English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 14/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Herodias’s daughter Salome asked Herod to give her on a platter John the Baptist’s Head & He did what she asked for
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14/01-12./:”At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 13-14/2022
Blast Heard between Houmine and Deir al-Zahrani
Presidency Press Office: President Aoun’s call for dialogue will remain open
Aoun Blames Dialogue Boycotters for Continued Paralysis of All Authorities
President Aoun meets delegation of Beirut port blast case detainees’ families
President Aoun receives Minister Mawlawi
Salameh Hits Back at Judge Aoun, Says He Will Expose 'Falsifiers'
Aoun Blames Dialogue Boycotters for Continued Paralysis of All Authorities
Aoun Meets Families of Port Blast Detainees, Says Arresting 'Innocents' is 'Unacceptable'
In fresh provocation, Hezbollah hosts anti-Saudi Beirut conference
Amid power outages, economic crisis, Lebanese students cannot afford university
HRW Urges Int'l Reform Pressure on 'Corrupt' Lebanese Rulers
Public Drivers Block Major Roads as Economic Crisis Deepens

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 13-14/2022
Israel unveils Iranian online hiring of women's 'spy network'
Hundreds of teachers in Iran protest against new pay scales as inflation bites
Iran's 'maximalist approach' slows down nuclear talks
Iran Leader's Website Showcases Trump Drone Strike Animation
Sadrist Movement expected to nominate Kadhimi for Iraq' premiership
Armenia expects diplomatic relations, open borders with Turkey after talks -TASS
Russia says U.S. demands its troops return to barracks are 'unacceptable' - TASS
Abiy has 'special responsibility' to end Tigray conflict: Nobel panel
Tear gas fired as Sudan anti-coup demonstrators keep up protests
Three wounded in Iraq rocket attack targeting US embassy in Baghdad/No group has claimed the attack
De Mistura arrives in Morocco on first regional tour
Sisi urges Sudanese to talk, hold election as he denies backing coup
US pushes Europe to sort sanctions plan with wary eye on Russia’s Putin
German Court Convicts Syrian Man Guilty of Crimes against Humanity

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 13-14/2022
Iran will make US withdrawal from region as painful as possible/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/January 13/2022
Diplomacy not enough when dealing with Iran/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 13/2022
Search for Syria’s chemical weapons to gain momentum/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/January 13/2022
Iran’s Mohsen Rezaee Should Face Justice/Emanuele Ottolenghi Toby Dershowitz/The National Interest/January 13/2022
How to Fight Antisemitism in the Arab World/Video, audio, transcript: "How to Fight Antisemitism in the Arab World," Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Jonathan Schanzer, Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, and Bari Weiss, FDD Event/FDD/January 13/2022
What a New Report Tells Us About Al-Qaeda and ISIS/Thomas Joscelyn/The Dispatch/January 13/2022
From Kazakhstan to Sudan, regimes resorting to internet shutdown/Peter Apps/The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
China’s pull grows in the Middle East/Joseph Dana/The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 13-14/2022
Blast Heard between Houmine and Deir al-Zahrani
Naharnet/January 13/2022 
The sound of a blast was reportedly heard overnight between the southern towns of Houmine and Deir al-Zahrani of the Nabatiyeh district. The causes of the blast, followed by a fire outbreak, remain unknown. Media reports said that at 1:30 am, the residents of the area heard a blast, than saw a fire erupting in the outskirts of the town. “Partisans prevented reporters from reaching the site," an-Nahar newspaper reported, adding that "there is a military center for Hizbullah at the area where the blast went off.”

Presidency Press Office: President Aoun’s call for dialogue will remain open
Aoun Blames Dialogue Boycotters for Continued Paralysis of All Authorities
NNA/January 13/2022 
The Presidency Press Office issued the following statement: “After the consultations held by the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, with the Parliament Speaker, Prime Minister and heads of parliamentary blocs regarding the call for dialogue, it became clear that many ranged from refusing to consult and refusing to dialogue, which holds them responsible for the consequences of the continued comprehensive obstruction of the authorities, the government, the judiciary, and the Parliament. The President’s call for dialogue will remain open, and he hopes that the patriotic sense of the boycotters will prevail over any other interests.The President also calls on boycotters to stop their arrogance and look at the suffering of the Lebanese people and agree as soon as possible to hold a frank dialogue in order to decide our future in our own hands based on a national will and in order not to impose on us a future contrary to what we wish for our country.
Continued disruption of the Council of Ministers is a deliberate disruption of the financial and economic recovery plan. Without this plan there will be no negotiations with the International Monetary Fund or with others, and therefore, no aid or reforms, but more wear and tear for the state and a deepening of the collapse. This in itself is an unforgivable crime against a people who suffer daily more and more, as a result of inherited and worsening crises, and deliberate neglect of those responsible for effective treatments.
Those who obstruct dialogue and reject it know themselves well and the Lebanese know them. They bear the responsibility of people losing their money and the state’s loss of its resources. They also bear responsibility for the inability of every citizen to secure a livelihood, health protection, old age guarantee and education. President Aoun thanks those who attended and those who responded, and declares that he is continuing his call for dialogue without hesitation and in taking every initiative or decision aimed at protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese, especially since the dialogue revolves around the financial and economic recovery plan for Lebanon, and issues related to reforming the system through administrative and expanded financial decentralization, the defense strategy and the financial and economic recovery of Lebanon.This commitment is at the heart of the President’s oath to respect the constitution and laws and preserve the nation’s independence and territorial integrity. The President will spare no effort in order to resume the dialogue and prepare for its management according to the agenda of topics he had set. President Aoun still hopes that everyone will have the national responsibility required to save Lebanon and its people”. -- Presidency Press Office

President Aoun meets delegation of Beirut port blast case detainees’ families
NNA /January 13/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, stressed that he feels the sufferings of the families of the detainees and martyrs of the Beirut Port blast. The President indicated that he is doing everything in his power, in accordance with laws and authorities in order to achieve rights and lift the injustice against the innocent. “The situation is difficult, the judiciary and Cabinet have been suspended. This has serious repercussions on the country. We are working to address this situation because we are aware of the extent of its negative repercussions” President Aoun indicated, considering that it is not permissible for an employee to be suspended and held responsible after he has fulfilled his duties, and informed his superior. Moreover, the President asserted that he will follow-up on this issue “So that the truth is clear, and responsibilities are determined without scrutiny, politicization, obstruction or reliance on the premise that every delayed justice is an objectionable or obstructive justice”.The President’s positions came while meeting a delegation of the families of those arrested in the Beirut Port blast case.
Mrs Elise Seif Fares made the following speech:
“Mr. President, we come to you today bearing our pains and aches. The pains of our loved ones and the aches of injustice, whose fangs are tight on us, and we are exhausted. We are the families of those unjustly detained since August 4, 2020. We stand today in front of your palace, we raise our voices high. We know that who owns a right owns the power, and you know that it is time to lift the injustice from our people. We came to you today, because you are the captain of this ship which is sunk in darkness. Our people who have been unjustly arrested have worked for years in the service of their state, and assumed their responsibilities to the fullest, realizing the dangers and quickly raising their voices and warning, but they were let down and today they are sacrificed to real criminals who are still enjoying their full freedom near their children, while our brothers and husbands have been deprived of seeing their children a year and four months ago.
Your Excellency, our brothers are neither murderers nor neglectful, so we ask you to stand by us to achieve full justice by releasing them quickly and unconditionally, hence achieving justice. Mr. President, the souls of our brothers andhusbands are a trust we place before you, so do not let us down and be of assistance to us by removing injustice from us and returning life to our families”.
President Aoun:
The President welcomed the attendees, and considered that the delegation members’ suffering is real and their demands are justified. The President indicated that he feels with them and stands by them in light of the difficult circumstances they live in. “I am following the stages of investigation from the first day till the end. There is no need to mention this matter daily, but the current situation has made things more and more difficult, as the judiciary and the Cabinet are suspended. This has serious repercussions on the country, and we are working to address this situation since we are aware of the extent of its negative effects” President Aoun stated. “I feel with you and the detainees, as I feel with the families of the fallen martyrs. I do everything in my power, according to the powers and laws, in order to achieve the right and lift the injustice of the innocent. This is because injustice is very cruel. I tasted injustice when I was expelled for 15 years and remained imprisoned without being able to leave my house except with the escort of the police. House arrest is painful so how much more painful if the detainee is imprisoned in a very small geographic area?” President Aoun added. “You have the right to see the reasons which led to the arrest of your family, because I, like you, do not know the reasons, but I know some of you and some members of your families. I ask before you and in front of the public opinion: Will the arrest continue after one year and six months have passed if the employee has done what he is required to do and informed his direct manager about the data he has?” President Aoun continued.
“Then, the manager has to work on the implementation because the employee has no ability to do so. All he can do is inform his boss and his role ends” the President said. President Aoun then concluded indicating that he will “Follow-up on the issue so that the truth is known and responsibilities are determined without scrutiny, politicization, obstructing or exploitation on the grounds that every delayed justice is a justice that is objectionable or obstructed”.
Foreign Affairs Minister:
The President Aoun met Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Abdullah Bou Habib, who briefed him on the results of his visit to the United States of America, and the meetings he held with a number of officials in the American National Security Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister Bou Habib indicated that, during the talks that he held, he felt clear US support for the expected role of the International Monetary Fund in helping Lebanon to overcome its difficult economic conditions, by accelerating the recovery plan set by the Lebanese government, as well as the necessity to accomplish the necessary reforms that Lebanon needs, in addition to the encouraging by US officials to hold the parliamentary elections on time.
Minister Bou Habib also pointed out that US officials reiterated their support for bringing gas and electricity to Lebanon from Egypt and Jordan through Syria to enhance the production of electric power, and excluding Lebanon from the restrictions set by “Caesar’s Law”, and that this matter was reported to Egyptian officials.
In addition, Minister Bou Habib stated that US officials encourage the process of demarcating the southern maritime borders, and that the US envoy in charge of this task, Amos Hochstein, will come to Lebanon within the next few days to resume his efforts with the aim of moving this file.
The Foreign Minister indicated that the discussion with US officials dealt with the issue of US aid to the Lebanese Army in accordance with the support plan established for this purpose between the Lebanese and American leaderships.
In conclusion, Minister Bou Habib revealed that the research also touched on Lebanon’s relations with the Gulf States, the situation in Syria and the issue of the displaced Syrians.
Najat Rushdi:
President Aoun received the Deputy Special Coordinator of the United Nations Secretary-General in Lebanon and the Resident Coordinator of United Nations Activities and Humanitarian Coordinator, Dr. Najat Rushdi.
The President informed Rushdi that “Lebanon supports the efforts made in preparing and implementing programs to secure the humanitarian needs of the Lebanese, especially in the fields of education, water, electricity and medicine”.
President Aoun also stressed that these efforts are accompanied by the Lebanese state, which is working on alleviating the suffering of Lebanese families, especially after the growing need for basic and necessary services. The President alsoasserted that the emergency plan launched by Dr. Rushdi for a period of three months to provide fuel to maintain health care and water and sanitation services had positive effects, welcoming the decision taken to extend the work of this plan until next March.
For her part, Dr. Rushdi presented a report on the work carried out by United Nations organizations to confront the urgent humanitarian situation in Lebanon, pointing out that the United Nations will continue to provide this support, knowing that the Lebanese state must also fulfil responsibilities in this regard.
In addition, Dr. Rushdi stressed that there are no conditions from the United Nations for humanitarian aid, and there is no political influence on the work of international organizations in this field. Then, Rushdi expressed her gratitude for the support provided by President Aoun to the projects carried out by United Nations organizations in Lebanon that deal in particular with the humanitarian, health and social issue, especially those for which financial budgets have been allocated from donor countries, including the allocation of $6 million to fund a project for NGOs related to child protection, combating violence against women and education services for about 29,000 Lebanese, displaced and immigrants.
MP Maalouf:
The President met MP Eddy Maalouf and discussed with him general affairs, recent political developments and security conditions, as well as the needs of the Metn region.
MP Maalouf pointed out that he addressed the situation of the landfill in Jdeideh, and the need to find a quick solution to it. -- Presidency Press Office

President Aoun receives Minister Mawlawi
NNA /January 13/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi, this afternoon at the Presidential Palace. Minister Mawlawi briefed the President on the security situation, in light of the reports received since yesterday afternoon and throughout this day, which witnessed a protest movement and road blocking, called for by the public transport sector.  Minister Mawlawi also informed President Aoun of what the Ministry of Interior is doing in the electoral process, after the issuance of a decree calling on electoral bodies to open the door for nominations.
In addition, Minister Mawlawi stressed that “The security situation is very tight and the security apparatuses keep pace with the movements, based on the instructions I gave them yesterday afternoon”. “Keeping up with the movements is good and coordination between the various security apparatuses was good to protect citizens and ensure freedom of demonstration in safety, stability and protection” Mawlawi said. Moreover, the Interior Minister emphasized that "The electoral process will take place, and no one should be afraid that the elections will not take place”, calling on the citizens and candidates to work and prepare for the elections.
Statement:
After the meeting, the Interior Minister made the following statement:
“I was honored today to meet His Excellency the President.
I briefed his Excellency on the security situation, in light of the reports I received since the dawn of today, and the follow-ups to the security situation that I personally carried out with all the security apparatuses on the ground and their leaders, from yesterday afternoon until today.
Some of the events that happened yesterday evening are unfortunate, especially in terms of exposure to some public properties and public utilities that are for all citizens. Exposure to property does not affect and does not lead to the achievment of citizens' demands. We ask citizens to be more protective of private and public properties. Public utilities are to serve citizens.
I also briefed His Excellency on security reports that I have received since this morning until now, and thank God the security situation is very good. Roads have been cut off, but the security situation is very tight and the security apparatuses are keeping pace with the movements, according to the instructions I gave them yesterday afternoon. Keeping pace with the movements was good, and coordination between the various security services was good to protect citizens and ensure freedom of demonstration in safety, stability and protection.
His Excellency, the president has also set the tone for the ongoing preparations for the electoral process. After the issuance of the decree calling on electoral bodies, we set the deadline for the start of candidacy, which started on the 10th of this month, and therefore the electoral process, the preparations for it, and the measures that the Ministry of Interior must take to accomplish it, are carried out in accordance with the law and with full transparency. We do all that is required of us.
Questions & Answers:
Asked about some incidents which took place today, where weapons were raised, and whether it was possible to hold demonstrations without closing the roads, Minister Mawlawi replied: "We always call for the protection of freedom of expression and that it is not accompanied by inconvenience or harassment of citizens. This day passed very well, and we knew about the limited incident and we followed-up on it. We have to bear the citizens, and we have called on the security services to do so. The citizens are going through difficult circumstances, and we are all on their side. We have to bear each other within respect of the law”.
Asked about some people’s claim that the decree calling for the electoral bodies contains a legal error with which it is feared that it will be challenged and that the parliamentary elections may be distorted. The Interior Minister replied: “Let them tell us where the error is, and what it is. In any case, the preparations are complete, and the decree calling on the electoral bodies does not contain any problem. The electoral process is in place, and no one has to be afraid that the elections will not happen. As the Minister of the Interior, I confirm that the elections will take place, and the electoral process is in place and there is no doubt about that, so let the citizens and candidates be reassured, and work and prepare for elections”.
Concerning municipal elections, Minister Mawlawi said: "I will raise this issue to the Council of Ministers and also to the Parliament to take the appropriate decision”.—Presidency Press Office

Salameh Hits Back at Judge Aoun, Says He Will Expose 'Falsifiers'
Naharnet/January 13/2022
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Thursday hit out at Mount Lebanon Attorney General Judge Ghada Aoun over recent actions and tweets. Noting that he had received an invitation to be interrogated by Aoun on January 13, Salameh noted that he filed a recusal lawsuit against her on January 12.
“She is obliged to stop looking into the case until the competent judicial authority rules on this request,” the governor said in a statement. “I respect the law and the judiciary and I showed that in the previous period through appearing reportedly before judges, despite being convinced that the lawsuits filed against me were unjust and only aimed at tarnishing my image in the eyes of the public opinion in Lebanon and abroad,” Salameh added. Lamenting that Aoun “has repeatedly and aggressively tweeted negative expressions” and “issued Twitter verdicts” against him, Salameh decried that the judge has “expressed her readiness to testify” against him in Liechtenstein and has also “sent memos breaching the norms to the French judiciary.”“According to the simplest legal rules, a judge cannot be a rival and a referee at the same time, and it has become clear that there are political reasons behind all these lawsuits that are being filed by the same individuals,” the governor added. “The preparations for this campaign kicked off in 2016 and were based on forged financial documents. I have filed a lawsuit in France, where a witness exposed the names of those involved in this falsification, and we will soon unveil their names and show how they have forged documents to hint that I have embezzled $2 billion from the central bank,” Salameh went on to say.

Aoun Blames Dialogue Boycotters for Continued Paralysis of All Authorities
Naharnet/January 13/2022
President Michel Aoun on Thursday lashed out at those who announced their boycott of his proposed national dialogue conference and those who boycotted the preparatory bilateral meetings. “Following the consultations that President Michel Aoun held with the parliament speaker, the prime minister and the heads of parliamentary blocs, regarding the call for dialogue, it turned out that a number of them rejected consultations as some rejected dialogue, which holds them responsible for the continued all-out paralysis of the government, judiciary and parliament,” the Presidency said in a statement.
The statement, however, said that Aoun’s dialogue call “will remain open” and that he hopes boycotters will “put their patriotic sense before any other interests.” “He calls on them to stop the arrogance, look into what the Lebanese people are suffering and agree as soon as possible to hold a frank dialogue so that we decide our fate with our own hands, based on a national will, so that we don’t get forced in the future to accept the opposite of what we wish for our country,” the statement added. It also cautioned that “the continued disruption of Cabinet sessions” is a “premeditated disruption of the financial and economic recovery plan, without which there can be neither negotiations with the International Monetary Fund nor assistance and reforms.” This “will further decay the state and deepen the collapse and is an unforgivable crime against the people,” the statement warned. Thanking “those who attended and responded” to his effort, Aoun also announced, in the statement, that he “will carry on with his call for dialogue without hesitation,” and will continue to “take any initiative or decision aimed at protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese.”

Aoun Meets Families of Port Blast Detainees, Says Arresting 'Innocents' is 'Unacceptable'
Naharnet/January 13/2022
President Michel Aoun said he feels the suffering of the families of the detainees and the martyrs in the case of the Beirut port blast. He added, during a meeting in Baabda with the families of the detainees, that he is "doing everything he can, within his powers and within the laws in order to achieve fairness and end the injustice against the innocents." "The situation is difficult, as the judiciary and the Cabinet have been disrupted, and we are working to address the issue as we are aware of the extent of its serious repercussions," Aoun affirmed. He asked if it is "acceptable to detain for a year and six months an employee who had fulfilled his duty and informed his superior."Aoun stressed that he will follow up on the matter "until the truth is revealed and the responsibilities are defined without selectivity, politicization, obstruction, or delays, for every justice that shows up late is an obstructed justice."

In fresh provocation, Hezbollah hosts anti-Saudi Beirut conference
Associated Press/January 13/2022
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group hosted a conference for Saudi opposition figures in its stronghold south of Beirut on Wednesday in a defiant gesture certain to anger the oil-rich kingdom. The gathering came as the Lebanese government is trying to mend relations with Saudi Arabia which hit a new low in October when the kingdom recalled its ambassador from Beirut and banned all Lebanese imports. Top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said Saudi Arabia should stop its policy of “bullying” others as well as its interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs. The conference was attended by Saudi opposition figures as well as members of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militias. It was meant to commemorate the anniversary of influential Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed in January 2016 in a mass execution of 47 people in the kingdom. Nimr was an outspoken government critic and a key leader of Shia protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011 demanding greater rights and fair treatment in the majority Sunni nation. Among the little-known Saudi figures who attended the conference were Fouad Ibrahim, Abbas Sadeq, Hamza al-Hassan and Sheikh Jasem Mahmoud Ali who blasted the Saudi royal family for Nimr’s death. Minutes after Safieddine finished his speech, Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Waleed Bukhari tweeted that “the painful truth is that the terrorist Hezbollah is acting above the state.”The Saudi move to withdraw its ambassador and ban Lebanese imports followed comments by a Lebanese cabinet minister who said in a televised interview that the war in Yemen was futile and called it an aggression by the Saudi-led coalition. In early December, Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi, who made the comments before he took the job, resigned from his post but the move did not ease the tense relations and the war of words between Hezbollah and Saudi officials has continued. Lebanon’s prime minister as well as President Michel Aoun, a political ally of the Shia Hezbollah group, have dissociated themselves from the verbal attacks by Hezbollah leaders against the kingdom. In late December, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman called on the Lebanese in a speech “to end the terrorist Hezbollah’s control” of Lebanon. At the root of the crisis is a years-old regional rivalry with Iran and Saudi unease about Hezbollah’s increasing clout in Lebanon. “We want best relations with Saudi Arabia but Saudi Arabia should stop the policy of bullying” in the region, Safieddine said. “Those who target us will get a response.”Beirut-based Saudi opposition figure, Ali Hashem, said that they commemorate Nimr’s anniversary every year and this year it happened to be in Lebanon. He added that his presence in Lebanon gives him the right to express his opinion adding that his comments do not violate Lebanese laws. Asked what their goal is, Hashem said: “To bring down the Saudi regime.”

Amid power outages, economic crisis, Lebanese students cannot afford university
Agence France Presse/January 13/2022
Power shortages and soaring petrol prices mean that many Lebanese university students can neither afford to reach their classes nor study from home, a conundrum that is ravaging a generation’s future. Agnes, a 22-year-old dentistry student from south Lebanon, is among the few still plodding to class in Beirut four days a week. The five hours she spends on a bus daily now costs her 1.3 million Lebanese pounds a month; “that’s half of my father’s salary”, she said. Such expenses are now beyond the reach of most Lebanese students, with their country in the throes of a financial, political and health crisis that has ravaged its economy. The national currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value on the black market and the minimum wage of 675,000 pounds is worth little more than $20, which barely pays for a full tank of petrol. Transport “is becoming more expensive than my semester’s tuition fees”, said Tarek, a 25-year-old student at the Islamic University of Lebanon who, like the others interviewed, declined to give a family name. As a result and also because teachers face similar difficulties, many universities continue to offer online classes.But staying connected during state power cuts that often last more than 20 hours a day also comes at a cost.
Back to books
Amina, 22, a student at the public Lebanese University, said she has reverted to doing most of her work from books due to the lack of electricity at home.
There are “about 75 students in the class, of whom a maximum of five” can attend online, she said, adding that she needed to study around nine hours a day in order not to fall behind. To keep laptops and modems running, families have to pay for expensive private generators, but that option is also unaffordable for many. Some students are spending their money on mobile phone data so they can connect their computers to an internet hotspot. The spaghetti wiring connecting laptops, routers and phone chargers to all manner of back-up devices, from commercial uninterruptible power supplies to homemade contraptions using car batteries, means study areas now often look like the back of an IT workshop. “All of this is additional cost,” said 22-year-old Ghassan, a student at the Sagesse University. Several institutions have set up special student funds in an attempt to maintain enrolment levels, said Jean-Noel Baleo, Middle East director of the Francophone University Agency, a network of French-speaking institutions. “Some universities are keeping students who cannot pay, which is a form of hidden bursary,” he said. But he added such Band-Aid fixes were barely slowing the decline of a higher education system that was once a source of national pride and whose multilingual graduates flooded the region’s elites.
‘Collapse’
“It’s a collapse we’re talking about and there’s more bad news on the way,” said Baleo, who predicted the definitive closure of some universities and an intensifying brain drain. Education Minister Abbas Halabi admitted he was largely powerless to stem the sector’s crisis. “I tried to secure subsidies for the Lebanese University from foreign donors but at this stage, they have not replied positively,” he said. “The Lebanese state does not have the means.”Even as the financial meltdown threatens several pillars of the country’s education system, Lebanon’s political elite, widely blamed for collapse, have resisted reforms that would open the way for international assistance and the cabinet has not met in three months. “Today, the easiest option is to set up online classes, even if that remains a difficult option. Rising transport costs make it the least-worst fix,” Baleo said. In the meantime, students like Tarek say the crisis is turning university life into an ordeal. “It’s exhausting and depressing,” he said. “I am considering quitting university … The wages are so bad that you’re not even motivated to graduate to find a job,” he said. Student Ghassan said he only wanted to graduate so it could help him leave the country. “All the youth want to leave because there’s no clear future here,” he said.

HRW Urges Int'l Reform Pressure on 'Corrupt' Lebanese Rulers
Associated Press/January 13/2022
Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2022 released Thursday that “the corrupt and incompetent Lebanese authorities have deliberately” plunged the country into one of the worst economic crises in modern times, demonstrating a disregard for the rights of the population. It called for the international community to use “every tool at its disposal to pressure Lebanese policymakers to put in place the reforms necessary to pull Lebanon out of this crisis,” said Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. She added that they should include imposing sanctions against leaders responsible for the “ongoing grave human rights violations.”About 80% of people in Lebanon live in poverty after the Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value. Lebanon’s economy shrank 20.3 in 2020 and about 7% last year, according to the World Bank.

Public Drivers Block Major Roads as Economic Crisis Deepens
Associated Press/January 13/2022
Public drivers, tanker trucks and buses blocked major highways Thursday to protest the country's deteriorating economic and financial conditions. The general strike by public transport and labor unions started at 5 a.m., making it difficult for people to move around. Protesters closed with their vehicles the country's major highways as well as roads inside cities and towns. They blocked roads in central Beirut, Verdun, Hamra, Dora, Karantina, Mkalles, Nahr el-Kalb, Sarba, Sidon, Naameh, Aley, Dahr el-Baydar, the North and other regions. The move comes as the country’s ruling class has done almost nothing to try to pull the country out of its meltdown, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement. The political class that has run the small nation of 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, since the 1975-90 civil war is resisting reforms demanded by the international community. Universities and schools were closed all over Lebanon and many people were not able to reach work because of road closures. The nationwide protests, dubbed a “day of rage,” are scheduled to last 12 hours. Head of the Unions and Syndicates of the Land Transport Sector Bassam Tlais warned that today is the beginning of the "outrage." "We have set a time and a place to gather and protest and the goal of the strike is not to ruin the country," Tlais said. He added that "the next steps will be announced at the end of the strike."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 13-14/2022
Israel unveils Iranian online hiring of women's 'spy network'
The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
An Iranian "espionage network" used Facebook to recruit Israeli women who were manipulated into photographing the US embassy and other activities, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said Wednesday. The women, whom the Shin Bet did not identify, were recruited by an Iranian agent who called himself "Rambod Namdar" and said he was a Jew living in Iran, the Israeli agency said in a statement. "Despite the fact that the women suspected that the man in question was an Iranian intelligence operative, some of them maintained contact with him, agreed to perform various tasks he asked of them and received funds from him," it said. After they had been approached through Facebook, "Rambod" asked the women that communication continue using the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp, the Shin Bet added. It said there were four prime suspects and indictments have been issued. One of the women, aged 40, was allegedly in contact with "Rambod" for several years and carried out various missions. These included covertly photographing the US embassy in Tel Aviv and taking pictures inside the interior ministry in her hometown of Holon. "Rambod" also asked the woman to guide her son, prior to his military enlistment, into the Intelligence Directorate with the aim of obtaining sensitive documents, the Shin Bet alleged. Another suspect, aged 57, was also tasked with steering her son towards military intelligence. She "received an accumulated sum of about $5,000 on several occasions" over a period of more than four years, the Shin Bet said. Her other missions allegedly included trying to get close to a member of Israel's Knesset, or parliament. The woman "transferred information about their relationship to her operator," said the Shin Bet, which jointly investigated with Israeli police.
Shadow war
The Shin Bet's accusations about the spy network come during negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers seeking to revive a 2015 agreement that offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.
Israel is not a party to the Vienna talks but is watching with concern, fearing arch-enemy Iran could develop a nuclear weapon. A shadow intelligence and military war have pitted Israel against Iran. Iran has long accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of running agents in the country and of sabotage and assassinations aimed at hindering Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran denies Israel's allegations it is seeking nuclear weapons. "The State of Israel is in an ongoing campaign with Iran. It is clear: we see never-ending efforts and attempts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to recruit Israeli citizens," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. "These attempts go beyond security and intelligence. They are expanding to efforts to influence the citizens of Israel and Israeli society, sow discord and polarisation, undermine political stability in Israel and damage the public's trust in the government," he added. Bennett urged Israelis to be cautious, saying: "It is possible that behind the information that you consume or share on social media are the Iranians."In November, Israel indicted a man employed as a cleaner in the home of Defence Minister Benny Gantz for attempting to spy for the Black Shadow hacking group, which is purportedly linked to Iran. Black Shadow hacks are seen as part of a years-long covert war between Israel and Iran, including physical attacks on ships and cyber offensives.

Hundreds of teachers in Iran protest against new pay scales as inflation bites
Al Arabiya English/with AFP/13 January ,2022
Hundreds of teachers rallied in cities across Iran Thursday to protest against changes to their pay and pensions that come just as soaring prices hit their wallets, state media reported. In Gilan province on the Caspian Sea coast, around 150 teachers marched in the city of Rasht, while another 70 did so in Lahijan, the state broadcaster reported. Protesters chanted slogans such as “if embezzlement is reduced, our problems will be solved,” and “we only heard promises, we didn’t see justice,” it said. In Iran’s third-largest city, Isfahan, around 300 teachers demonstrated, the Mehr news agency reported, adding that another protest was held in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province in the southwest. Social media platforms showed similar protests in Neyshabur in the northeast, Kermanshah in the west and Khorramshahr in the southwest. The government wants to introduce a new grading system for teachers based on experience and performance. The protesters are opposed to the way it will be implemented. They are also demanding that the government move more quickly to align pensions with the salaries of working teachers. Hit by severe economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran has seen inflation soar to close to 60 percent, exacting a heavy toll on the standard of living of public sector staff and others on fixed incomes. Civil servants in one of Iran’s most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations on Sunday against the government’s refusal to increase their pay. On Monday, attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri threatened to prosecute the protesters. Ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed his post in August, had proposed a salary hike in the last weeks of his previous job as judicial chief. But the new government which he leads changed its mind.

Iran's 'maximalist approach' slows down nuclear talks
The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
Iran and the United States are nowhere near reaching a compromise on core issues in indirect nuclear talks, raising questions about whether a formula can be found soon to renew a 2015 deal, diplomats say. Following months of stop-start talks that began after Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House, Western officials now say time is running out to resurrect the pact. But Iranian officials, who are pushing "maximalist" stances, deny they are under time pressure, arguing the economy can survive thanks to oil sales to China. A former Iranian official said Iran's rulers "are certain that their uncompromising, maximalist approach will give results".After eight rounds of talks, the thorniest points remain the speed and scope of lifting sanctions on Tehran, including Iran's demand for a US guarantee of no further punitive steps, and how and when to restore curbs on Iran's atomic work. The nuclear deal limited Iran's uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for it to develop nuclear arms in return for lifting international sanctions. France said on Tuesday that despite some progress at the end of December, Iran and world powers were still far away from reviving the deal. The United States on Wednesday cited "modest progress" in recent weeks, but not enough. "Modest progress is also not sufficient if we are going to" revive the 2015 deal, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. Iran insists on the immediate removal of all Trump-era sanctions in a verifiable process. Washington has said it would remove curbs inconsistent with the 2015 pact if Iran resumed compliance with the deal, implying it would leave in place others such as those imposed under terrorism or human rights measures. "Americans should give assurances that no new sanctions under any label would be imposed on Iran in the future. We need guarantees that America will not abandon the deal again," said a senior Iranian official. Iran's Nournews, a media outlet affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, reported on Wednesday that Iran's key conditions at the talks "are assurances and verifications." US officials have said Biden cannot promise the US government will not renege on the agreement because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally-binding treaty. Asked to comment on that US constitutional reality, an Iranian official said: "It's their internal problem". On the issue of obtaining verification that sanctions have been removed, at which point Iran would have to revive curbs on its nuclear programme, the senior Iranian official said Iran and Washington differed over the timetable. "Iran needs a couple of weeks to verify sanctions removal (before it reverses its nuclear steps). But the other party says a few days would be enough to load oil on a ship, export it and transfer its money through the banking system," the official said.
Lingering threat
Shadowing the background of the talks have been threats by Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear weaponry but which sees Iran as an existential threat, to attack Iranian nuclear installations if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile in containing Tehran's atomic abilities and potential. Iran says it would hit back hard if it were attacked. A Western diplomat said "early-February is a realistic end-date for Vienna talks" as the longer Iran remains outside the deal, the more nuclear expertise it will gain, shortening the time it might need to race to build a bomb if it chose to. "Still we are not sure whether Iran really wants a deal," said another Western diplomat. Iran has ruled out adhering to any "artificial" deadline. "Several times, they asked Iran to slow down its nuclear work during the talks and even Americans conveyed messages about an interim deal through other parties," said a second Iranian official, close to Iran's negotiating team.
"It was rejected by Iran."
Asked for comment, a State Department spokesperson who declined to be identified told Reuters: "Of course we” and the whole international community," want Iran to slow down their nuclear programme and have communicated that very clearly. Beyond that, we don't negotiate the details in public, but these reports are far off."Other points of contention include Iran's advanced nuclear centrifuges, the machines that purify uranium for use as fuel in atomic power plants or if purified to a high level, weapons. "Discussions continue on Iran's demand to store and seal its advanced centrifuges ... They wanted those centrifuges to be dismantled and shipped abroad," the first official said. Asked to comment on this question, a Western diplomat said: "We are looking for ways to overcome our differences with Iran about verification process".

Iran Leader's Website Showcases Trump Drone Strike Animation
Associated Press/January 13/2022
The website of Iran's supreme leader has showcased an animated video that appears to show a robot calling in a drone strike to assassinate former President Donald Trump. The animated video was part of a contest to mark the Jan. 3, 2020 killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in an American drone strike in Baghdad. The video, posted Wednesday on the website of Khamenei's office, appears to show Trump, on the golf course at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, being targeted in a drone strike. The video mirrored a propaganda poster last year also showing Trump on a golf course, calling for revenge for Soleimani's slaying. Earlier this month, Iran's hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi demanded Trump be "prosecuted and killed.""If not, I'm telling all American leaders, don't doubt that the hand of revenge will come out of the sleeves of ummah," Raisi said, referring to the worldwide community of Muslims.

Sadrist Movement expected to nominate Kadhimi for Iraq' premiership
The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
Iraqi political sources say that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is smoothly gliding towards a new term in office, given the support he enjoys from the Sadrist Movement. The sources point out that Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr sees Kadhimi as the most capable figure who could lead a “national majority” government to be formed by the Sadrists with the backing of Sunni and Kurdish blocs. The sources note that the objections of the pro-Iranian Coordination Framework Shia parties to Kadhimi are not of much concern to the Sadrists. Iraq watchers point out that Kadhimi, despite the modest results achieved during his current term in office, has shown himself to be able to deal effectively with Iraq's quandaries and has demonstrated a great measure of pragmatism in handling foreign interference in Iraqi affairs. Analysts say there is no external veto on Kadhimi. Even Tehran does not object to his nomination as it does not consider the premier, in the final analysis, to be a threat to its interests. They believe that the only obstacle to Kadhimi's accession to the premiership is the opposition of the pro-Iranian militias. But these forces will ultimately have no choice in the matter if Muqatada Al-Sadr insists on nominating Kadhimi and if the latter wins the support of the Sunni and Kurdish blocs. The prime minister had met, on Monday, the leader of the Al-Fatah (Conquest) Alliance, Al-Hadi Al-Amiri, in Baghdad. The purpose of the visit, according to sources, was to de-escalate tensions with the alliance, considered a political offshoot of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF). Kadhimi also visited Najaf, Wednesday. Sources close to the prime minister said the visit was a follow-up to a previous visit, less than a week ago, during which the prime minister examined the state of services in the governorate, the stronghold of the Sadrist Movement. During his earlier visit to Najaf, where he was warmly welcomed by Sadr, Kadhimi announced a set of measures regarding local affairs of the west-central province. Analysts say Kadhimi has recently been leading an active campaign to burnish his own image, by announcing a number of development projects and reshuffling governors and senior officials so as to remove from office those suspected of corruption or the repression of protests, as was the case with the governor of Dhi Qar. Iraqi affairs experts believe that the recent anti-graft measures taken by Kadhimi are consistent with the positions advocated by the Sadrist Movement and its leader, putting corruption at the forefront of the reform project they want to be implemented after the formation of a national majority government. Iraq's Integrity Commission announced on Wednesday the issuance of arrest warrants and summons for 85 high-ranking officials, on corruption-related charges, during the month of December. A statement by the official commission, tasked with investigating corruption cases in Iraq, said that judicial authorities issued the warrants after the investigation by the Integrity Commission of cases in Baghdad and other provinces. It indicated that 21 arrest warrants and 77 summonses were issued, including one involving a current government minister, as well as a number of former ministers, in addition to former parliamentarians, governors and other senior officials. No names were however revealed. Iraq is considered to be among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the Transparency International index over the past years. Last October, the country held early legislative elections in the wake of large protests against corruption since 2019. The leader of the Sadrist Movement has focused during the election campaign on the need to prioritise the fight against corruption. Observers believe that Kadhimi's anti-corruption moves, at this particular time, are a prelude to his assumption of the premiership in the government, which the Sadrist movement is to form, despite the misgivings of the Shia forces loyal to Iran.

Armenia expects diplomatic relations, open borders with Turkey after talks -TASS
Reuters/January 13/2022
Armenia expects to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey and to open borders between the two countries as a result of dialog, Russia’s TASS news agency cited Armenia’s foreign ministry as saying on Thursday. The countries appointed special envoys to normalize relations last year, seeking to repair ties after years of animosity. The two envoys will hold the first round of talks in Moscow on Friday and flights between Istanbul and Yerevan are set to start in early February.

Russia says U.S. demands its troops return to barracks are 'unacceptable' - TASS
Reuters/January 13/2022
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow was not ready to even discuss "unacceptable" U.S. demands for Russian troops on their own territory to return to barracks, the TASS news agency reported. Moscow has worried Kyiv and the West by building up troops near Ukraine, sparking fears that it is considering invading. Moscow denies any such plans, saying it can deploy forces on its own territory how it chooses and that they pose no threat.

Abiy has 'special responsibility' to end Tigray conflict: Nobel panel
AFP/January 13/2022
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said Thursday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the honour in 2019, bore special responsibility for ending the bloodshed in Tigray. "As Prime Minister and winner of the Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and contribute to peace," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, said in a statement to AFP. Northern Ethiopia has been beset by conflict since November 2020 when Ahmed sent troops into Tigray after accusing the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), of attacks on federal army camps. The fighting between forces loyal to Abiy and the TPLF and their allies has killed thousands of people and forced several million from their homes. "The humanitarian situation is very serious and it is not acceptable that humanitarian aid does not get through sufficiently," Reiss-Andersen said. Abiy's prize "was awarded on the basis of his efforts and the legitimate expectations that existed in 2019," Reiss-Andersen said. "The peace initiatives that Abiy Ahmed launched and for which he received the Nobel Prize were based on his contribution to the peace agreement with Eritrea and his comprehensive political initiative for democracy and the development of civil rights," she added.

Tear gas fired as Sudan anti-coup demonstrators keep up protests
AFP/January 13/2022
Sudanese security forces fired tear gas at thousands of protesters heading toward the presidential palace on Thursday to demonstrate against an October coup, witnesses said. The demonstrations which converged from several parts of Khartoum came only days after the United Nations launched a bid to facilitate talks between Sudanese factions. Security forces fired volleys of tear gas to disperse the protesters, according to witnesses.

Three wounded in Iraq rocket attack targeting US embassy in Baghdad/No group has claimed the attack
AFP /AP/Arab News/January 13/2022
BAGHDAD: Three people were wounded in rocket attacks on the Iraqi capital Baghdad’s Green Zone Thursday, with one hitting a school and two smashing into the US embassy grounds, security sources said. “Three rockets were fired toward the Green Zone,” a high-ranking Iraqi official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that two of the wounded were children. “Two of those fell on the grounds of the American embassy, and the other on a school nearby, injuring a woman, a girl and a young boy.”Another security source who did not wish to be identified said there were no injuries or damages inside the US embassy compound, which is in the Green Zone, an ultra-secure area that houses foreign embassies and Iraqi government offices. The US Embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that its compound had been attacked by “terrorists groups attempting to undermine Iraq’s security, sovereignty, and international relations.” The embassy’s C-RAM defense system — supposed to detect and destroy incoming rockets, artillery and mortar shells — was heard during the attack. “We have long said that these sorts of reprehensible attacks are an assault not just on diplomatic facilities, but on the sovereignty of Iraq itself,” the embassy said.
No group has claimed the attack.
The Iraqi government’s Security Media Cell said a number of rockets were fired from the Al-Dawra area in the south of Baghdad. In recent months, dozens of rocket assaults or drone bomb attacks have targeted American troops and interests in Iraq. Last Thursday, a series of attacks targeted American troops in Iraq and Syria. Rockets struck an Iraqi military base hosting US troops in western Anbar province and the capital. Earlier this month, five rockets targeted an air base used by the US-led coalition in western Iraq, without causing any damage. Attacks intensified in January, coinciding with the second anniversary of the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. The attacks are rarely claimed, but are routinely pinned on pro-Iran factions. Pro-Iran Shiite factions in Iraq have vowed revenge for Soleimani’s killing and have conditioned the end of the attacks on the full exit of American troops from the country. While the US ended its combat mission in Iraq in December, about 2,500 troops remain in a training capacity as part of the coalition against the Daesh group. At the beginning of November, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi escaped unharmed in an unclaimed drone bomb attack which targeted his official residence in the Green Zone.

De Mistura arrives in Morocco on first regional tour
The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
The UN said its new envoy for the Western Sahara arrived in Rabat Wednesday on the first stop of a tour that will also take him to Morocco’s regional rival Algeria. Staffan de Mistura, a veteran Italian diplomat, “began his first visit to the region and landed in Rabat today,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York. He will meet Moroccan officials in Rabat and then Polisario officials in Tindouf, Algeria, an area housing Sahrawi refugees, Dujarric told a daily news conference. Algeria backs the separatist Polisario Front and in August broke off relations with Morocco, which controls nearly 80 percent of the arid and sparsely-populated Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Tensions over the region rose after Algiers in November accused Morocco of killing three Algerians on a highway through the territory. The same month, the head of the Polisario Front said it had decided to step up military operations, a year after a ceasefire with Morocco collapsed. De Mistura was appointed in October, nearly two and a half years after the post became vacant as a dozen other candidates were rejected by either Morocco or the Polisario Front. The envoy is also planning to visit Algiers and Nouakchott, Mauritania, to hear “the views of all concerned on how to make progress towards a constructive resumption of the political process on Western Sahara,” Dujarric said. A 1991 UN-monitored ceasefire deal had provided for a referendum on self-determination, but Morocco has since rejected any vote that includes independence as an option, offering only limited autonomy. In 2020, the US administration of then-president Donald Trump recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory in a quid pro quo for Rabat’s normalising ties with Israel. Algeria said Washington’s decision had “no legal effect.”
A UN Security Council resolution late last year called for “the parties” in the Western Sahara dispute to resume negotiations “without preconditions.”

Sisi urges Sudanese to talk, hold election as he denies backing coup
The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday urged rival factions in Sudan to engage in talks to move forward in their transition to democracy after a coup toppled the civilian-led government. The October 25 military takeover has upended Sudan’s plans to move to democracy after three decades of repression and international sanctions under autocrat Omar al-Bashir. A popular uprising forced the military’s overthrow of al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019. Egypt, which has cultivated close ties with Sudan in recent years, fears that prolonged deadlock would further destabilise its southern neighbour. Following the coup, some Sudanese opposition leaders, including former Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi, suspected that Egypt had given a green light for Sudan’s military leader, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, to oust Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s government. Egypt pointedly did not sign a joint statement with the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates calling on the Sudanese military to restore the civilian-led government. Speaking at a news conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Sisi denied siding with either party in Sudan. He said Egypt supported all parties of the transitional government and insisted that his government does not intervene in other country’s internal affairs. The Egyptian leader called on Sudanese parties to agree on a roadmap to stabilise the country and hold elections at the end of the transition. “The situation in Sudan needs a political consensus among all existing forces, so it can be a way out of the current crisis,” he said. The military takeover has plunged Sudan into a political stalemate and relentless street protests that have brought the deaths of more than 60 people since October 25. Protesters want a fully civilian government, while the military says it would only hand over power to an elected administration. The turmoil intensified earlier this month following the resignation of embattled Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok after he failed to reach a compromise between the military and the pro-democracy movement. Hamdok had been removed in the coup only to be reinstated in November as part of an agreement with the military. The deal sidelined the pro-democracy movement, which has mobilised the street protests. Protest groups plan mass demonstrations across the country Thursday to pressure the military. Sisi's call came as the United Nations began separate consultations earlier this week with Sudanese groups to build confidence between the military and the pro-democracy movement before they possibly engage in direct talks. The UN mission in Sudan urged the military authorities Wednesday to immediately cease a violent crackdown on protesters to help “create an atmosphere conducive to these consultations.”

US pushes Europe to sort sanctions plan with wary eye on Russia’s Putin
Bloomberg/14 January ,2022
The US is putting pressure on European allies to agree on potential sanctions against Russia, worried about slow progress despite weeks of talks and heightened concerns that President Vladimir Putin could soon invade Ukraine, said people familiar with discussions that have taken place this week.
The Biden administration has also discussed the range of possible actions by Moscow it believes should trigger retaliation, the people said. Aside from sending troops into Ukraine, it could include any effort to engineer a coup against Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy or other acts to destabilize his government. The talks between the US and bigger European powers come as meetings this week with Russia failed to shed light on Moscow’s intentions. While Putin has denied he currently plans to invade Ukraine he is demanding security guarantees from NATO that the security alliance says it cannot deliver, and he’s continuing to build a massive troop presence on the border. Presenting a united front on economic deterrence is a crucial lever in the attempts to steer Putin off military action, especially as there are no set dates for further discussions with Moscow. Russian officials stepped up their rhetoric on Thursday, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov saying the talks with Western nations were at “a dead end. Those comments hit the ruble, which was the worst performer on the day against the dollar in emerging markets.
The US prodding on sanctions underscores a growing sense of impatience in the Biden administration about the European stance. For one thing, American officials are unhappy that European nations haven’t agreed on the exact sanctions they’d roll out if Russia invades Ukraine. For another, the US worries European leaders are ill-prepared to respond if Putin takes action that falls short of an all-out invasion, such as cyberattacks or stepped-up disinformation campaigns.
One person familiar with the US position said European officials acknowledged at the NATO meetings this week they were poorly prepared to respond to a so-called “hybrid attack by Russia,” and wanted to know what the US triggers for action were, and how it would ramp up its response. White House spokespeople had no immediate comment. For months the US and its European partners have been working on a package that could include measures targeting Russia’s largest banks and export controls on advanced technologies in key industries and high-tech goods.Some big western European members of the European Union have raised questions about the impact some of the penalties under discussion could have on their own economies, according to people familiar with the discussions. That includes the potential that Putin responds by cutting off crucial gas supplies to Europe. The allies are working through economic impact assessments and technical discussions about the proposed measures, and the Biden administration is looking at ways to mitigate the impact the sanctions might have on Europe’s energy supplies. European natural gas prices surged as much as 16 percent Thursday on the reality that Russia and the US remain far from bridging their differences. The strongest ideas on the table, such as cutting Russia off the Swift international payments system, are seen as a no-go for some countries. A number of European governments have also proposed carve-outs and introducing some financial measures gradually, two of the people told Bloomberg News. The bulk of any EU-wide response would have to be unanimously agreed by all 27 member states. The hope, one person said, is that a package can be finalized when the bloc’s foreign ministers next meet on Jan. 24.

German Court Convicts Syrian Man Guilty of Crimes against Humanity
Associated Press/January 13/2022
A former Syrian secret police officer was convicted by a German court Thursday of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago. Anwar Raslan is the highest-ranking Syrian official so far convicted of the charge. The verdict was keenly anticipated by those who suffered abuse or lost relatives at the hands of President Bashar Assad's government in Syria's long-running conflict. The Koblenz state court concluded that the defendant was in charge of interrogations at a facility in the Syrian city of Douma known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251, where suspected opposition protesters were detained. The court sentenced the 58-year-old to life in prison. His lawyers had asked judges last week to acquit their client, claiming that he never personally tortured anybody and that he defected in late 2012. "This day, this verdict is important for all Syrians who have suffered and are still suffering from the Assad regime's crimes," said Ruham Hawash, a survivor of Branch 251 who testified in the trial. "This verdict is only a beginning and we have a long way to go – but for us affected people, this trial and today's ruling are a first step towards freedom, dignity and justice," she said. German prosecutors alleged that Raslan supervised the "systematic and brutal torture" of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, resulting in the deaths of at least 58 people. Judges ruled that there was evidence to hold him responsible for 27 deaths.
A junior officer, E yad al-Gharib, was convicted last year of accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz court to 4½ years in prison. Both men were arrested in Germany in 2019, years after seeking asylum in the country. Victims and human rights groups have said they hope the verdict in the 19-month trial will be a first step toward justice for countless people who have been unable to file criminal complaints against officials in Syria or before the International Criminal Court. Since Russia and China have blocked efforts for the U.N. Security Council to refer cases to The Hague-based tribunal, countries such as Germany that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes will increasingly become the venue for such trials, experts say.
"We are starting to see the fruits of a determined push by courageous survivors, activists and others to achieve justice for horrific atrocities in Syria's network of prisons," said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. "The verdict is a breakthrough for Syrian victims and the German justice system in cracking the wall of impunity," she added. "Other countries should follow Germany's lead and actively bolster efforts to prosecute serious crimes in Syria." The trial is the first of its kind worldwide and other courts may cite the verdict and evidence heard in Koblenz, said Patrick Kroker, a lawyer with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The group represented 14 victims who under German law were able to take part in the proceedings as co-plaintiffs. "The goal remains to bring senior Assad associates, such as former Air Force Intelligence chief Jamil Hassan, to justice for their crimes," said Kroker. Germany issued an international arrest warrant for Hassan in 2018, but bringing him and other senior Syrian officials to trial will be difficult, as the country does not extradite its citizens. Still, the European Union's judicial cooperation organization, Eurojust said the ruling "will leave a lasting mark on international criminal justice.
"It noted that photographs of alleged torture victims smuggled out of Syria by a former police officer, who goes by the alias of Caesar, were a key part of the evidence against Raslan. Human rights experts said it was significant that the Koblenz court had deemed the allegations of sexual violence to be among the crimes against humanity Raslan was convicted for. However the judges didn't convict him over the enforced disappearances, meaning those will have to be prosecuted separately in future proceedings. Conservative estimates put the number of those detained or forcibly disappeared in Syria at 149,000, more than 85% of them at the hands of the Syrian government, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Most disappeared or were detained soon after peaceful protests erupted in March 2011 against Assad's government, which responded to the rallies with a brutal crackdown. The Syrian government denies it is holding any political prisoners, labeling its opposition terrorists. After battlefield wins, it has negotiated limited prisoner exchanges with various armed groups, which families say offer partial solutions for a very small number of people. Raslan's lawyers can appeal the verdict.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 13-14/2022
Iran will make US withdrawal from region as painful as possible
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/January 13/2022
The year may have only just started, but US troops in Iraq and Syria have already come under attack by drones three times. It is worth noting that, in both countries, the US presence has decreased. In Syria, there are mere hundreds of US troops left in the northeast of the country for counterterrorism purposes. In Iraq, the number is below 2,500 and troops have ended active combat to shift into an advisory role. In both countries, the main goal is now focused on fighting Daesh, yet most of the attacks against them are coming from Iranian-backed groups.
The reductions in troop numbers and the shift in their roles come at a time when the US is negotiating with Iran in Vienna. It is clear that Tehran is directing these attacks to push its message and apply pressure on Washington. The mullahs are convinced that the US will not retaliate or respond strongly to avoid any escalation. The use of weaponized drones is very efficient in its asymmetry and capacity to create irritation without being important enough to provoke a strong military response. It is also an effective communication tool from Iran that underlines its capacity to rain drones and missiles and make life even more difficult for the US.There is a growing parallel between the Taliban’s objectives in Afghanistan and Iran’s objectives in the Middle East. The goal is now clearly to push for a full withdrawal of US troops from Syria and Iraq. Tehran is comfortable in its thinking that, through pressure in the negotiations in Vienna, as well as through the official political voices from the Iraqi and Syrian governments, it can corner US forces. America has already noticed that, since its withdrawal from Afghanistan, it now has difficulty assessing the counterterrorism risks, especially concerning the links between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and what the implications are for US national security.The American military hence understands that a withdrawal from Iraq and Syria would mean more difficulties when it comes to its counterintelligence missions in both countries. This applies not only to Daesh, but also and mostly to all Iranian-sponsored terrorist activities. Unlike during the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiations, declarations from US military officials have been more direct in condemning the Iranian proxies and forces, blaming them for the attacks and warning them of potential retaliation. Some military experts state that the small numbers of US forces in both Syria and Iraq are more like hostages than a deterrent.
Last November, a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives raised legal questions regarding US military activities that do not involve Daesh. Their letter specifically questioned US airstrikes on sites in Syria that are used by Iran-backed militia groups. It implied that former President Donald Trump and his successor Joe Biden stretched the current legal authorizations with the missions in Syria instead of seeking the approval of Congress. The goal of this letter was to avoid future legal loopholes that could permit more “endless wars.” However, it also means that they consider US military activities in response to Iranian aggression as outside of the current legal scope, so the Iranian terrorist proxies are indeed in luck. There is an objective from the US to continue its withdrawal from the region and so the question remains whether this will be executed without reducing the pressure coming from Iranian-backed forces. Could a new surge be the solution instead? In 2007, President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of more than 20,000 soldiers in Iraq with the aim of enhancing the general situation to allow for reconciliation and a state-building process. Gen. David Petraeus took command of the Multi-National Force in Iraq and achieved his mission’s goals. But it is highly doubtful that the current US administration would, or even could, follow such a strategy, especially as it views that the same strategy failed in Afghanistan. This leaves the US with few options.
This lack of clarity — whether on the US military’s role or the legal aspect of its operations — underlines the lack of an overarching strategy, not only for Washington’s military presence in both Syria and Iraq, but also on its geopolitical objectives. This has become true for the entire Middle East just as it was true for Afghanistan. The US military, which is trying to maintain a difficult balance and stability despite its small presence, is left fending off Iranian provocations, especially in northern Syria, where the various actors’ roles and alliances are blurred. This situation is in no way sustainable, especially when Russia and China are more assertive in their engagement in the Middle East.
It is clear that Tehran is directing attacks on American troops to push its message and apply pressure on Washington. It is similar to the situation in Afghanistan, where the file was passed from one US administration to the next until it reached a point where no one really remembered what the original goal was and what could still be achieved. Therefore, looking at the geopolitical arrangements in Syria and Iraq, everything indicates the pursuit by the Biden administration of an honorable exit. The rehabilitation of Bashar Assad and the new political arrangements in Iraq point to that goal. The political landscape in Washington is also inward-looking to avoid the repetition of such forever wars, rather than maintaining regional security. However, this scenario will only become a reality with a nuclear deal. Tehran understands this and will try to make this exit as painful for the US as its departure from Afghanistan.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is chief executive of Eurabia, a media and tech company, and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

Diplomacy not enough when dealing with Iran
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 13/2022
The prevailing approach of the Biden administration toward the Iranian regime, which appears to be solely anchored in diplomacy, is doomed to fail. The White House believes that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy on Iran was ineffective. As a result, President Joe Biden has completely reversed course and used diplomacy in an attempt to contain the regime and confront its threats. But the problem is that his administration has fully relied on diplomacy without any application of force.
As part of its diplomatic initiative, the White House hinted to the Iranian leaders that, not only is it willing to lift nuclear-related sanctions, but also that it is considering lifting other sanctions too.
Biden has also made concessions toward Iran’s proxy militia group, the Houthis. Even as the evidence — including a report by the UN — showed that the Iranian regime was delivering sophisticated weapons to the Houthis in Yemen, the Biden administration last January suspended some of the terrorism sanctions Donald Trump had imposed on the group. Soon after, the Biden administration also revoked the Houthis’ designation as a terrorist group. Then, last June, the US lifted sanctions on three former Iranian officials and several energy companies. And, in a blow to the Iranian people and advocates of democracy and human rights, a few days after the regime had handpicked an alleged mass murderer to be its next president, the Biden administration refused to rule out lifting sanctions against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Not only has the Biden administration’s diplomatic route included lifting some of the sanctions on the Iranian regime and the Houthis, but it has also looked the other way on Tehran’s malign and destructive behavior in the region. For example, the White House has not taken proportionate action against the theocratic establishment after the US Department of Justice last month announced it had seized two large caches of Iranian weapons. The weapons included “171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, land attack cruise missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, thermal weapon optics and other components for missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.”
The Biden administration also remained silent after the US Navy seized Iranian petroleum products from “four foreign-flagged tankers in or around the Arabian Sea while en route to Venezuela. These actions represent the government’s largest-ever forfeitures of fuel and weapons shipments from Iran,” according to the Justice Department. Furthermore, the US is not taking any firm action against Iran’s violations of US sanctions and UN Security Council resolutions. For example, Iran’s shipments of oil to Syria and Hezbollah are in violation of US sanctions. And transfers of weapons to the Houthis violate UNSC Resolution 2140. The Biden administration is also looking the other way when the Iranian regime cracks down on protesters. Huge numbers of people in the province of Isfahan rose up against the ruling mullahs in November. Tens of thousands of farmers and other demonstrators poured into the streets and criticized government officials over a severe water shortage. As the regime cut off internet access, security forces fired shotguns and tear gas at the protesters, resulting in deaths and hundreds of injuries. With “#BloodyFriday” trending on Twitter, Mohammed-Reza Mir-Heidari, Isfahan’s chief of police, threatened to “deal” with the protesters.
The Biden administration has looked the other way on Tehran’s malign and destructive behavior in the region.
The Iranian-Americans for Liberty organization pleaded with the Biden administration to show solidarity with the protesters, stating: “We call on President Joe Biden, Secretary Antony Blinken, and all members of Congress to stand with the Iranian people. Diplomacy with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism is never going to produce a favorable result that benefits the American people or the Iranian people. Diplomacy with the Islamic Republic was destined to fail from day one.” So what has been the result of the Biden administration’s diplomatic initiative with the Iranian regime, which has included giving concessions and looking the other way when it comes to Tehran’s violations of sanctions and destructive behavior? The regime keeps adding to its demands and has become more emboldened in advancing its revolutionary ideals.
In conclusion, the Iranian regime’s behavior over the last year should be proof for Biden that diplomacy without the application of force will not work with Tehran.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Search for Syria’s chemical weapons to gain momentum
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/January 13/2022
It seems that the Biden administration is upping the pressure on the government of Bashar Assad in Syria to reveal all aspects of its chemical weapons program. This diplomatic pressure coincides with an effort by the UN to compel the political regime in Syria to release all the information it still keeps secret regarding any stockpiles of chemical weapons.
According to the Al-Monitor newspaper, the highest-ranking UN official tasked with finding Syria’s chemical weapons, Izumi Nakamitsu, has told Damascus that it has to offer more transparency. She reportedly said that the Assad government had submitted 17 amendments and several supplementary documents to its original weapons declaration, but has left 20 out of 24 requests for disclosure unresolved since a 2013 agreement to rid the country of chemical weapons.
However, there have been important developments in the situation with Syria that have led to a serious review of the real interests of the Biden administration regarding the Assad government. Among them is the fact that the US has significantly reduced its support for the opposition in Syria. In fact, the Biden administration is under pressure to normalize relations with the Assad regime, but such a major diplomatic step has not happened officially.
Another strategic consideration is that the Biden administration will not take any military action against Syria, even if it uses chemical weapons. In this regard, Biden will be reversing the policy that President Donald Trump instituted in 2017 and 2018, when he approved air raids against military targets inside Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons. The Biden administration will instead defer to the UN’s authority as it attempts to locate any evidence that points to Syria having chemical weapons depots.
Biden has increasingly modest goals in Syria. When President Barack Obama declined to use any military options against the regime in August 2013 after the Ghouta attack, the US media labeled his withholding of the utilization of military power an annunciation of an American strategic creed to be designated as the Obama doctrine. But Biden does not wish to elevate his administration’s policy on Syria to anything close to the stature of a strategic dogma.
Ironically, the greatest advantages the UN and US can gain in terms of having adequate information about Syria’s chemical weapons program is by cooperating with Russia. But this will be difficult because tensions between Moscow and the West are rising over Ukraine.
For sure, there will be more serious disputes between Syria and the UN over the scheduling of visits by officials from the international organization to inspect suspected chemical weapons facilities. No doubt the Biden administration will endorse the UN’s demands wholeheartedly. But the US must put such demands against the backdrop of the need to safeguard any peacekeeping operations in Syria. How can an international force of soldiers be safe while the likelihood of the use of chemical weapons is high?
Another thorny issue is the tendency by many US politicians, especially Republicans, to associate Iran with Syria’s chemical weapons program. Biden has the task of disclosing all the information about any Iranian involvement in Syria’s strategy. Tehran will likely deny having any relationship with Syria’s chemical weapons.
Neither the UN nor the US will ask any other institution to discover all the data on Syria’s chemical weapons. Hence, they have a long-term commitment and a responsibility to finish the job. They have to be fully cognizant of the fact that their investigation is unlikely to be successful in the short term. They won’t simply discover a huge cache of chemical weapons, but rather will put the picture together piece by piece. Therefore, the Biden administration will likely have to exercise strategic patience until it obtains all the information it needs about what Syria has in terms of chemical weapons.
UN, US won’t simply discover a huge cache of chemical weapons, but rather will put the picture together piece by piece.
There could be people volunteering to testify and help determine the locations of Syria’s chemical weapons. This could provide the UN and US with the institutional memory to check against any other revelations. It is obvious that the search for Syria’s chemical weapons will not enter diplomatic limbo. It will instead gather political and international momentum since it is tied to the push to end the civil war in that country.
Syria having chemical weapons would mean a state of perpetual strain between itself and the international community. But you never know, Assad may do what Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi did and reveal all the information about his weapons of mass destruction programs. In that case, the Biden administration would have to strike a balance between a positive decision on such a move by Syria and adopting a strategy of how to hold the US up as a deterrent force to thwart any effort by any entity to procure chemical weapons.
*Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and writer. Twitter: @bilarakib

مطلوب أن يواجه محسن رضائي العدالة وهو القائد العام السابق للحرس الثوري الإيراني، ونائب رئيس طهران الحالي للشؤون الاقتصادية الذي ساعد في التخطيط لتفجير المركز الثقافي اليهودي في بوينس آيرس عام 1994
Iran’s Mohsen Rezaee Should Face Justice
Emanuele Ottolenghi Toby Dershowitz/The National Interest/January 13/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/105558/emanuele-ottolenghi-toby-dershowitz-the-national-interest-irans-mohsen-rezaee-should-face-justice-%d9%85%d8%b7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%a8-%d8%a3%d9%86-%d9%8a%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%87-%d9%85%d8%ad/
If Rezaee travels with impunity, Iran will seek to further push the limits, and legitimize the accused in the same way that it has done with near impunity in the nuclear file.
On January 8, a Dassault Falcon 900EX executive jet (tail number EP-IGC) owned by the Iranian government took off from Tehran, heading west. Aboard the plane was an Iranian delegation traveling to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, where the local dictator, Daniel Ortega, was to be inaugurated to his fourth term as president two days later.
But this was no ordinary delegation. At its helm was Mohsen Rezaee, the former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Tehran’s current vice president for economic affairs, who helped plan the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, the Buenos Aires Jewish cultural center. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere before 9/11, killing eighty-five people and wounding 229 others.
The victims’ families have been waiting for justice for twenty-eight years. Rezaee belongs in a courtroom, not at a presidential inauguration. Countries should not welcome him; they should arrest him.
In 2007, Interpol issued a red notice issued for Rezaee for “aggravated murder and damages,” after, in 2006, Argentina had issued an international arrest warrant for his role in the AMIA bombing. In 2019, Argentina also added him to its terrorist list. In 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Rezaee. In 2019, Washington designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization.
These developments may explain why Rezaee’s plane made a circuitous journey. It first crossed the airspace of Turkey and Greece, flew over southern Italy, then Tunisia, on to Algeria, before entering Mauritania’s airspace. After less than two hours on the ground, the Dassault Falcon took off again. Destination: Caracas, Venezuela. Its flight path studiously avoided the Republic of Cape Verde. From Caracas, Rezaee’s plane flew to Managua, this time avoiding Colombia’s airspace.
The flightpath quirks suggest that Rezaee feared that some countries would force his aircraft to land in order to arrest him. Such an occurrence would have precedents. In June 2020, Alex Saab, a Venezuelan regime crony in charge of coordinating sanctions evasion with Iran, was arrested during a technical stopover in Cape Verde while on his way to Iran. A few months later, in October 2020, Cape Verde authorities prevented the landing of an Iranian cargo plane owned by the IRGC. The airline was likely carrying weapons from Iran to Venezuela.
As we write, flight tracking websites indicate that Rezaee’s executive jet is still on the runway of Managua’s international airport. But his presence in Managua has become public knowledge and triggered condemnation from Argentina’s government. His journey back, even without stopovers, needs to cross the sovereign airspace of numerous countries in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Many are U.S. allies. All are members of Interpol.
Will they deny him transit rights or force him to land so that he can be arrested and finally face his day in court? Will the United States, the only country with the leverage and means to produce such an outcome, use its diplomatic influence to ensure Rezaee’s journey home never happens? Or will the Biden administration, currently entangled in a race to conclude nuclear negotiations with the clerical regime in which Rezaee serves, choose to let him go?
Iran is testing not only the will of the United States but of the international community. If Rezaee travels with impunity, Iran will seek to further push the limits, and legitimize the accused in the same way that it has done with near impunity in the nuclear file. Interpol’s own credibility is at stake as well.
In previous diplomatic rounds with Tehran, Washington sacrificed principle and compromised justice, with little tangible benefit. During the run-up to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Washington slow-rolled and mothballed investigations against Iran-backed Hezbollah’s narco-trafficking and money laundering activities in Latin America, for fear of crossing Iranian negotiators. In recent months, the Biden administration has failed to enforce key sanctions against Iran and to impose meaningful military consequences for Iranian provocations against U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Criminals like Rezaee should not receive a free pass to jet set. That Nicaragua and Venezuela, two close allies of Tehran and themselves rogue regimes run by brutal dictators, are giving him carte blanche to travel is to be expected. But the United States, and those nations that might let him fly across their airspace, should make sure a wanted fugitive faces justice.
*Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Toby Dershowitz is senior vice president for government relations and strategy. FDD is a non-partisan, Washington-based research institute focused on national security and foreign policy. Follow them on Twitter @eottolenghi and @TobyDersh.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/iran%E2%80%99s-mohsen-rezaee-should-face-justice-199375

How to Fight Antisemitism in the Arab World/Video, audio, transcript: "How to Fight Antisemitism in the Arab World," Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Jonathan Schanzer, Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, and Bari Weiss, FDD Event
FDD/January 13/2022
https://www.fdd.org/events/2022/01/12/how-to-fight-antisemitism-in-the-arab-world/
Introductory remarks:
Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President for Research, FDD
Speakers (clockwise from top-left):
Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Research Fellow, FDD
Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President for Research, FDD
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, President and Founder, Ideas Beyond Borders
Bari Weiss, Author, How to Fight Anti-Semitism
TRANSCRIPT
SCHANZER: Hello and thank you for joining us today. I’m Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. We’re glad to have you tuning in to today’s important discussion.
Today’s discussion marks the release of the Arabic translation of Bari Weiss’s award-winning book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism. We’re pleased to have with us today experts to discuss not just the book itself, but why an Arabic translation is so important, in light of the antisemitism that is so prevalent today in the Arab world.
Before I introduce our speakers, a bit of background about FDD. We are a non-partisan policy institute focused on national security and foreign policy. FDD is a source for timely research, analysis, and policy options. We host three centers on American power in the areas of military and political power, economic and financial power, and cyber and technology innovation, all with the aim of using all instruments of American power to produce actionable research and develop policy options to strengthen U.S. national security. A note-we take neither foreign government nor foreign corporate funding and never will.
Today’s program is one of many FDD hosts throughout the year. For more information on the work that we do, we encourage you to visit our website: FDD.org.
With that, I am pleased to introduce our panel today:
First we have Bari Weiss, who is an award-winning journalist and author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism. From 2017 to 2020 she was an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times. Before that, she wrote for The Wall Street Journal and Tablet. Today, she runs the popular “Common Sense” Substack and hosts a podcast called “Honestly.”
Next is my colleague, Hussain Abdul-Hussain, who is a research fellow at FDD. He previously worked at Beirut’s The Daily Star. He reported from war zones such as on the Lebanese border with Israel, and from Iraq. In Washington, Hussain helped set up and manage the Arabic satellite network Alhurra Iraq, after which he headed the Washington Bureau of the Kuwaiti daily Alrai.
And finally, we have Faisal Saeed Al Mutar. Faisal is the president and founder of Ideas Beyond Borders. IBB’s mission is to share, translate and promote ideas that foster critical thinking, civil rights, science, and pluralism, to the Middle East. Born in Iraq, Faisal become a refugee in the United States in 2013. He received the “President’s Volunteer Service Award” in 2015.
We are very grateful to have these experts join us today for this very important discussion.
Let me kick off the conversation by just saying congratulations. First, of course, to Bari for producing such an important book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism, which has earned well deserved accolades here in America. I also want to congratulate Faisal and his team at Ideas Beyond Borders. Their Arabic translation of Bari’s book makes it available for a wider audience that can truly benefit from reading it. The book, I should add, also has a wonderful forward written by FDD’s own Hussain Abdul-Hussain, who is FDD’s resident expert on Gulf Affairs. So a warm welcome to all three of you.
And as we dive into the substance of Bari’s book today and why it’s so important to discuss it in the Arab world, I think it’s important to acknowledge the brave intellectuals who have fought this battle in the past and paid the ultimate price. Today, I’m thinking about Mazin Latif, a name our audience may not know. Mazin Latif was an Iraqi author who published a number of books about the history of Jewish people in Iraq. Then in 2019, he was kidnapped and killed by militias affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Faisal, maybe if you wouldn’t mind just to tell us a bit more about Mazin Latif’s story. I think it’s an important way to start our discussion today.
AL MUTAR: Sure, thanks for having me. Mazin’s biggest crime was telling Iraqis about their own history. He has written six books, mainly discussing the contributions and the positive contributions of Iraqi Jews from the beginning of modern Iraq, and that is something that many subsequent governments that came in after the kingdom tried to erase. He has been an advocate to restore our relations with Jewish people and restore Iraqi Jews to go back to their home country. And this is unfortunately a crime in his country, in which from the beginning he published his first book, and I know we are in a lot of mutual friends and circles.
I know that he’s been constantly threatened by many militias, whether directly or indirectly in which they send someone to the Mutanabbi Street where he is mostly located, and they tell him, you cannot say something positive about Jews. This is a line you cannot cross. And he kept doing it, and that’s really the heroism that he eventually paid the price for. But it’s something that I can see living with a lot of his friends, with the people within the circle of publishing who will continue his message. I hope that this book will also be part of the continuation of the message that Iraqi Jews and antisemitism is a cancer to Iraq and is something that should be challenged in Iraq and all over the world.
SCHANZER: Yeah, thanks Faisal. It really is remarkable when you think about the contributions that the Jewish community made to Iraq in decades past, and then of course we recall the Farhud, we recall some of the terrible things that happened to the community there. I think all of it’s incredibly important to share and I’m glad that these efforts continue. Maybe let me just follow up with you for a second, if you could just tell us a little bit more about the challenges that publishers face today in Iraq and perhaps other Arab states. I know this is not something that is unfamiliar to you.
AL MUTAR: Sure. So, the main challenge is the red line about what will be censored, what will be punished for, is constantly changing. So, it’s really hard to keep up what will really “trigger the militias”, what will cause them to actually kill somebody. Because sometimes they start with just purely sending someone indirectly, whether it’s Asaib Ahl al-Haq or the other militias, in which they walk to some of the publishers and the people we work with and they tell them, we don’t like you publishing that. And sometimes nothing really happens as a result of that. But then eventually, as what happened with Mazin and others is people get actually killed. I call that the violent cancel culture, in which people get not just canceled in which they are banned from participating in society, but they’re in constant threat. Some of them have to reallocate to other countries and sometimes other places in Iraq like the Kurdistan Region, in which they go for their safety.
Sometimes they target their family members, in which they send a message to that publisher through their family member. That actually what happened with Bari’s book. We have contacted a couple of publishers asking them if they can actually print that book, as we have done with a lot of other books that actually some of them made up to the festival, and he said, “well, I already got so many death letters of people telling me that I cannot publish books like that. And I really apologize for not being allowed to print it.” And that really happened just a couple weeks ago. And that’s just one challenge of the many in terms of the lack of government support and sometimes government protection for publishers and also journalists who write about these subjects.
SCHANZER: So just to be clear, is this an Iranian-backed militia problem? Is it an Iraqi problem? Is it an Arab problem? Where do you identify as the center of the problem?
AL MUTAR: It’s everything. I mean, the challenge now in Baghdad is that most of the militias at the moment are the Iranian-backed ones. Back in my time, and the reason I am in the United States is because I ended up on a couple of death lists by Al-Qaeda of Iraq, which is AQI and in west Baghdad where I used to work. And now, in a way they look like peace activists, compared to ISIS and some of the militias that exist in today’s age. So, when it comes to Iraq, Iranian-backed militias now have a very strong hold in Baghdad. With other states, it’s mostly governments, where there is more stability in which really the government is responsible for the censorship. The countries that don’t have militias, like the ones in Iraq and Lebanon and some other places. So it really depends.
As you probably know with “Wonder Woman” the movie, there was some censorship in Lebanon, from Hezbollah and other groups. So unfortunately censorship is a very common theme, and that’s the reason why we exist. I mean, as an organization, we deal when the local publishers are not allowed to publish some of these books, they come to us. And authors in many cases, come to us and tell us, “my book is not allowed to be published in mainstream publishers or local publishers in the region. I want my ideas to come across. Can you help us with Ideas Beyond Borders as an organization that is mostly digital based.” It’s for us to be, in which we become the publisher and spread the books and all of these knowledge utilizing tools that actually circumvent some of the censorship methods that many regimes in the region use.
SCHANZER: Thanks, Faisal. And of course, the discussion there about “Wonder Woman” stemmed from the fact that Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress is the lead there. And I guess that was the thing that prompted some of the controversy. Which of course leads me to a question for you who, Hussain, let me shift to you, where I think the line that we hear coming out of Arab governments is that they’re simply opposed to Israel or they’re opposed to Zionism, but not to Jews and not to Judaism. How would you respond to that?
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: I think you’re right, Jon, and that’s not only the governments, even the common folks, the people, they have this imaginary tolerance toward Jews. They say that we have nothing against the Jews only against Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians. But in any given week, if you look up the news, you will find a dozen of antisemitic incidents. For example, this past month in December, we had two incidents that went largely unnoticed in Western media. The first was ADL published something about Kuwait textbooks, and it seems that in Kuwait, they teach students that there’s a problem with the character of the Jews. The Jews have been treacherous all along since the days of Prophet Muhammad and they go on and on. Nothing in these textbooks say anything about Israel or the Israeli government.
On December 18, the Iraqi annual book fair closed and before it closed, there was a huge issue of censorship. An Egyptian publishing house had on display a book that suggested that Israel and Iran were two sides of the same coin that the Shia, in fact, were Jews who were hiding, who were acting as a fifth column. And of course, it’s a book that’s just really revived all the conspiracy theories that have been around for some time.
Now, what happened is that the Shia were angry, naturally, but instead of saying, okay, we’re not Jews, but there’s nothing wrong with being Jews. They said, we’re not Jews. You, the ones who are accusing us are the Jews. And then the word Jews became a curse word. So these are two examples of how there is animosity toward the Jews. Antisemitism is deep and wide, and these incidents illustrate how nothing there was about Israel or the Palestinians. It was only about Jews. And it was what we call here, antisemitism. And that’s why I think the effort by Faisal in translating Bari’s book was really important for the Arab reader to read and understand.
SCHANZER: Agreed. You know, it’s funny, I’m just hearing these anecdotes from you. I’m recalling A, one of the most popular bookstores in Cairo and some of the deeply antisemitic books. I mean, some of the older tracks, Mein Kampf and Protocols of the Elders of Zion, these popular books, admittedly, this is 20 years ago, but from what I understand, this is still the case today, which is obviously lamentable, to put it mildly. And then the other thing that you mentioned just about the word Jew being kind of a derogatory term, I can recall on a number of travels to different places around the Arab world, just the word yahud, that was the sort of slang way of putting someone down. And it’s obviously incredibly unfortunate that this is still a staple in kind of the slang of the Arab world.
Bari, let me bring you into the discussion, now. Your book obviously highlights a number of very important themes. I wish we could tackle all of them, but let me start with a few. Let me start first with this distinction that you make in the book between what you call Purim antisemitism and Hanukkah antisemitism. This is of course, a reference to two different Jewish holidays. Maybe let’s just start with explaining the difference that you’ve identified there.
WEISS: Sure. And first of all, I just want to say I’m so excited to be here and just a huge fan of IBB and FDD and all other acronyms, and just incredibly grateful. I can’t think of a language that I feel this book is needed in more than Arabic, and that you guys made this happen, is just incredible. And especially honored to have the introduction from Hussain. So thank you.
Okay. Purim antisemitism and Hanukkah antisemitism. This is an idea that I borrowed from the great Jewish scholar Dara Horn. If people haven’t read her book, People Love Dead Jews, it’s an amazing title, I highly recommend it. And the distinction is really about antisemitism that is bold and explicit and doesn’t require a Talmudic debate. It is an antisemitism that sort of comes cloaked in the language of progressivism and progress and universal humanity.
So, in the Purim story, of course, without going into all of the details, people can pick up the Book of Esther, if they want to understand it, there is essentially a Hitler-like figure, and he says, we’re going to kill all the Jews. And that’s what he aspires to do. And so, when I talk about Purim antisemitism, I’m talking about the antisemitism of the neo-Nazi, the white supremacist that walked into the synagogue, Tree of Life, where I became a bat mitzvah in Pittsburgh and said, “kill all the Jews, or all Jews must die,” and then killed 11 of my neighbors. That is Purim antisemitism. Purim antisemitism is easy to spot. It is the kind of antisemitism that announces itself and then tries to fulfill it. And many of us, I think are acutely aware of it, both because it is explicit and of course, because of recent history within living memory of what’s happened in Europe with the show, “Out With the Holocaust.”
Now Hanukkah antisemitism is a bit different and it’s a bit more complicated. It basically says that, and this is the kind of antisemitism that we see in the Spanish inquisition or in the Soviet Union. It says you can be a Jew, no problem. All you need to do is to disavow X, Y, and Z thing. And so, for example, under the Hellenists, right in Jerusalem, in Judea 2000 years ago, what that meant was you need to not circumcise your sons. What it meant in the Soviet Union was you need to disavow God and disavow religiosity. And what it looks like now, increasingly, and this is the antisemitism often that comes from the far left, is you need to disavow Israel, or you need to disavow Jewish power, or you need to disavow Jewish particularism.
So, if one, if Purim antisemitism is the kind that comes at you with a gun to your head, Hanukkah antisemitism, excuse me, is more like a frog in boiling water if that makes sense. And oftentimes today it comes smuggled into the mainstream in language that is frankly a siren song to a lot of Jewish ears, because it claims to be on the right side of history. It claims to be on the side of righteousness. It claims to be on the side of progress, and who wouldn’t want to be on the side of those things?
SCHANZER: I think it’s interesting when we talk about the Arab context. I think we certainly see a lot of that Purim antisemitism in the vows to destroy Israel and to destroy the only Jewish state. And then we see that I think the Hanukkah antisemitism, as you call it in these countries themselves. Where Jews are certainly allowed to live there as long as they disavow certain things, including the state of Israel itself. So, I think it is very important for the discussion today. We follow up with another question for you on this, before we get back to Hussain and Faisal. But in your book, you actually talk about how identity politics makes it such that Jews are often rejected by both white nationalists, as well as by people of color. So the question is, I mean, it seems like Jews are betwixt and between. How did Jews navigate this political moment here in America? I think obviously our conversation today is largely about the Arab world, but it’s hard for me not to ask this question today.
WEISS: Yeah. Well, just to explain it for one sentence further, and then I’ll explain what I think we can be doing about it and what I’m personally trying to do about it, to the greatest extent possible. The language of America right now, right, is the language of race. It’s not the language of religion or all of the other litmus tests that have been put to Jews in other times and places. So, the way that it looks right now is, we’re getting called the neo-Nazis on the one hand and on the other hand, neo-Nazis are trying to kill us. Now, what do I mean by that? Right. The far right says we are the greatest trick the devil has ever played. We appear to be white people. We look like we’re in the majority, we’re incredibly successful, but in fact, and this was again, the motivation of the Pittsburgh killer.
And this is beyond him. In fact, we’re disloyal to real, pure, white America. And in fact, we’re loyal to Black people and brown people and Muslims and immigrants. The reason that the Pittsburgh killer selected Tree of Life was because the previous weekend, the previous Sabbath, the synagogue had participated in a refugee Shabbat. Right? And on the other hand, on the far left, it says that we are the exemplars, in a way, of white privilege. That yeah, we claim to be minorities, but look at us, look at how we pass. Look at how we were able to change our names, look at how we were able to sort of go into the slipstream of upper middle class, privileged American life. So not only are we guilty of being adjacent to white supremacy or upholding it by our participation in it, they say, we’re also guilty of the other great sin of modern American progressivism.
So, we’re guilty of racism or tacit racism, and we’re guilty of colonialism. Why? Because we support Israel, and they regard Israel as the last standing bastion of white colonialism in the Middle East. And so the great mistake that I think much or some, let’s say, of the American Jewish community is making is by trying to play the game. It’s by trying to play a loser’s game. And the loser’s game is the Olympics of identity politics. It’s the Olympics of victimhood. It’s to say, “Wait, you say we’re not oppressed. Let me show you how oppressed we are.” To which I say, “That’s a game we’re never going to win. And it is a game fundamentally that is, in the end of the day, nihilistic and dead-end.” The way that I think we fight this is by rejecting any notion of identity politics that pits us against each other, that sees identity and victimhood or purity as a kind of zero sum game.
So, any politics that claims there are real Americans, and there are fake Americans. That there are people who are more pure, or more belonging of the American history and experience. And there are those who just aren’t, that is a politics, and that comes from the far right, that we should utterly and absolutely reject. And at the same time, on the far left a politics that claims that we’re contained to the lane of our birth. That our gender or our sexual orientation or ethnicity or race, or our class determines our station in life.
That some of us are fundamentally oppressors and some of us are fundamentally oppressed. And that’s just the way it is. All of this. And if there’s one great lesson from Jewish history, perhaps it’s this. All of this is deadly, not just for Jews, but for anyone who is different. And Jews are just often the first test of that case. And so, I mean, that’s the number one thing that we can do is reject it in our personal lives. Not pay it lip service, refuse to bend a knee to ideologies that are fundamentally dehumanizing and erasing our common humanity.
SCHANZER: Yeah. I think history shows again and again, the Jews have been the canary in the coal mine. Couldn’t agree with that more. So, one more question, just to have you unpack the book a bit. So that our audience is fully aware of what we’re talking about, what we’re bringing to the Arab world. You talk about the Arab world in your book, you talk about how it borrows its antisemitic rhetoric from both the far left and the far right. I’d love to just hear a couple of examples of that. And then maybe just one other thing I’ll just tack onto that. I was really intrigued by one passage in the book, noting the influence of the former Soviet Union, which promoted antisemitism, but also was a leading patron of many of the Arab states in the latter half of the 20th century. So curious where you see the Soviet Union playing a role perhaps in where we are today.
WEISS: Yeah. This was something that I really didn’t know about when I set out to write this book, in the wake of what happened at Tree of Life. Like any college student, it was 15 years ago in my case and so what I experienced has only increased exponentially. But you heard often, even back then, the notion that Zionism was racism. And I didn’t realize until doing research for this book that when 18-year-old college students who imagine themselves to be progressive are spouting that line what they’re really expressing is a piece of Soviet propaganda. What happened was, is when the Soviet Union failed to defeat America’s proxies via Israel in the Arab world, it shifted from a military strategy into a propagandistic one, if that’s a word. And so, as the scholar Izabella Tabarovsky who, if people don’t know her, I highly recommend looking up her work.
She has definitively shown in the most incredible way, more than anyone else that I’ve seen, the way that language and rhetoric was transformed from being about Jews, to being about Israel. And so, first of all, books, as you mentioned, Jon, before, like Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Mein Kampf, these were translated into Arabic. But really what happened was that Jewish power became Zionist power. Jewish bankers became Zionist bankers. The Jew as the Antichrist became the Jew as the anti-Soviet. Instead of presenting the Jew as the devil, they presented the Zionist as the Nazi. And so this notion that has been so normalized in a lot of sort of right-thinking progressive liberal circles, that there’s a distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. When you look back to this Soviet history, a lot of that falls apart, and you see the way that words were just substituted in, one for the other.
So, I think that is extraordinarily important, something that gets incredibly overlooked. And in general, I would say that going back to your original question, the Purim antisemitism, Hitlerian antisemitism, antisemitism from the far right. For one reason or another, that is the kind that we are educated and inoculated against. And I’m talking both about the Jewish community and the broader American population. This kind of antisemitism is something that many people, most people, including most Jews really don’t have a deep history about. And so a lot of times when the conversation happens in America about, “Can it happen here?” Well, of course, what people are thinking about is Holocaust-like antisemitism. Fascistic antisemitism, antisemitism from the far right. Often, they’re not thinking about this other kind, and what happened to Jews right under the Soviet Union and regimes that have embraced this kind of antisemitism.
SCHANZER: That’s a great point. And one I think I’d like to unpack with the rest of our panel here. So maybe Hussain, let me just start with you. You’ve obviously lived in the Arab world. That’s where you do most of your reporting. It’s what you observe day-to-day. Where do you see the influence right now? Is it from the far left, from the far right? Has it taken on a mind of its own in the Arab world? How would you describe what’s happening there right now?
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: Jon, to pick up from where Bari left, I’d say that communism didn’t really strike roots in the Arab world, even though there were Communist parties and socialist parties. We know that the Soviet Union was among the first countries to recognize the state of Israel. This posed a huge problem for the Arab Communist parties, because, and they’re thinking division is along class lines. So it’s poor Jews and poor Arabs versus rich Jews and rich Arabs. In which case, the identity politics wouldn’t work. And in which case, Arab versus Jew doesn’t work. So, if you look at the Israeli Communist Party, you will find that it has both Jews and Arabs and to some extent, this is how they operate. But the thing is that in most Arab countries, right and left didn’t really operate the same way we’re used to in the Western world.
So, the Ba’ath party, which is for example, which is secular, it became Sunni in Iraq. It became Alawite in Syria. The socialist party in Lebanon is Druze. So they just picked the name and the tribalism remained. And as long as tribalism remained, the cleavages, the divisions just persisted. What happened is that we know that antisemitism in Arab circles, it just goes through cycles. It ebbs and flows. And what happens is that some populist leaders sometimes decide to exploit the text that they have, and then other leaders decide to be more enlightened. So, what we see now, for example, with the Abraham Accords is that some governments decided to lead in a good way and they’re having peace treaties. Not only peace treaties, they’re having people-to-people, peace and normalization between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel.
On the other hand, sometimes you get governments and leaders who are populist enough, who try to use the rhetoric that they can find. And of course, if you go back to the Arab culture, which is of course influenced by the Quran, if you go there, you can get whatever you want of the Holy Book of Islam. You can get verses that are against the Jews, you can get verses that love the Jews. And what happens is that it depends on who’s the government in power. They play up whichever verses that they think is in their favor. One last point on this, you might remember that when the Shah of Iran had a peace treaty, was actually an ally of Israel. Most of the Shia, even the Arab Shia, including Lebanon, considered themselves to be friends with the Jews and with Israel.
And when there was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1978, there was the famous incident of the Shia just throwing rice and petals on the heads of the IDF troops. But then when Iran changed, when the regime was changed in Iran, then things changed for the Shia, because Iran started taking another line. So I’m saying is that you can find whatever you want in the text and the culture. And it depends on the government behavior. And of course, it depends on the behavior of the elite.
And at this point, I think what this book does is that it addresses the elite. It gives an alternative. It just says, “Look, what you hear, what you get as in terms of propaganda from the government, from the people who surround these radical governments, like in Iran or in Iraq. Or in Lebanon, what you get is not the only narrative. There are other arguments, there are other points that can be made about peace.” At this point, it’s unfortunate that Iran is forcing Iraq and Lebanon to treat peace like a bad thing. And that’s books, people like Faisal, like myself, like everyone. We’re trying to push back on this. And we hope that this gets somewhere positive in the end.
SCHANZER: Yeah. There’s a lot to unpack with what you just put out there, Hussain. I am certainly interested in the role of Iran in ensuring that antisemitism remains in the bloodstream, in particular in the countries where it wields the kind of influence that it does. So in places like Iraq and Syria and Lebanon in particular right now. But Faisal, let me just turn to you for a second. We heard a bit about Arab nationalism. We heard a bit about Islam, Islamism. It’s often where the two collide that we see some of the more toxic ideologies in the Middle East. And in Iraq, I think we’ve probably seen it more than maybe some other places. I’m curious to hear your take about how that has evolved in Iraq where I know you’ve done a lot of work.
I’m also interested in just getting your take about how this antisemitic, or the strain of antisemitism in the Arab world, how it’s actually found its way into intellectual circles. That in the publishing world, someone like yourself, you face great challenges. A lot of other places, you have these defiant people in the publishing space that will go right ahead and challenge some of the common “wisdom”, let’s say. Right. But the idea that intellectuals, that’s their job, and yet you find that it’s just such a challenge in the Arab world right now. So I know I’ve given you a lot to chew on here, but feel free to weigh in.
AL MUTAR: Yeah. I mean, and I do want to get back to a bit of the Nazi Soviet. I mean, they actually started, that was mentioned in Mazin’s book about translation movements that actually translated a lot of, so Iraq in many cases, the Middle East as a place in which where World War II powers were fighting, and also with the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany both had translation houses inside Iraq that translated a lot of the books from German into Arabic, and the same with the Soviet Union. That’s how we actually got a lot of copies from the Protocols of the Elder of Zion, et cetera, because they were distributed for free.
So, in a way we are the reverse Soviet Union, in this regard is that we’re actually doing the opposite of – but doing it for enlightenment values and pluralism than for hate. So that’s, I think, our market differentiation here.
In terms of in the Soviet Union and Communism in particular, it metastasized. We’ve done, actually, a very interesting Arab barometer report, which is an organization that addresses surveys in the Arab world and some in other places, is that mainly, the communist or the left-wing ideology was able to be more localized than, let’s say, Western, let’s say, capitalistic thinking, in which many people don’t think of left-wing as a Western idea because it’s mostly merged itself with the forces of anti-imperialism and the anti-Western narrative.
So, one of the main challenges, or I think there’s a lot of relatability between the more Arab liberals and some of the Jewish experience is also we’re hated by everybody. Right? We have the far right who thinks we are with the Muslim Islamic terrorists, and we have the far left who think we are not authentic Middle Easterners. Then we have the Islamic extremists who want to kill us. So I think we have a lot in common there.
With the far left in particular is that the people who adhere to this ideology, which is merged anti-imperialism equals anti-Israel equals anti-America and all of that stuff in which all viewed under one umbrella, it is not viewed as that you borrowed that line of thinking from the Soviets. It’s viewed as that you are actually an intellectual in Arab lands, even though you’re actually utilizing a lot of language that were coming from the communist Westerners.
While for example, if you are more on the right, or let’s say you quote Adam Smith, or you quote more Western thinkers, you’re viewed as a Westerner. You’re actually sold your identity. Well, if you quote Karl Marx, you’re viewed as a local intellectual. That’s what I find really fascinating, is that the left-wing ideology has been able to be far more localized within the intellectual circles in which people don’t think of themselves as westernized.
But if you say you are, you are viewed as a local anti-imperialist who fought against the West. But if you take another Western ideology, which is more of a free market ideology, you’re viewed as a Westerner. I think that is really the – some extent as a defense mechanism, I think, is that because one of the largest opponents of all these ideologies, the Muslim Brotherhood, and some of the Islamic ideologies in which no, I’m more Arab than you, and everybody is really trying to challenge that in which everybody wants to sound more authentic than the other. Which is, in a way, a lot of language of identity politics being used, is that who is in a way more an authentic representation of the views?
I think one of the great things about this book, which I’m very happy of translating, one of the main narratives that even unfortunately is being pushed by a lot of intellectuals within the region, is that Jews control America. Generally, it’s viewed through the lens in which Israel, in a way, controls America. The book that Bari wrote about really the challenges that Jews have here challenges that narrative of global Jewish domination.
That’s really one of the lenses that one of the readers actually sent to us about, that he actually saw that this could be a very great, challenging narrative to this narrative that Jews control America, and they have it all great and they’re on the top. All of them lived in 5th Avenue and they control everything in this planet. What Bari is doing is that actually the challenges that many Jews face here shows them that they’re actually not the ones controlling the country from 5th Avenue. It’s more complicated with that.
WEISS: That is fascinating to me, that that’s a reaction to it. I really want to be connected to that reader.
AL MUTAR: Sure.
SCHANZER: Yeah. I was going to say if Jews are controlling the world, they’re doing a pretty bad job right now given all the antisemitism that we see out there. It’s kind of hard to make that argument. Bari, I’m going to turn back to you for a second here. I want to touch on a couple more themes that you wrote about that I think are probably worth unpacking for this discussion.
The first is how you noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was courting some far-right politicians while also endeavoring to combat antisemitism. Admittedly, Bibi is now out of power, but how does this dynamic, in your view, complicate the fight against antisemitism in the United States, not to mention in the Arab world?
WEISS: I just think it makes it much harder. I wrote this book way before Bibi embraced, I think, the name of the party was Otzma Yehudit, which is like Jewish Power. These are disciples of Meir Kahane, who I think anyone would agree – although, I’m curious if you guys do – was a viciously anti-Arab militant whose party, which was called Kach was outlawed in Israel. So, the fact that Bibi was sort of reviving the husk of this party under a new guise was detestable to me and lots of other people, including Rabbi Benny Lau an extremely important rabbi in Israel.
I remember when that happened, he said that allowing this party and its supremacist ideology into the Knesset, into the Israeli parliament was akin to the destruction of the temple, which is the greatest tragedy in all of Jewish history. So, the thing that I think is heartening is how many Israelis are rejecting that, but I would also say that the rise of extremist ideology, let’s just call it, but you could also call it ideologies based on supremacy and based on the kind of very noxious and dangerous identarian tribal ideas that we were talking about before, that is not unique to Israel. That is on the rise everywhere across the world right now.
That is something that I don’t think we can solve in the hour that we have together, but I think that it’s something that I am thinking about every single day right now and thinking about what role I can play, to the extent that I have any influence, to combat that. But I think it is a historic wave, of which Israel is only one tiny example. But I would definitely say for American Jews who still identify overwhelmingly as liberals and progressives, despite what’s going on inside the Democratic party, which we can talk about, I think that having Bibi in power and embracing those groups have made their willingness to speak out on behalf of Israel, defend Israel, defend the notion that Jews, like any other people, have a right to a state and have a right to sovereignty, it’s made them remain mum in a way that’s been really unproductive.
SCHANZER: Yeah. The only thing that I maybe just maybe wonder out loud is Israel doing, or under Bibi, did Israel do anything that was that different than a lot of other countries where extremist factions have popped up where you see leaders placating the far left or the far right? I think we could even see it here in the United States to a certain extent within both parties.
WEISS: Yeah. I don’t think it’s unique to Israel at all. I think Jews all over the world feel a special connection to Israel. So, if Israel is meant to represent not just the survival and protection and safety, guaranteed safety of the Jewish people, but it’s supposed to represent, and this is a very encoded idea, but Jewish values, whatever those are, and people see the Prime Minister of that state embracing a group of people that, in my understanding of Judaism and Jewish values, really don’t, that just leads to incredible tension.
But no, Jon, I agree with you in that it’s not unique at all. This is happening all over the world right now. Of course, there is an inordinate focus on Israel and the accusations against Bibi in terms of racism or supremacy or whatever word you want to use. The words are now constantly changing every single day, that also should not surprise us because everything that is Israel is news.
SCHANZER: Yeah. I think that’s right. I’m going to shoot one more at you, Bari, and then I want to go back to Hussein and Faisal to talk a little bit about what’s going on in the Arab world right now. But if you would talk to us just for a minute or two about your time at Columbia University. This is something that’s near and dear to my heart, I guess I would put it. It’s a toxic Middle Eastern Studies department over there, and that may only be the half of it as I understand it. You were studying there at a time, I think, of a lot more tumult than even what we see today. So perhaps just a few thoughts on what you saw while you were there?
WEISS: I think that I saw something earlier than other people on this score because the notion that, up until very, very recently, Jon, there was this idea that was shared by liberals and conservatives that what happened on campus stayed on campus. Yeah, you might have some weird ideas about any number of radical subjects, but if you move away from Oberlin or Vassar or Columbia or Yale or whatever lead institution and you make your way into the world and you get your job at McKinsey or wherever, that the radicalism and excesses of the college campus and its politics are going to be left behind.
But as IBB puts it on its website, ideas change the world. Ideas change the world, and I don’t think we’ve seen, or at least in my life, a more obvious example of that than what we’ve seen from the generation that Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff capture beautifully in The Coddling of the American Mind that are now transforming the most important sense-making institutions in America from within. I’m of course talking about the media, but also frankly, Congress and the Senate and publishing houses. There’s Norman Mailer’s book that was just canceled probably because of some 26 year olds who were offended by words he wrote in the 1950s and so on and so forth. We all know there are hundreds and hundreds of cases at this point.
So, I saw the tip of that spear through the lens of a subject that I knew something about. That was the Jewish people and the state of Israel. I was in classes in which, and this speaks to the broader theme, that there was just total intellectual and political forced homogeneity. In other words, anyone that departed from the view that Israel was a settler colonialist state, that Israel was committing mass crimes, maybe even genocide, and that to be a Zionist was to be a racist, well, that was to put yourself outside of the community of the good. That was to put yourself on the wrong side of history.
So, in an environment, let’s say, where the assumption is that Zionism is racism and that is what all of these professors were teaching, well, guess what happens in an environment where everyone is taught to believe that Zionism is racism? Well, then Zionists become racist. Most Jews identify as Zionist. In other words, they believe in the right of the State of Israel to exist. So that was my early experience. I sometimes joke that I’m living in groundhog day, just in bigger and bigger purchase, which is to say that I saw really intimately the dangers of being in an environment where only one view was accepted and the demonization of anyone that held a different view.
At the time, Jon, I did not have the confidence to call this antisemitism, but I pulled a quote just to give people a sense of what was happening at the time. This is a quote from a professor called Hamid Dabashi, who was then the head of the Middle East Studies Department when I was at school. This is what he wrote in 2004.
“Half a century of systemic maiming and murdering of another people has left its deep marks on the faces of Israeli Jews. There is a vulgarity of character that is bone deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture.”
That was the head of the Middle East Studies Department when I was a student there. The main thing that we were trying to insist upon at the time is obviously, academic freedom, obviously, tenure. There was nothing we could do about a professor like that. But at least have the respect for your students to allow them to express a different viewpoint in the classroom, but that wasn’t possible. That was my first experience, frankly, of standing against the grain and saying things that other people didn’t agree with and having people call me terrible names because of it.
In a way, I guess I need to thank my experience at Columbia because it definitely set me on a path toward journalism, on a path toward being willing to stand up for the values that I believe into the deepest reaches of my soul, and frankly, the beginning of growing the thick skin that’s necessary if you want to do that these days in American public life.
SCHANZER: Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like that that was a formative experience. Unfortunately, I think–
WEISS: Hey John, can I add one thing?
SCHANZER: Of course.
WEISS: At the time, those of us who were trying to sound the alarm on this inside the American Jewish community and more broadly, we were waved away by people in positions of power. We were told that this was just a detail, that this would go away, that we were making a mountain out of a mole hill. I really believe that the ideas that you are marinating in, in the most formative intellectual years of your life make an enormous difference.
I just want to tie that back to the mission that Faisal is pursuing with IBB which is to reach people and hopefully reach young people who are maybe–they’re not at Columbia. They’re not on the Upper West side of Manhattan, but they’re in places around the world where they are also in environments of intellectual orthodoxy. They are looking maybe for a different perspective. That getting them exposed to books like Steven Pinker’s and the others that IBB are translating are just enormously important.
I know for me, obviously in an extremely different context and I’m not comparing them but being in that environment and being the kind of person that wanted a different view, the kind of books and essays and I remember them, that I read at the time, one of them was Closing of the American Mind and I was like, how did he see everything that was going to happen 30 years before? But reading books felt like breathing air honestly. Being exposed to a different perspective at the time made me feel less lonely and really changed the course of my life.
SCHANZER: Well, unfortunately I think we’re still seeing a lot of that. What you saw at Columbia is persisting. We’re seeing a lot of the same characters still running the show over there and that doesn’t portend well.
But I do think that when you have voices that come from the region that come to teach here in the United States, particularly in the field of Middle Eastern studies, I think that’s always been the problem is I think they wanted to bring a certain perspective to the United States, a certain organic Middle Eastern perspective. I do think that books like yours when they’re translated into Arabic can begin to chip away. I think that is of course where Faisal is trying to make a difference.
Look, we’ve covered a good bit of bad news throughout this discussion. I do want to note that there are some positive developments particularly in the Arab world. I noted one of them in my new book, Gaza Conflict 2021. I noted that the war between Israel and Hamas in May of last year, that there was far less vitriolic discussion of Israel. Let’s just put it that way. That it was more muted than in the conflicts of the past.
So, Hussain, you’ve just returned from the UAE. Is that your sense? I mean, have the Abraham Accords helped to change perceptions of the general population? Is it governments that are leading the way? Is it the people? Is it a bit of both top down, bottom up? How do we understand some of these new trends?
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: I think the Abraham Accords absolutely changed things in the UAE. I’ve visited Jordan and Egypt in the past. Even though these two countries have had peace treaties with Israel since decades now, for decades now. You don’t see the regular Israelis just walking down the street in Cairo for example whereas you see Israelis with Kippahs on their heads and even they’re speaking in Hebrew anywhere in Dubai which was really interesting for me to see.
The second thing was that, remember that the UAE has become the place where most Arabs go to live and work and raise their families especially Arabs from countries who are at war with Israel. For example, Lebanon and Syria. These guys who are instructed in their home countries to look at Israel as the eternal enemy, to look at Jews as the eternal enemy.
These Lebanese people and Syrians and Iraqis and everybody else, they get to see Israelis. They get to hang out with them. They get to work with them. So it’s changing a lot of minds. I’ve talked to many Lebanese friends who I’ve known since forever who live now in Dubai. To my surprise, their opinions about peace with Israel, their opinions about Israel and Jews has changed substantially.
So, this shows that governments can lead the way in terms of peace. Of course, it’s still an uphill battle. In most Arab countries, it’s much easier to come out as being from the LGBT community than to say you want peace with Israel and you’re only asking for peace. You’re not even asking for war or anything else.
But I think it is positive. I think the Abraham Accords are positive. I think Egypt and Jordan might be trying to maybe heat up their peace with Israel. Maybe other countries will follow but on my trip, I only saw positive signs that I hope that everybody can build on for further peace between the Arabs and Israelis.
SCHANZER: That’s certainly heartening to hear. Faisal, let me ask you, are you seeing change? I mean, I know that’s your mission. I know that’s what you’re fighting for but are you actually seeing change on the ground in the Arab world? Anything in particular. I mean, I think pulling on a thread that Bari put out there. It’s the youth that we’re thinking about the most, right? Those formative years. Are you seeing changes among the youth in the Middle East?
AL MUTAR: Definitely and in a positive direction. I mean, we have roughly about 5.5 million subscribers around the Arab world, starting from Iraq all the way to Morocco. Our most watched video was actually about an Egyptian Jew. His name is Raymond Schinazi who discovered a cure that dated back to Egypt. Most of the comments were positive.
To get on what Bari is saying is that people especially in many places in which they have seen the failures of both the Arab Socialist with the Ba’ath Party followed by the Islamic states in the case in most on other places and they’ve seen the failure of the Islamists. They’re looking for an alternative narrative. That’s what I think we come in as an organization, is that we are the alternative narrative. I think the first thing to start with I think especially when it comes to the subject of Jewish relations, let’s say, is the language of humanization.
For years and decades, many of these people through the education system, through the media, through et cetera which most of them was controlled by the state, they have received all types of negative images and portrayals of Jews their entire lives. I think that wearing my counter extremism hat for a bit, I think that the first thing and what we have done with the story of Raymond Schinazi, we have also highlighted a lot of positive contributions of Jewish people into the Middle East at large.
We are seeing some change of perception, at least a lot of positive comments coming from people. Number one, saying that they have never heard of that story. That they would love to know more and they would love to read more resources. So I think is that that’s where we as an organization, I think especially on this subject and also on other subjects is to be that leading organization of enlightenment for the alternative narrative into the region.
The fact that we were able to get – We are only five years old and we’re turning to have 5 million subscribers. I think that says something about really the demand for such content. When I started the organization with it, I didn’t think that the demand would be that high for something like Steven Pinker’s book which was printed by a lot of Iraqi local protestors or John Stuart Mill On Liberty which is something we have actually done in partnership with Heterodox Academy here in the states.
So, the demand for content like this is pretty high. I mean, there are a lot of black markets for books in Telegram and Signal and all of other places in which people are spreading many of these bad materials. I mean there is a proverb in Arabic that says Mamnou’ marghoub. So, in many cases when these – It means what is prohibited is wanted.
In many cases when these governments and they have seen how bad, how much they suck in governing and they have seen how they – Many people are like, if these people are telling me the Jews are evil, let me at least see what the alternative is. Because the lack of trust in these institutions, the government institutions is very low.
That’s why I think in a more grassroots approach than depending on Arab governments to lead the way. Even though in some cases, I mean, Arab governments like the UAE have a very powerful media through Al Arabiya and multiple other channels. They own a lot of the music channels also, Rotana and others. So, they are able to influence culture on a larger scale but I would like to make it less dependent on these governments because they might switch every – whatever the mood of the day is.
I think I would rather go with like a more grassroots approach and changing the minds of the youth and let them take this as ideas on their own. Hopefully they will lead the charge in their own countries.
SCHANZER: Okay. We’re about to wrap up here Faisal. I just want to ask, are there other books in the queue right now? Are there other languages by the way that that Bari’s book can be translated into? Is that IBB’s job? But just curious what else are – our audience may want to know about your efforts?
AL MUTAR: Definitely. I mean, we would love to make Bari’s book available in Farsi. We actually have a team that does Farsi translations. We have simply expanded to both languages in Afghanistan and also in Iran. So we would love to make that available. We actually have a distribution channel in Farsi as well. So maybe that’s next. But what we’re working on right now is actually a book by Mustafa Akyol called Reopening Muslim Minds which is about Islamic enlightenments and actually where they can find sources of where they can find hope in that region.
We just finished the translation of Steven Pinkers’ Rationality. There will be more and more of these books. We are planning to do almost a book every month. So our capacity of actually translating and making things available is only increasing. Also we’re now a video magnet. So we do a lot of videos to actually make people interested in these ideas. We had 60 million views last year. We’re hoping to double that this year and try to get more momentum for these ideas and change the narrative in the region.
SCHANZER: That’s terrific. We wish you the best of luck. We’re going to end it here. I want to thank you all for participating today and for providing your insight on these important issues. Bari, thank you for writing such an important book. Faisal, thank you for translating it into Arabic. Hussain, thanks for writing a terrific forward. Thank you our audience for watching. For more information on FDD and our latest events and research, we encourage you to visit fdd.org. We hope to see you again soon. Thank you.
WEISS: Thank you.
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: Thank you.
AL MUTAR: Thank you.

What a New Report Tells Us About Al-Qaeda and ISIS
Thomas Joscelyn/The Dispatch/January 13/2022
Both groups continue to evolve, and jihadism remains a major security concern.
In December, the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism. Even though it wasn’t published until the end of 2021, the report covers only the previous calendar year. Therefore, some of the material is clearly dated, including a passage touting the supposedly “aggressive action” taken by Afghan security forces against “terrorist elements” throughout 2020. Of course, those security forces no longer exist, as the Taliban overran the entirety of Afghanistan in 2021.
Still, the report provides a useful summary of the global terrorist threat more than 20 years after the 9/11 hijackings.
Three observations came to mind while reading the report.
First, the top leaders of both al-Qaeda and ISIS are alive.
The U.S. has hunted down many senior al-Qaeda and ISIS figures over the past two decades. And the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism highlights the top al-Qaeda personnel taken out in 2020. But the two most senior al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders on the planet—Ayman al-Zawahiri and Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal Rahman al-Mawla, respectively—have survived the American-led manhunt. They’ve also survived the bitter rivalry between their two organizations. This is no small accomplishment.
Zawahiri took over as al-Qaeda’s emir after his longtime comrade-in-arms, Osama bin Laden, was killed in May 2011. Zawahiri has now survived more than two decades of war since late 2001, and as al-Qaeda’s overall leader for more than a decade. Al-Mawla’s time at the top has been much shorter, but he has still managed to escape death for more than two years as the ISIS emir. Al-Mawla succeeded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after the first so-called caliph was killed in October 2019.
Does this matter? I think it does. It demonstrates that America’s high-value targeting campaign has missed some of its highest value targets.
Zawahiri, in particular, has been consistently underestimated by counterterrorism analysts and commentators. In fact, some even claimed that Zawahiri died sometime in 2020. That was disproven when the elderly Egyptian terrorist appeared in a video last September, praising an attack that occurred in Syria in January 2021. This means that either Zawahiri survived 2020, or his ghost is determined to haunt us from the grave. The State Department simply notes that Zawahiri remains “at large.”
This isn’t just about Zawahiri or al-Mawla. Both men oversee international organizations, with various committees dedicated to running their military, financial, and security affairs, as well as other facets of their global networks. Yet, the U.S. government hasn’t provided the public with any sort of comprehensive analysis of these organizations in many years. Simple questions are seldom asked, and never answered. For instance, how many jihadists currently hold seats on the shura councils—that is, the elite advisory boards—for al-Qaeda and ISIS? Who runs their military committees? How many senior figures remain alive within both groups? We don’t know, and there is remarkably little curiosity about these issues.
Some of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership remains in Iran.
One line in the report deserves additional emphasis. It reads: “Senior AQ leaders continued to reside in Iran and facilitate terrorist operations from there.”
As I’ve written on many occasions, the State and Treasury Departments have regularly exposed al-Qaeda’s network inside Iran since 2011. As Treasury first reported, the Iranian regime and al-Qaeda entered into a “secret deal” some years ago. Under the terms of their “agreement,” al-Qaeda is allowed to operate its “core facilitation pipeline” on Iranian soil. According to the State Department’s latest report, that remained the case throughout 2020.
Some folks have claimed that Iran and al-Qaeda can’t cooperate due to their theological differences. I won’t debunk that shallow argument once again here. But I will note that the U.S. government has repeatedly concluded otherwise. There’s a wealth of intelligence and other evidence showing that some of al-Qaeda’s most senior personnel remain stationed inside Iran to this day.
One part of al-Qaeda that is noteworthy in this regard is its so-called Hattin committee. The Hattin committee was established sometime in the past five years and is responsible for overseeing key parts of al-Qaeda’s global operations. Although this body has been mentioned in official reports published by the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. government has said next to nothing about it. For instance, the State Department’s County Reports on Terrorism highlights the August 2020 killing of Abu Muhammad al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda leader, as a blow to the group, which it was. But neither State, nor any other arm of the U.S. government, has fully explained what Abu Muhammad al-Masri was doing at the time of his death.
According to counterterrorism officials I trust, Abu Muhammad was a key figure in the Hattin committee. And some of his longtime al-Qaeda accomplices, including a man known as Saif al-Adel, continue to lead this important al-Qaeda committee—from inside Iran—to this day.
Both ISIS and al-Qaeda continue to evolve.
For more than a decade, American politicians have sought to portray al-Qaeda and ISIS as all but defeated. This is especially true with respect to al-Qaeda. During the Obama administration, officials began claiming that al-Qaeda is a “shadow of its former self.” This phrase was repeated by some in the Trump administration. And President Biden has dabbled in similar rhetoric as well.
For the most part, however, the State Department avoids such triumphalist claims.
For example, State reports that despite a series of leadership losses, al-Qaeda “networks continued to exploit undergoverned spaces, conflict zones, and security gaps in the Middle East to acquire terrorist resources and conduct terrorist attacks.” Al-Qaeda also “further bolstered its presence abroad, particularly in the Middle East and Africa,” where several of its “affiliates … remain among the most active and dangerous terrorist groups in the world.”
I’ll add that the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021 bolstered al-Qaeda’s hand even further.
ISIS is far from dead, too. Although “ISIS lost all the territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, the organization and its branches continued to mount a worldwide terrorism campaign, carrying out deadly attacks globally.” In fact, “ISIS affiliates outside Iraq and Syria caused more fatalities during 2020 than in any previous year.”
In sum, the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism for 2020 shows why jihadism will continue to be a major international security concern—even if many others in Washington have already moved on.
*Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow Tom on Twitter @thomasjoscelyn. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

From Kazakhstan to Sudan, regimes resorting to internet shutdown
Peter Apps/The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
As unrest and violence spread across Kazakhstan last week, authorities blocked access to multiple social media sites, prompting thousands of local users to download special applications to mask their location and maintain their access. On January 5, authorities blocked internet access altogether.
The effect was stark. ATMs ceased working, along with multiple other business functions including bitcoin mining. Kazakhstan is now the second largest generator of the cryptocurrency and its value fell as computing power suddenly went offline. With television channels in Kazakhstan broadcasting only entertainment programmes, most of the country's 19 million population lost access to news.
A decade after the "Arab Spring" uprisings in which crowds mobilising through social media toppled authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and Egypt and conflicts erupted in Libya, Syria and Yemen, a growing number of governments is resorting to internet shutdowns to limit discontent and discussion of what is happening in times of crisis.
In Ethiopia, access to the internet has been blocked for the northern Tigray region since November 2020 when conflict erupted with the government in Addis Ababa. This has helped limit coverage of a conflict that now features drone strikes and the blocking of humanitarian aid deliveries.
In Myanmar, access to the internet was initially completely blocked following a military coup in February 2021. This was followed by the blocking of important social media sites, particularly Facebook which had previously been used by protest organisers.
Other Asian and African countries are also increasingly turning to internet shutdowns as an initial reaction to political protests or demonstrations. The leaking of exam questions has been cited in the last year to justify internet shutdowns in several places, including Syria, Uganda and the Indian state of Rajasthan.
As governments grapple with public anger further fuelled by the rising cost of living and frustration with sometimes visibly corrupt elites, these tactics are a tool that uses blunt force different from the more sophisticated surveillance used by China and described by critics as intimidation, but part of a rising tide of authoritarianism.
Different countries have adopted different tactics and the length of internet stoppages has varied. In Myanmar, multi-day stoppages were soon replaced with 72 consecutive night-time-only shutdowns. Pro-democracy activists believed these were intended to disrupt the planning of protest activity that usually took place in hours of darkness while minimising the economic impact. Despite that, monitoring firm Top10VPN calculated the shutdowns cost Myanmar's economy $2.78 billion in 2021, largely due to disruption to businesses.
Such shutdowns can put international telecoms companies in an awkward position. In Myanmar, Norwegian operator Telenor published a series of statements outlining the demands the new military junta was making on its operations in the country following last year’s coup. Sources in Myanmar told Reuters that the authorities had demanded details of broadband users among other personal information.
Facebook and Twitter remain blocked across Myanmar, accessible only through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that obscures where a user is located. Myanmar's military rulers have continued to temporarily block internet and phone services for townships in several regions where they now find themselves fighting opposition militias.
Top10VPN put the economic cost of internet shutdowns around the world at about $5.5 billion in 2021, a 36% increase on the previous year and a measure of their growing popularity. The group reported 15 major outages in 21 countries, ranging from outright internet shutdowns, such as the one in Kazakhstan, to more targeted blocking of major social media platforms, most frequently Twitter followed by Facebook.
More than 486 million people were affected by internet shutdowns in 2021, 80% more than during 2020. Many of those were in the world's two largest democracies, India and Nigeria, with a growing number of African countries embracing similar tactics.
For 18 months to February 2021, India restricted internet access across the predominantly Muslim region of Kashmir by limiting it to 2G speeds, causing economic chaos. It also imposed a limited but near complete shutdown in parts of New Delhi in January 2021 after farmers’ protests.
Nigeria blocked access to Twitter from June 2021 in a spat with the firm after it deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari which it said was in breach of the site's rules. Demand for VPN services rose more than 1,400 percent, prompting Nigeria's attorney general to threaten to prosecute those still accessing Twitter by those means.
Such actions appear to be increasingly common. Sudan imposed several internet shutdowns last October and November during protests against a military coup, while Uganda shut down social media platforms and messaging apps including WhatsApp during its presidential election. Burkina Faso stopped mobile internet access for more than a week in late November following protests after the shooting of seven civilians from a French military convoy passing through to Chad.
For those who value freedom, that should be a concern. For most of this century, there has been an assumption that the internet would bring greater openness. Now, it seems that even access having to it is something a growing number of people may not be able to take for granted.
*** Peter Apps is a writer on international affairs, globalisation, conflict and other issues. He is the founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21, a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank.

China’s pull grows in the Middle East
Joseph Dana/The Arab Weekly/January 13/2022
China is kicking off 2022 with a flurry of diplomacy and partnerships in Africa and the Middle East that are ruffling some feathers.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has just finished a trip to East Africa on a charm offensive designed to shore up China’s presence on the Red Sea coast and solidify Bejing’s role in the Horn of Africa. At the same time, China is entrenching its position as a critical player in the Middle East and threatening America’s long-standing hegemony in the region. The Chinese are expanding their military assistance to more Middle Eastern nations at a time of heightened tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. As the United States continues to reevaluate its arms sales to regional allies such as Saudi Arabia, China is increasing its export of military technology and hardware. This historic shift is part of a profound geopolitical reformulation in the Middle East.
China’s long-standing interest in the Middle East is not new. As the world’s biggest importer of Middle Eastern crude oil, Beijing has long viewed the region as a strategic interest. During the heated debates about Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering, China expressed a viable interest in becoming a primary investor in the world’s largest company. This position would have likely allowed China to upend the global dollar-denominated oil trade. The deal never happened, but the intention was clear. The shift taking place now is in military technology and partnership. Traditionally, Gulf countries and Israel have relied on American military hardware and technology, but this is changing before our eyes, much to Washington’s chagrin. With the US reviewing certain arms sales over the ongoing conflict in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are changing their calculations and opening up to more direct Chinese influence.
Last month, CNN reported that Saudi Arabia had begun manufacturing ballistic missiles with China’s help. On several occasions, Saudi Arabia has purchased its ballistic missiles from China, but it has not attempted to build its own until now. The Chinese have not confirmed nor denied if they are transferring any sensitive ballistic missile technology to Saudi Arabia. Instead, they have underlined the fact that the two countries have long been “comprehensive strategic partners” and “have maintained friendly cooperation in all fields, including in the field of military trade.”The shift towards open military cooperation in Saudi Arabia likely prompted Israel to “promise” the Biden administration to inform the US of any significant new deals with China. Israel has a long history of military cooperation with China, but it has been mainly under the radar until recently, even though China is its third-largest economic partner.
As China pushes deeper into the Middle East, Israel faces a complex calculation: bring its relationship with China into the open or attempt to continue business as usual.
It appears to be choosing the former. Last year, Israel rejected an offer by the US to inspect the Haifa port. Chinese companies have been involved in expanding the port and the US is concerned that the Chinese are using their position to monitor joint Israeli-American military operations. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that “Israeli officials were even told that the American Sixth Fleet would stop docking at Haifa port as a result of Chinese presence.” Despite intense pressure from the US, Israel rejected the inspection offer. Geopolitics stops for no country. Whether the US likes it or not, the Chinese footprint in the Middle East is growing due to decades of careful planning and quiet courtship. With Chinese purchases of Middle Eastern crude oil on the rise and the US divided on the future of its position in the region, Chinese influence will deepen and come fully into the light. The key to China’s geopolitical success continues to be infrastructure development. Whether expanding ports in Haifa or providing missile infrastructure to Saudi Arabia, the Chinese have found incredible success in exporting infrastructure across the region and much of the world. If it is not broken, why fix the policy?
The question is how the US will respond to this profound shift taking place before everyone’s eyes. The Trump administration essentially gave Israel everything that it has long desired in torpedoing the peace process with the Palestinians and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Given America’s seeming inability to withhold military aid to Israel, what other carrots and sticks do the US have to use against deepening cooperation between Israel and China?
Since the US has been reviewing military aid to Saudi Arabia, one can understand Riyadh’s interest in deepening its own military partnership with China, which comes with virtually no strings attached. Do not expect the US to lose its dominant position overnight, but the tides are turning. Unless the Biden administration comes up with a creative new way to engage American allies in the region, China’s pull will continue to result in deeper partnerships and greater cooperation. The shift has already started.