English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 11/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.june11.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
And when day came, he called his
disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
Luke 06/12-19/:”Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and
he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples
and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named
Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called
the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. He
came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his
disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the
coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their
diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all
in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed
all of them.
Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 10-11/2022
Miqati says no one should impose 'conditions' on PM-designate
Report: Lebanon insisting on Line 23 and entire Qana field
Jumblat urges negotiations based on Line 23, warns against 'sea Shebaa'
Passport appointment platform to be re-activated on Monday
Grillo urges Lebanon to resume border talks 'in effective, serious way'
Oueidat requests charges against Riad Salameh
Israel says deal allows citizens to travel to Qatar World Cup
Report says rape used ‘systematically’ during Lebanon’s civil war
Search in Italy for missing helicopter carrying four Lebanese
Corruption Probe into Lebanon Central Bank Governor Moves to Next Stage
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
June 10-11/2022
Muslim Man Butchers Coptic Christian with a Meat Cleaver
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Iran Arrests 13 over Tehran Bank Heist
Blinken Warns Iran from Deepening Nuclear Crisis, Further Isolation
Israeli settlers at risk of losing special West Bank status
Biden administration takes step to bolster Palestinian ties
Syria Says Israel Attacked its Sites South of Capital Damascus
Syria Suspends Damascus Airport Flights after Israel Strike
Number of Syrians Becoming German Citizens Tripled in 2021
Assad: Syria Will Resist Any Turkish Invasion of its Territory
France in no mood to make concessions to Russia, presidency says
West Denounces Death Sentences for 3 Who Fought for Ukraine
Sudanese Opposition Agrees to Hold Talks with the Military
Kurdistan Accuses Kataib Hezbollah of Involvement in Erbil Drone Attack
Iraq's Sadr Threatens to Quit Parliament to Pressure his Opponents
Yemen Army: Houthis Sending Major Reinforcements to Different Fronts
Rights groups condemn Tunisia president's judicial purge
Canada/Joint Declaration: Fostering a strategic dialogue between Canada and the
Members of the Alliance for Development in Democracy
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on June 10-11/2022
The ‘Disease’ Putin Brought Back/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/June 10/2022
A Long War in Ukraine Could Bring Global Chaos/Hal Brands/Bloomberg/June 10/2022
Question: "If God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, why did He create them?"/GotQuestions.org/June
10/2022
Henry Kissinger’s Long History of Appeasing Dictatorships/Ivana Stradner and
Michael Rubin/The Dispatch/June 10/2022
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on June 10-11/2022
Miqati says no one should impose 'conditions' on PM-designate
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday stressed that no one should try
to impose “conditions” on the country’s upcoming PM-designate.“In principle,
anyone informed on the Lebanese situation, including me, would dread this
period’s difficulty and complications, that’s why I say that I’m not seeking (to
be re-designated as PM),” Miqati said in response to a question, during his
participation at a dialogue seminar organized by the Politics & Society
Institute in the Jordanian capital, Amman. “I hope parliament will quickly pick
whom it sees fit (for the post) and I hope the formation process will be fast
and without complications or conditions imposed by any group in the face of the
PM-designate,” Miqati added. As for the sea border row with Israel, the
caretaker PM underlined keenness on “resolving the dispute through U.S. mediator
Amos Hochstein,” adding that “all those concerned are keen on the priority of
preserving the stability of the situations in Lebanon.”On the issue of Lebanon’s
presidential election, scheduled for this fall, Miqati noted that “based on the
structure of the new parliament, it has become difficult for any camp to block
the elections.”“The presidential election might get delayed but it will take
place,” he emphasized.
Report: Lebanon insisting on Line 23 and entire Qana
field
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
No written response has been prepared for U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s
proposal and Lebanon will voice its remarks orally, Presidency sources said.
“We’re the ones who decide whether we will later submit a written
response or not, seeing as this is a Lebanese decision and it is not for him to
dictate on us what to do,” the sources added, in remarks to LBCI television. The
sources, however, noted that “Lebanon is willing to facilitate Hochstein’s
shuttle mission, if he is an impartial mediator, based on the framework
agreement.”LBCI also reported that Lebanon is insisting on offshore Line 23
“with a deviation that grants Lebanon the entire Qana field.”A member of the
Lebanese negotiating team, who requested anonymity, meanwhile told the TV
channel that “no one can get 100% of their rights.”
Jumblat urges negotiations based on Line 23, warns
against 'sea Shebaa'
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has urged an end to
“overbidding and bickering in the sea border and oil rights file,” stressing
that “the framework agreement that was launched by Speaker Nabih Berri is the
only appropriate reference to approach our rights, based on the requirements of
Lebanese national interest and according to Line 23.”“Abiding by this agreement
spares us from all the unnecessary explanation efforts,” Jumblat said in an
interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper published Friday. Rejecting any attempt
to create a “sea Shebaa,” Jumblat added: “We can do without a new Brig. Gen. (Amin)
Hoteit, reincarnated in 2022 in Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassine.”He was referring to
the controversy over the identity of the occupied Shebaa Farms and the brigadier
general who led the demarcation of the land border with Israel in the year
2000.Asked whether he fears that the standoff over the maritime border and gas
fields might turn into a war, Jumblat said: “The decision of war is not to be
taken by you or me. This issue is bigger than us.”As for the appointment of a
new premier, the PSP leader slammed “the repetition of the heresy of exploring
the identity of the new premier outside the stipulations of the constitution,”
in reference to reports that President Michel Aoun is seeking a prior agreement
on the identity of the new PM ahead of calling for binding parliamentary
consultations to officially designate a new premier. “The delay in calling for
binding parliamentary consultations to pick the PM-designate represents a
blatant violation of the constitution,” Jumblat added. Asked who he will
nominate for the post, the PSP leader said: “The Democratic Gathering will make
the nomination, not me.”
Passport appointment platform to be re-activated on
Monday
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
General Security said Friday that the passport appointment platform will be
re-activated as of Monday, June 13. The platform had stopped working in April
because of a shortage of travel documents, in part due to the government failing
to pay a company tasked with printing new ones. Requests for passport renewals,
ten times higher than in previous years, had piled pressure on passport centers
and "affected available passport stocks.""The Directorate has completed the
administrative and technical procedures and has followed up with the authorities
to transfer the funds to the company contracted to issue new passports," General
Security said in a statement. It added that it had
been informed that the company had been paid the amount outstanding. General
Security asked the Lebanese citizens who do not urgently need a passport not to
rush to book an appointment so that those who urgently need one can obtain it.
"Passports will be available for everyone as soon as new passports are
produced," General Security said, stressing that it is a right granted by
law.The halt to offering appointments had sowed nationwide panic, as many feared
that they would be unable to travel due to expired passports.
Grillo urges Lebanon to resume border talks 'in
effective, serious way'
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo has urged Lebanon to resume the
indirect border negotiations with Israel, ahead of an expected visit to Beirut
by the U.S. mediator in the contentious talks. In an interview with Ici Beyrouth,
Grillo said that the negotiations must resume in "a serious and constructive
manner."U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who is expected to visit Beirut in the coming
days, hoped for his part to resume the negotiations in order to avoid any
escalation, after Israel had moved on Sunday a ship operated by London-listed
Energean Plc into a disputed Karish gas field, sparking Lebanese condemnation.
"Lebanon's collapse will not be in our interest nor in the interest of the
region," Hochstein said. "We are trying to find ways to urgently secure gas for
Europe," he added. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price had said that
the U.S. believes that "a deal is possible if both sides negotiate in good faith
and realize the benefit to both countries."Lebanon and Israel last fought a war
in 2006, have no diplomatic relations and are separated by a U.N.-patrolled
border. They had resumed negotiations over their maritime border in 2020 but the
process was stalled by Beirut's claim that the map used by the United Nations in
the talks needed modifying. Lebanon initially demanded
860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of territory in the disputed maritime
area but then asked for an additional 1,430 square kilometers, including part of
Karish.
Oueidat requests charges against Riad Salameh
Agence France Presse/Friday,
10 June, 2022
State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has requested that charges be issued against
Central Bank chief Riad Salameh on suspicion of financial misconduct based on
preliminary investigation findings, a court official said. Lebanon opened a
probe into Salameh's wealth last year, after the office of Switzerland's top
prosecutor requested assistance in an investigation into more than $300 million
which he allegedly embezzled out of the central bank with the help of his
brother. On Thursday, Oueidat "concluded preliminary investigations into the
central bank governor," a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
"He transferred the case to the public prosecutor's office in Beirut and asked
the court to charge Salameh, his brother and Salameh's secretary," the official
added. The suggested charges include embezzlement of
public funds, money laundering, illicit enrichment, tax evasion, fraud and
forgery, the court official said. Lebanon's courts
have already slapped Salameh with a travel ban and are investigating him in
connection with several other cases. Salameh's brother
Raja posted bail of 100 billion Lebanese pounds ($3.7 million) -- a record
figure -- and was freed last month after two months' detention.
He was arrested on March 17 by order of Judge Ghada Aoun on charges of
money laundering, embezzlement, illicit enrichment and smuggling large amounts
of money out of the country. Salameh is among the top Lebanese officials widely
blamed for an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a
scale usually associated with wars. He also faces lawsuits in European
countries, including France and Britain, on charges of financial misconduct. In
March, France, Germany and Luxembourg seized properties and frozen assets worth
120 million euros ($130 million) in a major operation linked to a probe launched
by French investigators into Salameh's personal wealth. Salameh and his brother
have both repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Israel says deal allows citizens to travel to Qatar
World Cup
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
Israeli citizens will be allowed to travel to Qatar to watch football's 2022
World Cup, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the two
countries, the government said. World football's governing body "FIFA has
confirmed that Israeli citizens will be able to enter Qatar during the World Cup
and watch games, just like all fans around the world," a joint statement by
Israel's defence, foreign and sports ministries said late Thursday. Israeli
citizens, like other foreigners, will be permitted to obtain a visa online with
proof of a ticket purchase, the statement added. "This
is a diplomatic feat that fills the hearts of fans with joy," Israel's Foreign
Minister Yair Lapid said on Twitter. "The love of football and sport connects
people and countries and this World Cup opens the door to new warm
relationships," he added. Israel has since September
2020 normalised relations with three Arab nations -- the United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain and Morocco. It has also agreed to do so with Sudan.
Those agreements, sponsored by then US president Donald Trump, broke with
decades of Arab consensus that ties should only be established with Israel in
the event of a peace agreement that gives the Palestinians their own state.
Qatar does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. It supports Hamas -- an
Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza -- and cut
commercial ties with Israel in 2009, after the first of four wars between the
Jewish state and Hamas. The two countries had established commercial relations
in 1996, when then Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres visited Qatar's capital
Doha. An Israeli diplomatic source told AFP on Friday that the agreement
permitting Israelis to travel to the World Cup does not extend to direct flights
between the two countries. Israel's national football team will not compete in
the tournament. It last qualified for the World Cup finals in 1970 and finished
third in its qualifying group this time around.
Report says rape used ‘systematically’ during
Lebanon’s civil war
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
The level of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and
girls during the 15-year civil war in Lebanon shocked investigators, British
newspaper The Guardian said. A report by the human rights organization Legal
Action Worldwide (LAW) gathered testimonies that detailed horrific experiences
of violence, including gang-rape, electrocution and forced nudity used to
persecute women and girls – some as young as nine – from opposing communities.
LAW interviewed women from eight regions and conducted focus groups and surveys
to record eyewitness accounts.
Amira Radwan, now 54, witnessed the rape of girls in Kfar Matta, where she lived
in 1982. The village was the scene of a notorious massacre of Druze civilians by
the Lebanese Forces, The Guardian said. “They used to tie up the father and
brother and make them watch the girls being raped,” Radwan said, adding she also
knew of women being raped using glass bottles. “We suffered a lot from not being
able to talk about these crimes,” she added. An amnesty law passed in Lebanon in
1991 granted immunity for crimes committed against civilians during the war,
which has allowed a culture of impunity and lack of accountability to develop,
the report noted. “These women and girls (and family members who witnessed these
crimes) are double victims – first the sexual violence inflicted upon them and
then the total and utter failure to hold individuals and state agents
accountable for these grave violations or even acknowledge what has happened,”
states the report.“We were quite shocked by our findings; we thought we would
find sexual violence had taken place on an opportunistic level, but not
systematically,” LAW’s executive director, Antonia Mulvey, told the Guardian.
“It is of course painful to bring back these memories but I’m very happy to be
talking about this [now] because I think it is important to speak up … in order
to spread awareness for new generations,” Radwan said.
Search in Italy for missing helicopter carrying four
Lebanese
Naharnet/Friday,
10 June, 2022
The search for a helicopter which disappeared in Italy with seven people on
board, including four Lebanese, intensified Friday after the weather improved, a
spokesman for the Alpine rescue service told AFP. The helicopter was carrying a
pilot and six passengers -- four Lebanese nationals and two Turks, according to
Italian media reports. It went missing in a sparsely populated mountainous area
in northern Italy Thursday, but bad weather hampered the first attempts to find
it.Seven helicopters from the air force, police and medical rescue services were
combing the area Friday. "It is not easy, if a helicopter falls amongst trees,
in this season the branches close over it and it is complicated to see it from
the sky," the spokesman said.
Corruption Probe into Lebanon Central Bank Governor Moves to Next Stage
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
A year-long corruption investigation into Lebanon's central bank governor Riad
Salameh took a significant step forward on Thursday, when the country's top
public prosecutor referred the case to a Beirut court. Prosecutor Ghassan
Oueidat ordered Salameh and a number of unnamed associates be formally
investigated for embezzlement, money laundering, illicit enrichment, forgery and
tax evasion, two judicial sources told Reuters. Salameh faces investigations in
Lebanon and at least five European countries, including into the alleged
embezzlement of more than $300 million by him and his younger brother, Raja.
Both have denied any wrongdoing. The latest development follows nearly a year of
investigation by financial prosecutor Jean Tannous, whose role allows him to
gather evidence for the case but not to press charges. Tannous confirmed the
transfer in a tweet on Thursday.
The move could be a step towards a formal prosection or charges against Salameh
and his associates, lawyer Nizar Saghieh of watchdog Group Legal Agenda told
Reuters. Salameh has led the central bank for nearly three decades and retains
significant support among Lebanon's top politicians despite the country's
financial meltdown. The high-profile investigation into his finances has been
beset by allegations of political interference and hampered by a lack of
information-sharing from banks citing Lebanon's banking secrecy laws. The
Salameh brothers also filed a lawsuit last week against the state, alleging that
Tannous had committed serious errors in his investigation. Similar legal
complaints against the judge probing the devastating 2020 explosion at Beirut's
port paralyzed that investigation. Few if any top Lebanese officials have ever
been convicted of crimes, despite decades of rampant corruption, high-profile
assassinations, the port blast and the country's 2019 financial collapse,
described by the World Bank as "deliberate" and one of the worst in modern
times.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on June
10-11/2022
Muslim Man Butchers Coptic Christian with a Meat
Cleaver
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/Friday,
10 June, 2022
Another day has passed, and another Muslim man has murdered another Coptic
Christian in Egypt.
On Sunday, June 5, 2022—the same day Muslims attacked a packed church in
Nigeria, massacring more than 50 Christians—Abdullah Hosni, a Muslim man with a
long history of harassing Christians, randomly attacked a Copt, Kirollos (Cyril)
Megali, with a meat cleaver in a village in Sohag, Upper Egypt. Kirollos, who
was rushed to a hospital “drenched in blood and with multiple stab wounds,”
spent three days in an intensive care unit before succumbing to his injuries,
including hack wounds to his skull. According to the deceased’s brother,
Abdullah was locally known for harassing Christians. He had relocated to Libya
for a time but returned two days before assaulting Kirollos. The latter himself
had been working abroad (in Kuwait) and was visiting family when Abdullah
knocked him off his motorbike and started hacking at him. At first, and as
usual, there was talk of trying the murderer as “mentally ill,” including
through the use of an apparently forged “medical report” submitted to
prosecution by the murderer’s family; but outraged Copts protested (virtually
every time a Muslim kills a Christian in Egypt, media and authorities rush to
claim the murderer is “mentally ill,” thereby sidestepping punishment to the
fullest extent of the law). Moreover, according to the report, “A state of anger
prevailed among the village’s Copts, because the perpetrator, Abdullah Hosni,
had previously assaulted and always harassed Copts, but no action was ever taken
against him.” In the midst of chanting Kyrie Eleison (the ancient Greek mantra,
“Lord have mercy”), mourning Copts attending Kirollos’ funeral were also heard
to cry “With our souls, with our blood, we will redeem you, O Cross. The rights
of Kirollos must be returned—and where is the media?”This latest murder of a
Coptic Christian at the hands of a Muslim in Egypt follows the recent murder of
another young Copt by a Muslim man—who later said he was moved to the act due to
his “loyalty to Allah”—and the murder of Fr. Arsenius Wadid, who was stabbed to
death in broad daylight by another knife wielding Muslim man.
Iran Arrests 13 over Tehran Bank Heist
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Iranian authorities said Friday they have arrested 13 burglars who cut into the
vault of a Tehran state bank from a neighboring building and stole 168 safe
deposit boxes. Tehran Prosecutor Ali Salehi said that three of the thieves were
arrested in an undisclosed country abroad, while the rest were apprehended in
the capital and Iran's north, State-run IRNA news agency reported. A car
containing stolen property was found abandoned at Imam Khomeini Airport, he
added. State TV showed footage of jewelry, gold coins and bundles of dollar
bills laid out on a long table, The Associated Press said. The thieves also
allegedly stole surveillance cameras and other monitoring items from the bank,
which is located on a major thoroughfare near Tehran University, and within
walking distance of a police station. Bank robberies are rare in theocratic
Iran. If convicted, the suspects face lengthy prison sentences.
Blinken Warns Iran from Deepening Nuclear Crisis, Further
Isolation
Washington - Ali Barada/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Iran on Thursday to cooperate with
the UN nuclear watchdog and provide technically credible information in response
to its questions instead of threatening further nuclear provocations and further
reductions of transparency. Such steps would be “counterproductive” and would
further complicate efforts to return to full implementation of the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “The only outcome of such a path will be a
deepening nuclear crisis and further economic and political isolation for Iran,”
Blinken stressed.
He said the United States continues to press Iran to choose diplomacy and
de-escalation instead. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board
of Governors overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Wednesday criticizing Iran
for failing to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites.
The text says the board “expresses profound concern” the traces remain
unexplained due to insufficient cooperation by Iran. It called on Iran to “act
on an urgent basis to fulfill its legal obligations and, without delay, take up
the IAEA director general’s offer of further engagement to clarify and resolve
all outstanding safeguards issues.”Blinken said the US joined the overwhelming
majority of the IAEA Board of Governors in expressing support for the IAEA’s
essential mission of safeguarding nuclear material to prevent nuclear
proliferation. He called on Tehran to cooperate with the IAEA and provide
technically credible information, which is the only way to remove these
safeguards issues from the Board’s agenda. The US top diplomat explained that
the resolution is at the heart of the IAEA’s mandate and Iran’s core obligations
under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, not about the 2015 nuclear deal.
“The United States remains committed to a mutual return to full implementation
of the JCPOA,” Blinken said. He added that the US is prepared to conclude a deal
on the basis of the understandings it negotiated with its European Allies in
Vienna over many months. Blinken affirmed that such a deal has been available
since March, but Washington can only conclude negotiations and implement it if
Iran drops its additional demands that are extraneous to the JCPOA. Blinken was
referring to Tehran's demand for Washington to remove the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps from the official US list of terror groups. He expressed regret that
Iran’s initial response to the Board’s action has not been to address the lack
of cooperation and transparency that prompted a negative report from the IAEA
Director General, Rafael Grossi, and such strong concern in the Board. Blinken
stressed that his country will continue to press Iran to choose diplomacy and
de-escalation instead.
Israeli settlers at risk of losing special West Bank status
Associated Press/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank may soon get a taste of the military
rule that Palestinians have been living under for 55 years. If Israel's
parliament does not act, a special legal status accorded to the settlers will
expire at the end of the month, with wide-ranging consequences. Lawyers who live
in the settlements, including two members of Israel's Supreme Court, will no
longer be allowed to practice law. Settlers would be subject to military courts
usually reserved for Palestinians and would lose access to some public services.
While few expect things to reach that point, the looming deadline has put
Israel's government on the brink of collapse and drawn dire warnings.
"Without this law, it would be a disaster," said Israel Ganz, governor of
the Benyamin Regional Council, a cluster of settlements just outside Jerusalem.
"The Israeli government will lose any control here. No police, no taxes."For
over half a century, Israel has repeatedly renewed regulations that today extend
a legal umbrella to nearly 500,000 settlers — but not to the more than 2.5
million Palestinians in the West Bank. After failing to pass on Monday, the bill
will be brought for another vote in the Knesset next week in a last-ditch effort
to save the governing coalition — and the legal arrangement. The law underpins
separate legal systems for Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, a situation
that three major human rights groups say amounts to apartheid. Israel rejects
that allegation as an attack on its legitimacy. "This
is the piece of legislation that enables apartheid," said Jessica Montell,
director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, which provides legal aid to
Palestinians.
"The whole settlement enterprise depends on them enjoying all the rights and
benefits of being Israelis even though they are in occupied territory."An
overwhelming majority in the Knesset support maintaining the separate systems.
The main reason the bill didn't pass was that the nationalist opposition — which
strongly supports it — paradoxically refused to vote in favor in an attempt to
bring down Israel's broad-based but fragile coalition government. In a similar
vein, anti-settlement lawmakers voted in favor of the legislation to keep the
coalition afloat. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has
built more than 130 settlements there, many of which resemble small towns, with
apartment blocks, shopping malls and industrial zones. The Palestinians want the
West Bank to form the main part of their future state. Most countries view the
settlements as a violation of international law.
Israel refers to the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, and
considers it the heartland of the Jewish people. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
supports settlement expansion and is opposed to Palestinian statehood. Israel
officially views the West Bank as disputed territory whose fate is subject to
negotiations, which collapsed more than a decade ago. The emergency regulations,
first enacted in 1967 and regularly renewed, extend much of Israeli law to West
Bank settlers — but not to the territory itself. "Applying the law to the
territory could be considered as annexing the territory, with all the political
consequences that Israel did not want to have," said Liron Libman, a research
fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former top Israeli military
prosecutor.Failure to renew the bill by the end of this month would have
far-reaching consequences.
The Israel Bar Association requires lawyers and judges to reside in the country.
Without the law's carve-out, settlers would not be able to practice law in
Israeli courts. That would include two Supreme Court justices, one of whom
recently upheld an order to forcibly relocate hundreds of Palestinians. The
bill's lapse could also result in more settlers who run afoul of the law being
tried in military courts — something Israel authorities have long tried to
reserve for Palestinian suspects. The settlers could lose their ability to use
national health insurance for treatment inside the West Bank, and the ability to
update their status in the population registry and get national ID cards —
something routinely denied to Palestinians. The law also provides a legal basis
for Israel to jail thousands of Palestinians who have been convicted by military
courts in prisons inside Israel, despite international law prohibiting the
transfer of prisoners out of occupied territory. The law's lapse could force
Israel to move those prisoners back to the West Bank, where there is currently
only one Israeli prison.
The various consequences are seen as so catastrophic that many Israelis expect
the bill to pass or the government to be replaced. It's also possible that
Israeli authorities, who often bend to the settlers' demands, will find
workarounds to blunt the worst effects.
"I'm not worried," said Ganz, the settler leader. "It's like when you owe the
bank 1 million dollars, you are worried about it, but when you owe 1 billion,
the bank manager is worried."Asked if the separate legal systems amount to
apartheid, Ganz said: "I agree with you, 100%."His preferred solution is that
Israel annex what's known as Area C, the 60% of the West Bank where, under
interim peace accords, Israel already exercises complete control. Area C
includes the settlements, as well as rural areas that are home to some 300,000
Palestinians, according to the U.N.
Most Palestinians live in Areas A and B — scattered, disconnected population
centers where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.
"It's strange that different populations in the same area have different laws,"
Ganz said. "So we have to bring Israeli law to everyone here in Area C."
Two years ago, Israel's then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu flirted
with annexation before putting it on hold as part of an agreement with the
United Arab Emirates to normalize relations. The Palestinians, and much of the
international community, view annexation as a violation of international law
that would deal a fatal blow to any hope for a two-state solution, still widely
seen internationally as the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Netanyahu, now opposition leader, and his allies strongly support the
West Bank bill but hope its defeat will speed his return to power. The coalition
cannot pass it on its own because a handful of lawmakers — mainly Palestinian
citizens of Israel — refuse to vote for it. The law may have been designed with
an eventual partition in mind. But many Palestinians see its longevity as proof
that Israel was never serious about a two-state solution. "They could have
easily undone the occupation by just not passing this law, time and again," said
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and former adviser to the Palestinian
Authority. "It gets passed by the left and it gets passed by the right. That's
why this idea of two states is such a fiction."
Biden administration takes step to bolster Palestinian ties
Associated Press/Friday, 10 June, 2022
The United States is restoring a line of communication for the Palestinians that
had been canceled by the Trump administration. The move, announced before a
possible visit by President Joe Biden to Israel and the occupied West Bank, is
bureaucratic in nature. But it means the Palestinians will deal directly with
the U.S. State Department in Washington rather than first go through the
American ambassador to Israel. The department has
changed the name of the Palestinian Affairs Unit to the U.S. Office of
Palestinian Affairs. In a statement, the newly renamed office said the move was
meant to "strengthen our diplomatic reporting and public diplomacy
engagement.""We felt that it was important to reintroduce separate reporting
lines to Washington on Israeli and Palestinian issues, by our respective teams
on the ground that focus on these issues," according to the statement, which
also said the U.S. was reinstating a system in place for decades before
President Donald Trump's decision. The move had been
expected for months and the announcement had been postponed several times. But
it falls short of Biden administration pledges — and Palestinian demands — for
the U.S. to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which for decades had functioned
as a de facto U.S. Embassy to the Palestinians. Both
the Palestinian Authority and Israel declined to comment.
The Trump administration shuttered that consulate in one of a series of
controversial moves that favored Israel over the Palestinians. Those steps
included recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite Palestinian claims
that east Jerusalem become the capital of an eventual state, and moving the U.S.
Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv. Under Biden, U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken has repeatedly promised to reopen the Jerusalem consulate, which
was established in 1844, well before the creation of the state of Israel. But
Israel says such a move would challenge its sovereignty over the city. It was
thought that such a reopening could help mend U.S. ties with the Palestinians
that were ruptured under Trump. The U.S. has so far failed to reopen the
consulate, apparently in fear of upsetting ties with Israel or destabilizing its
fragile coalition government. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said
there was no room in Jerusalem for another American mission.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it views the reopening of the
consulate as part of the international community's commitments to ending
Israel's decadeslong occupation of territories the Palestinians seek for their
future state. Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who is now a
distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council, called Thursday's move "an
interim step by the Biden administration toward reestablishing a consulate in
Jerusalem." The Biden administration has already moved to improve ties with the
Palestinians, in part by restoring U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority
and funding to the U.N. agency that deals with Palestinian refugees. It has also
looked into ways that the Palestinian mission to Washington, closed under Trump,
could be reopened, although there are congressional hurdles to such a step.
Syria Says Israel Attacked its Sites South of Capital
Damascus
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
A Syrian military official said an Israeli attack targeted sites south of the
capital Damascus early on Friday, Syrian state media reported. Syrian air
defenses intercepted the missiles and downed most of them, but the attack caused
one civilian injury and some material damage, the official added, according to
state media.
Syria Suspends Damascus Airport Flights after Israel Strike
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Syria has suspended all flights to and from Damascus International Airport after
an Israeli airstrike on Friday hit an area close to the facility, a
pro-government newspaper reported. Al-Watan said the strike left the runway
damaged, without giving further details about the attack, The Associated Press
said. State news agency SANA confirmed that all flights have been suspended
because “some technical equipment stopped functioning at the airport." It did
not mention a strike. The airport is located south of Damascus. Flightradar24
showed no flights in the vicinity of airport on Friday at noon. The announcement
came hours after Syria’s state media reported Israeli airstrikes on some
military positions south of Damascus early Friday, wounding one person and
causing material damage. Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in
Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. It
says it targets bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon’s militant
Hezbollah group that has fighters deployed in Syria and fighting on the side of
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government forces, and arms shipments believed
to be bound for the militias.
Number of Syrians Becoming German Citizens Tripled in 2021
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
The number of Syrians who became naturalized German citizens was three times
higher in 2021 than the year before, as many of those who fled between 2014 and
2016 fulfilled eligibility criteria, data showed on Friday. The overall number
of foreigners who became naturalized Germans grew 20% in 2021, reaching roughly
131,600, the Federal Statistical Office said. Of those, 19,100 were Syrians who
became German citizens. Hundreds of thousands of migrants entered Germany after
former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders in 2015 to refugees fleeing
war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond. While, in general, a person has
to live in Germany for at least eight years to qualify for citizenship, the
majority of Syrians qualified earlier - on average after 6.5 years - by showing
particular willingness to integrate, for example with strong language skills and
civic commitment, it said. The office said 2021 saw the highest number to date
of people who naturalized early, with just under 12,400 cases. Of those, 43%
were Syrian. The number of Syrians who naturalize is expected to also rise in
2022. At the start of the year, 449,000 Syrian nationals had been in Germany at
least six years, more than four times as many as at the start of 2021, the
office added.
Assad: Syria Will Resist Any Turkish Invasion of its
Territory
Beirut -Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country will confront any Turkish
invasion of its territories. In an interview with Russia Today television on
Thursday, he said in case of an invasion, Syria will respond with a popular
resistance. Of course, the resistance will take place in areas were the army
forces are deployed, he said, noting that they are not positioned in all Syrian
areas. The military conditions allow for a direct confrontation, then "we will
wage it", he added. He cited a confrontation between the Syrian and Turkish
armies in 2019, noting that the Syrian army was able to destroy some Turkish
targets that entered Syrian territory. "The situation will be the same according
to the available military capacities," Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted
him as saying. Assad further noted that Russia is facing a war that cannot be
tied to the issue of the NATO expansion. "It is an ongoing war that has existed
even before communism and the First World War," Assad said, stressing that
Russia's power today constitutes, albeit partially, the restoration of the
missing international balance. He added that the aspired equilibrium will
primarily affect small countries, including Syria.
France in no mood to make concessions to Russia, presidency
says
Reuters/10 June ,2022
France is unwilling to make concessions to Russia and wants Ukraine to win the
war against Moscow’s invading forces with its territorial integrity restored, a
French presidential official said on Friday, as Paris seeks to assuage concerns
over its stance in the conflict. President Emmanuel Macron has been criticized
by Ukraine and eastern European allies after published interviews on Saturday
quoting him as saying it was vital not to “humiliate” Russia so that when the
fighting ends there could be a diplomatic solution. “As the president has said,
we want a Ukrainian victory. We want Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be
restored,” the official told reporters when asked about Macron’s humiliation
comments. Macron has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly
since the Feb. 24 invasion as part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and begin a
credible negotiation between Kyiv and Moscow, although he has had no tangible
success to show for it. “There is no spirit of concession towards Putin or
Russia in what the president says, When he speaks to him directly, it is not
compromise, but to say how we see things.”The official defended Macron’s
position repeating that there would have to be a negotiated solution to the war
and arguing that the president’s comments were not always fully considered.
Paris, he said, was a key backer of sanctions and provided strong military
support to Ukraine. Some eastern and Baltic partners in Europe see Macron
keeping a dialogue open with Putin as undermining efforts to push Putin to the
negotiating table. Amid the malaise, Macron will travel to Romania and Moldova
on June 14-15 to show Paris’ support for two of the countries most exposed to
events in Ukraine. France has about 500 soldiers on the ground and deployed a
surface-to air- missile system as part of a NATO battle group it heads up in
Romania. The official said Macron would visit his troops to underscore Paris’
commitment to the alliance. Macron has not been to Kyiv to offer symbolic
political support as other EU leaders have and Ukraine has wanted him to. The
presidential official did not rule out a Macron visit.
West Denounces Death Sentences for 3 Who Fought for Ukraine
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Two British citizens and a Moroccan were sentenced to death Thursday for
fighting on Ukraine's side, in a punishment handed down by the country's
pro-Moscow rebels. The proceedings against the three captured fighters were
denounced by Ukraine and the West as a sham and a violation of the rules of war.
A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine found the
three fighters guilty of seeking the violent overthrow of power, an offense
punishable by death in the unrecognized eastern republic. The men were also
convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism. Russia’s state news agency RIA
Novosti reported that the defendants - identified as Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner
and Brahim Saadoun - will face a firing squad. They have a month to appeal. The
separatist side argued that the three were "mercenaries" not entitled to the
usual protections accorded prisoners of war. They are the first foreign fighters
sentenced by Ukraine’s Russian-backed rebels. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Oleh Nikolenko condemned the proceedings as legally invalid, saying,
"Such show trials put the interests of propaganda above the law and morality."
He said that all foreign citizens fighting as part of Ukraine’s armed forces
should be considered Ukrainian military personnel and protected as such. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that the foreigners had committed
crimes on the territory of the self-proclaimed state trying to break away from
Ukraine. Lavrov said: "At the moment, the trials you mentioned are being held on
the basis of the legislation of the Donetsk People's Republic, because the
crimes in question were committed on the DPR's territory." British Foreign
Secretary Luz Truss pronounced the sentencing a "sham judgment with absolutely
no legitimacy." Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies said that
under the Geneva Conventions, POWs are entitled to immunity as combatants.
Saadoun's father, Taher Saadoun, told the Moroccan online Arab-language
newspaper Madar 21 that his son is not a mercenary and that he holds Ukrainian
citizenship. Aslin’s and Pinner’s families have said that the two men were
long-serving members of the Ukrainian military. Both are said to have lived in
Ukraine since 2018. The three men fought alongside Ukrainian troops before
Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of
Mariupol in mid-April and Saadoun was captured in mid-March in the eastern city
of Volnovakha. Another British fighter taken prisoner by the pro-Russian forces,
Andrew Hill, is awaiting trial. The Russian military has argued that foreign
mercenaries fighting on Ukraine’s side are not combatants and should expect long
prison terms, at best, if captured.
Sudanese Opposition Agrees to Hold Talks with the Military
Khartoum- Ahmed Younis/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
The Sudanese opposition coalition agreed to meet with the military component, in
response to a demand by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs,
Molly Phee, and Saudi Ambassador to Sudan Ali bin Hassan bin Jafar. According to
a statement issued by the Alliance of Forces of Freedom and Change, the meeting
would address ending the army’s measures put in effect on Oct. 25 - which the
opposition considers a military coup – and handing over power to civilians. On
Wednesday, Khartoum saw a preliminary round of negotiations, led by the
tripartite mechanism consisting of the United Nations Mission to Support the
Transition in Sudan (UNTAMS), the African Union and the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development in Africa (IGAD), to put an end to political tension
and the constitutional vacuum in the country. However, most of the main
political parties refused to attend the meeting. In a previous statement, the
coalition described the round of negotiations as “an internal dialogue between
coup forces that share the same project,” adding that it was similar to the
talks launched by ousted President Omar al-Bashir in 2014 and boycotted by all
opposition forces. The coalition affirmed that it had dealt positively with the
tripartite mechanism since its launch of the political process, but that it was
betting on its approach to help the Sudanese people achieve a democratic
transition led by a full civil authority that expresses “the revolution and its
goals.”
Kurdistan Accuses Kataib Hezbollah of Involvement in Erbil
Drone Attack
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
The security council of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region accused the pro-Iran Kataib
Hezbollah militia of involvement in the drone attack that targeted the town of
Barda on the outskirts of the capital, Erbil, on Wednesday. This is the first
time Kurdish authorities openly accuse the militia of carrying out such attacks.
In had previously blamed such incidents on armed factions without naming them.
The open accusation demonstrates the extent of outrage in the Region over the
repeated attacks and is also seen as an attempt to pressure the Baghdad
authorities to deter Kataib Hezbollah that are known to be hostile to Erbil.
The militia has often accused Kurdistan of harboring Israeli Mossad agents,
echoing charges made by Iran. Multiple attacks have taken place in the last
several months in Erbil and in the Kurdistan region. The most significant was in
March, when Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have hit an Israeli
"strategic center" in Erbil with 12 ballistic missiles. Iraqi Kurdistan
authorities deny any Israeli presence on their soil.The strikes caused no
casualties but inflicted serious material damage. Unclaimed rocket attacks have
also targeted and hit oil refineries in the Erbil region, causing minor property
damage. In a statement on Thursday, the Kurdish security council dismissed media
reports by a "regional power" - a reference to Iran - that claimed the drone
attack had targeted an Israeli agent and killed one person. "They may be able to
feed these lies to their public, but to the people of Erbil and the region who
saw the attack themselves, these claims have become ridiculous," it added. "The
Kurdistan Region will never put itself in a position to threaten regional
countries and at the same times, these countries must respect the sovereignty of
the Region and its people and Iraq," it demanded. Observers have noted that the
frequency of the attacks has increased with the Kurdistan Democratic Party
joining a political coalition with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a rival of the
Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework. Iraqi forces are currently deadlocked
over the formation of a new government due to disputes between Sadr and the
Framework. A spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah denied involvement in the drone
attack. In a tweet, he said that although the accusation is "honorable, we had
no knowledge of the attack. They must discipline themselves and if they don't,
we will." Three people were injured and several car damaged in Wednesday's
attack. The explosive drone detonated on Pirmam road in Erbil's outskirts at
9:35 p.m. Iraq time. Two security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the drone was shot down. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.A
security source said earlier that a drone attack targeted the US consulate but
did not give further details. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi told
Kurdish Prime Minister Masoud Barzani in a phone call that Baghdad will
cooperate with Erbil to hold the perpetrators accountable. "Bomb-laden drone hit
Erbil-Pirmam road, causing civilian injuries and damage," the UN Assistance
Mission for Iraq said on Twitter. "Iraq does not need self-proclaimed armed
arbiters. Asserting State authority is essential. If the perpetrators are known,
call them out and hold them to account."
Iraq's Sadr Threatens to Quit Parliament to Pressure his
Opponents
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned on Thursday that members of his bloc
will quit parliament if he is thwarted from forming a national majority
government. He made his remarks days before the deadline he set to his rival
Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework to reach a solution to the country's
political impasse. In a televised speech, Sadr said he was ready to join the
country's opposition if the deadlock were to continue. The deadlock is
"deliberate," he charged, saying his MPs should prepare their resignation
letters because the Framework was continuing to impede the government formation
efforts. Sadr's latest warning is the starkest since the eruption of the crisis
erupted in wake of the parliamentary elections that saw the influential cleric
emerge as the clear winner with 75 MPs. The Framework has challenged the
results, dismissing them as a sham. Sadr has since formed a coalition with Sunni
and Kurdish MPs to form a comfortable majority bloc in parliament. As the
Framework demonstrated it was unwilling to help form the government, Sadr
announced he would grant them three months to form one and yet, no progress has
been made. The deadline ends soon. "If the Sadrist bloc is seen as an obstacle
in the formation of a government, then they are ready to quit," Sadr declared on
Thursday. Parliament went into recess on Thursday and will convene again in
July. It seems unlikely that that will be enough time for the deadlock to be
resolved. Observers have expressed alarm at Sadr's latest announcement, with
some viewing it as a sign that he has no solution to ending the impasse. It will
also leave his Sunni and Kurdish allies at a loss over what position they will
make in wake of his dramatic announcement.
Yemen Army: Houthis Sending Major Reinforcements to
Different Fronts
Riyadh - Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 June, 2022
The Yemeni army warned that the Iran-backed Houthi militias were sending major
reinforcements to different battlefronts, demonstrating their clear disregard of
peace and the UN-sponsored nationwide truce. Military spokesman Abdo Majali said
the Houthis have committed thousands of violations of the truce since it was
renewed last week. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the militias have brought in
more fighters, military equipment and weapons to the frontlines, clearly
dismissing the truce. The army, on the other hand, is committed to the two-month
truce and the UN initiative and it is executing the orders of the military
command, he stressed. The Houthi violations are an act of defiance of the UN and
international humanitarian law, he charged. Majali cited their flying of armed
drones, setting up of new military positions, deployment of snipers, and sending
reinforcements in the shape of tanks, armored vehicles and fighters. They have
also smuggled weapons and planted mines in civilian areas and the frontlines.
Violations have been confirmed in the Marib province, west coast, and eastern
and western Taiz, he added. The Houthis have also fired artillery at the army
and attempted infiltrations that have been repelled by the military.
Rights groups condemn Tunisia president's judicial purge
Agence France Presse/Friday, 10 June, 2022
A coalition of 10 rights groups Friday condemned a decree by Tunisian President
Kais Saied firing scores of judges, describing it as a "deep blow to judicial
independence".The June 1 presidential decree saw Saied award himself the power
to fire judges, and he duly sacked 57 of them, further cementing a power grab
that began in July last year when he dismissed the government and suspended an
elected parliament. The president disbanded parliament
in March, adding to concerns that he has put the only country to emerge from the
2011 Arab Spring with a sustained period of democracy back on a path to
autocracy. "The expansion of the president's powers to summarily fire judges is
a frontal assault on the rule of law," 10 rights groups said in a statement,
accusing him of delivering "a deep blow to judicial independence". "Saied has
removed whatever autonomy the judiciary in Tunisia still was able to exercise,"
said Salsabil Chellali, Tunisia director at Human Rights Watch, one of the
signatories. Amnesty International and Lawyers Without Borders also put their
names to the statement, which called for the president to revoke the decree
"immediately" and reappoint the judges. Tunisian judges this week went on strike
over Saied's move. The president plans to hold a referendum on July 25 -- the
first anniversary of his power grab -- on a new constitution, ahead of elections
in December. The text of that constitution is yet to
be presented, after a national consultation exercise that largely failed to
spark participation by citizens.
But some Tunisians have welcomed Saied's moves over the past year, amid deep
frustration with a dysfunctional mixed presidential-parliamentary system
established in the wake of the 2011 ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali.After Saied's latest decree, the United States said he was following an
"alarming pattern" of acting against independent institutions.
Canada/Joint Declaration: Fostering a strategic dialogue
between Canada and the Members of the Alliance for Development in Democracy
June 10, 2022 – Los Angeles, California – Global Affairs Canada
“Canada, and the Republic of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and the
Republic of Panama, members of the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD)
confirm our shared commitment to establish a strategic dialogue to ensure
continued collaboration on advancing inclusive economic growth and strengthening
democracy in the hemisphere. This is in line with the December 11 Declaration by
the Presidents of the Alliance at Puerto Plata on the need for Ministers from
the Alliance to engage priorities at highest level with strategic partners.
“We acknowledge the need to bolster inclusive economic growth and a green
transition in the region, and recognize these objectives require collective
action in the region. An inclusive and sustainable pandemic recovery can be
facilitated by a deepening of our commercial relationships, a promotion of
increased flow of trade and investment, and greater investments in education and
skills development.
“We are committed to working together to address democratic challenges and
prevent the erosion of democracy in our hemisphere. We recognize that rule of
law, media freedom and independent judiciaries are fundamentals for stable
economies, democracies and attracting foreign investment.
“We express their condemnation of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and
recognize the vulnerabilities– including food insecurity and inflation – that
have been exacerbated in the region as a result of this crisis.
“Consequently, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama will:
Collaborate and maintain a political dialogue on key foreign policy issues
Work to strengthen cooperation on common challenges facing the hemisphere,
including through the development of joint initiatives and supporting inclusive
and participatory solutions.
Identify potential opportunities to collaborate on addressing the impacts of
climate change
Explore how to strengthen trade and investment ties between Participants to
support an inclusive and sustainable economic and health recovery from the
pandemic.
Collaborate closely with a view to strengthen inclusive democratic societies by
protecting civic space, media freedom, gender equality, and promoting freedom of
expression, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of religion or
belief.
“To enhance our strategic dialogue, we agreed that Canada would host an event on
democracy in the Americas in the coming months.”
The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on June 10-11/2022
المرض العضال الذي جلبه بوتين
أمير طاهري/الشرق الأوسط/الجمعة 10 حزيران 2022
The ‘Disease’ Putin Brought Back
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/June 10/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/109298/%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%b7%d8%a7%d9%87%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%b6-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b6%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b0%d9%8a-%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%87-%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%8a/
“I am not Russian!” This is the message on a new T-shirt that it is reportedly
selling like hot cake in Kazan, capital of the autonomous Republic of Tatarstan.
A different version, bearing the slogan “I am not Russian, Love me!” is doing
well in Ufa, capital of Bashkortostan, another autonomous republic within the
Russian Federation.
The message the makers and wearers of the T-shirts wish to pass is that Vladimir
Putin’s war may have the support of the Russian majority but should not lead to
universal dislike of “other nations” within the sprawling federation.
The same message is relayed through social media and by a growing number of
ethnic Russian citizens of the federation now seeking shelter, at least
temporarily, in Turkey, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
No one knows how the Ukraine adventure might end for Putin. But, no matter how
it ends, it could affect the delicate, not to say fragile, modus vivendi forged
in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Empire among the “nations” of the
federation.
A clear victory could rekindle the smoldering ashes of Russian nationalism, or
“the Great Russian Chauvinism” as Lenin described it. Putin himself has warned
against the return of that “monster” on a number of occasions, depicting
nationalism as “a disease.”
According to Putin, the fall of the USSR pushed the country “to the edge of
civil war” something that President Boris Yeltsin managed to deal with through a
series of compromises with the “nations” that remained in the newly minted
federation.
A defeat or even a draw in Ukraine could also reignite the flames of Russian
revanchisme, again affecting harmony of the multi-national federation.
But what do we mean when we talk of “nations” in the Russian federation?
Official Russian literature offers a confusing picture. On the one hand it talks
of 120 “ethnic groups” and 100 different languages. On the other it states that
Russians account for 77 percent of the total population.
However, the figure of 120 ethnic groups is a relic of the time when Josef
Stalin was People’s Commissar for Nationalities, searching for “nations” and
“ethnicities” in every corner of the empire and at times inventing some The aim
was to sustain the claim that in a country with such national and ethnic
diversity only class solidarity, the dictatorship of proletariat, could bind
citizens together.
Figures that show ethnic Russians as a 77 percent majority may be misleading
because it is based on surveys in which people are asked to name their “first
language”. Thus millions of non-ethnic Russians who have adopted Russian as
their primary language are included in that figure.
The Russification of non-Russian subjects started under the Tsars and
intensified during the Soviet era. No one questioned the Russian-ness of Gogol,
Anna Akhmatova or Mandelstam, let alone Nikita Khrushchev or Anastas Mikoyan.
With the disappearance of the Dictatorship of Proletariat as an ideological
binding, Yeltsin and then Putin looked to Russian language and culture to
counter the Great Russian chauvinism peddled by people like Zhirinovsky and
serve as the glue to keep the post-Soviet empire together.
Towards the end of the Soviet era, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a great writer but
also a Great Russian Chauvinist, advised the future authorities in Moscow to let
go of minority nations and ethnicities so that a new pure Russia could resume
its divine mission free of its Asiatic burden.
He wrote: If we have not succeeded in Russifying them after 200 years, we never
shall.
Putin’s best-known opponent Alexei Navalny plays a similar tune by emphasizing
Russia’s European identity.
Yeltsin succeeded in calming ethnic tensions by concluding a number of treaties
with the largest “autonomous” republics.
These were of three types.
The most significant was the 1994 treaty with Tatarstan that gave the landlocked
republic a status close to independence. Under it the government in Kazan has
the right to forge its own foreign relations, establish its own national bank
and set its own rules for citizenship. That last item was used by the then
President Mintimir Shaimiev to deprive a large number of non-ethnic Tatars from
citizenship of his republic.
Similar treaties, albeit with more limited transfer of power from Moscow, were
signed with Bashkortostan, the federation’s second largest Muslim-majority
republic after Tatarstan, and Sakha-Yaqutia in the Far East. A similar treaty
signed with Chechnya under Yeltsin was annulled by Putin, igniting a war that
lasted over a decade.
The second type of treaties, avoiding political issues and concentrating on
“economic cooperation” was offered to a number of Oblasts (provinces) notably
Kaliningrad, an enclave on the Baltic Sea, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk and Krasner Krai.
The third type of treaties signed with North-Ossetia-Alania and Kabardino-Balkar
focused almost exclusively on military-security issues.
All those treaties have been under pressure for some time.
In Tatarstan under President Rustam Minikhanov demands for a better sharing of
the wealth of the federation and greater fiscal independence is featuring in
political discourse. The huge cost of the war in Ukraine is bound to amplify
such demands.
Elsewhere, such as in Dagestan and Ingushetia demands for greater roles for
local cultures, religions and languages can no longer be silenced.
Putin’s recipe for Russian language and culture as the guarantor of unity in the
federation is also challenged in the newly annexed Crimea, at least by the
Tatars, and in South Ossetia by Iranic ethnicities.
Although non-Russians represent a disproportionate percentage of the fighting
force in Donbas, it is doubtful that, if the Ukraine war is lost that minority
nations in the federation would wish to stick with the loser.
Wouldn’t the annexation of Donbas create a new source of ethnic and linguistic
tension in the federation?
Russia faces another potential source of ethnic tension in the presence of
between three and four million Chinese and a million North Korean “contract
workers” especially in Siberia and the Far East whose presence is economically
crucial but politically unpopular among native ethnic groups.
Russia’s falling demography, expected to speed up with a post-war recession and
the lasting effect of sanctions, is a strategic challenge that Putin, his boasts
notwithstanding, cannot ignore.
If the Nazis launched their wars to seize “living space” (lebensraum) for a
rising population, Putin has invaded Georgia and now Ukraine in search of real
or imaginary kith-and-kin to boost Russia’s position as majority nation in the
federation.
And that could fan the flames of ethnic and national chauvinism among the 23
percent who account for the minorities in the federation.
Putin would have been wiser to focus on his strategy of using Russian culture
and the post-Soviet economic boom as means of strengthening the cohesion of the
federation. By embarking on an adventure that offers no obvious gain he may have
awakened the very nationalism, and mini-nationalisms, that he labeled “a
disease.”
A Long War in Ukraine Could Bring Global Chaos
Hal Brands/Bloomberg/June 10/2022
The war in Ukraine has become a brutal, grinding contest of attrition. As the
conflict drags on, the question becomes, which side does time favor? Kyiv is
betting that its leverage will increase as an isolated Russia comes face to face
with economic and military ruin. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wager is
that he can devastate Ukraine even with a weakened army, while using the threat
of global economic chaos to sever Kyiv’s lifeline to the outside world. Each
side is trying to bleed and batter the other into submission, a dynamic that
will fuel far-reaching instability — and present the US with nasty challenges.
In recent weeks, the fighting has occurred primarily in eastern Ukraine. Russia
is using hellacious artillery barrages and methodical attacks to slowly seize
more territory, in hopes of fully “liberating” the Donbas region. Ukraine is
hanging on, inflicting terrible casualties while also suffering, by President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s own admission, heavy losses.
Notwithstanding Russian territorial gains, Ukraine still has reason for
optimism. Its military power is, in important respects, increasing, as Kyiv
receives longer-range artillery and other sophisticated weapons from Western
countries. Some of the world’s top intelligence services are also effectively
working for Kyiv, providing information that helps Ukrainian military leaders
anticipate the enemy’s blows and strike plenty of their own.
Russia’s military power, in contrast, will probably atrophy in a long war,
because Russia’s economy and defense industry are subject to harsh sanctions,
and the morale of its forces will fade as casualties mount. As long as Ukraine
has most of the world’s advanced democracies behind it, it can plausibly hope to
weaken and ultimately break the Russian army — and then perhaps recapture some
of the territory Moscow has stolen.
Yet there are crucial caveats. One is the threat of “Zelenskiy fatigue” — the
danger that Western leaders will tire of Kyiv’s requests for money and guns at a
time when their own economies are weakening and their own arsenals are being
depleted. A recent $40 billion US support package for Ukraine drew Republican
criticism on these grounds. If the costs of the war keep rising, and if
Zelenskiy keeps insisting that Ukraine will liberate all the territory Russia
has taken since 2014, his foreign backers may come to see him as not an
inspiration but a burden.
That prospect will interact with Putin’s strategy, which involves riding out
sanctions while turning Ukraine into a disaster zone. The blockade of Ukraine’s
Black Sea ports, especially Odesa, is making it prohibitively difficult to
export wheat and other goods. The ongoing brutalization of the country has
caused a catastrophic economic contraction. Russia may not be able to defeat
Ukraine militarily, but it can wreck the economy and force Kyiv to make enormous
demands on its international supporters for years to come.
Moreover, Putin is using the prospect of global economic carnage as a means of
geopolitical coercion. If Ukraine can’t export wheat, countries around the world
will suffer. High energy prices are exacerbating recessionary pressures in
developed and developing economies alike. By inflicting enough pain, perhaps
Putin can peel away reluctant members, such as Germany, from the democratic
coalition and make Ukraine sue for peace. Global chaos could help Putin in other
ways, too: The longer the war lasts, the higher the chance a major crisis over
Iran or Taiwan will pull US attention elsewhere.
Indeed, whether or not this strategy succeeds, it will test Washington. In
response to Moscow’s economic strangulation campaign, the US could use Russian
state assets it has frozen to sustain and rebuild Ukraine. Yet that would
unavoidably increase global fears about the weaponization of American financial
dominance. The US could try to turn the tables on Putin by dialing up economic
coercion of Russia. But this would probably require greater use of secondary
sanctions — penalizing third parties that do business with Moscow — which would
in turn cause greater friction with countries that rely on Russian oil or other
exports.
Perhaps most ticklish is the issue of restoring Ukraine’s ability to export
(especially wheat) to the world. This is crucial to easing the economic shocks
the war has caused. Yet it might require taking steps such as escorting
Ukrainian ships, “re-flagging” them as American, or forcibly opening a secure
land or maritime corridor — actions that would project US power into the heart
of an ongoing war.
Rather than aiming primarily to deter Russia from attacking NATO countries, the
US would then be trying to compel Russia to stop impeding Ukraine’s trade with
the world. This could lead to a perilous moment, as success in relieving
economic pressure from Russia could amount to the failure of Putin’s strategy
for winning the war.
The conflict in Ukraine may seem to have settled into a violent equilibrium. But
the turmoil that war produces, and the global dilemmas it presents, have only
begun.
Question: "If God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, why did
He create them?"
GotQuestions.org/June 10/2022
Answer: The Bible says that God created all things—including us—for Himself. He
is glorified in His creation. “From him and through him and for him are all
things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:36).
It may be hard to see how Adam and Eve’s falling into sin could bring glory to
God. In fact, some might even wonder why, if God knew ahead of time all the
trouble they would cause, He made them in the first place.
God is omniscient (Psalm 139:1–6), and He knows the future (Isaiah 46:10). So He
definitely knew that Adam and Eve would sin. But He created them anyway and gave
them a free will with which they chose to sin.
We must carefully note that Adam and Eve’s falling into sin does not mean that
God is the author of sin or that He tempted them to sin (James 1:13). But the
fall does serve the purpose of God’s overall plan for creation and mankind.
If we consider what some theologians call the “meta-narrative” (or overarching
storyline) of Scripture, we see that biblical history can be roughly divided
into three main sections: 1) paradise (Genesis 1—2); 2) paradise lost (Genesis
3—Revelation 20); and 3) paradise regained (Revelation 21—22). By far the
largest part of the narrative is devoted to the transition from paradise lost to
paradise regained. At the center of this meta-narrative is the cross, which was
planned from the very beginning (Acts 2:23).
Reading Scripture carefully, we are led to the following conclusions:
1. The fall of mankind was foreknown by God.
2. The crucifixion of Christ, the atonement for God’s elect, was foreordained by
God.
3. All people will one day glorify God (Psalm 86:9), and God purposes “to bring
unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Ephesians 1:10).
God’s purpose was to create a world in which His glory could be manifest in all
its fullness. The glory of God is the overarching goal of creation. In fact, it
is the overarching goal of everything He does. The universe was created to
display God’s glory (Psalm 19:1), and the wrath of God is revealed against those
who fail to glorify God (Romans 1:18–25). The world that best displays the glory
of God is the world we have—a world that was allowed to fall, a world that was
redeemed, a world that will be restored to its original perfection.
God’s wrath and God’s mercy display the riches of His glory, but we cannot see
either without the fall of mankind. We would never know grace if we had never
needed grace. Therefore, all of God’s plan—including the fall, election,
redemption, and atonement of mankind—serves the purpose of glorifying God. When
man fell into sin, God’s mercy was immediately displayed in God’s not killing
him on the spot. God’s grace was immediately evident in the covering He provided
for their shame (Genesis 3:21). God’s patience and forbearance were later on
display as mankind fell deeper and deeper into sin. God’s justice and wrath were
on display when He sent the flood, and God’s mercy and grace were again
demonstrated when He saved Noah and his family. God’s holy wrath and perfect
justice will be seen in the future when He deals with Satan once and for all
(Revelation 20:7–10).
God’s glory is also revealed in His love (1 John 4:16). Our knowledge of God’s
love comes from the Person and saving work of Jesus Christ in this fallen world.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). Had God decided not to
create Adam and Eve, based on His knowledge of their fall—or had He made them
automatons with no volition—we would never have truly known what love is.
The ultimate exhibition of God’s glory was at the cross where His wrath,
justice, and mercy met. The righteous judgment of all sin was executed at the
cross, and God’s grace was on display in His Son’s words, “Father, forgive them”
(Luke 23:34). God’s love and grace are manifest in those whom He has saved (John
3:16; Ephesians 2:8–10). In the end, God will be glorified as His chosen people
worship Him for all eternity with the angels, and the wicked will also glorify
God as His righteousness results in the eternal punishment of unrepentant
sinners (Philippians 2:11). Without the fall of Adam and Eve, we would never
know God’s justice, grace, mercy, or love.
Some raise the objection that God’s foreknowledge and foreordination of the fall
damages man’s freedom. In other words, if God created mankind with full
knowledge of the impending fall into sin, how can man be responsible for his
sin? An answer to that question can be found in the Westminster Confession of
Faith:
“God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will,
freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby
neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the
creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but
rather established” (WFC, III.1)
In other words, God ordains future events in such a way that our freedom and the
working of secondary causes (e.g., laws of nature) are preserved. Theologians
call this “concurrence.” God’s sovereign will flows concurrently with our free
choices in such a way that our free choices always result in the carrying out of
God’s will (by “free” we mean that our choices are not coerced by outside
influences). It’s a complex interaction of wills and choices, but the Creator
God can handle any amount of complexity.
God foresaw Adam and Eve’s fall. He created them anyway, in His own image, to
bring glory to Himself. They were given freedom to make choices. Even though
they chose to disobey, their choice became the means by which God’s ultimate
will was carried out and by which His full glory will be seen.
إيفانا سترادنر ومايكل روبن/ تاريخ هنري كيسنجر الطويل في
استرضاء الديكتاتوريات
Henry Kissinger’s Long History of Appeasing Dictatorships
Ivana Stradner and Michael Rubin/The Dispatch/June 10/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/109300/ivana-stradner-and-michael-rubin-henry-kissingers-long-history-of-appeasing-dictatorships-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7-%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%86%d8%b1-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a7/
He’s spent decades cultivating a friendship with Putin, but he’s
also advocated for Iran and China.
Speaking at the Davos, former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security
Adviser Henry Kissinger counseled Ukraine to cede Russia territory in order to
end the war. “Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo
ante,” he said last month. “Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be
about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.” Make no
mistake: Kissinger is wrong. Rather than bring peace, his advice would spark
future conflict by teaching Russia that aggression brings rewards. Kissinger’s
remarks did not come from nowhere, however. He has spent more than two decades
excusing Moscow’s abuse of its neighbors while forging a personal friendship
with Vladimir Putin.
Kissinger has long been the prince of so-called “realism.” For decades before
his secret 1971 visit, Communist China was an international pariah. Kissinger
brokered rapprochement, however, to make common cause against the Soviet Union.
He later argued China was simply the lesser of two evils. “The difference
between [China] and the Russians is,” he quipped, “if you drop some loose
change, when you go to pick it up, the Russians will step on your fingers and
the Chinese won’t.”
After the Cold War, Kissinger began to advocate a far softer line toward the
Russians. More than two decades ago, Kissinger said, “I believed that the Soviet
Union should not abandon Eastern Europe so quickly.” Russian President Vladimir
Putin seized upon the comment as intellectual sustenance. The two men then met
regularly. Kissinger, who called Putin a “great patriot,” hosted the Russian
leader at his house in New York for dinner. Putin reciprocated and flattered
Kissinger for his knowledge of Russian culture and made him honorary professor
of the Diplomatic Academy of Russia.
For Putin, Kissinger became a useful tool given the esteem with which so many in
Washington held the former secretary. Before Russia’s invasion of Georgia,
Kissinger characterized the Kremlin’s foreign policy under Putin “as driven in a
quest for a reliable strategic partner, with America being the preferred choice”
and urged America to “show greater sensitivity to Russian complexities.” When
Putin invaded the former Soviet Republic in August 2008, Kissinger dismissed it
as a “crisis,” not a war, and advised that “isolating Russia is not a
sustainable long-range policy.” Kissinger’s trust in Putin appears to have
colored President Barack Obama’s embrace of a “reset” with Russia that, in turn,
allowed Russia to act with impunity and obscured the threat Putin posed.
In 2014, as Russia began its encroachment on Ukraine, Kissinger advised that “to
Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country.” The United States should
be more deferential to Putin’s point of view, he warned, and “avoid treating
Russia as an aberrant to be patiently taught rules of conduct established by
Washington.” In effect, compromise with the Kremlin trumped the post-World War
II European order, based on prohibiting armed aggression against sovereign
neighbors.
Unfortunately, accommodating aggressive dictatorships is a staple of Kissinger’s
wisdom. While he often warns about the dangers of a nuclear Iran, his policy
prescriptions often undercut pressure on Tehran. In 2006, less than five years
after George W. Bush labeled Iran as part of an “Axis of Evil,” Kissinger turned
repeatedly to the Washington Post to urge compromise. Two years later, he
suggested Washington could do business with Tehran. Iran’s state-controlled
press headlined counsel that the Bush administration “should be prepared to
negotiate about Iran.” Here, too, his soft spot for Russia undercut his
analysis. He repeatedly argued, for example, that Russia would be America’s ally
against Iran’s nuclearization. In reality, the Kremlin has been among its
greatest facilitators.
If Kissinger undermined pressure against Iran’s leaders, his lackadaisical
attitude toward China’s rise has been even more bizarre. A half-century ago, he
ingratiated himself to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai by badmouthing Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, leader of the world’s most populous democracy. To this
day, Indians resent how he threw them under the bus less than a decade after
China’s land grabs in Kashmir and Ladakh. Zhou, meanwhile, cultivated friends to
be unwitting intelligence assets and agents of influence. As the Spectator
observed in its exposé of Kissinger’s subsequent relationship with China, “The
best agents … are the ones who don’t know they are agents.”
Kissinger’s friendship with China was multifaceted and profitable. Five years
after leaving Foggy Bottom, Kissinger formed Kissinger Associates in part to
facilitate the entrance of American business into China. He gathered top
diplomats and national security officials and used his and their collective
influence among the foreign policy and business elite—especially those who
aspired a share of the China gold rush—to launder the Communist regime’s image.
This was crucial in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy
uprising that China crushed. For a short time, there was bipartisan recognition
of the threat an authoritarian China prosed. Behind the scenes, though,
Kissinger urged George H.W. Bush to mute his response, avoid sanctions, and
cease efforts to isolate China. Soon, American investment resumed.
Kissinger is not the first statesman to make moral compromises after leaving
office. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder famously joined Gazprom, the
Russian energy firm, after leaving office, not only cashing in on his former
office but also using his stature to downplay concerns about the Kremlin’s
intentions. Kissinger might have served honorably, but it is time that Americans
who prioritize democracy and liberalism ask whether Kissinger has effectively
become the American Schröder.
*Ivana Stradner is an adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
https://thedispatch.com/p/henry-kissingers-long-history-of?s=r