LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 11/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Iran's 'First-ever' Attack on Israel and Israel's Most Extensive Syria Strike in Decades: What We Know and What Happens Next
هآرتس: أول هجوم إيراني على إسرائيل وضربات إسرائيلية موسعة على سورية منذ عقود: ما نعرفه وما سيحدث بعد ذلك
Haaretz/May 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64549/haaretz-irans-first-ever-attack-on-israel-and-israels-most-extensive-syria-strike-in-decades-what-we-know-and-what-happens-next-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%ac/
What did Israel hit? Did the Iranian rockets fired at Israel hit their targets? And how does this play into Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal?
After months of tensions, Israel and Iran directly locked horns in Syria overnight Wednesday. Here's what we know so far:
What happened?
Iranian forces fired 20 rockets at Israel Defense Forces positions in the Golan Heights on Wednesday night. Four of the rockets aimed toward Israel were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system while the remaining rockets exploded on Syrian territory, the military said.
The Iranian attack prompted the most extensive Israeli strike on a neighboring country in decades; overnight, Israel openly attacked dozens of Iranian military and logistics targets in Syria.
Who fired them?
The Israeli military accused the Revolutionary Guards' Al Quds force and its commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, of launching the attack at the Israeli Golan Heights. The attacks was most likely in retaliation for previous attacks on attributed to Israel on Iranian bases and positions in Syria.
What about Israel?
Before the Iranian attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel attacked targets of the Syrian military on the outskirts of Quneitra in the Golan Heights.
After the attack, Israel hit dozens of Iranian targets in Syria: Israel said its targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. Twenty-three militants were killed in the attack, according to the Syrian observatory.
Israel said none of its warplanes were hit.
What's the fallout for Syria?
Israel said it attacked five Syrian antiaircraft batteries and reportedly destroyed all of them after coming under heavy fire.
According to Haaretz's senior military analyst, the attack dealt a severe blow to embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s antiaircraft forces. The Israel Air Force said five of the batteries attacked belonged to the Syrian army and were Russian-built models: SA-22, SA-2, SA-5 and SA-17.
Lebanon's Al Mayadeen, a TV network viewed as pro-Assad, Hezbollah and their allies, reported that 28 Israeli F-15s and F-16s took part in a retaliatory strike, firing more than 60 missiles.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Syria shot down more than half of Israeli missiles fired in the strike.
What did Iran target?
The Israeli army said that the rockets were fired from Syria at IDF outposts on the Golan border.
The Golan Regional Council released a statement saying that several towns in the Golan were targeted by rocket fire and that residents of those towns were told to stay in shelters until notified otherwise. Israel said there were no casualties in the attack and on Thursday, though shelters remained opened in some parts of the north, residents were allowed to return to their homes.
Why now?
As the Assad regime emerges as the victor in the Syrian civil war, Iran is trying to intensify its military presence in Syria and use its territory as a sort of forward position against Israel. Senior Israeli political and security officials are determined to be proactive about foiling this Iranian effort, even at the risk of escalation.
A month ago, on April 9, there was an attack on a Syrian air force base called T4, near the city of Homs, that’s been attributed to Israel. The attack was aimed at thwarting the Iranian effort to establish air space, backed by antiaircraft systems located on the base. The air strikes killed members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and senior leaders in Tehran have repeatedly said that Israel will pay a price for its aggression.
What happens now?
Israeli intelligence believed that Iran wanted to carry out a targeted and limited response, which would make it clear to Israel that there’s a price for repeated attacks in Syria, but would not want to drag the region into war.
Now that such an attack has taken place, another possibility is that Iran will target Israeli assets abroad, such as an embassy or a group of tourists. Generally such attacks involve lengthy planning. In the past, Iranians and Hezbollah were involved in attacks against Israeli targets in Argentina (in the 1990s) and Bulgaria (in 2012). Another option is revenge through a Hezbollah attack, but it seems that the group would prefer to avoid that at this point.
How does the Iran deal play into this?
According to Haaretz's Amos Harel, it is too early to predict the repercussions of Trump’s announcement. The U.S. administration has not clarified how it will implement its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, or how stringent the renewed sanctions will be and how quickly they will take effect. It is hard to believe Trump's decision will lead to a military escalation between Iran and the United States and Israel.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-and-iran-lock-horns-in-syria-what-we-know-what-happens-next-1.6074807?utm_campaign=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fisrael-news%2Fisrael-and-iran-lock-horns-in-syria-what-we-know-what-happens-next-1.6074807

A Blow to Assad: Israeli Strike Destroyed Five Syrian Anti-aircraft Batteries
هآرتس: ضربة للأسد حيث دمرت إسرائيل أمس 5 بطاريات مضادة للطائرات
Amos Harel/Haaretz/ May 10, 2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64549/haaretz-irans-first-ever-attack-on-israel-and-israels-most-extensive-syria-strike-in-decades-what-we-know-and-what-happens-next-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%ac/
Israeli jets destroyed five Syrian antiaircraft batteries early Thursday morning and, dealing a heavy blow to embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s air defenses.
After Iranian forces fired 20 rockets at Israeli military positions on the Golan Heights on Wednesday night, Israel Air Force planes entered Syrian airspace to attack dozens of Iranian targets on Syrian territory. The Syrians fired dozens of antiaircraft missiles at the Israeli jets but did not hit any of them.
In response, the army attacked five Syrian antiaircraft batteries and destroyed them all. The IAF said all the batteries belonged to the Syrian army and were Russian-built models: SA-22, SA-2, SA-5 and SA-17.
The Russian Ministry said reported that 28 Israeli jets took part in the strike, firing more than 60 missiles, adding that Syria shot down more than half of Israel's missiles.
Twenty-three fighters were killed in the strike, 18 of them foreigners, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In February, the army destroyed three other Syrian antiaircraft batteries after an Iranian drone entered Israeli airspace. Israel then attacked the drone’s launch and control van and the Syrians fired antiaircraft missiles at the Israeli jets, shooting down an Israeli F-16 flying over Israel. The IDF estimates that about 20 antiaircraft were fired at the Israeli planes, and the remnants of at least four fell in open areas inside Israel.
In response, Israel attacked the Syrian air defense system and destroyed the three batteries that fired the missiles, as well as attacking four Iranian targets inside Syria.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/a-blow-to-assad-s-defenses-israel-destroyed-5-anti-aircraft-batteries-1.6074544?utm_campaign=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.haaretz.com%2Fisrael-news%2Fa-blow-to-assad-s-defenses-israel-destroyed-5-anti-aircraft-batteries-1.6074544

ANALYSIS: The War With Iran is Just Getting Started
إسرائيل اليوم: الحرب مع إيران هي في بدايتها
Yochanan Visser/Israel Today/May 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64556/israel-today-the-war-with-iran-is-just-getting-started-israel-destroys-iranian-bases-in-syria-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%af%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b9/
Iran overnight finally launched its long-anticipated retaliatory attack on Israel after a series of IAF strikes on Iranian targets in Syria over the past three months.
At 12:15 AM, the "Code Red" alert went off in scores of Israeli communities on the Golan Heights, forcing residents into their bomb shelters.
Shortly afterwards, Iran launched 30 missiles at Israel, and at least one of them was aimed at the city of Safed in the northern Galilee. That missile (most likely an upgraded Scud) was subsequently intercepted by the Patriot anti-missile system.
This reporter witnessed first-hand how the Iron Dome anti-missile shield downed four Fajr or Grad missiles in the skies above the Golan Heights, and how Israeli fighter jets continuously took off for four hours during an extensive offensive against Iran in Syria.
On the Iranian side, the first direct confrontation with the Israeli military was overseen by Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, who has overseen virtually every major battle in Iraq and Syria over the past four years.
“It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose,” IDF spokesman Lieutenant-General Jonathan Conricus told reporters, referring to the third Iranian attempt to strike targets in Israel.
The other two attempts took place on Febr. 10 when a large Iranian attack drone attempted to strike the Israeli city of Bet Shean in the northern Jordan Valley, and on April 19 when Iran reportedly deployed three attack drones which took off from the al-Kiswah base near Damascus which was attacked by the IAF on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu who arrived in Israel after a short trip to Moscow reportedly got a green light of Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch the massive counter-attack against Iran in Syria.
Russia is able to shoot down virtually every plane departing from bases north of the Negev desert in Israel by using the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. But it didn't.
The four-hour Israeli offensive in Syria set back the Iranian military built up in the country by many months, according to the IDF. A military spokesman reported more than 50 airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria, according to Israeli TV Channel 10. The Israeli army also released an animated video showing an Iranian Ouragon multi-barrel launcher near the al-Kiswah base, which was destroyed before it could launch its missiles on Israel.
Another IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, told Channel 10 that the IAF strikes destroyed Iranian intelligence facilities, logistic headquarters, observation posts, weapon storage facilities and the Ouragon launcher near al-Kiswah. Manelis warned that the fighting with Iran is not yet over, and that the Israeli army is prepared for "any scenario." That could allude to fears that Iran might activate its military arm in Lebanon: the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Hezbollah has at its disposal more than 130,000 missiles that can now reach every part of Israel. Up untill now, Hezbollah has not participated in the hostilities against Israel, despite reports of intensive IAF activity in Lebanese airspace and a claim that the IAF hit a Hezbollah position near the Israeli-Syrian border last night.
As I wrote on Wednesday, Iran is careful not to engage Israel in all-out war and has always used disruptive and asymmetric warfare since its devastating war with Iraq in the 1980s. Iran knows that it is the weaker party when it comes to conventional warfare. This doesn’t mean, however, that Iran will now be deterred from continuing its military build-up in Syria.
The IRGC in Syria is constantly flying in new advanced weaponry, such as the Fateh 313 short-range ballistic missile and the Fateh 110 guided missile with an upgraded range of 300 km. Israel is, therefore, expected to continue its preemptive strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, and is prepared to absorb Iranian missiles "raining on the north, while causing a flood in Iran" in response, as Defense Minister Liberman put it after the dramatic events early Thursday morning.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/33967/Default.aspx

Israel Destroys Iranian Bases in Syria: 'You Bring Rain, We Will Bring a Flood'
موقع إسرائيل اليوم: إسرائيل دمرت القواعد الإيرانية في سوريا
Israel Today Staff/Thursday, May 10/2018/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64556/israel-today-the-war-with-iran-is-just-getting-started-israel-destroys-iranian-bases-in-syria-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%af%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b9/
Breaking with its policy of ambiguity, Israel on Thursday fully acknowledged its role in the overnight bombing of dozens of Iranian bases and military installations across Syria. The series of airstrikes came immediately on the heels of a rocket attack on Israel's Golan Heights by Iranian forces operating out of southern Syria. None of the rockets managed to land in Israeli-controlled territory. Many fell short of the border, and several were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system.
By contrast, the massive Israeli response has destroyed "nearly all" of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria, claimed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. Playing on the discrepancy between Israeli and Iranian might, Liberman warned: "If we get rain, you will get a flood. We will not allow Iran to use Syria as a base from which to attack us."IDF officials estimated that the broad aerial operation had set back Iran's military build-up in Syria by months, at least.
Israel Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said he hoped that the severity of the response demonstrated to Iran that the Jewish state is "not playing and not bluffing."
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein added in a Twitter post that Israel had sent a crystal clear message to Iran: "The rules of the game have changed."
Indeed, Israel's disproportionate response was, for once, not condemned by the international community. Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration in Washington fully supported Israel against the Iranian foe. Russia, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently meeting with President Vladimir Putin, signaled that it would in no way hinder Israel in defending itself against Iranian aggression.
There is growing speculation that Iran's military adventure in Syria is interfering with Russia's agenda in the region. This, coupled with Israel and Russia growing closer in recent years, has resulted in Iran no longer enjoying outright backing from Moscow.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/33965/Default.aspx

Iran's Long Arm: Who Is the Elite Quds Force That Attacked Israel From Syria
هآرتس: معلومات عن ذراع إيران الطويلة، فيلق القدس" التابع للحرس الثوري الإيراني
 الذي هاجم إسرائيل
Yaniv Kubovich/Haaretz/May 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64546/haaretz-irans-long-arm-who-is-the-elite-quds-force-that-attacked-israel-from-syria-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%b0%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b9/
The Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force is charged with arming proxies across the Middle East and even the world – and is behind a number of past attempts to hit Israel
The Quds Force, a special forces unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, was behind the rocket attack against Israel on Wednesday night. The Quds Force, commanded by Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, is responsible for all of Iran’s military activities – secret and public – outside of Iran’s borders.
The Quds Force is also in charge of relations with Islamic and non-state military and terrorist organizations recruited by Iran. These groups serve as Iran’s arm in countries where it is trying to export its Islamic revolution or as proxies in the conflicts in those countries. The Iranians support these militias mostly through providing weapons, funds and protection for the groups.
In 1998, Soleimani replaced Ahmad Vahidi, who was appointed in 1988, as commander of the Quds Force and who later served as Iran’s defense minister. Soleimani is considered to be a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Soleimani’s power is so great that even though he is blacklisted by most Western nations, he still is able to meet with world leaders. It was reported that he has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister.
Soleimani is the most senior Iranian officer active outside of the country and is responsible for setting up militias and cooperation with the likes of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, militias in Iraq, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, among others, Soleimani was also been behind the Karine A, a ship filled with weapons meant for Hamas that was seized by the Israeli Navy ion 2002.
Before his Syria role, Soleimani established Shi’ite militias in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan, as well as Egypt and even in some African nations and countries in Latin America.
Today he and his Quds Force are in charge of three different fronts in Syria. The unit is responsible for the front from Aleppo to the north, the second is the Aleppo to Damascus area and the third is from Damascus southward. The militias on the ground in those regions are under the command of the Quds Force headquarters in each region.
Among others, they are tasked with building a Shiite land bridge from Iran to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea through Syria. One of the militias established in Syria to support the regime is the National Defense Forces, backed by Hezbollah and the Quds force. This militia is made up of tens of thousands of soldiers, mostly Syrian citizens from Assad’s own Alawite community and Shi’ites from rural communities in Syria. Other Iranian-backed militias with tens of thousands of Shi’ite fighters operating in Syria come from Iraq and Afghanistan.
A number of attempts to attack Israel and Jews around the world have been attributed to Soleimani in the past. Some succeeded, such as the terrorist attack in Burgas in Bulgaria, in which a suicide bomber killed six and injured 32 and Israel accused Soleimani. In other cases the terror attacks did not succeed.
In 2011, two men were indicted in the United States as part of an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. It was thought at the time that Soleimani had contacted a drug trafficking cartel to have them carry out the attack without leaving any Iranian footprints behind. This plot was foiled while still in the planning stage.
He was also linked to other attempted terror attacks which never materialized, the last of which is the attempt to hit Israeli targets last night on Israel's northern border. The failed attempt and the Israeli response represents a severe blow to the infrastructure he and the elite force set up in recent years in the north.
Despite the unusually harsh attack by the Israeli Air Force on Wednesday night in Syria, that seriously affected Iran’s capabilities, Israeli defense officials doubt that the Revolutionary Guards and Soleimani will give up on their desire to establish themselves militarily in Syria.
So far, the Revolutionary Guards have invested $17 billion in Syria. They have lost many soldiers and received harsh criticism at home from those saying there is no need to sacrifice Iranian soldiers for Assad. After they have paid such a price, it is hard to believe that the IDF’s attack will cause them to abandon their great plan to build a second Hezbollah along Israel’s border with Syria on the Golan and change Iran's overarching strategy.
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/.premium-iran-s-long-arm-who-is-elite-force-that-attacked-israel-from-syria-1.6075400

Private Sector, Not Government, is Key to Job Creation
Michael Strain/Bloomberg/May 10/18
Senator Bernie Sanders wants the federal government to provide a $15-per-hour job to every American who wants one. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker — both likely 2020 Democratic presidential aspirants — have expressed support for the idea as well.
It’s hard to overstate the silliness of this proposal, as many pointed out last week.In 49 states, the bottom 25 percent of wage earners are paid less than $15 per hour. There are two states, Arkansas and Mississippi, where half of all workers earn hourly wages less than $15. Throw in benefits, and my back-of-the-envelope calculation finds over 80 million workers who earn less per year than the government would be obligated to pay them under this proposal. And in addition to workers, more than 100 million non-working Americans would be free to avail themselves of this guaranteed job, as well.
Taxes could never be raised and existing programs could never be cut enough to finance this policy at the level required. The government could not possibly come up with enough jobs to satisfy its obligations under this plan, and it would wreak havoc on the private economy.
Case closed? On Senator Sanders's idea, yes. But there are two larger issues here worth discussing.
The first is the government’s role in ensuring that people who want jobs can get them.
The right place to start is with policies to help individuals become more successful workers. One example is the federal earned-income tax credit, which uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize the earnings of low-income, working households. By increasing the financial rewards of working, previous EITC expansions have pulled people into the workforce. Or take work-based learning programs, like apprenticeships, which can be successful by combining skill-building with formal instruction in order to increase workers’ productivity and wages.
But in addition to focusing on workers — and beyond monetary policy’s role in sustaining a full-employment economy — there is a place for (microeconomic) solutions involving employers. Senator Sanders’s proposal is cartoonish, but targeted efforts to help ensure that jobs are available can be reasonable.
The goal of such efforts should be the creation of new jobs, in the private sector, that would not exist in the absence of the program. These policies should be in place during economic downturns, when the demand for workers is weak. Their focus should be on particularly vulnerable workers, with the goal of building skills and experience that will help people succeed over the long term, after the economy has recovered.
The US has some experience with this. In 2009 and 2010, as part of the government’s response to the Great Recession, 39 states and the District of Columbia operated subsidized employment programs using a federal emergency fund, placing more than 260,000 low-income workers into (mainly) private-sector jobs, at a cost of $1.3 billion. Importantly, states had significant flexibility in how they designed and implemented their programs, though the basic structure was similar: The wages of participating workers were paid in their entirety or in part with public funding.
There is some evidence that this program helped disadvantaged workers to stay active in the labor market during the recession and that employers reacted to the subsidy by creating jobs that wouldn’t have existed without it.
Economists don’t know much about the long-term employment effects of this program, and it was relatively small. But even during the current expansion, a demonstration project carried out in a depressed local labor market could be a good idea to help economists learn more about how these subsidies should be structured and how they affect workers.
The second larger issue worth discussing in light of Senator Sanders’s proposal is the notion of “good” and “bad” jobs. It’s common to hear some on the political left describe many jobs as “bad” — as beneath the dignity of what a reasonable person should expect from employment.
True, working in a hot kitchen, cleaning bathrooms, doing manual labor outdoors in the summer heat and the like can be physically demanding, and such jobs often pay relatively low wages. It’s easy for someone like me who works in a comfortable office and pecks at a keyboard to extol the dignity and virtue that comes from work. But you know what? Work confers dignity and is virtuous. Flipping burgers for $10 an hour isn’t a “bad job.” It’s an opportunity to build skills and climb the employment ladder. It’s an opportunity to provide for yourself and your family. It’s an opportunity to make a contribution to your community and to society. Through programs like the earned-income tax credit, public policy should support low-wage workers, helping to ensure that no one who works full time and heads a household lives in poverty. And public leaders shouldn’t denigrate — even unintentionally — the jobs held by millions of American workers. That message is counterproductive. All leaders should encourage work. Messages matter.

Is War an Alternative to the Deal?
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/May 10/18
Remaining silent over the nuclear deal with Iran was the worst choice that resembled swallowing a blade.
Cancelling it was the least painful option, and it will not mean a rapid breakthrough and peace but it will diminish the Iranian regime that will try to rebel and threaten and intimidate the region’s countries by spreading more chaos and wars. We must realize that what is next will neither pass easily nor quickly.
So what’s to gain from scrapping the deal if it has consequences that will open more of the gates of hell? Withdrawing from the deal and reviving economic sanctions aim to put back the evil genie in the bottle and locking him up. It needs time and effort before we see any change in its behavior.
Due to the danger which everyone sensed, and before the sanctions were even imposed, the toman lost one third of its value, Total withdrew from developing Iranian oil fields and the European Airbus company is talking about cancelling deals to sell airplanes which the Rouhani government were thrilled about and marketed as victory against its rivals. Do not underestimate the crisis which Tehran’s government faces and the regime’s fears. The crisis may relapse on the domestic level and lead to domestic conflict among the regime powers and it may encourage the Iranian people to protest more. In the end, the result may be the collapse of the regime somehow! A policy is required for the region’s countries to confront this wounded regime which will try to export its crisis and ignite more wars. Countries in the region did not seek to transfer war to make it within the regime and they did not fund foreign fronts against it.
They also have no hand in the popular protests that are happening every week in more than one city. However, they have the right to defend their security and the region’s security by confronting the Iranian regime in Syria and Yemen and thwarting its project in Iraq and Lebanon.
The recent parliamentary elections’ results in Lebanon confirm that Tehran is progressing quickly to confront the region in every possible way. Liberating Lebanon, Syria and Iraq from Iranian domination and getting the Iranian regime out of Yemen are linked to besieging the regime economically and restraining it.
Confronting the Iranian regime revolves around several fronts such as thwarting its activities in war zones, making it pay a high price and standing with the Iranian people, who are fighting a peaceful war, and morally supporting them.
European countries, which want the nuclear deal but do not care about the price the region’s countries are paying must be pressured as they must take a stance to either be with us or with Iran since what the latter is doing targets the region’s regimes and stability.
The aim of confronting Europe is to send a clear message to Tehran and to further pressure the Iranian regime to know it must halt its activities if it wants to survive. Firing missiles on Riyadh, destroying border cities, killing 600,000 Syrians and inciting against the Palestinian Authority are tantamount to war that must be confronted. Is there hope of peace after this dangerous escalation with Iran? The aim of escalation, pressure and boycott is to amend the regime’s behavior as changing it is up to the Iranian people who are better at judging it and confronting it if they decide to do so. We do not want to criticize the Iranian regime for its practices and follow suit by planting chaos and changing regimes.

Withdrawal from the Deal Weakens Chances of War
Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/May 10/18
Former US President Barack Obama used to view Iran as a “complicated country – just like we are a complicated country.” His successor, Donald Trump, believes that the Iranian regime is an “exporter of evil.” Developments have proven that the former was wrong. The US consequently withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after three years during which facts and evidence demonstrated that continuing with the deal would lead the region towards an unavoidable war. When we say it is a justified, understandable and reasonable step, we are not simply following what Saudi Arabia has been calling for or that ending the deal falls in its favor or that it was necessary to stand against evil. The US withdrawal from the agreement and the return of economic sanctions against the Iranian regime will weaken the chances of war in the region. Iran has exploited the massive loopholes in the agreement to export its revolution, launch ballistic missiles and fund its militias. Of course, no one wants to stoke the tensions in the region and it is in no one’s interest for the Arab Gulf states to be on the brink of war, but maintaining the nuclear deal would have done just that.
Saudi Arabia, for example, was targeted by the Houthi militia with 135 Iranian ballistic missiles only after the sanctions were lifted off Iran by the bad nuclear deal. Expectations that the regime will change its behavior were dashed, but this is something the Europeans are still counting on. They have also argued that Trump did not offer an alternative to the deal. The truth is that the best confrontation lies in cornering Iran. The gaps that allow it to infiltrate the region should be blocked. The catastrophic deal definitely overlooked Tehran’s behavior. No sooner had the economic sanctions been lifted that it dedicated $150 billion to fund the Revolutionary Guards. What world could possibly be safer and more secure with such a terrible deal?
We can say that the harsh economic sanctions that will be imposed on the Iranian regime will be the first and lightest step of a strategy that will prevent Tehran from taking the region to the brink of war. The carrot and stick policy proved to be useless and the Iranian people did not reap a single benefit from the three years of sanctions relief.
Tehran is now bracing itself for very difficult days, especially on its economy. The US is banking that a lot of companies with major trade ties with Iran would be keen to avert a clash with Washington. Even Russian firms and banks will be wary of coming at odds with the US.
The US economic intentions against Tehran were clear when the Secretary of Treasury announced that Boeing and Airbus agreements with Iran will be canceled after the withdrawal from the nuclear deal. This is a major blow because one contract alone covered 200 passenger planes, including 100 airbuses.
More importantly, with regards to Iran’s oil exports, the sanctions will diminish them to a third of what they are. This is a real catastrophe for the Iranian economy. China, India and Korea are the main importers of Iranian oil, but Washington warned that it will go after countries that maintain their trade relations with Tehran. Trump should not be taken lightly when he said: “We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States.”
Prior to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the region was sitting on a powder keg that was ready to go off at any moment. The spark may be coming later rather than sooner. Until Trump gives Iran the ultimatum of returning to negotiations “or else”, then the future of the region, despite some tensions, is without a doubt better off than waiting for that keg to explode.

Americans are Dying for China in Afghanistan
Lawrence Sellin/Gatestone Institute/May 10/18
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12256/afghanistan-china-us
While US policy-makers are trying desperately to stabilize Afghanistan, a shift is being orchestrated by China.
The Chinese evidently see their role in Afghanistan as the "good cop" versus the U.S. role as "bad cop." Like Pakistan, China seems to view the Taliban as the political opposition, not as a terrorist organization, and has offered itself as an intermediary to negotiate the departure of the U.S. and, thereby, be in a position to reap the economic and geopolitical benefits of Afghanistan as a client state of the China-Pakistan alliance. Control of Afghanistan will allow China to complete transportation corridors, power grids and oil and gas pipelines throughout Central and South Asia. China can then begin to exploit Afghanistan's estimated $3 trillion in untapped mineral resources, in addition to Balochistan's $1 trillion in gold, copper, oil, precious stones, coal, chromite and natural gas.
On April 22, an ISIS terrorist at a voter-registration office in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul blew himself up, killing at least 60 innocent people and wounding an additional 100. The following day, the United States condemned the suicide bombing, while repeating America's policy of counterinsurgency and nation-building in Afghanistan.
"This attack on this polling station reaffirms our commitment to our Afghan partners and reaffirms on why we have to focus on rooting out violent extremism," Pentagon spokesman US Army Col. Robert Manning said. "When citizens can't go and register and exercise their democratic right to vote, that's a problem. They certainly deserve it, and that's why we are going to stay there to make sure we can work with our Afghan partners to afford them that right."
In her daily news briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Huckabee made a similar statement about the US administration "continuing to move forward" with its current strategy in South Asia.
Yet, while US policy-makers are trying desperately to stabilize Afghanistan, a shift is being orchestrated by China, which stands to gain from what Afghani author Mushtaq Rahim recently referred to as Beijing's "economic development agenda."
China, he writes, "has been looking at Afghan affairs with a 'wait and see' approach and has gone into hibernation most of the time in debates regarding future of Afghanistan.
"While one can argue that the size and extent of the Chinese economy may not need Afghanistan for its growth and expansion agenda...A fractured or failed Afghanistan will pose significant security threats for China... challenging a major part of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) i.e. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)...
"A stable and strong Afghanistan can be a good regional contributor to the Chinese connectivity and economic integration agenda. Based on an assessment, Afghanistan owns one trillion USD in untapped mineral resources. These resources include a healthy amount of Lithium and Copper reserves which should be enticing for Beijing-based economists as Chinese industry is in great need of the mentioned chemical elements. In addition, Afghanistan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China to join the CPEC.
"China can be a very acceptable option for Kabul and Taliban at the same time to offer guarantees in the case of potential breakthrough in the formal peace process. In addition, it should also further expand its military support for Afghan security forces... China will have to increase its political engagement at local, regional and global levels in support of a strong Afghanistan in order to help the entire region survive challenges posed by the non-state actors who are exploring the use of Afghanistan as their operational bases."
The Chinese evidently see their role in Afghanistan as the "good cop" versus the U.S. role as "bad cop." Like Pakistan, China seems to view the Taliban as the political opposition, not as a terrorist organization, and has offered itself as an intermediary to negotiate the departure of the U.S. and, thereby, be in a position to reap the economic and geopolitical benefits of Afghanistan as a client state of the China-Pakistan alliance.
In other words, Americans are doing the work that the Chinese will not do, but from which the Chinese can eventually benefit the most.
China's strategy is evidently to connect Asia through land-based and maritime economic zones. CPEC is an infrastructure project, the backbone of which is a transportation network connecting China to the Pakistani seaports of Gwadar in the Balochistan Province and Karachi in the Sindh province, both located on the Arabian Sea.
Control of Afghanistan via its proxy, Pakistan, will allow China to complete transportation corridors, power grids and oil and gas pipelines throughout Central and South Asia. China can then begin to exploit Afghanistan's estimated $3 trillion in untapped mineral resources, in addition to Balochistan's $1 trillion in gold, copper, oil, precious stones, coal, chromite and natural gas.
The Afghanistan War could end "in a whimper" with a political settlement, the main purpose of which would be to provide a graceful exit that politely delays the announcement of a Taliban/Pakistan victory and a defeat for the US and NATO, all choreographed by China, which could then set up shop as the dominant regional power.
The US will have difficulty winning a war in a landlocked country where China's ally, Pakistan, controls the supply of troops and regulates the operational tempo through its support of the Taliban and the Haqqani network. The US appears to be hoping to stabilize a region, thousands of miles away, containing an endless supply of Islamic extremists fomented and facilitated by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Instead, or at the same time, the US should be learning to leverage instability and preparing to counter Chinese hegemony.
As China attempts to expand, opportunities arise to exploit geopolitical vulnerabilities and to thwart Chinese efforts for regional domination, including traditional nation state conflicts, the Sunni-Shia divide and ethnic nationalism, as well as other means.
An American withdrawal from Afghanistan would not constitute a defeat unless the US is forced into a strategic retreat due to its lack of a plan in place to address the changing regional situation, much of which is dictated by China.
**Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired US Army Reserve colonel, an IT command and control subject matter expert, trained in Arabic and Kurdish, and a veteran of Afghanistan, northern Iraq and a humanitarian mission to West Africa. lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.
© 2018 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.

“Go to Hell!” Egypt Responds to French Call to Revise Koran
Raymond Ibrahim/PJ Media/May 10/18
Recently I explained how, by Muslims’ own (inadvertent) logic, various Koran verses stand to be banned on the basis that they defame and incite violence against non-Muslims. Two days later, the French newspaper Le Monde published a letter signed by some 300 French public figures across the party lines including former president Nicolas Sarkozy. In it, they “ask that the verses of the Qur’an calling for the killing and punishment of Jews, Christians and unbelievers be obsoleted by theological authorities.”
Titled “Manifesto against the new anti-Semitism,” the signed letter focuses especially on the rise of Muslim violence against France’s Jewish minority: “French Jews are 25 times more likely to be attacked than their fellow Muslims. 10% of the Jewish citizens of Ile-de-France—that is to say about 50,000 people—were recently forced to move because they were no longer safe in some cities and because their children do not could attend the school of the Republic more. This is a low-noise ethnic cleansing…”
Of course, the notion that Muslims will willingly strike out certain verses from the Koran because they upset or threaten infidels is a nonstarter. From a Muslim perspective, because the Koran is Allah’s word, it cannot be tampered with or altered in anyway (if Sarkozy et al made these claims in certain Muslim countries they would either be incarcerated on blasphemy charges or killed outright).
But while more forthright Muslims base their rejection of the French call on this simple fact, those more skilled in “dialoguing” with the West follow a different strategy.
Enter Al Azhar. Located in Cairo and attached to the government of Egypt, it is the Muslim world’s most prestigious “university” (that is, madrasa) and regularly hosts—and engages in “dialogue” with—the likes of Barrack Obama and Pope Francis.
Responding to the French letter, the deputy chief of Al Azhar, Dr. ‘Abbas Shuman, said that “The call from 300 French persons to freeze verses in the Noble Koran, which they claim urges the killing of non-Muslims, is unjustifiable and unacceptable.”
And if that wasn’t clear enough, he exclaimed, “No to freezing one letter from the Koran—and those calling for it can go to hell!”
As usual, however, whereas entities such as the Islamic State proudly embrace the fact that the Koran does call for enmity and violence directed against non-Muslims, Al Azhar went into apologetic mode.
“For we have no verses,” insisted Shuman, “that command the killing of others, unless they commit one of the crimes that do earn the death penalty, such as murder, or raising weapons against us. Nor are we responsible for those [e.g., ISIS] who do not correctly understand the verses, who take them at face value without referring to the tafasir [exegeses] of the ulema.”
Perhaps he had forgotten about Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden [i.e., embrace sharia law], and who do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya [extortion money] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” All authoritative exegeses see this verse as enshrining Islam’s “messianic” mission of subjugating infidels by force.
Not only is Allah’s command here rather straightforward in meaning, but for a millennium Muslims executed it—and conquered some three-quarters of the original Western world in the process (as recounted in my new book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West).
It is only now, when Muslims are militarily/economically weaker than and vulnerable to the Western world that claims that such verses don’t really mean what they plainly say have become popular among Muslims, especially those involved in “dialogue” with the West.
I have in my possession an authoritative Arabic manual titled Al-Tarbiya al-Jihadiya fi Daw’ al-Kitab wa al-Sunna (“The Jihadi Upbringing in Light of the Koran and Sunna”), written by Dr. Abd al-Aziz bin Nasir al-Jalil. After providing several proofs, he concludes that “jihad is when Muslims wage war on infidels, after having called on them to embrace Islam or at least pay tribute [jizya] and live in submission, and then they refuse.” In other words, Koran 9:29, as it is.
As for Al Azhar’s reliance on the ulema and their exegeses, the book contains terse summaries of the word “jihad” as defined by the four schools of Sunni jurisprudence, which have the final say as to how Islam—or in this case, jihad—is articulated:
According to the Hanafis—the madhhab (school) Egypt follows—jihad is “extreme and strenuous warfare in the path of Allah, with one’s life, wealth, and tongue —a call to the true religion [Islam] and war to whoever refuses to accept it.”
According to the Malikis, jihad is “when a Muslim fights an infidel [non-Muslim] in order that Allah’s word reigns supreme.”
According to the Shafi’is, jihad is “fiercely fighting infidels.”
And according to the austere Hanbalis, it is “fighting infidels.”
Needless to say, fighting infidels in the name of Islam leads to killing infidels—untold millions over the centuries—in the name of Islam, which is precisely what Al Azhar denies.
During his dissembling, Al Azhar’s Shuman went so far as to insist that “Those [French] who think that there are [Koran] verses calling for their killing are unaware that those are really verses of peace. All verses that call for fighting are done in the context of self-defense … and this is a principle that even those calling for the freezing of Koran verses do not dispute. For all religions confirm the right to self-defense.”
Here again is another falsehood; while the Koran does have defensive verses, it has even more offensive verses. The great Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun (d.1406) explained the differences between Jews and Christians on the one hand, and Muslims on the other, centuries ago:
In the Muslim community, the holy war [jihad] is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force … The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense … But Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.
Even so, despite the clear words of the Koran and hadith, and the clear words of the ulema and their tafasir—to say nothing of the continuum of violence committed against infidels at the hands of Muslims across centuries and continents—Al Azhar, like all apologists, still insists that it’s all a misunderstanding. Or, as Shuman reiterated in closing: “So let them [the French signatories] understand the book of Allah correctly. But if they rely on their own, mistaken understandings, then let them go—with their understandings and requests—to hell!”
http://raymondibrahim.com/2018/05/10/go-hell-egypt-responds-french-call-revise-koran/

How independent is Iraq’s electoral commission?
Adnan Hussein/Al Arabiya/May 10/18
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) of Iraq has faced accusations for not being independent enough, just like most other “indolent” institutions of the state. These accusations should not be thought of as stemming from any hostility towards the commission and its constitutionally guaranteed independence, but are based on dozens of incidents which have occurred in every election. It is certain that at least 99 percent of the Iraqis want the IHEC and other institutions to be really independent and reject transforming them from committees that protect voters’ free will into tools for corrupt politicians who wish to oppress this will, distort it and falsify it.
The evident bias
It does not seem that the IHEC, which was established six months ago, has broken free from the unflattering legacy of its predecessors. As we shall see even in the current campaign, the institution has shown some bias for some lists, especially those of influential parties. Here are some examples.
Article 10 of the electoral campaign regulations prohibits employees of the state departments and local authorities from exploiting their influence or state resources, means or apparatuses, including the security and military bodies, in favor of themselves or any candidate to serve any electoral propaganda or to influence voters. Article 11 prohibits spending on electoral campaigns from public funds or from the ministries’ budgets. Dozens of Iraqi candidates blatantly violate electoral laws, most often these are high officials of the state. However we see dozens of the candidates blatantly violating these articles and the IHEC has not disqualified them. Most often those committing these violations are high officials of the state — including vice-presidents, current and former prime ministers, former deputy prime ministers, the current head of the house of representatives, current and former parliament members and other high-ranking state officials. They travel in the governorates, districts and suburbs using government cars and planes under the protection of the state forces.
Violation of laws and rights
This is not only a violation of the electoral campaign system and electoral law, but it also violates two main principles of the constitution: equality and equal opportunities for Iraqis. The election law prohibits any military personnel from running for the elections. However, we see candidates publishing their photos in military clothes referring to their military ranks and women candidates publishing with their photographs along with the photos of their military husbands and fathers in their military uniform. The IHEC is supposed to deal with these cases as violations of the electoral law and campaign system, but it has done no such thing. It hasn’t done anything because these candidates are on the lists of powerful forces in the state – forces whose leaders do not hesitate to use state resources for their campaigns!

The uprising of Arab dignity
Sawsan Al Shaer/Al Arabiya/May 10/18
Just like what happened in Lebanon, the candidates of pro-Iranian parties in Iraq have begun to pay huge prices for keeping their positions of influence in their electoral seats after there haven’t been any rivals for years. The candidates who presented the constituencies which Hezbollah controlled in Lebanon and current Iraqi candidates in constituencies controlled by parties that are loyal to Iran have complained of the violence facing them, like assaults and threats against them and their families.Threats have even been publically made against the people of the entire constituency. This intimidation from pro-Iran parties is expected to continue in the upcoming elections in Bahrain as well.
Violence in elections
In the past, some Bahraini constituencies were controlled by pro-Iran parties and it was unlikely that anyone would dare compete against them. It is likely that voters who oppose them will be terrorized if these parties call for boycotting the entire elections.
Candidates who are running against these parties may also be subject to violence if the latter decides to push its own candidates to participate in the elections. It is clear that violence has become inescapable within the constituencies that were once calm with only pro-Iran candidates presented in the previous legislative season.
Arab uprising against the stooges of Iran and its agents has expanded and now covers the Arab Maghreb
Parties loyal to Iran used to boast and flaunt in the Arab world of their Iranian affiliations, raising the image of Khomeini and his entourage in public and in the street, defying the Arab people and authorities. However, they are now facing a reaction from the people even before that of the authorities, and the confrontation with the Shiite public even before the Sunnis, who are striking back twice as hard for their lies, hypocrisy and corruption. Today, in those constituencies, an Arab popular uprising is occurring for the sake of Arab dignity. The Arab people are taking these treacherous people back to their dens from where they used to openly flaunt their treason. Iran knows well that enabling its stooges in the Arab world has become an expensive exercise for the state and these parties. The honeymoon period with the United States, which facilitated free expansion, so to say, whether by arming groups to threaten the people of the region or through ideological intimidation, has ended. The uprising against them and taking them back to their places of origin in is what ended their presence in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, resistance is in full swing to purge the region of the treason that has violated Arab countries in recent years.
Iran floundering
Iran, which is drowning into its failing economy and into the general revolt within its territories, is forced to sink even further into the swamp of its expansion in the Arab region. It must now provide its servants with more financial support and more weapons and assign them more experts to assist them in controlling their areas of influence in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. Now, it must confront the Bahraini, Saudi and Kuwaiti people, where these groups are trying to impose themselves on the political scene. The Arab uprising against the stooges of Iran and its agents has expanded and now covers the Arab Maghreb. Contempt has started to spread against every agent of this Persian state, whether he be Sunni or Shiite as Iran supports the different facets of terrorism and the rebel militias; it supports al-Qaeda, the Polisario and Hamas. The most important thing for Iran is to break national unity and weaken the state from within. Iran couldn’t care less about the doctrine, the religion or the belief of its militias as long as it threatens stability.The exposure of the Iranian project to the Arab people has revealed the motive all double agents and exposed the faces they’ve hidden behind for years and perhaps even decades.
 

رزمة من المقالات والتحليلات السياسية باللغتين العربية والإنكليزية من صحف ومواقع اخبارية متفرقة نشرت اليوم على موقعنا الألكتروني، موقع المنسقية/رابط الموقع

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

A Bundle of Reports/Eeditorials, in both Arabic & English posted today on our LCCC Site/http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Iran's 'First-ever' Attack on Israel and Israel's Most Extensive Syria Strike in Decades: What We Know and What Happens Next
هآرتس: أول هجوم إيراني على إسرائيل وضربات إسرائيلية موسعة على سورية منذ عقود: ما نعرفه وما سيحدث بعد ذلك
Haaretz/May 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64549/haaretz-irans-first-ever-attack-on-israel-and-israels-most-extensive-syria-strike-in-decades-what-we-know-and-what-happens-next-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%ac/

A Blow to Assad: Israeli Strike Destroyed Five Syrian Anti-aircraft Batteries
هآرتس: ضربة للأسد حيث دمرت إسرائيل أمس 5 بطاريات مضادة للطائرات
Amos Harel/Haaretz/ May 10, 2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64549/haaretz-irans-first-ever-attack-on-israel-and-israels-most-extensive-syria-strike-in-decades-what-we-know-and-what-happens-next-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%ac/
 

ANALYSIS: The War With Iran is Just Getting Started
إسرائيل اليوم: الحرب مع إيران هي في بدايتها
Yochanan Visser/Israel Today/May 10/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64556/israel-today-the-war-with-iran-is-just-getting-started-israel-destroys-iranian-bases-in-syria-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%af%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b9/

Israel Destroys Iranian Bases in Syria: 'You Bring Rain, We Will Bring a Flood'
موقع إسرائيل اليوم: إسرائيل دمرت القواعد الإيرانية في سوريا
Israel Today Staff/Thursday, May 10/2018/
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64556/israel-today-the-war-with-iran-is-just-getting-started-israel-destroys-iranian-bases-in-syria-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%af%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b9/

فيديو مداخلة من قناة الحدث للعميد المتقاعد والباحث العسكري والإستراتيجي خليل حلو يقرأ من خلالها بموضوعية في المواجهة العسكرية الإسرانية_الإيرانية في سوريا والتي انتهت منذ ساعات بتدمير بنى تحتية وعدد كبير من القواعد الإيرانية/10 أيار/18/اضغط هنا أو على الرابط في أسفل لمشاهدة المداخلة

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1sWW1SnAk

فيديو مقابلة مهمة وتوعوية من صوت لبنان مع رئيس تحرير اخبار الLbci جان فغالي/قراءة منطقية وواقعية في نتائج الإنتخابات وفي آلية تشكيل الحكومة والإستراتجية الدفاعية

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64541/%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%AA-%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86/

فيديو مقابلة مهمة وتوعوية من صوت لبنان مع رئيس تحرير اخبار الLbci جان فغالي/10 أيار/18/اضغط هنا أو على الرابط في أسفل لمشاهدة المقابلة

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5HzkMMeLsQ&t=1618s

فيديو مقابلة الدكتور سمير جعجع من تلفزيون المر/بموضوعية/10 أيار/18/اضغط هنا أو على الرابط في أسفل لمشاهدة المقابلة

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr2RyBKnPHM

هل صار سلاح حزب الله شرعياً؟

حازم الأمين/موقع درج/10 أيار/18

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/64564/%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%87%D9%84-%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD-%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%8B/