paid attention to it, despite some murders just as sickening.
On March 19, 2012, in Toulouse, a 23-year-old Muslim, Mohammed Merah, entered the yard of a Jewish school and murdered three children and the father of two of them. He had already shot French soldiers, but shattering the heads of children at point blank range was an act of total horror. Three days later, besieged in his apartment, after having explained for hours to a negotiator why he had chosen Jewish children, he launched a last attack but was riddled with bullets by the police. He instantly became a hero in all the Muslim French suburbs; the anti-Semitic dimension of his act just contributed to his fame.
For many months, his name, Mohammed Merah, was a rallying cry for Muslim youths. The press, meanwhile, described him as a "lone wolf" and "lost child".
When evidence accumulated showing that his brother, Abdelkader, an Islamist, had trained Mohammed and helped him prepare his butchery, he was arrested.
Abdelkader Merah's trial last month was as ugly as that of the "gang of barbarians", maybe even uglier. Abdelkader did not lose his temper. He expressed no regret. He calmly explained that jihad is a sacred duty for every Muslim; that he thought that his brother was "in paradise" and what the status of Jews is in the Koran. Mohammed and Abdelkader's mother, Zoulikha Aziri, testified that they were "good sons". Later, out of court, she said that "Allah orders Muslims to kill Jews". (Abdelkader's lawyer said that Abdelkader was not guilty of anything; that he was just a devout Muslim "practicing his religion", and that he himself considered it an "honor" to defend Abdelkader.
Abdelkader was sentenced to twenty years in prison. If there is no appeal, and if he is no longer violent, he will be released in eight years. Abdelkader, while in jail, may still do what he was doing before: proselytize and repeat what he said in court about jihad. When he is released, he may well not stop. He will most likely not be arrested again.
His mother may well repeat that Allah orders Muslims to kill Jews: the command is, she thinks, an integral part of her faith. She will not be accused of incitement to murder. Hundreds of thousands of men and women openly say what she says.
There are thousands of Abdelkader Merahs. Some are in prison, some are not. Not only are 70% of prisoners in France Muslims, but prisons are now the main recruiting centers for jihadists in France.
Calls to jihad can be heard from countless mosques throughout the country each week. A recent book, Partition, lists the addresses of 150 of them.
Incitement to kill Jews is frequent in the almost 600 no-go zones that exist in France. Leaflets stipulating "if you meet a Jew, kill him", were recently distributed in the Paris suburbs, near places where street prayers occur. "Death to Jews" and "Slit Jews' Throats" can increasingly be heard in organized street protests. Synagogues have been attacked in Paris, Sarcelles and Marseilles.
In the five years since Mohammed Merah's murders, French Muslims have attacked more Jews.
On May 24, 2014, Medhi Nemmouche, a gunman who had recently returned from Syria, opened fire in the Jewish Museum in Brussels and shot four people. On January 9, 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, a man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, entered a kosher grocery store, took 19 people hostage, and shot four of them.
Recently, on April 4, 2017, a retired Jewish physician, Sarah Halimi, was viciously brutalized for an hour, then thrown off the balcony of her apartment. Her murderer, Kada Traore, who shouted "Allahu Akbar", was deemed "mentally ill" and sent to an asylum.
Two attacks had a large number of casualties: one on November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis (130 killed), and the other on July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice (86 killed). A priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel, was knifed to death while saying Mass. A businessman was beheaded by one of his employees. A police officer was shot on the Champs-Élysées. It does not stop.
On October 1, 2017, two women were slain in front of the Marseille central railway station. The murder of most off the journalists and editors at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015 (12 killed) led, three days later, to a huge demonstration in Paris, but indifference quickly returned.
In France, since 2012, more than 250 people were killed by Islamic terrorism, more than in all other European countries combined. In addition, no other country in Europe has experienced so many attacks against Jews. France is a country where Jews are murdered because they are Jews.
Every year, Jews flee France by the thousands. Those who do not emigrate move to cities and neighborhoods where they hope they will be able survive without risking aggression.
Many non-Jews live in fear and remain silent.
The government does almost nothing. A few times a year, its members ritually denounce "anti-Semitism", but never forget to mention that it comes from the "far right". They only denounce "radical Islam" when the facts are so blinding obvious that it is impossible to do otherwise. If they can, they prefer to talk about people who were "radicalized", without giving any details or explanation.
In August 2017, the Ministry of the Interior issued a statement that almost 300 jihadists were back from Syria and represent a risk. All of them could come back to France with French passports. None of them has been arrested.
In March 2015, the French intelligence services created a Report Card for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalization (FSPRT); there are 15,000 names on it. Monitoring everyone would require nearly 160,000 police officers. Therefore, only a few dozen suspects, are under surveillance.
After France's November 2015 attacks, a state of emergency was declared. It consisted mainly of sending soldiers and police officers to railway stations and airports, and placing guards and sandbags in front of synagogues and Jewish schools.
The state of emergency expired on November 1, 2017. It was replaced by a weak "anti-terrorism" law. Fewer soldiers and police officers will be deployed. "Security zones" will be created around events that appear "exposed to a terrorist risk", and police controls will stand near such events. These controls, however, already exist. "Places of worship" will be "visited" if it "seems" they disseminate "ideas that could lead to terrorism"; then they could be closed for six months. Many "places of worship" already disseminate "ideas that lead to terrorism"; they are still open. Legal texts omit words such as "radical Islam", "jihad" or "anti-Semitism". They also do not include words such as "mosque" or "search"; instead, they speak of "places of worship" and "visit". They also never define which "ideas" could "lead to terrorism".
Yaffa Monsonego, the mother of one of Mohammed Merah's victims, did not go to Abdelkader Merah's trial. Her daughter, Myriam, was eight-years-old when she was shot. Monsonego said in a mainstream television interview that attending the trial would have been of no use; that French justice will never live up to what she and other families of victims feel every day, and that she is certain more murders will happen.
A journalist said on radio that, by not naming and not fighting evil, France betrays all those who want to live safely, and abandons the country to those who are crushing it. He reminded his listeners that the presence of Islamic anti-Semitism in France is older than they could imagine, and mentioned a young disc jockey, Sebastien Sellam, murdered in Paris by his Muslim neighbor in 2003, just because he was a Jew. The journalist said the destruction of the plaque placed in memory of Ilan Halimi was a way of killing him a second time.
A few weeks ago, Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg, said that those who run the country bury their heads in the sand; and that while Islamists are tried, the trial of radical Islam in France is not even considered. He added that all French political leaders know a population replacement is in progress that will quickly have much more serious consequences than those already evident today: "Muslim believers know very well what is happening. Only a minority is violent. But as a whole, they do not ignore that their birthrate is such that one day, everything here will be theirs".
Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg, recently said that French political leaders know a population replacement is in progress that will quickly have much more serious consequences than those already evident today. (Image source: Peter Potrowl/Wikimedia Commons)
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, while in Abu Dhabi on November 8 to inaugurate a museum, said: "Those who want to make you believe that anywhere in the world, Islam is destroying other monotheisms and other cultures are liars who are betraying you".
On November 13, back in Paris to pay homage to the victims of the attacks two years earlier, Macron participated in a release of multicolored balloons, watched them float to the sky, then laid flowers where the victims were killed. The plaques state that they were "murdered", but not that they were victims of terrorism. Soon, the word "terrorism" could also disappear from France's vocabulary.
In Submission, a novel published on January 7, 2015, ironically the same day as the Charlie Hebdo murders, its author, Michel Houellebecq, foresaw that words would disappear, that Islamic terrorism would lead France toward submission, and that the Jews would leave the country. He was right.
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
© 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.

Egypt: Saving the Sinai
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11443/egypt-sinai-isis-terrorism
Egypt could use the help of American desert-warfare Special Forces advisors, as well as actionable intelligence from trusted Bedouin desert trackers. Egypt might also improve relations with the Sinai's principal Bedouin tribes and other locals by building, perhaps with US support, schools and health clinics.
Unless Egypt adopts a more effective military and political strategy against its jihadists, it could lose the entire Sinai, and the all-important Suez Canal, a prospect which would shake the foundations of both the regime and the region.
Egypt is no longer sovereign in the Sinai Peninsula. Islamic State terrorists, moving freely throughout the Sinai's Northern Province, have been delivering stinging defeats on Egypt's military and police convoys. The November 24 mass murder of Sufi Muslim worshippers by radical Sunni terrorists in the Northern Sinai Province underlines the Egyptian government's loss of control in the area. If Cairo changes its tactics and strategy, however, the Sinai can be saved.
Initially, Islamic State terrorists in the Sinai Desert feasted on soft targets, such as Coptic Christian communities and local, lightly defended, police stations. The Egyptian military's inability to prevent these attacks or subdue jihadist forces simply emboldened the terrorists. In mid-October, Islamic State jihadists even robbed a bank in the northern Sinai's provincial capital, El-Arish, making off with about a million dollars to help finance their anti-government campaign. Large tracts of the northern Sinai are slipping out of Egypt's control due to the military inefficiencies and counterproductive policies of government security forces.
These shortcomings include an unwillingness to change tactics, ineffective weapon systems for desert combat, and lack of proper logistical support. The troop convoys sent into the desert are "red meat" for the jihadists, "who mount sophisticated multi-tiered attacks and employ snipers to demoralize security forces."
The jihadists station their lookouts atop high desert sand dunes to monitor the approach of security forces; convoys are visible from miles away. On one occasion, the terrorists were seemingly able to lure security forces into an ambush.
The advanced capability and sustainability of the Sinai jihadists is in part, a result of Hamas training and Iranian financial support. The sad fate of a police convoy upon which the jihadists inflicted heavy casualties underscores the typical military column's overall vulnerability.
Another government vulnerability is political in nature. Cairo is failing in desert warfare against the jihadists also because it lacks the support of the Sinai's Bedouin tribes. The ease with which Islamic State contingents navigate the desert's dunes indicates that the terrorists have intelligence and logistical support inside Bedouin villages. The Islamic State's "Sinai Province" was able to capitalize on the Bedouins' hostility to the central government's harsh treatment, such as scorched-earth tactics against villages near a recent military defeat of security forces. Egyptian military leaders has often penalized villages for allegedly not providing warning of proximate jihadist attacks.[1]
Egypt's security forces might improve their performance in the Sinai against ISIS by adopting the following suggestions. The military might permanently occupy all of the major oases of the Sinai desert, thus denying jihadists easy access to water replenishment and rest sites. Another initiative for the Egyptian General Staff might be to establish a unified command and control structure, eliminating miscommunication between Army and Police commanders.
Egypt's army, which has not fought a war since its 1973 campaign against Israel, might also benefit from more combat experience.
Egypt could also use the help of American desert-warfare Special Forces advisors, as well as actionable intelligence from trusted Bedouin scouts, who are desert trackers. Egypt might improve relations with the Sinai's principal Bedouin tribes and other locals by building, perhaps with US help, schools and health clinics. Sinai's two most influential tribes, the Tarabin and the Sawarka, envelop the El-Arish metropolitan region[2] and could serve as an effective buffer zone against large scale terrorist attacks on Egyptian urban areas in the northern Sinai. Egypt might also organize tribal defense units at the village level. The regime might end punitive measures against civilians, if a nearby security force operation against jihadists goes badly.
Egyptian intelligence services might also develop a program to wean Bedouin away from ISIS. For example, Cairo could distribute videos and eyewitness accounts of terrorist atrocities throughout the Bedouin communities. Reportedly, ISIS is interfering in tribal institutions, and pushing its radical Sunni ideology.
Unless Egypt adopts a more effective military and political strategy against its jihadists, it could lose the entire Sinai, and the all-important Suez Canal, a prospect which would shake the foundations of both the regime and the region.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, where he was a Military Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Israel.
[1] Crossing the Canal: Why Egypt Faces a Creeping Insurgency" by Michael Horton CTC Sentinel June/July 2017, p.25.
[2] "Crossing the Canal: Why Egypt Faces a Creeping Insurgency" by Michael Horton CTC Sentinel June/July 2017.
© 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.

Germany: Surge in Migrant Attacks on Police/"Migrants Have No Respect for Us"
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11459/germany-migrants-attack-police
"The police cannot win a war with the Lebanese because we outnumber them.... This applies to all of Gelsenkirchen, if we so choose." — Lebanese clan in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Observers surmised that the real reason for the judge's leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.
Freddi Lohse, the Vice Chairman of the DPolG German Police Union in Hamburg, said that many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior: "They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries. They have no respect for us."
Violent attacks against German police have reached epidemic proportions, and Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migration policy is to blame, official statistics show.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) reported 36,755 attacks against German police in 2016 — or an average of 100 per day, a significant increase over previous years.
Violence — including verbal and physical assaults, and even murder — against police is rampant in all 16 of Germany's federal states. According to the BKA, the epicenter of the problem in 2016 was North Rhine-Westphalia (8,929 incidents), the state with the largest migrant population, followed by: Bavaria (4,930); Baden-Württemberg (4,355); Berlin (3,154); Lower Saxony (3,030); Hesse (1,870); Saxony (1,573); Rhineland-Palatinate (1,537); Hamburg (1,339); Thüringen (1,228); Schleswig-Holstein (1,237); Brandenburg (1,009); Saxony-Anhalt (899); Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (658); Saarland (521); and Bremen (486).
Preliminary data, recently leaked to German public radio, indicate that in terms of violence against German law enforcement officers, 2017 will be a record-breaking year. In Berlin alone, attacks against police this year are up 70% in Görlitzer Park, 35% at the Warsaw Bridge and 15% at Kottbusser Tor, according to the Berliner Morgenpost.
Official statistics do not reveal the source of the violence, but do show a spike in attacks against police since 2015, when Merkel allowed into the country more than a million migrants, mostly Muslim, from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Anecdotal evidence corroborates claims by police that migrants are behind many of the attacks.
In Gelsenkirchen, for instance, two police officers stopped a driver after he ran a red light. The driver stepped out of the car and ran away. When police caught up with him, they were confronted by more than 50 members of an Arab clan. A 15-year-old attacked a policeman from behind and strangled him to the point of unconsciousness. In another incident, police were surrounded and physically assaulted by more than 60 members of an Arab clan.
Senior members of the Gelsenkirchen police department subsequently held a secret meeting with representatives of three Arab clans in order to "cultivate social peace between Germans and Lebanese." A leaked police report revealed that the clans told Police Chief Ralf Feldmann that "the police cannot win a war with the Lebanese because we outnumber them." The clan members added: "This applies to all of Gelsenkirchen, if we so choose."
In nearby Duisburg, a police officer asked a man to move his car, which was illegally parked. The man refused and began shouting at the officer. Within minutes, more than 250 people appeared at the scene and began harassing the police officer, who called for backup. More than 50 policemen and 18 police vehicles were required to resolve what had begun as a routine traffic procedure.
In Düsseldorf, 15 police officers were injured when they tried to break up an illegal rally organized by Kurds celebrating the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. Police used pepper spray to restore order.
In Mülheim, around 80 members of two rival clans got into a mass brawl following a dispute between two teenagers. When police arrived, they were attacked with bottles and stones. More than 100 police, backed up by helicopters, were deployed to restore order. Five people were taken into custody but then released.
In Dortmund, more than 40 migrants engaged in a fight at a refugee shelter. When police arrived, they were "massively attacked" by the mob. Police used dogs to restore order.
In Bremen, a 25-year-old man was stabbed by a group of migrants in the Huchting district. When police arrived to investigate, they were immediately surrounded by a mob of between 30 and 40 men. Police used teargas and dogs to restore order.
In Fellbach, 60 migrant teenagers attacked police at the 70th annual Harvest Festival. Police described the youths as "exclusively German citizens with a migration background and other migrants." The youths were said to be engaged in "turf wars."
In Leipzig, an Iraqi man was stabbed and seriously injured during a mass brawl in front of a Kebab restaurant. When police intervened, the mob attacked them with bottles and stones.
In Naumburg, police confiscated the driver's license of Ahmed A., a 21-year-old member of a Syrian clan, during a traffic stop. Almost immediately, police were surrounded by a mob of other clan members. The police retreated. The mob then marched to the police station, which they proceeded to sack.
In Würzburg, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker brandishing an axe and shouting "Allahu Akbar" seriously injured five people on a train. The assailant was shot dead by police after he charged at them with the axe. Green Party MP Renate Künast criticized the police for using lethal force.
Some police believe that Germany's politically correct judicial system encourages violence against them.
In Hanover, for example, a court handed suspended sentences to six members of a Kurdish clan who seriously wounded two dozen police officers during a violent rampage in Hameln. The court's ruling was greeted with anger and derision by police.
The case went back to January 2014, when a 26-year-old clan member, arrested for robbery, tried to escape from the magistrate's office by jumping out of a seventh-floor courtroom window. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he died. Members of his clan subsequently ransacked the hospital, as well as the court, and attacked police with rocks and other projectiles; 24 police officers and six paramedics were injured.
The judge said he was lenient because the defendants witnessed the death of the 26-year-old and were traumatized. The judge also revealed that he had reached a deal with the clan, which among other effects prevented police from testifying in court.
Dietmar Schilff, chairman of the GdP police union in Lower Saxony, said that the ruling had left many police officers shaking their heads in disbelief: "All police forces expect protection and support from the state." He added:
"If we want to protect those who ensure public security, it must be clear that anyone who attacks police officers attacks the state — and has to fear appropriate consequences. It does not matter from which milieu the perpetrators come."
Observers surmised that the real reason for the judge's leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.
Some municipalities are taking measures to protect police. In Mainz, for example, where violence against police has jumped by more than 50% since 2014, police are now being outfitted with bodycams to deter violence. In Bremen, police have been supplied with "anti-spit-masks" to prevent detainees from assaulting police.
In a bestselling book, German police officer Tania Kambouri blamed the deteriorating security situation on migrants who have no respect for law and order. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, she said:
"For weeks, months and years I have noticed that Muslims, mostly young men, do not have even a minimum level of respect for the police. When we are out patrolling the streets, we are verbally abused by young Muslims. There is the body language, and insults like 'sh*t cop' when passing by. If we make a traffic stop, the aggression increases ever further, this is overwhelmingly the case with migrants.
"I wish these problems were recognized and clearly addressed. If necessary, laws need to be strengthened. It is also very important that the judiciary, that the judges issue effective rulings. It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically, insult us, whatever, and there are no consequences. Many cases are closed or offenders are released on probation or whatever. Yes, what is happening in the courts today is a joke."
Freddi Lohse, the Vice Chairman of the DPolG German Police Union in Hamburg, said that many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior: "They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries. They have no respect for us."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

Sweden's New Government Censorship
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11439/sweden-government-censorship
In the report, placing the word "refugees" in quotation marks, as well as "unaccompanied children," is supposedly an expression of "hate". (Many, if not most, migrants classified as "unaccompanied children" have turned out to be grown men).
Government agencies are going out of their way to protect the "integrity" of possible jihadists out of concern for a "democratic society" -- the society that these jihadists want to subvert and destroy -- and are using their government platform to smear non-mainstream media for matters as small as the use of quotation marks. What about the "integrity" of Swedish citizens and their right to not be blown up?
Why is a municipality sponsoring an organization that supports terrorists and even awarding it prizes? It appears that glorifying terrorism is acceptable in Sweden, so long as its victims are the Israeli children. Far from countering "hate", Sweden appears to be doing all it can to strengthen Muslim extremism.
The Swedish government is now officially questioning free speech. A government agency has declared so-called Swedish "new media" -- news outlets that refuse to subscribe to the politically correct orthodoxies of the mainstream media -- a possible threat to democracy. In a government report, tellingly called "The White Hatred" written by Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut (Total Defense Research Institute), a government agency under the Swedish Ministry of Defense, Swedish new media such as Samhällsnytt (formerly known as Avpixlat), Nyheter Idag and Nya Tider are lumped together with neo-Nazi media such as Nordfront.
"Hate" is defined broadly to include violent extremism, "hateful expressions", jokes, internet trolling and even the use of certain quotation marks. For instance, in the report, placing the word "refugees" in quotation marks, as well as "unaccompanied children," is supposedly an expression of "hate". (Many, if not most, migrants classified as "unaccompanied children" have turned out to be grown men).
"One might find," according to the report's conclusion, "that pluralism of information sources... is a positive addition in a democratic society where freedom of speech is an important foundation", but "the new media... stretch the limits of free speech," which "threatens other democratic values". The report further alleges that society risks becoming tolerant of the intolerant. That is rather rich coming from the authorities of a European country that has accepted Islamic intolerance to an astounding degree. There is even a proposal from a government minister to reintegrate returning ISIS fighters, who might still wish to destroy the tolerant society that houses them.
The report is part of a series commissioned by the Swedish government to conduct quantitative mapping and analyses of violent extremist propaganda spread in Sweden by the internet and social media. The survey is supposed to include violent extremist environments in Sweden: right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and Islamic extremism.
A previous report, "The Digital Caliphate," supposedly looks at Islamic extremism, but is rendered useless in a Swedish context by explicitly refusing to engage with concrete ISIS propaganda in Sweden for "ethical" reasons:
"It is not in itself illegal to sympathize with violent ideologies. Our work is not about mapping the views of private people, as that would be incompatible with an open democratic society. Our analyses have therefore been limited to protect the integrity of private persons. No data has been collected from pages protected by passwords, closed Facebook pages or other types of Facebook pages or social media where the user has sought to keep the material within a closed group. All the material comes from open sources... this means that the material analyzed is limited as a large part of ISIS propaganda happens in closed channels..."
Government agencies in charge of national security, in other words, are going out of their way to protect the "integrity" of possible jihadists out of concerns for a "democratic society" -- the society that these jihadists want to subvert and destroy. Meanwhile, these agencies are using their government platform to smear non-mainstream media for matters as small as the use of quotation marks. What about the "integrity" of Swedish citizens and their right to not be blown up? Furthermore, this desire to protect the privacy of potential jihadists means that the most vital part of the work -- mapping the extent of Islamist violent propaganda in Sweden -- is still left undone.
Sweden's government agencies in charge of national security are going out of their way to protect the "integrity" of jihadists -- people like Mikael Skråmo, a Swedish convert to Islam and jihadist who went to fight for ISIS in Syria, and urged Muslims in Sweden to bomb their workplaces.
At the same time, the Swedish establishment has its own private vigilante mob acting as the thought police. A 76,000-member closed Facebook group, called "Jagärhär" ("I am here"), is a private initiative founded by journalist Mina Dennert to attack opinions on social media with which its members disagree. "She noticed that there were people around us who had been frightened into believing all these images painted by 'alternative media' of people of foreign backgrounds as violent criminals... " explains Dennert's husband, one of the group's administrators, who works for Swedish state television. The network has already won four prizes for its "work" in Sweden, including a prize from the Swedish group "Equalisters" ('Rättviseförmedlingen'), which awarded the network their annual prize, naming it the group that had done the most for equality in 2016. Dennert was also awarded the Anna Lindh Prize.
The methods of "Jagärhär" vary. One tactic is to send mass complaints against a Facebook profile, causing it to be removed by the social media giant. This verdict by mob rule is what happened to the Swedish-Czech author Katerina Janouch, whose profile was shut down several times by Facebook -- the apparent result of publishing, among other things, a satirical guide to political correctness. The network, which is one year old, is believed to be closely associated with Sweden's national public television and the Social Democratic party.
Mina Dennert, also with close connections to the Swedish government, had her network apply for half a million Swedish kroner (nearly $60,000) government grant to support its work, which involved shutting down dissent on social media. Her network, however, recently withdrew its application after its dubious "work" had been revealed by none other than the new media in Sweden. The Jagärhär network has apparently inspired similar projects in other countries, such as #IchBinHier in Germany.
Meanwhile, Islamic extremists in Sweden continue their work. In Malmö, Group 194 -- a Swedish-Muslim group that glorifies terrorism and actively sympathizes with the Arab terrorist group Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) -- participated in one of the DFLP's activities in Malmö in 2016. At the meeting, in which Swedish socialists apparently also participated, the participants reportedly celebrated the Ma'alot massacre, an Arab terrorist attack on an Israeli school in 1974 in which 115 hostages (including 105 children) were taken and 25 were murdered. The group, it seems, also routinely carries posters of Arab terrorists when it marches in the streets of Malmö on International Workers' Day. Group 194's entire work is focused on virulent anti-Israeli activism, as evidenced by its Facebook page. Sweden clearly has no problem with allowing hate speech from DFLP terrorists in Malmö.
This Swedish-Muslim group, bizarrely, is part of an initiative to make Malmö safe (Trygg Malmö or "Safe Malmö"). As part of this work, it is responsible for patrolling Rosengård -- one of the most problematic no-go zones in Malmö -- at night. The group was awarded SEK 10,000 (about $1,000) recently by the Malmö municipality -- together with the other groups in Trygg Malmö -- for its work in Rosengård. Why is a municipality sponsoring an organization that supports terrorists and even awarding it prizes? It appears that glorifying terrorism is acceptable in Sweden, so long as its victims are the Israeli children.
Originally, a Swedish administrative court, in a recent decision, ruled that there was no basis for denying the Muslim organization Young Muslims of Sweden (SUM) its state subsidy. Young Muslims of Sweden, which is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, had been denied state subsidies by the Swedish Ministry of Youth and Civil Affairs, as Young Muslims of Sweden and its member organizations "have been identified as an environment" where some individuals do not respect the ideas of democracy. The Swedish court did not think that there was sufficient evidence for taking away the state subsidy, so Young Muslims of Sweden may soon find its activities funded by taxpayers once more.
Far from countering "hate", Sweden appears to be doing all it can to strengthen Muslim extremism.
**Judith Bergman is a columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
© 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.