English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 13/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.december13.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day
Letter to the Romans 11/01-12/:”I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, ‘God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.’And David says, ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling-block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs for ever bent.’ So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 12-13/2022
Video From The CBC/Family of American national Amer Fakhoury who was held in Lebanon fights for other detainees
Mikati meets al-Rahi, says all sects were present in cabinet session
Hochstein rules out Netanyahu disavowal of Lebanon gas deal
Reports: Berri's dialogue to take place, presidential settlement expected
Bassil says attack on Hezbollah not targeted at Nasrallah, warns MoU at risk
TotalEnergies mobilizes to start Block 9 drilling in 2023
Mikati broaches general situation with UN’s Wronecka, meets MP Ahmad Kheir, Arab Scout Conference delegation
Berri meets UNDP’s Hauenstein, broaches current situation with Ain El-Tineh visitors
Bou Saab: Capital control law to be put aside after approval
Appeals for calm after Moroccan motorbike convoy in Beirut causes tension
Listening to Women in Politics: New report by UN Women and UN ESCWA tells stories of 7 trailblazing Lebanese women in politics who have broken...
Lebanon: Hezbollah Seeks to Contain Dispute with Bassil’s FPM
“Constructive ambiguity” obstructs maritime demarcation between Syria, Lebanon/Enab Baladi – Muhammed Fansa/Enab Baladi

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 12-13/2022
Israel says intercepted message brought down spy Cohen in 1965
Iran defies outcry with second execution linked to protests
Rights Group: More Iranians at Imminent Risk of Execution
EU Condemns Iran Executions, Tops up Ukraine’s Arms Fund
Ukrainian army doctors battle to save lives on front line
Ukraine Latest: G-7 to Hold Conference Call on Ukraine Support
Fire guts second Moscow region shopping centre in four days
Russia’s army is so ineffective it will probably not be able to take much territory in Ukraine for ‘the next several months’, UK intel says
Ukraine PM urges more military aid to counter Russia attacks
Russia's logistic logjam worsens in winter, curbs coal exports to China
Second Journalist Dies While Covering Qatar World Cup
Greek foreign minister slams Turkey's missile threat

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 12-13/2022
At Abraham Accords confab, Likud MK claims Saudi peace likely within a year/Lazar Berman/Times Of Israel/December 12/ 2022
The Apartheid Libel to Destroy Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 12, 2022
Is This Why 400-500 Migrants (Needlessly) Died for Qatar’s World Cup?/Raymond Ibrahim/December 12, 2022
Lunatic fringes plot armed insurrection against the state/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/December 12/2022
Iran’s anti-regime protesters likely to escalate their demands/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/December 12, 2022
UK’s new coal mine exposes rich world’s climate hypocrisy/Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/December 12, 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 12-13/2022
Video From The CBC/Family of American national Amer Fakhoury who was held in Lebanon fights for other detainees
Shortly after Lebanese-American Amer Fakhoury was released from detention in Beirut, he died amid a battle with stage 4 lymphoma. His family started a foundation in his name to help free other Americans held around the world. Two of his daughters, Guila and Zoya Fakhoury, joined CBS News to discuss their father's case and the cases of other American detainees.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/amer-fakoury-family-american-national-held-in-lebanon-fights-for-other-detainees/#x

Mikati meets al-Rahi, says all sects were present in cabinet session
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Monday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi over a controversial cabinet session that had infuriated the Free Patriotic Movement. The caretaker cabinet had convened last Monday to discuss "urgent" matters in a session boycotted by the FPM. FPM chief Jebran Bassil later blasted Hezbollah, Mikati and other parties over the session. Mikati said after the meeting that al-Rahi had pointed out to him that consultations were necessary before holding the cabinet session. Former President Michel Aoun and Bassil met Friday separately with al-Rahi. "A lot of rights are unprotected and the (National) Pact and the constitution are being undermined," the ex-president said. Mikati responded Monday that "all sects were represented in the cabinet session.""That's why conformity to the National Pact can't be an issue," the PM said from Bkirki.

Hochstein rules out Netanyahu disavowal of Lebanon gas deal
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein has said that he does not believe that an Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu will renounce the offshore gas agreement that was recently reached with Lebanon.
In an interview with Annahar newspaper, Hochstein said that both Lebanon and Israel respect the international maritime border, adding that the deal has become a fait accompli. He also pointed out that he has not sensed that the new Israeli government intends to reject the deal, noting that Israel’s new administration would understand the benefits of keeping the agreement. Asked about the delay in supplying Lebanon with Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity, Hochstein blamed the Lebanese government for not implementing the needed reforms. As for the demarcation of the land border between Lebanon and Israel, the U.S. official said that such a move is possible but not amid the absence of a president and a government in Lebanon and the presence of a transitional government in Israel. He added that Lebanon would start benefitting from the offshore gas resources – if present in commercially viable quantities – within three to four years.

Reports: Berri's dialogue to take place, presidential settlement expected
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
The parliamentary dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has called for is likely to take place, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday. “Christian” parliamentary sources meanwhile told the daily that they have information that “a political settlement to elect a president is being prepare due to the international and Arab pressures and efforts.”“The brotherly and friendly countries do not care about the identity of the president as much as they care for domestic Lebanese consensus over the president, the premier and the government’s program,” the sources added. “As a result of this foreign understanding, a domestic understanding will take place, that’s why dialogue is essential as a choice and as a necessary gateway for domestic accord,” the sources said.

Report: Bassil backing Azour for presidency in bid to lift US sanctions
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is trying to promote a number of presidential candidates, topped by Jihad Azour, who served as finance minister in Fouad Saniora’s first government, a media report said. “Bassil has endorsed Azour for several considerations, most notably that he is a figure that was previously considered to be close to ex-PM Fouad Saniora and the March 14 camp, and accordingly the FPM chief thinks that a part of this camp might support him,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday. “This was the reason behind Bassil’s invitation to the LF for dialogue, thinking that the LF would accept the former finance minister,” the daily added. It said that another point pushing Bassil to prefer Azour over others is “because the man is the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and has broad relations with the Fund’s members and with the Americans.”“Bassil has agreed with him that, once elected, he would seek to exert efforts to convince the Americans to lift the sanctions off” him, Nidaa al-Watan added. The newspaper also noted that Bassil has “a good relation with the brother of the ex-finance minister, the contractor Tony Azour, whom Bassil had tasked with a number of dam projects.”Nidaa al-Watan added that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi did not voice support for Azour when Bassil raised the issue with them. The newspaper also said that the Lebanese Forces and the March 14 camp have not shown any enthusiasm towards Azour’s nomination.

Bassil says attack on Hezbollah not targeted at Nasrallah, warns MoU at risk
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Sunday that his latest criticism of ally Hezbollah was not targeted at its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as he warned that the 2006 memorandum of understanding with the party is at risk. “The Mar Mikhail agreement has not collapsed but is at risk,” Bassil said in an interview on LBCI TV, in reference to the latest tensions with Hezbollah over the caretaker cabinet session that was held despite the FPM’s rejection and boycott. “In the issue of the cabinet meeting, no direct agreement was made with Sayyed Nasrallah, who has a special place in my heart,” Bassil explained. “When Sayyed Nasrallah makes a commitment to me, he commits till the end and I do not question his honesty,” the FPM chief added. He also confirmed that he meant the “Amal-Hezbollah duo” when he recently spoke of caretaker PM Najib Mikati’s “handlers.” As for the issue of electing a new president, Bassil said Hezbollah has tried to convince him with backing Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh’s nomination to no avail. “We do not agree to the principle of choosing a president who would protect the resistance… We want a president who would protect the state, partnership in the state, and the resistance,” Bassil added. He also said that the equation “either Suleiman Franjieh or Joseph Aoun” is rejected because “no one can impose equations” on the FPM. “We will not vote for Franjieh nor for Joseph Aoun,” the FPM chief stressed. As for the dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri intends to organize, Bassil said the FPM will take part in it. “We don’t want problems with anyone, especially with Hezbollah, because we paid a lot of prices to reach the agreement with Hezbollah,” the FPM chief said. And noting that he has not nominated himself in order “not to embarrass anyone,” Bassil revealed that he told Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in their meeting on Friday that “Christians should choose a president who would be a guarantee and who would reassure everyone, topped by Hezbollah.”

TotalEnergies mobilizes to start Block 9 drilling in 2023
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said Monday that the French energy giant has mobilized the teams in charge of drilling operations in Lebanon's Block 9, as he met with caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad. TotalEnergies said that it has launched a call for tenders to select a vendor for a new drilling rig in the first quarter of 2023. It added that pre-orders have also been placed with suppliers for the required equipment. Environmental studies will also be finalized by the end of June 2023, the company said in a statement. TotalEnergies and Italian hydrocarbon giant ENI had signed last month a framework agreement over Lebanon's Block 9. It comes after Lebanon and Israel said in October that they had struck a "historic" deal to resolve a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of U.S.-mediated talks. TotalEnergies holds a 60 percent stake in block nine, while ENI holds 40 percent.

Mikati broaches general situation with UN’s Wronecka, meets MP Ahmad Kheir, Arab Scout Conference delegation
NNA/December 12-13/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday received at the Grand Serail, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, with whom he discussed the current general situation in Lebanon and the region. Premier Mikati then met at the Grand Serail with MP Ahmad Al-Kheir, who said on emerging that he discussed with the Premier an array of affairs related to northern Lebanon, including the issue of the Tripoli refinery. Mikati later received the heads of delegations participating in the 30th Arab Scout Conference and the 5th Arab Scout Youth Forum from Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Kuwait, led by the Chair of the World Scout Committee Andy Chapman and his deputy Sarah Rita Qattan, in addition to the Secretary-General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, Ahmed Al-Hendawi, the Director of the Arab Scout Region, Amr Hamdi, the President of the Lebanese Scouting Federation, George Al-Ghareeb, and members of the administrative body. Premier Mikati welcomed the holding of the Scout Conference in Beirut, and expressed his permanent readiness to support the Lebanese Scout Movement and Arab Scout Associations.

Berri meets UNDP’s Hauenstein, broaches current situation with Ain El-Tineh visitors
NNA/December 12-13/2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Monday received at the Second Presidency in Ain al-Tineh, UNDP Resident Representative in Lebanon, Melanie Hauenstein. Speaker Berri later received a delegation from the Board of Trustees of the Muslim Scholars Gathering, headed by Sheikh Ghazi Hanina. Discussions reportedly touched on the current general situation and the latest developments in the country. This afternoon, Speaker Berri received the Regional Secretary of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Lebanon, Ali Hijazi, with discussions reportedly touching on the most recent political developments.

Bou Saab: Capital control law to be put aside after approval
Naharnet/December 12-13/2022
The Joint Parliamentary Committees have agreed to “put the capital control law aside after approving it pending the adoption of the rest of the laws that are related to the recovery plan,” Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced on Monday. “We passed Article 4 of the capital control law and the discussions are now limited to exemptions,” Bou Saad said after a parliamentary committees session. “This law will not write off the deposits but is rather aimed at restoring confidence in the banking sector,” the Deputy Speaker added. “We cannot besiege the banks with the capital control law so that they don’t declare bankruptcy, seeing as the objective is to return the money of the depositors,” Bou Saab went on to say. Calling for the presence of “a government that would follow up on depositors’ situations and a president who would continue addressing the situations, because all things in Lebanon are connected,” Bou Saab pledged that MPs “will not despair” until they find a solution. He also said that discussions would be continued Tuesday at 10:30 am.

Appeals for calm after Moroccan motorbike convoy in Beirut causes tension
Najia Houssari/Arab News/December 12/2022
Calls to end strife in Christian area Ashrafieh caused by football fans, amid concern over instigation by ‘Hezbollah thugs’
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called on all politicians, especially deputies representing Beirut, to ensure the capital’s unity and safety after tensions flared in the Christian area of Achrafieh on Saturday.
The problems arose when dozens of people celebrating Morocco’s win over Portugal in the FIFA World Cup headed to the area on motorbikes carrying the flags of Morocco, Palestine and Syria, reportedly chanting religious slogans. The convoy clashed with locals when they were mistaken for members of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. Soldiers were forced to intervene, and were able to contain the violence. Videos posted online showed fighting in Sassine Square, where traders recently finished their holiday season preparations.Siniora described what happened as “disturbing and suspicious at a moment of national and political congestion at all levels.”He added: “The capital of Lebanon is Beirut, the only unifying city that brings together all the Lebanese, and everyone should be aware of set traps and bad intentions, especially in these exceptional circumstances.”
Siniora called on deputies representing Beirut to meet as soon as possible in Achrafieh to put an end to the tensions and reiterate their support for peace and the rule of law in Lebanon. The clashes resulted in heated sectarian rhetoric online, with some calling for self-policing in Achrafieh, and others claiming that Moroccan fans had not faced trouble in other areas of the capital. The district is often subject to stringent measures from the security forces whenever tension arises between the Shiites and Christians in the city. Deputy Nadim Bachir Gemayel, who represents Achrafieh, said that there had been unacceptable connotations made by activists, and called on the security forces to prevent any further escalations. Former Minister Richard Kouyoumjian, member of the Lebanese Forces party, said: “There is no place for mistakes. Understand it however you want.”Activists in Tariq El-Jdideh subsequently claimed that the motorbike riders were from their area and were photographed with injuries and bloodshed, and without Syrian flags.
Former Achrafieh deputy Michel Pharaon said: “Achrafieh, just like any other city, is open to those who want to visit it respectfully and lovingly.”He added: “However, its inhabitants and the security forces will not receive provocateurs with open arms. Illicit self-security is suspicious and would also lead to strife.
“No one can replace the army, and the people of Beirut will not fall into the trap of strife.”Achrafieh deputy Jihad Pakradouni said that Achrafieh "is neither a punching bag nor an open arena for provocations and unacceptable practices.”Mohanad Hage Ali, director of communications at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, said: “Self-security is not new, as Hezbollah has already turned its areas into reserves outside the state’s authority. “Before the party, weren’t the Palestinian camps a form of self-security reserves, having their weapons uncontrolled by the Lebanese state?”Hage Ali believes that “self-security is a legal reaction amid the disintegration of the state. However, it’s not the solution. It opens the door for conflicts between the regions under different titles, some of which are as silly as celebrating the win of a football team.
“It also allows armed bands to emerge here and there. We fall into a bottomless pit once we move away from the state and the law.”The incident coincided with the head of the Free Patriotic Movement’s recent call to adopt decentralization before it was legally approved, and less than a month before the announcement of a neighborhood watch scheme established in Achrafieh with the aim of preventing increased thefts in the district.

Listening to Women in Politics: New report by UN Women and UN ESCWA tells stories of 7 trailblazing Lebanese women in politics who have broken...
NNA/December 12-13/2022
Today, UN Women and ESCWA jointly launched a report on women’s political participation entitled, “Women at the Table: Insights from Lebanese Women in Politics”. The report analyses a set of seven in-depth interviews with female Lebanese political actors and explores the challenges and opportunities they faced in office. Although Lebanese women gained the right to vote in 1952, and despite a vibrant feminist movement, women remain grossly under-represented in public and political life. Out of 88 Lebanese governments formed since 1943, only 9 governments have included women, and today women represent only 4% of the current caretaker cabinet, with one female minister out of 24. Lebanon ranked 110 out of 146 countries in political representation in 2022, according to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap index – though this ranking was assessed when Lebanon had 30% women in cabinet in early 2021 - and is ranked 183 out of 187 countries in terms of women’s participation in parliament. In comparison to its Arab neighbors, the country lags far behind, as it ranks 15th of 17 Arab countries in female parliamentarians. “In calling for women’s rights, we are not asking for a new agenda, but for an existing one to be honored where hard-won gains of women’s rights are protected, and more investments in lifelong learning, healthcare, decent jobs, and social protection for women and girls are stimulated. Tackling these issues, calling for equality in political representation, requires a united front”, said Mr. Imran Riza, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in his opening remarks, highlighting the need to consolidate and maximize the gains reaped by the seven Lebanese women who broke through the barriers to political representation. To better understand the challenging landscape and to provide insight into Women’s political participation in Lebanon, UN Women and ESCWA interviewed seven Lebanese women in politics, between 2020 and 2021, who were ‘firsts’ in their field. The women interviewed for the report are HE. Dr. Inaya Ezzeddine, HE. Raya Haffar El Hassan, HE. Nada Boustani Khoury, HE. Paula Yacoubian, Salam Yamout, HE. Myrna Boustani and Dr. Chantal Sarkis. “Being the largest financial supporter to UN Women, Sweden wants to ensure that a gender equality perspective is brought into policymaking on a broad front, nationally and internationally. In Lebanon we will continue to support the advocacy of women’s rights and feminist groups to ensure that women from across the Lebanese society have equal opportunity to access political structures and positions of influence. We know that what needs to be done requires political will but also well-designed and effectively implemented gender quotas and long-term strategic work in order to see a real change in the 2026 Lebanese parliamentary elections, together with IMF reforms”, said HE. Ann Dismorr, Ambassador of Sweden to Lebanon. With support from the Embassies of Sweden and Finland, the report aims to offer policy-makers and practitioners a better understanding of the challenges – and opportunities – that exist when seeking to be a woman in public and/or political office in Lebanon, taking as a starting point that the full and meaningful inclusion of women in leadership and decision-making is a critical prerequisite for genuine democracy and gender equality.
“The stakes and costs of women’s exclusion in the economy and politics are too high to ignore. Lebanon can no longer afford to wait for reforms before taking action on social equality and justice issues. On the contrary, women’s rights, economic empowerment and inclusion in society must be prioritized in reform agenda”, said HE. Anne Meskanen, Ambassador of Finland to Lebanon. The report calls for the application of temporary special measures in the form of gender electoral quotas, for political parties to put women on their lists, for networks and strong support systems for women in politics, and for support in developing a supportive environment for women in politics, from men and women. “Poor women’s political participation is a challenge across the region; but the case of Lebanon is very unique due to the overall political environment. Success stories like the ones discussed today give us hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We salute all women who were able to break the glass ceiling and encourage those who want to enter into politics but are afraid”, said Ms. Mehirnaz El Awady, Director – Cluster leader, ESCWA. “Lebanon has a wealth of capable, skilled female leaders ready to contribute to its recovery. The status quo has proven to be unsustainable. It’s time for change”, said Ms. Rachel Dore-Weeks, Country Representative of UN Women in Lebanon.

Lebanon: Hezbollah Seeks to Contain Dispute with Bassil’s FPM
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/December 12-13/2022
Hezbollah is seeking to mitigate the impact of the recent dispute with its Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), by affirming its adherence to the memorandum of understanding signed in 2006 between the two sides. “We were, still are and will remain adherents to our allies, regardless of our differences. We are attached to our convictions and alliances,” said Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, a member of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc. Currently, the FPM leadership is upset from the Shiite party’s bias towards Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Their dispute revolves around Hezbollah ministers taking part in a recent government session in spite of the FPM’s disapproval. The FPM believes that the cabinet cannot convene given that it is operating in a caretaker capacity. In a speech he delivered in the south on Sunday, Hajj Hassan affirmed that “the main issue in Lebanon today is the election of the President.” He said several sessions took place without electing a President due to the lack of understanding between the parliamentary blocs over a consensual figure. MPs have failed to elect a new president despite holding nine electoral sessions since former Lebanese President Michel Aoun's six-year term officially ended last October. Hajj Hassan therefore called on politicians to respond to the request of Speaker Nabih Berri for dialogue. For his part, Mohamed Khawaja, a Shiite MP with Berri’s Amal Movement, stressed that “Parliament’s current composition does not allow any party to alone decide on the name of the next President.” He noted that Hezbollah and its allies will keep voting with a white paper in the electoral sessions until an agreement is reached on a consensus candidate. Meanwhile, Amal Movement’s MP Qassem Hashem considered Berri’s call for dialogue as the last opportunity to shorten the presidential vacancy and to reach an understanding on a consensual candidate, capable to address Lebanon’s political and economic crises. Lebanese lawmakers failed for a nineth time last Thursday to elect a successor to Michel Aoun.
Parliament is split between supporters of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority. Lawmaker Michel Moawad is backed by opposition deputies, but his tally is falling well short of the required majority. Moawad's candidacy is opposed by Hezbollah, who is backing head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Franjieh. Member of the Progressive Socialist Party, MP Bilal Abdallah, who is one of the deputies supporting Moawad, said “the priority now is to elect a new president,” noting that “other issues come afterwards.” He added that the PSP is still hoping for a settlement between parliamentary blocs, whether on candidate Moawad or another figure. Abdallah criticized the other parties for voting with a blank paper, meaning “no position.”

"غموض بنّاء" يعطل ترسيم الحدود البحرية بين سوريا ولبنان
“Constructive ambiguity” obstructs maritime demarcation between Syria, Lebanon
Enab Baladi – Muhammed Fansa/Enab Baladi
https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2022/12/constructive-ambiguity-obstructs-maritime-demarcation-between-syria-lebanon/
There has been no change in the maritime demarcation file between Lebanon and Syria since it was last submitted before the end of the former Lebanese President’s mandate, Michel Aoun. In light of the official media’s disregard for the issue, the question arises as to why the Syrian regime has not opened the file.
Although the desired economic benefits of maritime boundary demarcation were mentioned, as when the demarcation agreement between Lebanon and Israel was signed, the regime showed no acceptance towards a neighbor demonstrating enthusiasm to close the file, as it initiated a refusal justified by the former Syrian ambassador to Lebanon by a “full agenda.”
On 24 October, the former Lebanese president mandated a delegation to visit Syria to discuss the issue of maritime delimitation between the two countries, headed by the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, Elias Bou Saab. The delegation also included the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bouhabib, the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, and the Director of the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim.
After Damascus apologized the following day for not receiving the Lebanese delegation because of “prior engagements,” the former Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul Karim, said after meeting the previous Lebanese president that “confusion had occurred in contact between presidents Aoun and al-Assad about the date of the delegation’s visit to Damascus.”He added that the meeting had not been canceled “but rather postponed due to the lack of availability on the Syrian side,” while no new date has been set for receiving the Lebanese delegation yet.
What are the oil estimates?
In 2005, Norwegian company INSEIS conducted a two-dimensional (2D) seismic survey in agreement with the Syrian Petroleum Company, which included 5000 linear kilometers and covered an area of ​​10,000 square kilometers. In 2011, the French company CGG Vertitas, which acquired INSEIS, released its report on this survey. The report stated that “Offshore Syria is a geologically complex area, situated above the plate tectonic boundary between the African and Eurasian plates.” The report confirms the existence of three sedimentary basins in the Syrian coast and that the results of the survey are “encouraging” with oil and gas reservoirs.
The US Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. This includes the Levantine Basin Province off the coasts of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.
Although being the competent body in the oil and gas file, the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources does not provide confirmed or foreseeable information on exploration in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast, while the state-run al-Thawra newspaper indicated in 2013 that the area of ​​the Syrian part of the eastern Mediterranean basin is estimated at 6.5% of the total basin area.
The newspaper mentioned that the Syrian regional and exclusive economic zones are “promising” and that there is hope for discovering gas in the southern part and oil in the northern part.
At the time, the newspaper reported that exploration would take place in Sea Block No. 1 within the Syrian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Tartus governorate up to the southern Syrian-Lebanese maritime border, with an area of ​​2250 square kilometers.
Accordingly, the aforementioned marine area intersects 750 square kilometers, which Lebanon considers among its exclusive economic zone.
Syrian gas file, “constructive ambiguity”
The Syrian gas file is accompanied by official ambiguity regarding the offshore gas reserves and contracted companies and the results of their work, with only frequent declarations of promotional oil discoveries. The economic and political analyst in Middle Eastern affairs, academic Mohammad al-Futaih, told Enab Baladi that Syria’s energy profile has always overlapped with many files, including economic, political, domestic, and international ones. In recent years, the portfolio of potential offshore gas reserves has emerged as an “ambiguous” file that has been used primarily to “promote” the possibility of future economic gains that would allow the reconstruction of Syria. The first agreement with Russia for exploration and drilling took place in December 2013, and other agreements granted to Russia were subsequently concluded. After the agreements were announced and celebrated, no direct exploration, drilling, or official estimates from both sides on the projected reserves or possible timeline for the commencement of exploration, drilling, and transition of economically viable production were formally announced. Al-Futaih compared the Syrian steps with the Israeli side, which announced the granting of exploration rights in the Tamar gas field in 1999. The seismic survey began in 2000, and the first commercial shipment was exported in 2013. In 2018, the first long-term contracts for the export of production were signed. Al-Futaih labeled the Syrian ambiguity that has persisted for nine years since the signing of the first prospecting and exploration contracts with Russia as “constructive ambiguity,” which provides “continued hopes” of a future economic breakthrough and transformation into a country with “energy” resources. The economic analyst believes that concrete indicators of exploration in the eastern Mediterranean region by Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel suggest that possible discoveries are far below previous expectations and that their economic viability is low. In the case of Egypt, production is currently only sufficient to cover a portion of domestic consumption, while Israel decided in late 2021 to suspend exploration this year.
What is Russia’s role?
Syria was not the only one with suspended Russian investments in the field of energy because of its “complex” interests in the gas and energy file, according to Middle East affairs analyst Mohammad al-Futaih.
Both at the governmental and private level, Russia signed agreements with Egypt, Cyprus, and Iran in the development of the oil and gas sectors in those countries without any “substantial” progress, which al-Futaih described as “a Russian strategy of freezing the development of any energy sources competing with Russia,” particularly in the Middle East. In the case of Egypt, the Russian businessman close to the Kremlin, Mikhaïl Fridman, has started investing in the Egyptian gas sector since 2013. In 2016, he bought a stake in roughly one-quarter of Egypt’s offshore gas fields at the time but did not make any financial investments in developing those fields either in terms of exploration or increasing production capacities. In December 2021, one of Fridman’s companies announced the suspension of work on a number of Egyptian oil fields without offering their rights to those fields for sale. Geopolitical considerations push those affected by Russia’s strategy, such as Syria, Egypt, and Iran, to maintain relations with it, even though their energy sectors are damaged, according to al-Futaih. Al-Futaih ruled out any tangible developments in the process of exploration and drilling for gas in Syria.
In response to the US sanctions “pretext” used by the regime to justify companies’ inability to survey offshore fields, al-Futaih refuted this justification on the grounds that contracts have been granted to Russia since 2013, years before the Caesar Act, which punished the Syrian energy sector. Currently, Russian companies are being punished by the Americans and the Europeans, and thus the execution of contracts signed with Syria would not “harm them any further.”
A response to presidential apathy
The Syrian-Lebanese border file is one of the files that have been pending for decades between the two countries, both during stages of outstanding and tense relations. Syria’s official position remains that the Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, are Lebanese, but without officially informing the United Nations of such a position. With regard to maritime boundaries, the academic Mohammad al-Futaih believes that the demarcation of the border will reopen the file of potential Syrian offshore gas resources and will inexplicably highlight the Syrian side’s “standstill” in relation to gas exploration.
With regard to the developments of recent months and the refusal of Damascus to receive the Lebanese delegation, al-Futaih attributed the reason to the “apparent apathy” with the former Lebanese President, who had not visited Syria during his mandate. His direct contacts with the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, remained officially unannounced until April 2021 and were about the maritime borders and refugees, the only two reported files of presidential-level talks. In August 2018, the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar reported that a confidential telephone call had already been made between the two presidents. In November 2019, Michel Aoun answered a question about whether he was telephoning his Syrian counterpart by saying, “This is personal.”The political analyst does not rule out that Damascus’ reading of Michel Aoun’s movements in recent months with the demarcation file would be an attempt to “promote” potential economic gains. Thus, cooperating with these endeavors from the point of view of the regime means providing a service to Aoun, even though he refused as much as to acknowledge that he telephoned al-Assad for years, as well as that the file of marine resources is a “sensitive file.”
The Lebanese newspaper al-Markaziya agrees with the analyst in its report issued last October, as it explained the regime’s refusal to receive the delegation by conveying three messages, one of which is to the Lebanese authority that a file at the demarcation level should not be handled by a “parliamentary deputy” but rather needs a “presidential negotiator”; A visit at this level would entail an official Lebanese acknowledgment of the return of political relations to their previous state. The second message is that the regime “will not sell” the maritime border demarcation card of Lebanon, which is receiving Arab attention in light of its crises if it is not “paid in advance” from the Arab countries opposing it. As for the last of the three aforementioned messages, it was addressed to Washington, which brokered the deal between Lebanon and Israel, an attempt to “snatch” communication with it that would bring back the regime to the international scene.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 12-13/2022
Israel says intercepted message brought down spy Cohen in 1965
Reuters/December 12, 2022
Israel sought to lay to rest on Monday a decades-old debate about one of its most famous spies, Eli Cohen, saying his capture and execution in Syria was due to successful counter-intelligence rather than unprofessionalism.
Cohen, a Jewish immigrant to Israel from Egypt, was recruited by Mossad and dispatched under cover to Damascus, where he operated from 1961 to 1965. Before his arrest, he managed to pass on information that Israel says proved vital to the defeat of Syrian forces in the 1967 Middle East war. His story was the subject of a 2019 Netflix dramatisation. Inaugurating a museum to Cohen's memory in the coastal city of Herzliya, Mossad director David Barnea said a recent investigation had concluded that the spy was caught "only because his transmissions were intercepted by the enemy. Simply intercepted and traced". "This is now an intelligence fact," Barnea said, according to a transcript of the event, dismissing theories that Cohen had tipped off the Syrians by sending too many messages, perhaps under pressure from his handlers, or strayed from instructions. Among the exhibits in the new museum is Cohen's last cable - sent on the day of his capture in January 1965 - reporting a meeting of the Syrian high command. Convicted of espionage, Cohen was hanged in Damascus later that year. Syria, still at war with Israel, has refused to repatriate Cohen's body.

Iran defies outcry with second execution linked to protests
Arab News/December 12, 2022
JEDDAH: Iran on Monday executed a second man in connection with protests that have shaken the regime for months, defying an international outcry over its use of capital punishment against those involved in the movement. EU foreign ministers condemned Iran for its crackdown on anti-government protests and its drone deliveries to Russia while moving ahead with a new package of sanctions meant to raise pressure on Tehran. The EU “will take any action we can to support young women and peaceful demonstrators,” Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: “With this sanctions package, we are targeting in particular those who are responsible for the executions, the violence against innocent people …these are especially the Revolutionary Guards.”Monday’s public hanging of Majidreza Rahnavard shows the speed at which Iran now carries out death sentences handed down for those detained in the demonstrations the regime hopes to put down. Rahnavard, 23, had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife and wounding four other people, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency reported. He was executed just over three weeks after he was arrested in November, rights groups said. The hanging also came only four days after Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed on Thursday on charges of wounding a member of the security forces in the first case of the death penalty being used against a protester. “These executions are a blatant attempt to intimidate people, not for committing crimes but just for taking their opinions to the streets, just for wanting to live in freedom,” Germany’s Baerbock said. Mizan published images of Rahnavard’s execution, showing a man with his hands tied behind his back hanging from a rope attached to a crane. The director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said Rahnavard “was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions after a grossly unfair process and a show trial.”He added: “The public execution of a young protester, 23 days after his arrest, is another serious crime committed by the regime’s leaders and a significant escalation of the level of violence against protesters.”The protests were sparked by the Sept. 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish-Iranian arrested by the morality police.

Rights Group: More Iranians at Imminent Risk of Execution
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 12 December, 2022
Rights groups warned Sunday that several protesters in Iran are at imminent risk of execution, following an international backlash against the clerical regime's first hanging linked to ongoing demonstrations. The almost three-month-old protest movement was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian arrested by the morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women. The protests, described by the authorities as "riots", represent the biggest challenge to the regime since the shah's ouster in 1979. They have been met with a crackdown that activists say aims to instil public fear, AFP reported. Iran on Thursday executed Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was convicted of attacking a member of the security forces. Rights groups said he underwent a show trial marked by undue haste. Iran's judiciary says it has handed down death sentences to 11 people so far in connection with the protests, but campaigners say around a dozen others face charges that could see them receive the death penalty. Unless foreign governments "significantly increase" the diplomatic and economic costs to Iran, the world "is sending a green light to this carnage", said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).Amnesty International said Iran was now "preparing to execute" Mahan Sadrat, 22, just a month after his "grossly unfair" trial. He was convicted of drawing a knife in the protests, an accusation he strongly denied in court. On Saturday, Sadrat was transferred from Greater Tehran Prison to Rajai Shahr prison in the nearby city of Karaj, "sparking concerns that his execution may be carried out imminently", Amnesty said. "Like all other death row prisoners, he was denied any access to his lawyer during the interrogations, proceedings and show trial," said another group, Oslo-based Iran Human Rights. Amnesty warned the life of another young man arrested over the protests, Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh, was also at risk "after a fast-tracked proceeding which did not resemble a trial". He was sentenced to death in November on accusations of "tearing down highway railings and setting fire to rubbish cans and tires", the group said. Among others handed the same sentence is rapper Saman Seyedi, 24, from Iran's Kurdish minority. His mother pleaded for his life on social media in a video where she stated "my son is an artist not a rioter."
Another dissident rapper, Toomaj Salehi, who expressed support for anti-regime protests, is charged with "corruption on earth" and could face a death sentence, Iranian judicial authorities confirmed last month. "We fear for the life of Iranian artists who have been indicted on charges carrying the death penalty," United Nations experts said in a statement, referring to the cases of Sayedi and Salehi. Amnesty and IHR have also raised the case of Hamid Gharehasanlou, a medical doctor sentenced to death. They say he was tortured in custody and his wife was coerced into giving evidence against him which she later sought to retract. "Protester executions can only be prevented by raising their political cost for the Islamic republic," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said, calling for a "stronger than ever" international response. The US, European Union members and UK strongly condemned Shekari's execution. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it showed a "boundless contempt for human life". Iran on Friday and Saturday again summoned the German and British ambassadors to protest their countries' actions, marking the 15th time in less than three months Tehran has called in foreign envoys.
Many activists want the foreign response to go further, extending even to severing diplomatic ties with Iran. After the widespread international outrage at Shekari's execution, Iran said it was exercising restraint, both in the response by security forces, and the "proportionality" of the judicial process. Iran's use of the death penalty is part of a crackdown that IHR says has seen the security forces kill at least 458 people. According to the UN, at least 14,000 have been arrested. Meanwhile, two actors and a theatre director detained in November for making a video supporting the protest movement have been released on bail, local media reported. "Theatre director Hamid Pourazari and actresses Soheila Golestani and Faezeh Aeen, were released on Sunday evening," the ISNA news agency said.

EU Condemns Iran Executions, Tops up Ukraine’s Arms Fund
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 12 December, 2022
European Union foreign ministers on Monday condemned Iran for its crackdown on anti-government protests and its drone deliveries to Russia, while moving ahead with a new package of sanctions meant to raise pressure on Tehran. The EU "will take any action we can to support young women and peaceful demonstrators," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Tehran on Monday executed a second man involved in anti-government protests that have turned into a popular revolt by Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the biggest legitimacy challenges to the Shi'ite clerical elite since the 1979 revolution. "With this sanctions package, we are targeting in particular those who are responsible for the executions, the violence against innocent people...these are especially the Revolutionary Guards," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. While agreed in principle by the member states, the sanctions might be formally approved only on Tuesday, a diplomatic source said. A diplomatic source said last week that 21 individuals and one entity would be sanctioned over human rights abuses, while there had been 10 proposals over the issue of drones. In a statement, the ministers said: "The European Union strongly condemns the widespread, brutal and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian authorities against peaceful protesters, including women and children, leading to the loss of hundreds of lives". The bloc also criticized Iran over drone deliveries to Russia. "These weapons provided by Iran are being used indiscriminately by Russia against Ukrainian civilian population and infrastructure causing horrendous destruction and human suffering," the statement said. Western powers have also said that they continue to see provision of Iranian drones to Russia and believe Tehran will also soon supply ballistic missiles. Iran has said it shipped a small number of drones to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied its forces have used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine. Ukraine, Russia  Separately, the EU ministers also agreed on Monday to put another 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) into a fund that has been used to pay for military support for Ukraine, after it was largely depleted during almost 10 months of the war. More top-ups may be possible at a later stage. "Today's decision will ensure that we have the funding to continue delivering concrete military support to our partners' armed forces," Borrell said. Ministers were also set to discuss a ninth package of Russia sanctions. However, it remained unclear whether Hungary would block these decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as "blackmail diplomacy" due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest, or if it could be agreed on later on Monday or Tuesday.
Foreign ministers also paved the way for a three-year military mission to Niger, with 50-100 troops at first and later up to 300 to help the country improve its logistics and infrastructure. One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger is seen as being at risk of a possible spillover of violence from neighboring Mali, where militants are gaining ground following the withdrawal of French and other European forces.

Ukrainian army doctors battle to save lives on front line
Vlad Smilianets and Shannon Stapleton/DONETSK REGION, Ukraine/ Reuters/ December 12, 2022
On the heaviest days of fighting in east Ukraine, teams of army doctors near the front line can carry out five amputations at a time as they try to save limbs and lives. But no two days are the same at a military hospital in the Donetsk region that treats soldiers wounded in some of the fiercest battles in nearly 10 months of war with Russian forces. "There are days when there are many heavily wounded: four or five amputations at once. Sometimes there is no one for two, three, four hours," said Oleksii, a 35-year-old army doctor who declined to give his full name. "No day is like another. Sure, there are difficult days, especially when our (soldiers) are attacking. Then the work can go on for five, six, seven hours straight." Saving damaged limbs bound tightly on the battlefield to limit blood loss is the first priority for Oleksii. "We mainly stabilise the patient. I think that the most important part of our job is to take off the tourniquet in time, to give a chance to save the limb or part of the limb," he said. For 36-year-old Oleksii Nazaryshyn, a brigade military service chief, the main goal is simply to save lives. "We need to make sure the boys don’t die, and reach the next point of evacuation," he said. Medical staff try to lift soldiers' morale by decorating the military hospital with children's drawings. Reuters is not disclosing its location for security reasons. "Ukrainian warrior! We the students of Bystrivska gymnasium wish you victory and God’s protection of our Ukraine," declares one of the drawings. Some of the staff find it hard to hold back tears as wounded soldiers are carried in on bloody stretchers. "To be honest, it is mentally very hard when very young boys are being brought in. We transported boys without legs born in 2002 and 2000. It is mentally very hard," said a 24-year-old intern who gave her name only as Olena. "When you're alone you can cry, but when you go through the doors you have to smile because they (the wounded) are looking at you and saying 'I am already doing better'." She praised the soldiers' courage and determination. "Very often he (the wounded) is being brought in and says 'sew me up and I'll go back to the boys! My boys are there.' Not even one said 'take me away, I want to go home.' Everyone says 'My boys are there, I will go to them'," she said.

Ukraine Latest: G-7 to Hold Conference Call on Ukraine Support
Bloomberg/December 12, 2022
Group of Seven leaders will hold a virtual meeting on Monday hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss Ukraine’s immediate needs following Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. European Union foreign ministers are also meeting in Brussels to discuss how to support Ukraine through the winter. President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday affirmed US support for Ukraine. The US has promised $38 billion in military support and delivered $13 billion in direct aid to Ukraine already.Ukrainian troops repelled attacks near 10 settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said on Facebook. Russian forces conducted two missile strikes against civil infrastructure in the Donbas city of Kostyantynivka, 11 air attacks on targets along the contact line and more than 60 assaults with multiple-launch rocket systems against civilian targets in the southern city of Kherson and at Ukrainian military positions, according to the post.The EU is planning to name a senior diplomat to serve as a sanctions envoy to push other countries for stronger enforcement of the bloc’s trade restrictions on Russia. David O’Sullivan, a former EU ambassador to the US, will serve in the role starting next year, according to people familiar with the matter. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in October suggested such an envoy could help deliver strong messages to countries seen helping Moscow evade sanctions. The Financial Times reported O’Sullivan’s selection earlier. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc still hasn’t reached consensus on a ninth package of sanctions against Russia because “there are different views among member states.”
Borrell told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers that he hoped the member states would give a green light on the package by the end of the day or possibly tomorrow. Hungary has raised doubts about whether it would vote in favor of the new sanctions until its recovery funds are approved.
The ministers will also approve “a very, very tough package” of new measures on Iran over its drone deliveries to Russia and its violent crackdown on protesters, Borrell said, despite denials by Tehran that it supplies military aid to Moscow. Ukraine will participate in the Group of Seven virtual meeting on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram after a “substantial and useful” phone call with Biden. “We have strong agreements,” Zelenskiy said in the statement. “We coordinated our positions with America.” Zelenskiy added that Ukraine’s peace formula is welcomed by the US, and this fact “adds optimism.”“The sooner all positions in the peace formula are implemented, the stronger security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe will be,” he said. As soon as winter frosts arrive and make the soil hard enough in Ukraine, its troops are going to renew their offensive operations, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said during a joint press briefing with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson. There is some decline in military activity due to weather conditions as the shift from dry autumn to mild winter made terrain impassable for wheeled military machines, complicating both Ukrainian as well as Russian operations, according to Reznikov.

Fire guts second Moscow region shopping centre in four days
BALASHIKHA, Russia (Reuters)/December 12, 2022
A shopping centre in the Moscow region was damaged in a major fire on Monday, emergency services said, the second such blaze in less than a week. Pictures published on Telegram by Russia's emergencies ministry showed that the fire at a construction supplies hypermarket in Balashikha, a satellite town of 500,000 people on the outskirts of the Russian capital, had caused part of the roof to collapse, with smoke billowing into the air. The ministry said the fire had grown to 9,000 sq m (100,000 sq feet) before being brought under control. The Investigative Committee, which is responsible for serious crimes, said it had opened an investigation. On Friday, a fire at a large shopping centre in the Moscow suburb of Khimki killed one person and consumed an area of 7,000 sq m.

Russia’s army is so ineffective it will probably not be able to take much territory in Ukraine for ‘the next several months’, UK intel says
Sinéad Baker/Business Insider/December 12, 2022
The UK MOD said Russia looked unlikely to make any big gains in Ukraine for months.
It's highly unlikely that Russia can generate an effective striking force in the coming months, it said. Ukraine, meanwhile, predicted an increase in its offensive moves once the ground freezes. The UK Ministry of Defence predicted on Monday that Russian forces will not see any big gains over the winter, even as Ukraine said its own attacks would ramp up as the ground freezes. The British defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Monday that "Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months."It added that Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, with Russian military planners likely aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk Oblast. However, "Russia's strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives: it is highly unlikely that the Russian military is currently able to generate an effective striking force capable of retaking these areas," it said. Russia never completely controlled all of the four regions, despite announcing their annexation in September, and Ukrainian forces have subsequently pushed back Russian troops across vast swathes of territory. Ukraine, meanwhile, has said that its own greater offensive efforts would start again soon. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Sunday that the weather turning freezing would make Ukraine's operations easier by hardening the ground. He said Ukraine's army will resume "active counteroffensive actions" when the ground freezes and "becomes firmer for easier passage of equipment," CNN reported. "The weather conditions, the transition from a dry autumn to a not-yet-freezing winter ... we encountered rain. "Therefore, we are taking advantage of the moment when the ground becomes firmer," Reznikov said, according to CNN. Fighting in Ukraine has slowed after months of heightened action, following Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched in August. On December 3, Avril Haines, the US National Intelligence Director, said that winter conditions are expected to slow the war, and that there was already a "reduced tempo." NATO's head said earlier this month that Russia may want th and very difficult conditions for attacks from either side."e fighting to slow, seeking a "freeze" in the fighting so it can better prepare for a bigger assault next year. "What we see now is Russia is actually trying to have some kind of 'freeze' of this war at least for a short period of time so they can regroup, repair, recover," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. "And then try to launch a bigger offensive next spring."

Ukraine PM urges more military aid to counter Russia attacks
JAMEY KEATEN/KYIV, Ukraine (AP)/December 12, 2022
Ukraine’s prime minister is appealing for Patriot missile batteries and other hi-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks, as more Russian shelling was reported on Monday in the eastern regions of Ukraine where Moscow is trying to make battlefield gains. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told French broadcaster LCI that Russia wants to swamp Europe with a new wave of Ukrainian refugees by its targeting of infrastructure in Ukraine that has caused electricity and water outages for millions during freezing winter weather.
The provision of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine would mark a major advance in the kinds of air defense systems the West is sending to help the war-torn country defend itself from Russian aerial attack. So far no country has offered them, although Germany has provided Patriot missiles to neighboring Poland, its NATO ally. Millions of Ukrainians have already fled the country since the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24, and there are fears that many more could leave their homes during winter. Thousands of people have died and dozens of cities and towns across Ukraine have been reduced to rubble during the more than nine months of the Russian onslaught. Ukraine also needs resupplies of artillery shells and modern battle tanks, Shmyhal said in an interview broadcast on Sunday night ahead of meetings in Paris this week to raise and coordinate more international aid for Ukraine. The more than 1,000 Russian attacks on infrastructure since October are designed “to trigger another wave of migration toward Europe,” he insisted. The Kremlin has said attacks on Ukraine's energy supply system were a retaliation for what Moscow says was a Kyiv-orchestrated attack on the key, Russian-built bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone with U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday. Biden sought “to underscore ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense as Russia continues its assaults on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure," the White House said.
Repeated Russian strikes on infrastructure have left millions of Ukrainians without power, heating or water throughout the country. Russian drone attacks near the Black Sea port of Odesa last weekend destroyed several energy facilities at once and left all customers except hospitals, maternity homes, boiler plants and pumping stations without power. Ukraine’s power provider, Ukrenergo, on Monday said that the situation in the country’s energy system has remained difficult after Russian attacks, particularly in Odesa. To defend against further strikes, Shmyhal reiterated previous Ukrainian calls for Patriot surface-to-air missiles — a highly sophisticated system that so far hasn’t been forthcoming. He also asked for more German and French air-defense systems that those countries have already supplied.
Ukraine needs large quantities of shells to respond like-for-like against Russian artillery, Shmyhal said. Russia fires 50,000 to 70,000 shells per day at Ukrainian targets and “we need at least one third of that quantity every day,” he added. Organizers of the conference in France say they are expecting more than 45 nations and 20 international institutions to take part. A focus of the meeting will be rushing aid to Ukraine to meet its needs for water, power, food, health and transport during the tough winter months and sending a message to Moscow that the international community is sticking by Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the European Union's foreign ministers on Monday also were gathering in Brussels to discuss fresh sanctions to further punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney sharply condemned “deliberate targeting by Russia of civilians in terms of inflicting suffering on a broad population. ” He described Russia's actions as "a crime, in terms of both aggression and a crime against humanity.”“This is one country invading another," he said. "Brutalizing civilian populations in order to try and get its way, and I think the world has to try and take a stand against that.”On Monday, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that two civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in Russia's shelling of the town of Hirnyk in the eastern, Donetsk region.
“It was yet another Russian attack against civilians,” Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on his messaging app channel. The eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions together make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia that Putin identified as a focus from the war’s outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014. Russia in September unlawfully declared annexation of four Ukrainian regions — including Donbas — though it does not fully control them. The latest fighting has focused in Donbas, particularly around the city of Bakhmut, after Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson nearly a month ago. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now seeking to make visible gains. Russia has shelled Kostiantynivka, and fighting is going on around Avdiivka, Мarinka and Krasnohorivka in the same area, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainian governor of the Russia-occupied Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said that a Ukrainian strike on Kadiivka on Sunday hit a hotel that served as headquarters for the Wagner group, a Russian military contractor. He claimed that hundreds of Russians were killed, a claim that couldn’t be independently verified. Haidai also pointed to a difficult humanitarian situation in the village of Nevske, under Ukrainian control, where people live in basements following relentless Russian shelling.

Russia's logistic logjam worsens in winter, curbs coal exports to China
MOSCOW (Reuters)/December 12, 2022
Infrastructure bottlenecks in Russia worsened with the winter season as rising demand for Asia-bound cargoes amid European sanctions on Moscow led to rail jams and worsened prospects for coal sales to China, according to data and market sources. Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged domestic businesses to forge closer ties with Asia and Latin America after Europe introduced sweeping sanctions against Moscow after it sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. The European Union also introduced an embargo on Russian coal imports starting from Aug. 10 as part of the Ukraine-related sanctions. "There has been a large-scale logistical turn towards the east this year, which could not have been predicted in advance. Today this direction is seeing very heavy demand, not only for coal exports but for the transportation of goods in all sectors of the economy," a spokesman for the Russian Railways said. China's coal imports from Russia continued to slip in October from previous months, according to the latest available data, as logistics bottlenecks in Russia hampered supply and lower demand in China also capped appetite for the fossil fuel. Arrivals of Russian coal stood at 6.43 million tonnes in October, down from 6.95 million tonnes in September and a record 8.54 million tonnes in August, the General Administration of Customs said. But it was still 26% higher than the level in October 2021. Russian coal export constraints could prove even more painful for China as fuel demand in the power generation and heating sectors picks up in winter. Shortages of available railcars have also exacerbated the transportation problems. According to Russian Railways data seen by Reuters, total eastward cargo exports dropped to 132.4 million tonnes in January-November from 135 million tonnes in the same period last year.
Russia's key coal producing region of Kuzbass in Western Siberia will likely miss its coal export target this year and next over persistent logistic bottlenecks, the local governor Sergei Tsivilyov said last month. He said the region was due to supply 58 million tonnes for exports to the east this year, while Russian Railways will manage to export only 48.5 million tonnes "at best". For next year, the plan stands at 63 million tonnes, while Tsivilyov said the railways had offered to transport 52.5 million tonnes.

Second Journalist Dies While Covering Qatar World Cup
Dan Ladden-Hall/The Daily Beast./Mon, December 12, 2022
A reporter covering the FIFA World Cup “died suddenly,” a Qatar newspaper reported—the same day a security guard was left in intensive care after falling at one of the tournament’s stadiums.
The Doha-based Gulf Times announced Saturday that Al Kass TV photojournalist Khalid al-Misslam “passed away recently.” The Qatari reporter “died suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” the Gulf Times tweeted. “We believe in Allah’s mercy and forgiveness for him, and send our deepest condolences to his family.”How and when al-Misslam died remain unclear. But the announcement of his death came on the same day that a security guard was left seriously injured after falling at the Lusail Stadium. An observer told The Guardian that the man fell from a “significant height” at around 2 a.m. on Saturday following Argentina’s quarterfinal win over the Netherlands. The security guard, who is reportedly a migrant worker, is said to have plunged from the top outside concourse to the ground. Reports on Sunday suggested he was in a stable but critical condition.
Qatar’s supreme committee release a statement describing the incident as a “serious fall while on duty.” “Stadium medical teams immediately attended the scene and provided emergency treatment before he was transferred to Hamad Medical Hospital care unit via ambulance,” the statement said, adding that Qatari authorities are “investigating the circumstances leading to the fall as a matter of urgency.”News of al-Misslam’s death and the security guard’s fall came a day after U.S. journalist Grant Wahl died. Wahl, 48, was covering the Argentina vs. Netherlands game on Friday when he is said to have collapsed in his seat at the Lusail Stadium. Witnesses said Wahl was quickly treated by emergency services workers before he was rushed to hospital. The World Cup’s organizing committee did not disclose his cause of death but said it was in contact with the U.S. Embassy.
Witness Recounts Frantic Bid to Save Sports Writer Grant Wahl After Shock World Cup Collapse
In the weeks before his death, Wahl made international headlines after he tweeted that he had been refused entry to the game between the United States and Wales on Nov. 21 because he was wearing a rainbow t-shirt in support of the LGBTQ community. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and signs supporting gay rights have been treated with contempt by authorities at the World Cup. Wahl said he was ordered to change his shirt by a security guard when he tried to enter the stadium. On Dec. 6, Wahl wrote on his Substack that he had been feeling unwell and had attended a medical clinic. “My body finally broke down on me,” he wrote. “Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.”He added that he did not have COVID and that medics advised him that he “probably” had bronchitis, an inflammation of airways in the lungs. “They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno,” Wahl wrote.

Greek foreign minister slams Turkey's missile threat
ATHENS, Greece (AP)/Mon, December 12, 2022
Greece’s foreign minister has lashed out at Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to hit Athens with ballistic missiles.“It is unacceptable and universally condemnable for threats of a missile attack against Greece to be made by an allied country, a NATO member,” Nikos Dendias said Monday, arriving in Brussels for a European Union foreign affairs meeting. “North Korean attitudes cannot and must not enter the North Atlantic Alliance,” he said. Speaking during a town hall meeting with youths in the northern Turkish city of Samsun late Sunday, Erdogan said Turkey has begun making its own short-range ballistic missiles called Tayfun, which, he said, was “frightening the Greeks.””(The Greeks) say ‘it can hit Athens,’ Erdogan said. "Of course it will. If you don’t stay calm, if you try to buy things from the United States and other places (to arm) the islands, a country like Turkey ... has to do something. ”Relations between the NATO allies and neighbors have long been strained, with the two sides divided over a series of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea and energy exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The two have come to the brink of war three times in the past half-century. But Turkey has been ratcheting up the rhetoric in recent months, with Turkish government officials openly disputing the sovereignty of inhabited Greek islands and Erdogan saying Turkish troops could land in Greece “suddenly one night”. Even so, a threat of a missile strike is highly unusual. Last week, Turkey accused Greece of violating international agreements by conducting a military exercise in the Aegean. Turkey insists the deployment of soldiers or weapons on eastern Aegean Greek islands near its coast violates the islands’ non-military status according to international law. Greece counters that it needs to defend them against a potential attack from Turkey, noting that Ankara maintains a sizable military force on the western Turkish coast, just across from the islands. Commenting on the military exercise last Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that “Greece needs to renounce its violation. Either it steps back on the issue and abides by the agreement or we’ll do whatever is necessary.”He added: “Those who sow the wind reap the storm. If you do not want peace, we will do what is necessary. One night, suddenly.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 12-13/2022
At Abraham Accords confab, Likud MK claims Saudi peace likely within a year
Lazar Berman/Times Of Israel/December 12/ 2022
https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-abraham-accords-confab-likud-mk-claims-saudi-peace-likely-within-a-year/
Danny Danon, former envoy to the UN, says Netanyahu’s priority upon taking office is to expand agreements
Likud MK Danny Danon told an international Abraham Accords forum on Thursday that he expects to “see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia in the coming year.”
Danon, a former envoy to the UN, told The Times of Israel that his assessment is “based on conversations and talks” he has had recently, but would not refer to a specific effort underway.
“Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu will have the expansion of the Abraham Accords as one of his top priorities,” he added, stressing that the presumptive incoming premier would make the United Arab Emirates his first international stop upon taking office.
Dozens of diplomats, clergy, business leaders, and academics gathered in Rome at the Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit to discuss ways to expand on the agreements.
In September 2020, Israel signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It signed a similar agreement with Morocco months later.
Sunni power Saudi Arabia is seen as the big prize, and quiet cooperation exists between Riyadh and Jerusalem. But Israel is eager to turn the security ties into full-fledge diplomatic recognition.
In July, Saudi Arabia announced that its airspace would be open to all commercial airliners, in a nod to Israel, which was believed to be the only country barred from flying over the Gulf kingdom. The US and Israel characterized the move as a step toward normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem, though Saudi Arabia sought to downplay the gesture, saying it was not a precursor to any additional moves so long as there is no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The accords have been the cause of much excitement in Israel, but there is reason for concern. While headlines tell of comfortable and joyous encounters between Israelis and Arabs in the Gulf and in Morocco, the data show a worrying trend: As time goes on, the Abraham Accords are becoming less popular on the streets of Israel’s new allies.
Washington Institute polling showed 45 percent of Bahrainis held very or somewhat positive views of the agreements in November 2020. That support had steadily eroded to a paltry 20% by March of this year.
The trend is the same in the UAE. The 49% of the country that disapproved of the Abraham Accords in 2020 had grown to over two-thirds as of last month. And only 31% of Moroccans favor normalization, according to Arab Barometer.
However, the message coming out of Rome on Thursday was one of optimism.
“I come here today, as a free Iranian to tell you that peace between Israel, Iran, and even between the Shi’a and the Sunni world is closer than ever,” said Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Iranian-born Shi’ite cleric living in Australia.
“The people of Iran have seen the fruits of the Abraham Accords, they have witnessed how fast peace can be built and many remember the days of Israeli tourists visiting Tehran and long for those days to return.”
Georgi Velikov Panayotov, Bulgaria’s envoy to the US, said the accords should serve as a model to Europe at war.
“We don’t need politicians who are adjusting their opinions according to opinion polls, but we need politicians with vision,” he told The Times of Israel. “We need politicians that do the right thing in order to secure peace and the common good.”
Panayatov even imagined the agreements growing into a political body similar to the European Union, which began as an economic partnership. “They understood that economic cooperation is key to stability and peace,” he said.
Among the attendees from over 30 countries were Houda Nonoo, Bahrain’s former envoy in Washington; Alojz Peterle, past Slovenian premier; former Finnish foreign minister Timo Soini; South Sudanese diplomat Akuei Bona Malwal; and Katharina Von Schnurbein, the European Commission antisemitism czar.

The Apartheid Libel to Destroy Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/December 12, 2022
Recently... however, with the UNHRC's persistent allegations that Israel is an apartheid state, that label is being pushed even further in an apparent effort to make it stick. The complicity of recent reports from NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch appear to be trying to ensure that their libel will be complete.
The campaign emboldens the radicals among the Palestinians, including the Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), whose declared goal is to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.
Terrorist groups such as Hamas and PIJ are undoubtedly happy to see non-Arabs and non-Muslims -- and even ostensible human rights organizations -- join their effort to falsely depict Israel as an apartheid state.
Former UNHRC chief Navi Pillay, despite extensive evidence of massive anti-Israel bias, was recently appointed to chair the UNHRC's first and only open-ended Commission of Inquiry.
Basically, [the New York Times] is saying that although the two countries cannot be equated, the comparison is being forced and twisted into place for the sake of furthering an alternate agenda which has little to do with the facts on the ground.
Israel's founding charter pledges to safeguard the equal rights of all residents: "... It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
Among many of South Africa's Apartheid laws, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act effectively stripped all Blacks of their South African citizenship and of the right to vote.
Israeli Arabs, however, have full citizenship, including the right to vote and to public demonstration. They are represented in all levels of government, including positions as members of Knesset (parliament), in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as Supreme Court justices. Israeli Arabs hold positions as high-ranking officers in the Israel Defense Forces, including that of major-general in the Central Command.
Israeli Arabs are deans, department heads, scientists, and professors at prestigious universities and hospitals. They are news anchors, journalists, actors, athletes, and are represented in every aspect of Israeli society.
The false allegations also come from incorrectly confusing the nearly two million Israeli Arabs -- who make up about 21% of Israel's population and are full citizens of Israel -- with thousands of Arabs whose families left Israel when five Arab counties attacked Israel in 1948. After the Arab armies lost the war they had started, they were surprised to find that they were not welcomed back. They have since settled in other countries – such as Lebanon, Jordan, and the West -- as "Palestinians," but are not citizens of Israel and therefore, of course, not subject to Israeli laws... If all the Arabs in the area are called "Palestinians," however, it makes it easier to claim grievances, merited or not.
Both [the West Bank and Gaza] are now disputed territories where the Arabs totally run their own affairs, and have officially committed to direct, bilateral negotiations with Israel about "final status" issues, including where the borders should be. Lately, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, apparently in the hope that the international community will hand them a better deal. They have been offered their own Palestinian state three times, and each time have said no, without so much as a counteroffer.
As Navi Pillay herself conceded (in reference to the US, certainly not Israel), "There isn't a country in the world which has a perfect human rights record...". Israel is certainly no exception.
If you are looking for real apartheid against Arabs, try Lebanon or Jordan.
The "limitations" referred to above are actually the limitations of the facts. What is missing is that Israel does not fit the legal definition of apartheid; therefore, some are forcibly attempting to recreate the legal definition with an "alternative definition" to fit Israel, to ram a square peg into a round hole. The "alternative definition" is, sadly, just a political maneuver to gather unwarranted international cover for still another attempt to replace Israel.
Recently, with the persistent allegations by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that Israel is an apartheid state, that label is being pushed even further in an apparent effort to make it stick. The complicity of recent reports from NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch appear to be trying to ensure that their libel will be complete. Former UNHRC chief Navi Pillay (pictured), despite extensive evidence of massive anti-Israel bias, was recently appointed to chair the UNHRC's first and only open-ended Commission of Inquiry. Unsurprisingly, it is focused on Israel. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Many of Israel's adversaries, including the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), have long attempted to stamp Israel with the false label of "apartheid". Recently, however, with the UNHRC's persistent allegations that Israel is an apartheid state, that label is being pushed even further in an apparent effort to make it stick. The complicity of recent reports from NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch appear to be trying to ensure that their libel will be complete.
These allegations are part of an ongoing massive campaign of incitement waged by the Palestinians and anti-Semites around the world to invalidate the State of Israel and vilify Jews.
The campaign emboldens the radicals among the Palestinians, including the Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), whose declared goal is to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.
Terrorist groups such as Hamas and PIJ are undoubtedly happy to see non-Arabs and non-Muslims -- and even ostensible human rights organizations -- join their effort to falsely depict Israel as an apartheid state. Hamas and PIJ are hoping that such a libel -- with the UN and its agencies as a strategic ally -- will help them win worldwide support for their jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.
The UN's obsession with, and its semi-daily condemnations of, Israel are music to the ears of all the terrorists and jihadis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Former UNHRC chief Navi Pillay, despite extensive evidence of massive anti-Israel bias, was recently appointed to chair the UNHRC's first and only open-ended Commission of Inquiry. Unsurprisingly, it is focused on Israel, as are more than a third of the UNHRC's special sessions criticizing specific countries.
Pillay's past statements and comments on the nature of the investigation itself belie a foregone conclusion and contradict any notions of impartiality:
"We're focusing on the root cause... part of it lies in apartheid. We will be coming to that. That's the beauty of this open-ended mandate, it gives us the scope."
The intention behind this united campaign to brand Israel as an apartheid state is best summarized by PBS News Hour in an article about Amnesty International's report:
"Their findings are part of a growing international movement to redefine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a struggle for equal rights rather than a territorial dispute."
Apartheid is a visceral word, evoking shameful images of former South African oppression and segregation, of signs designating beaches for "members of the White race group" and train platforms for "Non-Whites" and so forth.
International media coverage of the UNHRC's claims has been smearing the libelous conflation of the words Israel and apartheid everywhere.
Social media has also gained a tremendous influence over public policy, and a hashtag of #Apartheid in a world of tweets can gain immeasurable traction. It also makes for an excellent T-shirt slogan, which, along with other "End Israeli Apartheid" merchandise, Amnesty International evidently expects will be a best seller.
A New York Times article about Human Rights Watch's apartheid accusations proffers:
"...apartheid, with its connotations of forced segregation, police shootings and racist ideology, has a special sting, which is why most rights groups have avoided using it until now, and why H.R.W. in its report takes pains to separate its list of grievances from the horrors of South Africa."
Basically, this is saying that although the two countries cannot be equated, the comparison is being forced and twisted into place for the sake of furthering an alternate agenda which has little to do with the facts on the ground.
A comparison of the two countries will plainly demonstrate this.
The defining features of South African Apartheid were government laws deliberately designed to separate and discriminate against its Black residents. Israel's founding charter pledges to safeguard the equal rights of all residents:
"... It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."Among many of South Africa's Apartheid laws, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act effectively stripped all Blacks of their South African citizenship and of the right to vote.
Israeli Arabs, however, have full citizenship, including the right to vote and to public demonstration. They are represented in all levels of government, including positions as members of Knesset (parliament), in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as Supreme Court justices. Israeli Arabs hold positions as high-ranking officers in the Israel Defense Forces, including that of major-general in the Central Command.
Israeli Arabs are deans, department heads, scientists, and professors at prestigious universities and hospitals. They are news anchors, journalists, actors, athletes, and are represented in every aspect of Israeli society.
A good deal of the accusatory rhetoric and false allegations about "systematic discrimination" derive from a misunderstanding of the cultural, religious and language factors that have shaped the Israeli social structure.
The false allegations also come from incorrectly confusing the nearly two million Israeli Arabs -- who make up about 21% of Israel's population and are full citizens of Israel -- with thousands of Arabs whose families left Israel when five Arab counties attacked Israel in 1948. After the Arab armies lost the war they had started, they were surprised to find that they were not welcomed back. They have since settled in other countries – such as Lebanon, Jordan, and the West -- as "Palestinians," but are not citizens of Israel and therefore, of course, not subject to Israeli laws. The declared goal of their leaders has been to take over all the land and replace the Jews. If all the Arabs in the area are called "Palestinians," however, it makes it easier to claim grievances, merited or not.
The West Bank (of the Jordan River), previously belonged to Jordan; Gaza previously belonged to Egypt. Both are now disputed territories where the Arabs totally run their own affairs, and have officially committed to direct, bilateral negotiations with Israel about "final status" issues, including where the borders should be. Lately, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, apparently in the hope that the international community will hand them a better deal. They have been offered their own Palestinian state three times, and each time have said no, without so much as a counteroffer.
According to a Pew Research Center report:
"When it comes to friendships as well as family relationships, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze often stay within their own religious communities.... Even within Israeli Jewry, different subgroups... tend to be isolated from each other..."
As Navi Pillay herself conceded (in reference to the US, certainly not Israel), "There isn't a country in the world which has a perfect human rights record...". Israel is certainly no exception.
While South Africa's Bantu Education Act mandated compulsory separation of Black and White schools, however, the Israeli Ministry of Education has attempted to bridge the mostly self-imposed community divides by establishing Hand in Hand Schools throughout Israel.
Although all public schools are open to Arabs, Jews, and all ethnicities and religions, these are public schools in which all classes are bilingual Arabic-Hebrew and feature a multicultural curriculum. Each class is co-taught by an Israeli Arab and an Israeli Jewish teacher, and social events are coordinated with students' families to facilitate cross-cultural friendship and understanding.
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "apartness". Unlike apartheid-era South Africa, Israel is actively trying to unite its citizens through funding and equalizing programs while maintaining the security of all of its citizenry.
At the beginning of the year, Israel's Department for the Economic Development of Minority Sectors at the Ministry of Social Equality invested USD $70 million in the "Impact for Arab Society" program, designed to promote economic development via entrepreneurship and high-tech in the Arab sector.
This follows on the heels of Israel's approval of a $10 billion dollar initiative last year to assist the Israeli Arab sector with economic and social development, which Israeli Arab Knesset member Mansour Abbas affirmed, "...will go a long way to close the gaps between Jewish and Arab Sectors."
Many "pro-Palestinian" activists prefer to engage in battles of semantics against Israel rather than constructive measures to actually help Palestinians in any concrete way. Palestinian NGO Al Shabaka (Palestinian Policy Network) best summarizes the strategy:
"Under international law, apartheid is a crime against humanity and states can be held accountable for their actions. However, international law has its limitations. One specific concern involves what is missing from the international legal definition of apartheid.... To address this concern, we propose an alternative definition of apartheid..."
If you are looking for real apartheid against Arabs, try Lebanon or Jordan.
The "limitations" referred to above are actually the limitations of the facts. What is missing is that Israel does not fit the legal definition of apartheid; therefore, some are forcibly attempting to recreate the legal definition with an "alternative definition" to fit Israel, to ram a square peg into a round hole. The "alternative definition" is, sadly, just a political maneuver to gather unwarranted international cover for still another attempt to replace Israel.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Is This Why 400-500 Migrants (Needlessly) Died for Qatar’s World Cup?
Raymond Ibrahim/December 12, 2022 
In a shocking revelation, “between 400 and 500” migrant workers died in Qatar’s attempt to ready itself to host the World Cup tournament, a top Qatari official, Hassan al-Thawadi, recently said.
As might be expected, this finding has “threatened to reinvigorate criticism by human rights groups over the toll of hosting the Middle East’s first World Cup for the migrant labor that built over $200 billion worth of stadiums, metro lines and new infrastructure needed for the tournament…. Activists have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers.”
On being asked if the sacrifice of so many lives was not “a price too big to pay” merely to host the World Cup, al-Thawadi responded with a line that has become very familiar since the advent of Covid-19: “One death is a death too many, plain and simple.”
But is that truly the case—especially when one closely considers the facts?
First of all, it must be remembered that Qatar is an obscenely wealthy nation that regularly ranks within the top five richest countries in the world. It could have easily provided a virtually hazard-free work environment for its employees.
On the other hand, most of its menial workers are neither Qatari nor Arab, but migrants from the Third World who tend to be non-Muslim.
Based on these two facts, the obvious question—at least for those aware of the inner workings of Islam—poses itself: Is Qatar’s blasé acceptance of, if not outright indifference to, so many foreign deaths rooted in Islam’s position that “infidel” lives are nothing for Muslims to concern themselves about? Islamic teaching is, after all, very clear that the lives of non-Muslims are far less valuable than the lives of Muslims.
As Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, once decreed: “Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel” [or kafir, “non-Muslim”; recorded in Sahih Bukhari and other canonical collections]. The Koran itself—which likens non-Muslims to cattle, apes, swine, dogs, or simply “the worst of creatures”—presents the lowliest of Muslims, “even slaves,” as far superior to any non-Muslim (see Koran 2:221, 2:65, 5:60, 7:176, 8:55).
Nor are these hate-filled and demeaning teachings limited to “radical Islam” or ISIS discourse. They are mainstream.
Thus, a number of Muslim scholars and institutes once argued that a convicted Muslim murderer should not be executed because his murdered victim, an American, was an infidel, and therefore their lives could not be treated as equal. In an Arabic language statement titled, “Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel,” the Legitimate League of Scholars and Preachers in Sudan (an influential body of Muslim clerics) began by asserting that “Allah has honored human beings over creation and multiplied the Muslim’s honor over the infidel’s, because Islam elevates and nothing is elevated above it. The value of the blood of Muslims is equal, or should be, but not so the value of the blood of others” [emphasis added].
Similarly, during a sermon, Egyptian cleric Samir Hashish explained:
The prophet said, “Let no Muslim be killed on account of an infidel.” Why? Because their blood is not equal. The blood of the Muslim is superior. Call it racism or whatever you want, but of course the blood of the Muslim is superior. This is not open to debate. [All translations my own.]
Even if this is Islam’s position, surely Qatar is one of the more “progressive” Muslim nations not to take such “radical” teachings to heart?
In reality, and despite the fact that Qatar’s (well paid) Western lackeys are committed to presenting is as an enlightened Muslim nation—hence why it was granted the right to host the World Cup—it appears to be no less “radical” than its “Wahhabi” neighbor, Saudi Arabia.
As one example, Qatar’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs funds the popular website Islamweb.net, which calls on all Muslims who migrate to or are already living in the West to feel nothing but “enmity and hatred” for their non-Muslim hosts (even while receiving benefits from the infidels).
This, too, is not a “radical” teaching; it’s a standard and mainstream position within Islam, which Qatari children are indoctrinated in from youth: A 2022 study found that Qatari textbooks and curriculum stressed the importance of never befriending—but rather always hating—Jews, Christians, and all non-Muslims, whom the pedagogical materials collectively referred to as “infidels” (or kuffar, Islam’s natural born enemies).
As such, and rather unsurprisingly, Qatar is also notorious for persecuting its Christian migrant workers. In fact, according to the most recent World Watch List, which ranks the 50 worst nations that persecute Christians, Qatar has gone from being the 29th worst persecutor of Christians in 2021 to the 18th in 2022. In that wealthy nation, “violence against Christians rose sharply” and “many churches were forced to stay closed after COVID-19 restrictions…. [C]onverts from Islam especially face physical, psychological and (for women) sexual violence.”
So why were you unaware of all this about Qatar—this nation which was “awarded” with the right to host arguably the world’s most prestigious athletic event? Because if Qatar’s obscene wealth is not used to ensure safe working conditions for its lowly, infidel, migrant workers, it is certainly used to improve its image around the world—not least by “gifting” more than $3 billion to America’s ivy league universities, all chief purveyors of the “Islam means peace” mantra.
As the former prime minister of Britain—a nation that warned its citizens not to dress as Saint George during the World Cup lest it offend Muslims—Tony Blair explained: “Do not criticise Qatar too much over World Cup as they give us money.”
At any rate, from here, it should become clear why 400-500 migrants needlessly died in one of the world’s wealthiest nations without it batting an eye: their lives—like the lives of all lowly infidels—were simply not worth the effort.

Lunatic fringes plot armed insurrection against the state
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/December 12/2022
An attempted coup in Germany? Last week, we were stunned to hear news reports of more than 130 raids conducted by 3,000 police and special forces across 11 German states. Among those rounded up were a former MP, a prince, a lawyer, a pilot and a celebrity chef.
Coup plotters from the extreme-right Reichsburger movement had stockpiled arms and engaged in military training in readiness to storm Germany’s governing institutions and establish Heinrich XIII, Prince of Reuss, as the country’s monarch. In wire-tapped conversations, Heinrich was heard saying: “We’re going to wipe them out now, the time for fun is over.” Plotters discussed effecting a “system change” and “exterminating” their enemies.
In a nation of 83 million people, the Reichsburger movement, with its 21,000 members, remains a fringe entity. It rejects the legitimacy of the German state, believing that Hitler’s Reich never ended in 1945. Many hold their own passports and resist paying taxes. The group even maintains its own “Kingdom” in eastern Germany, which claims its own parallel institutions and currency. The Reichsburgers are closely associated with other neo-Nazi elements, such as the far-right Alternative for Germany.
At a time when the threat of Islamist extremism in Europe has waned, extreme-right activism, recruitment and terrorist activities are surging. Germany’s government warns that “right-wing terrorism is still the biggest threat to German democracy.” Experts warn of the increasing readiness of such groups to deploy armed violence. In 2021, Germany’s intelligence agency attributed more than 1,000 extremist crimes to Reichsburger-affiliated elements alone. Britain’s Metropolitan Police reports that 18 out of 20 people arrested last year for terrorism offences were influenced by extreme-right ideologies.
Far-right atrocities are already a reality: The massacre of 92 young Norwegians in 2011; the 2016 killing of UK MP Jo Cox and subsequent attack on Finsbury Park Mosque; the slaughter of 49 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand and the mass killing at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2019; and the gunning down of 10 Black shoppers and employees in Buffalo in 2022. The list goes on.
These radical demographics have been galvanized by the proliferation of anti-vaccine, anti-Semitic and QAnon conspiracy theories. The “great reset” conspiracy contends that the pandemic was an elite plot for imposing bio-social controls on the public. The “great replacement theory,” which argues that “globalists” are seeking to displace white Europeans with immigrants, is loudly espoused by media figures like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who has cornered the market in rabble-rousing hate speech.
This is the latest in a series of armed plots in Germany. In 2014, a group from the “Free State of Prussia” armed itself and established its own militia. In 2016, a police officer was shot dead by a Reichsburger member during a raid against an illegally hoarded weapons arsenal. In 2020, Reichsburgers participated in the storming of Berlin’s Reichstag building by elements protesting COVID-19 restrictions. This April, German authorities foiled a Reichsburger scheme to kidnap and kill the health minister. These extremist movements are disproportionately dangerous because of their absorption of members of the security forces and disaffected establishment figures.
France has acted against several far-right terror plots and a trial is currently ongoing of 12 individuals who allegedly plotted to kill President Emmanuel Macron, among other attacks. The far-right Portuguese New Social Order has become increasingly active.
The West’s political classes have flirted with the fires of populism for too long. It is well past time for urgent fire-prevention activities.
In June 2021, Italy announced the dismantling of the far-right Aryan Roman Order. Adherents had been observed plotting to attack a NATO facility. Yet Italian neo-fascists and disciples of Benito Mussolini now occupy the corridors of power following the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. These electoral feats have inspired like-minded entities elsewhere, such as Spain’s extreme-right Vox party, which has its eye on electoral success in 2023. Sweden, Poland, Austria, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands and almost every other European state have seen these groups proliferate, both at the ballot box and in terrorist activism.
Far-right ideologies have become normalized, as even centrist parties feel drawn to adopt xenophobic, anti-immigrant policies and sup from the waters of alt-right populism. Britain’s Conservative Party has fueled an “anti-woke” post-Brexit climate of culture war, in which racist and reactionary attitudes flourish, perpetuated by the worst instincts of the tabloid media. Despite “hostile environment” policies that criminalize and stigmatize refugees and migrants, migration levels are unlikely to decrease, meaning that the tensions and polarization arising from these dynamics will not disappear any time soon.
The January 2021 storming of the US Congress has already inspired many European plots to overthrow the established order and is likely to continue serving as an inspiration for some time to come. It has increasingly become clear what an elaborately orchestrated event this was, reaching all the way up to the highest political office. Although much of the Republican political establishment that once aided and abetted Donald Trump is now keen to put him behind them, this leaves a highly radicalized proportion of the US electorate that buys into QAnon-inspired lunatic conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu may be loudly denouncing far-right American anti-Semitism, yet he is the one who is forming a government stuffed with fascists and neo-Nazis. With members of the far-right Religious Zionism party set to get key decision-making roles in Netanyahu’s Cabinet, there has already been a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians and moves for an escalation in settlement expansion activities. Extremists in the corridors of power embolden their extremist shock troops on the ground.
Far-right radicals are highly active on social media, disseminating racist propaganda and neo-fascist conspiracies. At a time when Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has facilitated a surge in racist far-right online activity, action must be taken against notorious QAnon platforms like 4chan and Telegram’s “Terrorgram” network, where mass murderers are celebrated.
Too many Western political systems are built on naive assumptions that all parties are willing to play by the rules. These assumptions received a wake-up call with the systematic attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result. All nations must reevaluate whether their institutions are sufficiently robust to repel such future challenges. Parties and individuals who reject pluralist democratic principles should not be allowed to participate in politics. Redoubled efforts are required to politically educate young people, so that they are not easily seduced by radical conspiracy theorists.
The Reichsburgers may be easy to ridicule as a lunatic fringe, but they are symptomatic of a growing demographic that openly flirts with fascist views and is willing to countenance the forcible overthrow of power. This increasingly feels like the anarchic, polarized and politically volatile Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. We all know where that led. The West’s political classes have flirted with the fires of populism for too long. It is well past time for urgent fire-prevention activities, before this far-right inferno burns the entire democratic edifice to the ground.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Iran’s anti-regime protesters likely to escalate their demands
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/December 12, 2022
Following the outbreak of protests across Iran in September, the Iranian regime initially bet on them eventually dwindling and abating, as it had done with previous protests. In a bid to ensure the success of this bet and end the crisis, the regime has pursued a policy that combines efforts to calm and pacify the protesters, even while harshly repressing them. Concerning the measures taken by the regime to quell public rage, it has condemned the killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini that sparked the protests. The so-called morality police, which arrested Amini and took her to one of its detention facilities, where she was brutally beaten and killed for no reason other than for wearing the hijab “improperly,” expressed regret for her death.
Afterward, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi intervened and promised Amini’s family that an investigation would be launched to reveal the details of the incident. Other regime institutions called for the repeal of the legal provision that makes noncompliance with the mandatory hijab a criminal offence.
Regarding the measures taken by the regime to repress the protests, the police and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have used their standard brutal tactics to intimidate the protesters and force them to end the protests. All these measures, however, have failed and the protests are now in their third month. As a result, the regime has found itself in a tough position, facing intense internal and external pressures that necessitate some concessions.
In this context, Iranian Attorney General Mohammed Jafar Montazeri last week announced the disbandment of the notorious morality police during a meeting with several clerics in the city of Qom. Further, Montazeri stated that the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the judiciary would review the mandatory hijab law. This belated decision, which might indicate a tactical shift on the Iranian regime’s part, was nothing more than an attempt to contain the growing public anger and momentum, which appears to pose the greatest threat to it since it took power in 1979. Whatever the reasoning behind it, however, the move was an admission by the regime that it is facing a profound existential crisis that forced it to bend to protesters’ demands and Western pressure.
The move also gives protesters hope that their voices will be heard and their demands will be met, encouraging them to continue their protests. As a result, contrary to the Iranian regime’s calculation, the tactic of disbanding the morality police will not be seen as a sufficient reason to end the protests but will be viewed as a move reflecting the regime’s weakness and desperation, hence adding more impetus to the protests.
The protesters’ demands now transcend any factional demands, with the protests directly targeting the regime’s top figures — particularly the so-called Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been repeatedly targeted with chants like “Death to the Dictator.” This is clear in the way that the protests have continued unabated in the days since the announcement of the disbandment of the morality police, with calls for general strikes in various Iranian cities and provinces.
While the protests that have been ongoing since September were initially triggered by the killing of Amini, this incident was not the sole motivation or root cause. These protests are, in reality, the culmination of decades of public anger because of systemic repression, human rights violations, marginalization, poverty, deprivation, corruption and the squandering of the country’s resources for the sake of absurd and fruitless extraterritorial expansionist ambitions.
Public mistrust of official statements and the regime’s intentions have created the impression among Iranians that the supposed disbandment of the morality police is merely a cynical tactic to prevent the protests from escalating into an all-out popular uprising like the one that toppled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979. The Iranian people believe that, even if the morality police is actually dissolved, the body’s tasks will simply be transferred to other state apparatuses.
For the Iranian street, the regime’s review of the mandatory hijab law does not imply that it will reverse the mandatory wearing of the hijab in the country because this matter is deemed to be an integral part of the theocratic regime’s ideological identity.
The regime has found itself in a tough position, facing intense internal and external pressures that necessitate some concessions.
On balance, it is apparent that the protests of the past three months at first prompted the Iranian regime to use all means possible to quell them, including severe repression, arrests and killings. When all these efforts failed, however, the regime belatedly acknowledged that it faced excessive pressure from protesters for their demands to be met. This time, the people have grown more confident, no longer limiting their demands to the issue of the hijab but insisting that they must uproot the regime.
Despite the attorney general’s remarks concerning the disbandment of the morality police, no official statement supporting his announcement has yet been issued. If his announcement truly reflects the regime’s intentions, this means that the protesters’ pressure has begun to bear fruit. The next phase will undoubtedly see not only an escalation of protests, but also an effort to raise the bar of demands. Protesters will demand an immediate resolution to other issues that have long been deemed off-limits, such as Khamenei’s absolute powers and the IRGC’s involvement in politics and the economy. In addition, they are likely to push for greater social and political freedoms and guarantees to ensure that Iran’s minorities have representation in the country’s governance and that their rights are protected.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is president of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami

UK’s new coal mine exposes rich world’s climate hypocrisy
Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/December 12, 2022
The ink had barely dried on an agreement that was reached way beyond the deadline for the conclusion of the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm El-Sheikh last month before the developed nations began to renege on their commitments, both in letter and spirit, to curb their carbon dioxide emissions in order to try to limit the overall global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Less than three weeks after the extended meeting, the UK government has decided to develop its first deep coal mine in more than three decades, even in the face of sharp criticism from environmental groups. In a decision that was not entirely unexpected but still caught most by surprise, Britain will open the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria, which will produce about 2.8 million tons of coking coal a year, mainly for use by steel producers.
The government and the mine developer say that it will help generate employment in one of the poorest regions of the country, as the mine will create 500 jobs, and this is the main reason local Conservative MPs have long been pushing for it to start operations. The colliery said that the mine would not lead to any large emissions, as it would “seek to be a net-zero emitter,” while the government said that the impact of the new mine on the climate would be largely neutral.
When the government announced the mine development plan, it said the coal would be mainly used for plants operated by British Steel and Tata Steel, the two main producers of high-grade steel used by the auto industry, among others. However, this was quickly outed as a lie. British Steel said it would not be using any coal from the new mine due to the high sulfur content of the coal there. Tata Steel said it may use some, but it wants to shift to greener sources of energy over the next decade. Thus, Britain will be producing millions of tons of high-sulfur coal with a noxious impact on the environment, merely to create 500 jobs and earn a few million pounds a year exporting the coal.
By approving the mine at this juncture, the UK government has not only hurt its own credibility as a serious partner in the fight to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but also the image of other developed economies, which have been seen —with a lot of justification — as the real culprits behind the climate change crisis the whole world is facing. This decision also exposes the lies that have dominated the COP negotiations ever since they began almost two decades ago. Just last year, as the host of COP26 in Glasgow, the UK had called on the entire world, notably the developing world, to “consign coal to history.”
By allowing a new mine to operate just to create a few jobs and export some coal, the UK has shown its true colors. It will also tremendously weaken the hand of the rich countries when they next try to preach to developing countries about the need to shift to greener fuels and to get rid of their addiction to coal simply because it is available or cheap.
The British move could not have come at a worse time, as it has also set a very unhealthy precedent for the entire world at a critical juncture. For the past year, many European countries have been toying with the idea of delaying the phasing-out of coal mines operating on their lands. And now that they have a precedent to show that, even for the barest of bare gains, governments can throw aside their green commitments and take the easiest and cheapest route to meet their domestic political obligations, one should not be surprised if other countries follow suit.
But an even bigger threat to the global battle against climate change is the message that it sends to the developing world. Unlike the rich countries, coal mines in Asia and Africa employ hundreds of thousands of people and there are more than enough consumers, individual and companies, that can use up all of the coal they produce as well as whatever is imported from elsewhere, as is being seen in China or India, which are among the world’s largest producers, importers and consumers of coal.
These and other developing countries now have a very good reason to doubt everything that has been said at the various climate change forums. The developed world’s hypocrisy stands totally exposed. Not only will it now be practically impossible for the developed world to point fingers or give any lessons in morality to the poor countries, but they will also have a tough time trying to get the developing nations to keep their own end of the bargain.
By allowing a new mine to operate just to create a few jobs and export some coal, the UK has shown its true colors.
Moreover, the British move also shows the huge challenges that the world community faces in the fight to save the environment. The rich world has made several commitments, including paying up $100 billion every year to the poor countries to help them deal with climate change, as well as to cut their own emissions sharply. These are absolutely huge challenges for any economy and they require not just sincerity and total commitment, but also a lot of political will. The rich world’s governments and politicians have to stand up to their domestic constituents — voters and businesses — and explain why they have to not only cut their own emissions and change their lifestyles dramatically, but also pay billions of dollars to the poor countries.
Convincing voters and business leaders on these issues will need more sincerity and willpower than shown by the UK, which has behaved in a cynical manner by approving the new mine at this juncture. By going ahead with this mine, the British have put themselves and their fellow rich countries — and maybe even the whole world — on a slippery slope toward climate catastrophe.
*Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group.