Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 20-21/2023
Greetings to the patriotic journalist Simon Abu Fadil, who was subjected to a blatant physical assault today by Hezbollah’s Mouthpiece, Mr. Wiam Wahhab
Elias Bejjani/July 20/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/120325/120325/
Well known Arabic Poem: “And the people, if they hit the shoe with their heads .. the shoe shouts for what sin I was hit”
Greetings from the heart to journalist, Simon Abu Fadil, the publisher of Al-Kalima Online website, the sovereign and independent voice who bravely witnesses for the truth.
Sadly he was exposed today during the “Marcel Khanim talk show”, on the MTV, for a blatant, shameless and terrorist physical assault by Mr. Wiam Wahhab, who is a vulgar Hezbollah mouthpiece.
This condemned assault is practically greater than a crime because it targeted the sacred principle of opinion freedom.
All the words of denunciation and condemnation actually are not enough to express this horrible reality, because unfortunately the aggressor, Mr., Wahhab, is a pioneer in what is known as the “shoe culture and education”, (Al-Sarami), and he has become accustomed without deterrence, and for years to brag about this barbaric culture and style, because his atrocities falls under the Hezbollah occupation umbrella protection.
What Abu Fadil, the descent, patriotic and free opinion journalist , was subjected to today is just one of the symptoms of the cancerous disease that is decimating Lebanon and its people, namely, the Iranian mullahs’ proxy, notorious occupation and hegemony… Therefore, there is no salvation for Lebanon from its current tragic situation before the defeat of this occupier, the terrorist Hezbollah, and the restoration of sovereignty, independence and the rule of law.
*Picture enclosed/Journalist Simon Abu Fadil pointing the assault trauma on his face

The Glorious Prophet Elias
Saint Of The Day site
Elias [also known as Elijah in English] of great fame was from Thisbe or Thesbe, a town of Galaad (Gilead), beyond the Jordan. He was of priestly lineage, a man of a solitary and ascetical character, clothed in a mantle of sheep skin, and girded about his loins with a leathern belt. His name is interpreted as "Yah is my God." His zeal for the glory of God was compared to fire, and his speech for teaching and rebuke was likened unto a burning lamp. From this too he received the name Zealot. Therefore, set aflame with such zeal, hesternly reproved the impiety and lawlessness of Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He shut up heaven by means of prayer, and it did not rain for three years and six months. Ravens brought him food for his need when, at God's command, he was hiding by the torrent of Horrath. He multiplied the little flour and oil of the poor widow of Sarephtha of Sidon, who had given him hospitality in her home, and when her son died, he raised him up. He brought down fire from Heaven upon Mount Carmel, and it burned up the sacrifice offered to God before all the people of Israel, that they might know the truth. At the torrent of Kisson, he slew 450 false prophets and priests who worshipped idols and led the people astray. He received food wondrously at the hand of an Angel, and beingstrengthened by this food he walked for forty days and forty nights. He beheld God on Mount Horeb, as far as this is possible for human nature. He foretold the destruction of the house of Ahab, and the death of his son Ohozias; and as for the two captains of fifty that were sent by the king, he burned them for their punishment, bringing fire down from Heaven. He divided the flow of the Jordan, and he and his disciple Elisseus [also known as Elisha in English] passed through as it were on dry land; and finally, while speaking with him, Elias was suddenly snatched away by a fiery chariot in the year 895 B.C., and he ascended as though into heaven, whither God most certainly translated him alive, as He did Enoch (Gen. 5:24; IV Kings 2: 11). But from thence also, after seven years, by means of an epistle he reproached Joram, the son of Josaphat, as it is written: "And there came a message in writing to him from Elias the Prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the way," and so forth (II Chron. 21:12). According to the opinion of the majority of the interpreters, this came to pass either through his disciple Elisseus, or through another Prophet when Elias appeared to them, even as he appeared on Mount Tabor to the disciples of Christ (see Aug. 6).

Journalist Simon Abou Fadel Was Assaulted By Waem Weahab
LCCC/July 20/2023
Today, during a televised debate on LMTV, the former minister, Weam Wahhab, assaulted and assaulted journalist Simon Abgu Fadel. Wahhab's guards also subjected Abu Fadi to beatings and insults as he left the TV station. Wahhab comes from a low level in politics and is used to using profanity and insults during his media appearances. This politician is a Hezbollah mercenary and is protected by the party.

UN Special Coordinator urges full implementation of resolution 1701 in Lebanon
LBCI/July 20/2023
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, along with United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, briefed the Security Council today on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest report. The report, concerning the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), spanned from February 21 to June 20, 2023. The Security Council’s discussion primarily focused on the escalating tensions along the Blue Line, the border between Lebanon and Israel. Wronecka seconded the Secretary-General’s appeal for both parties to fully implement Resolution 1701, halt violations, and respect the cease-fire. “Resolution 1701 is crucial for the security and stability of Lebanon, Israel, and the region at large. We must make progress on the outstanding commitments from both parties, not move away from them. Full implementation of Resolution 1701 is our primary purpose,” Wronecka stated. The Special Coordinator highlighted the urgency for Lebanese political leaders to speed up the presidential election process as a first step to revitalizing state institutions and initiating recovery. She warned that the continuing power vacuum, almost nine months long, was exacerbating the erosion of state institutions and delaying the country’s recovery. Wronecka expressed her concern over the ongoing socio-economic and financial crisis in Lebanon and its negative impact on the Lebanese populace. She emphasized the need for progressive, comprehensive, and fair reforms, in compliance with the International Monetary Fund’s prerequisites. Despite the political deadlock and worsening socio-economic conditions, Wronecka expressed confidence in the overall security situation in Lebanon. She commended the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces for their role in maintaining stability. As the third anniversary of the catastrophic Beirut Port explosion approaches in two weeks, the Special Coordinator reiterated the UN’s demand for an impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation by Lebanese authorities. She stressed the significance of an independent and effective judiciary for the enforcement of the rule of law, justice, and accountability. In her concluding remarks, Wronecka reaffirmed the United Nations’ commitment to support Lebanon and its people in the future.

Lebanon responds firmly to European Parliament's Syrian refugee resolution
LBCI/July 20/2023
In a display of unified political and national consensus, the Lebanese Parliament delivered a resolute response to the European Parliament's resolution regarding Syrian refugees, affirming a steadfast and unwavering national stance that rejects foreign orders and threats to Lebanon's sovereignty, as expressed by participating lawmakers during the session. The Lebanese Parliament's recommendations refuted the reality of displacement, outlining the responsibilities and Lebanon's position on the matter:
1. Lebanon will collaborate with international organizations, concerned countries, the Arab League, and Syria to facilitate the return of refugees to their homeland.
3. International organizations fail to provide the required information about the refugees.
4. They attempt to integrate Syrian refugees into local communities, which contradicts Lebanese laws and regulations.
5. The General Security Directorate and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior must strictly monitor this phenomenon.
6. Western nations must shoulder the burden of the displacement issue and expedite communication with the Syrian government.
7. The enforcement of the law concerning refugees and the removal of refugee status from anyone who enters Syria.
8. Tightening the registration of Syrian births in Lebanon and empowering security agencies to control the borders.
All of these measures would not have been possible had it not been for the Lebanese people's consensus after twelve years of grappling with the refugee crisis in Lebanon.
They have united to remove the refugee issue from the political bargaining table and recognized the gravity of allowing the refugees to settle permanently in Lebanon, thereby countering these schemes and working towards repatriation.

Israel on alert as Lebanese dig road along withdrawal line in Kfarshouba
Naharnet/July 20/2023
The municipality of Kfarshouba opened Thursday a dirt road along the withdrawal line, where Israel recently built a concrete wall. "The bulldozer has finished excavating the road, and cars are now crossing for the first time since 1978, the date of the occupation," al-Manar reporter Ali Shoeib said. "All the enemy did was deploying tanks and troops," he added. Earlier on Thursday, Israel threw a gas bomb that fell inside the occupied land in Kfarshouba after the Lebanese army and a number of journalists approached the new wall that Israel built on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the Israeli army threw two smoke bombs at a Lebanese farmer in Kfarshouba, while a U.N. team was examining ​​the new wall. The tension in Kfarshouba began in June over the Israeli military digging in the area that Lebanon claims. A Lebanese villager tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer from digging a trench along the border. Once the villager's legs were covered with sand as the bulldozer moved ahead, U.N. peacekeepers jumped in and convinced the driver to move back. Videos of the elderly man with his legs stuck in the sand dune went viral on social media. In July, the Israeli army fired more than 15 artillery shells on Kfarshouba after a mortar launched from Lebanon exploded in the border area between the two foes. Earlier that day, Hezbollah condemned Israel for the erection of a barbed wire fence and the construction of a concrete wall around al-Ghajar, a village split into Lebanese and Israeli sides along a border, known as the blue line, that was demarcated after Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. The situations also has been heated along Shebaa Farms. In early June, Israel filed a complaint to the U.N. claiming that Hezbollah had set up tents several dozen meters inside a disputed territory. Hezbollah said it was a response to the construction of the wall around al-Ghajar.

BDL Governor's term ends, leaving its deputies with tough choices
LBCI/July 20/2023
Following the expiration of Riad Salameh's term as the Governor of Banque du Liban (BDL) on July 31, his Deputy, Wassim Mansouri, and other deputies are faced with complicated options. They must either continue the current monetary policies or attempt to implement a new approach, which could carry risks and criticism. Alternatively, they could resign, face the cabinet's rejection, face the realities, and all the negatives may be attached to their performance. To avoid such a scenario, the deputies have presented a comprehensive preparatory financial and monetary plan to the Parliamentary Committee on Administration and Justice. They considered this plan the only way to achieve positive monetary and financial results and prevent further collapse, provided the Parliament and the government approve the proposed reform provisions. The plan of the Governor's deputies comprises three main pillars:
1. Budget Revision
2. Enactment of capital controls laws, bank restructuring, addressing the financial gap, and deposit protection
3. Collaboration between the BDL, Parliament, and the Government to address the Sayrafa exchange platform issue, with discussions of a potential new platform.
The plan is expected to be implemented between the next August and November. It also calls for Parliament's approval for the government to borrow $200 million per month from the Central Bank of Lebanon for six months, totaling $1.2 billion, mainly to finance state expenses, including salaries and wages.
However, the situation in Lebanon today is far from favorable, and the lack of reforms since the beginning of the collapse has exacerbated the crisis and its complexities. The continued delay in electing a President has added to the severity of the situation, and there seems to be no end in sight for the impasse that Lebanon finds itself in.

Delayed 2023 Budget imposes steep tax hikes amid economic turmoil in Lebanon
LBCI/July 20/2023
In an unprecedented move, the caretaker Lebanese government will finally begin reviewing the 2023 budget following Monday. This budget, characterized by an extraordinary focus on fees and taxes, has raised concerns among citizens and officials alike. According to detailed nominal tables, numerous fees and taxes are set to skyrocket, increasing by as much as three to fifty times their previous amounts. Additionally, unspecified fees have been given a vague clause (Article 43) that allows for a thirty-fold increase compared to their 2019 levels.
As the Ministry of Finance always relies on securing revenues from citizens' pockets rather than tax evaders, wrongdoers, and large companies that typically evade taxes, the Value Added Tax (VAT) constituted 25 percent of the total revenues, amounting to 36 billion Lebanese pounds.
Among the items targeted for tax hikes are:
- Carbonated beverages and energy drinks facing a 5,000 LBP fee per liter
- Wine is subjected to a 6,000 LBP fee per liter
- Tobacco products taxed at 7,500 LBP per pack and 5 million LBP annually for vendors, including e-cigarettes
- Shisha and tobacco taxed at 75,000 LBP per kilo
- Private electricity generators facing a 100,000 LBP fee per kVA
- Economy-class flight tickets are subject to a $35 fee, while business-class fares will bear a $50 charge and first-class tickets $65
- An additional 500,000 LBP for every land traveler
- A fee of 750,000 LBP for replacing private car plates and 2 million LBP for a private car or driver's license, while the fee for a motorcycle driving license will increase to one million Lebanese pounds. The budget includes increased municipal fees, construction permits, financial stamp fees, and more. In a harsh blow to citizens, primarily low-income individuals and public sector employees, the 2023 budget disqualifies post-2020 salary-related allowances (cost of living, social aid, exceptional compensations) from being included in the base salary, rendering end-of-service compensations worthless.
In the budget 2023, estimated expenses have increased by 4.45 percent compared to the 2022 budget. Upon closer examination, it becomes evident that the Ministry of Finance's expenses have multiplied by 19 times, the Presidency's expenses have increased by 15 times, and the Ministry of Public Works' expenses have risen by 9.9 times. Meanwhile, the expenses of the Ministry of Health have seen a more modest increase of 2.5 times. The estimated expenses in the 2023 budget proposal amount to 181,923 billion Lebanese pounds, while the total revenues do not exceed 147,739 billion Lebanese pounds, resulting in a deficit rate of 18.79 percent. However, the fundamental question remains whether the Ministry of Finance will be able to collect the projected revenues as stipulated in the budget or if, like previous attempts, it will fail, revealing that the deficit is much larger than anticipated.

Two depositors storm bank in Sin el-Fil in 4th break-in this week
Naharnet/July 20/2023
Two depositors stormed Thursday a bank in Sin el-Fil and left the bank after receiving their trapped savings. Salim Hatoum and Ashraf Salha respectively demanded their $5400 and $23200 frm Byblos Bank.Earlier this week, three other depositors stormed three banks across Lebanon. On Monday Lebanese depositor Edgard Awwad broke into Mawarid bank in Antelias with his thirteen years old son and left after he received his entire savings, a sum of $15000. On Tuesday, a depositor with a grenade stormed a bank in Shheem and an hour later, another depositor broke into BBAC bank in Bint Jbeil and left after receiving $7000 out of his $10000 savings. In Beirut, a depositor broke into BML bank last week and held the branch manager hostage until he received his savings. As the small country’s crippling economic crisis continues to worsen, a growing number of Lebanese depositors have opted to break into banks and forcefully withdraw their trapped savings, as Lebanon's cash-strapped banks have imposed informal limits on cash withdrawals. Three-quarters of the population has plunged into poverty in an economic crisis that the World Bank describes as one of the worst in over a century. Meanwhile, the Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value against the dollar, making it difficult for millions across the country to cope with skyrocketing prices.

Qassem says Hezbollah rejects 'direct or indirect partitioning' of Lebanon
Naharnet/July 20/2023
Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has stressed that his party “accepts the Taif Accord.”“We believe that it would achieve a lot of objectives when implemented in a better manner,” Qassem added. “We are not proposing the amendment of the Taif Accord or the constitution; we only want to lower voting age to 18 years,” he said. He added: “We emphasize that Lebanon is a homeland for us and for our Lebanese partners and that there is only one Lebanon that belongs to all Lebanese without discrimination.”“We will not accept any direct or indirect partitioning” of the country, Hezbollah’s number two went on to say.

Geagea calls on Berri to call for successive presidential vote rounds
Naharnet/July 20/2023
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has lauded the statement issued Monday by the five-nation group on Lebanon, saying it was “based on the Lebanese constitution, the international and Arab League resolutions, and the sovereign and reformist priority for any president and political authority.”“Accordingly, this statement has permanently thwarted the attempt by some parties inside the country, especially the Axis of Defiance, to bet on the stance of Lebanon’s friends to either elect the Defiance candidate or to clench illegitimate gains in return for ending their obstruction of the presidential vote,” Geagea added. And noting that the Doha statement called for “letting constitutional mechanisms take their natural course, starting by the election of a new president to the designation of a premier and the formation of a government,” the LF leader noted that “Lebanon’s friends” want “the rise of a true state in Lebanon” and “the implementation of all international resolutions.”He accordingly called on the “defiance forces” to “stop wasting the precious time of the Lebanese with the hope of changing equations,” calling on Speaker Nabih Berri to “quickly call for a presidential election session with successive rounds that would lead to the election of a president.”

BDL vice governors submit comprehensive financial plan to MPs
Naharnet/July 20/2023
The Central Bank vice governors sent Thursday a preliminary comprehensive plan to the Parliament's Administration and Justice Committee. The plan "enables the correction of the monetary policy, and starts the recovery process. Its major objective is to float the exchange rate in a managed manner on an internationally recognized exchange platform, so that it reflects the real value of the Lebanese Pound," Wassim Manssouri, Bachir Yakzan, Salim Chahine, and Alexander Mouradian said. The four vice governors added that the expected timeline of the plan is over six months.The term of embattled three-decade chief Riad Salameh ends this month with no successor in sight. The central bank governor in Lebanon is named by cabinet decree for a six-year mandate that can be renewed multiple times, based on the finance minister's recommendation. If the position is vacant, the law stipulates that the first vice-governor take over. "The government and the Parliament shall commit to approving laws to rebuild trust and secure additional revenues from its budgetary framework to repay the newly outstanding loan, through the following three steps:
-Budget Review
-Enactment of Capital Control Law, Bank Restructuring and Resolution Law, and Gap Resolution Law, with a protection of customers' deposits.
-A coordination between BDL, the Parliament, and the Government to improve the depth of the Foreign Exchange Market " the vice governors said.
They added that BDL will intervene in the market during the coming few months to stabilize as much as possible a "unified exchange rate" on Sayrafa and will provide its best effort to secure a smooth transition to a "Managed" Floating Exchange Rate Platform.

Finance committee resumes oil sovereign fund discussion
Naharnet/July 20/2023
The Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee convened Thursday to resume the discussion of the oil and gas sovereign fund bill. Earlier this week, the Committee discussed the bill and said it endorses it "in terms of the commitment to the independence of the management of the sovereign fund and the transparency of its accounts and foreign investments." Another session will be held on Monday to approve it in a final manner and submit it to parliament so that it be ready prior to the beginning of exploration in mid-August.

AUB’s Office of Advancement Team wins Catalyst award
Naharnet/July 20/2023
The American University of Beirut’s Office of Advancement was announced as a Catalyst Award winner for Institutional Advancement during Anthology Together, Anthology’s annual user conference, on July 17-19 in Nashville, Tennessee. AUB was one of 40 winners chosen from among 109 nominees from institutions in 21 countries. "This award honors institutions that have made significant changes to enhance the alumni and donor experience using Anthology solutions, which support learners and institutions with the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale," AUB said in a statement Thursday.
Through the Catalyst Awards, Anthology - a leading provider of education solutions that support the learner lifecycle - recognizes and honors innovation and excellence within its global community. Winners are recognized across nine categories and selected by a cross-functional team of Anthology experts and represent the very best in their field. The Institutional Advancement category of the Catalyst Award acknowledges institutions that have implemented noteworthy strategies to improve alumni and donor experience through the utilization of Anthology solutions. Notable examples of programs eligible to win a Catalyst Award for Institutional Advancement include the launch of effective communication strategies to strengthen alumni and donor relations, as well as the development of personalized initiatives to boost engagement and support. AUB was selected for a Catalyst Award for its use of Anthology solutions to organize and promote the AUB4Beirut Run, a global initiative that was organized for the first time in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic August 4, 2020 explosion in the Beirut port. Dr. Imad B. Baalbaki, Lina Jazi, Salma Oueida, Justin Tessier, Claudia Sarrouh, Samar Nassar, and Susanne Lane led the highly successful AUB4Beirut Run, which was supported by the university’s Offices of Advancement and Communications. “The AUB4Beirut Run engages our alumni community around the world in support of the university and the city of Beirut, Lebanon. The Anthology suite of tools has been invaluable to our efforts to promote and grow this important and impactful global initiative,” said Lina Jazi, associate vice president for AUB alumni relations in North America. Launched in September 2020 to raise urgently needed funds for the community in Beirut, the AUB Medical Center, and initiatives on the AUB campus, the AUB4Beirut Run has become an annual global event. AUB alumni and friends from around the world participate by running, walking, hiking, biking, and more, to raise funds for the university and the recovery of Beirut. “I am deeply grateful – and very proud – of my colleagues for their exceptional work on this important initiative,” said Dr. Imad Baalbaki, senior vice president for advancement and business development at AUB. “Alumni and friends in 16 countries and 33 alumni chapters participated in AUB4 Beirut Run 2022. We are expecting even greater participation in 2023.”"We’re pleased to honor this year's Catalyst Award winners for their commitment to improving the educational experience for all learners through EdTech and sharing these insights with the broader community," said Jim Milton, chairman and chief executive officer at Anthology. "We’re proud to partner with institutions who are innovating to advance student success."

APIC defends gasoline quality in Lebanon amidst social media rumors
LBCI/July 20/2023
In recent days, several media outlets and social media platforms have been circulating news suggesting doubts over the quality of gasoline available in the Lebanese market. These reports indicate that the gasoline might be causing occasional car engine malfunctions. Responding to these concerns, the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies (APIC) has firmly stated that the imported gasoline into Lebanon, supplied by reputable companies, adheres to the highest international and Lebanese quality standards. In a released statement, the association emphasized that the gasoline imported into Lebanon undergoes laboratory tests in the country of origin, conducted by independent verification companies such as Bureau Veritas, to ensure compliance with global specifications. They also reminded that imported goods cannot enter Lebanon without a certification attesting to their conformity with Lebanese standards. Furthermore, after undergoing the mentioned tests abroad, the gasoline is subject to additional national inspections at laboratories in both Sidon and Beirut under the auspices of the Lebanese government. This laboratory testing procedure applies to all imported petroleum derivatives, particularly the 95- and 98-octane gasoline, diesel, and JET A-1 aviation fuel. The APIC also highlighted that the Ministry of Energy and Water regularly takes samples from gasoline depots owned by the importing companies. Just a week ago, samples were sent to the oil facilities laboratory in Zahrani. Like previous analyses, the recent test results confirmed that the samples perfectly matched the required specifications. Urging the public not to spread unverified information that may cause unnecessary fear, the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies requested citizens facing doubts or suspicion to immediately contact the Consumer Protection Directorate at the Ministry of Economy and Trade. This official regulatory authority monitors the situation and takes appropriate measures if necessary.

US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Goldrich Engages with Miss Lebanon Yasmina Zaytoun on Food Security and Reforms
LBCI/July 20/2023
Yasmina Zaytoun, Miss Lebanon 2022, is in the US on a significant tour, meeting key figures in Washington DC, including Ethan A. Goldrich, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. The discussions aim to address pressing issues around Lebanon's food security and political landscape. In her three-day stop in the US capital, Zaytoun conducted numerous meetings with congressional representatives, state department officials, and personnel at the Lebanese embassy in Washington. During her meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary Goldrich, he underscored the US's commitment as Lebanon’s largest humanitarian donor, highlighting the urgent need for the election of a president in Lebanon and progress on key reforms. DAS Goldrich met Miss Lebanon Yasmina Zaytoun, now in the US to discuss 🇱🇧 food security. He underscored to this envoy of Lebanon’s next generation, US commitment to the Lebanese as their largest humanitarian donor, & the urgency to elect a president, & progress on reforms. pic.twitter.com/4vTAwVgIhz— U.S. State Dept - Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) July 20, 2023

Shock in Lebanon as stray dog found carrying newborn baby in trash bag
Arab News/July 20/2023
BEIRUT: A stray dog was found carrying a newborn baby girl in a trash bag through the streets of Tripoli, in Lebanon on Wednesday, sparking shock across the impoverished nation.
A passerby saw the dog carrying the bag and heard a baby’s cries. He managed to take the bag from the dog and found the child inside. The infant, who had bruises all over her body, was taken to the Islamic Charity Hospital, then transferred to the Tripoli Governmental Hospital after security services and judicial authorities were informed. The baby is believed to be only a few hours old, Arab News has learned. But it is not known exactly when she was abandoned. Her condition was described as serious but stable - the hospital declined to provide any further information.
Ghassan Rifi, a journalist in Tripoli, said he had never seen an incident as disturbing as this in the city during his career. “Usually, when someone wants to give up their kids, they place them in front of an orphanage or a police station,’ he said. “However, this baby was dumped in an area that is considered very dangerous at night, as a lot of stray dogs can be found. The municipality had previously tried to poison these dogs but animal welfare organizations refused and called for their protection.” The area in which the baby was found, said Rifi, is not residential but is close to Al-Tal neighborhood. As the story spread on social media, so too did speculation about who might have abandoned the baby.“Is it possible that whoever dumped her wanted to get rid of her by letting the dogs eat her in this area infested with stray dogs, and that she was saved by that man who happened to be there by chance?” Rifi said.
Authorities are investigating. When the girl recovers, if no one offers to adopt her she will be placed in an orphanage after the public prosecutor is informed. Abdulrahman Darwish, a representative in Tripoli of the Union of Relief and Development Associations, said that he does not believe the incident had anything to do with the Syrian refugee community in Lebanon. “Over nine years, we haven’t witnessed any incident like this in the Syrian refugee camps,” he said. “I also don’t think that what happened is the result of the dire economic situation, as everyone is suffering from the crisis but no one has ever dumped their newborn on a street full of stray dogs.”Five years ago, a newborn was abandoned at a public park in Tripoli during the summer, Darwish said. “When the baby was found, witnesses gave investigators the description of a woman who was holding a baby at the park,” he added. “It appeared that she was a prostitute and the baby was the result of an illegal relationship. She was arrested several times and whenever she was out of jail, she would resume her trade. She was forced to take care of her kid.”The discovery of the baby came just days after reports of the physical abuse of children at a daycare center in Mount Lebanon prompted anger across the country. The incident came to light after a cleaner at the facility filmed examples of the abuse and passed the videos to parents of the children. Arrest warrants were issued for the owner of the business and an employee. In another shocking incident, 6-year-old Lynn Taleb died less than two weeks ago after being raped. According to a security source, the ongoing and complex investigation has led to the arrest of the child’s grandfather and mother. According to a report published by UN Interim Force in Lebanon: “One in two children (in the country) is at risk of physical, psychological or sexual violence. “Due to family destitution, children face the risk of serious violations, including early marriage, child labor and family violence.” It also pointed out that “about 1.8 million children in Lebanon (over 80 percent of children) are now experiencing multidimensional poverty — up from about 900,000 in 2019 — and risk being forced into abuses, such as child labor or child marriage, to help their families make ends meet.”

The Syrian role in Hezbollah’s 2006 war now casts a shadow on Israel - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/July 20/2023
In 2006, Hezbollah believed it could attack Israel and not provoke a war. It had witnessed how Hamas had launched an attack that led to Gilad Schalit being captured in June 2006.
A month later, Hezbollah launched its attack. Hezbollah was emboldened by Israel leaving Lebanon in 2000 and by its belief it could operate as it wanted along the border. After Hezbollah helped assassinate former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri in February 2005, there were massive protests which caused Syria to leave Lebanon in April 2005, ending decades of Syrian occupation. A new article at pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen provides some insight on Hezbollah and Syria in this period. It has implications for today as well.
It's important to look back at this era to understand Hezbollah’s calculations. Hezbollah in recent months has begun a new round of provocations along the border. This looks a bit like how Hezbollah acted before 2006. It put a tent in the Mount Dov area and has enabled cross-border infiltration, rocket attacks, and also created protests and provocations along the fence line near Metulla and Ghajar and Mount Dov. Hezbollah did similar activity back in the era 2000 to 2006. Hezbollah viewed Syria leaving Lebanon in 2005 as perhaps giving it complete freedom of movement. It knew that any war would not have Syria as a kind of shield in Lebanon, and Syria knowing it wasn’t going to be impacted could likely give Hezbollah support.
Hezbollah miscalculated in 2006. However, that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t claimed since 2006 that it “won a victory” in 2006. Hassan Nasrallah recently boasted about this "victory." In addition, Hezbollah published a new video showing it carrying out a mock attack on a model of an Israeli military post. The message is clear. Hezbollah is preparing for war and pro-Iran media indicates it has judged that several days of fighting may occur. The recent article in Al-Mayadeen discusses “Syria in the July war.” It discusses how Syria supported the “resistance,” referring to Hezbollah. According to the article, Israel was concerned about Syria’s involvement in the 2006 war. Israel wanted to keep Syria out of the conflict, the article claims. It also claims that Hassan Nasrallah has since praised Syria’s role, claiming it helped back up the “resistance.”
The article claims “Syria protected the back of the resistance in July 2006, and secured it, which formed a strategic depth and a continuous supply line for the resistance, throughout the war, while the Israeli Air Force failed to prevent the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah and to the missile launch areas.” Today, Iran uses a corridor through Iraq to supply Hezbollah. Iran exploited the chaos in Syria after 2011 to entrench. Israel has carried out the Campaign Between the Wars to reduce that entrenchment. Hezbollah has sought to expand threats against Israel into the area of the Golan. This has included sending drones to that area in the period after the Syrian regime returned to the Golan border in 2018.
The region in 2006 was much different
Back in 2006, it’s important to recall that the region was different. Hezbollah’s arsenal was much smaller back then and the range of its missiles was much less. Hezbollah’s arsenal in the war was perhaps as small as Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket arsenal today, and Hezbollah used around 4,000 rockets in the war - mostly the 122 mm katyusha type. These have a warhead of some 30 kg and a range of 30 km. The Al-Mayadeen article claims that the goal of Israel in 2006 was to defeat Hezbollah and “end the resistance.” The article claims that the US supported this goal.
At the time, it’s important to remember the US had invaded Iraq in 2003 and in 2006 the US was facing an insurgency in Iraq. This insurgency was backed by extremists and some of those extremists were coming down the Euphrates river valley and entering Syria via Al Qaim and Anbar province. For instance, in May 2005, a member of the Green Berets was shot and killed during combat in Iraq, the Pentagon said at the time.
Sgt. 1st Class Steven M. Langmack was killed in battle in the city of Qaim. “Qaim, near the Syrian border, was the scene last month of US military operations aimed at rooting out insurgents allied to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The military said 125 insurgents were killed in Qaim,” a report at AP said. A number of other members of US elite military units were killed in fighting in the same area.
This means that Syria was helping fuel the insurgency against the US in Iraq. The article argues that the US wanted to defeat Hezbollah, Hamas and the Syrian regime and then target Iran, saying that: “Nasrallah did not separate Syria from Lebanon in the files related to the July war…Nasrallah pointed out that ‘the first result was the survival and growth of the resistance in Lebanon. Secondly, the war did not reach Syria. And thirdly, the war on Gaza in 2006 was postponed until the end of 2008.’”
This means that Iran-backed proxies saw the war in Lebanon as important for the region. The goal was to empower Hamas as well and use the Syrian regime as a kind of “depth” to the frontline in Lebanon. “Syria played a military role in supporting the resistance, which was revealed by the political assistant to the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hussein Khalil, referring to ‘the Syrian army's provision of military supplies to the resistance throughout the days of the July war,’ stressing that ‘President Bashar Assad is a key partner in the victory over Israel, his attitude will never be forgotten.’”
According to the report, the “Syrian army opened its stores and sent all kinds of weapons, and they were sent to the resistance…The Kornet missiles, which were sent from Syria, had a major role in the last days of the war, especially in the massacre of the Israeli Merkava tanks."
This report says that Kornet missiles came from Syria. It also says that Assad made a speech in August that outlined how this “victory” would help Syria be free from “threats” and that this will lead to a “transition to a map New for the region, in which it [Syria] regained its regional role.”
The article then notes that this set back US plans in Iraq for a new Middle East. “Before the July war, the United States tried to weaken Syria and penetrate it through several attempts, through its invasion of Iraq, the arrival of its forces at the Al-Qaim border crossing, and the creation of a threat at a distance from Damascus, in addition to external pressure cards.” This means the fighting in Qaim in which US special forces were killed in 2005 might be seen as a prelude to Hezbollah’s attack on Israel in 2006. Even though, ostensibly, the insurgency in Iraq was led by Sunni groups, as well as Iran; those groups were not connected; but Syria’s backing of the chaos in Iraq may now be placed alongside the 2006 war. The recent visit of Iraq’s Prime Minister to Syria could be seen in that context.
The article claims that after 2006, the US decided to overthrow the Syrian regime and it alleges that this led to the protests in 2011 and the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
“Between 2011 and 2018, that is, at the height of the fighting in Syria, the Americans and the Israelis were expressing the depth of their security predicament, and many of them were referring to the repercussions of July 2006, albeit through indirect means, so that the capabilities of the resistance doubled, in quantity and quality, and succeeded.
"Also in amending the rules of engagement with the enemy for its own benefit, and it has become a match for it in many aspects.”
In essence, Hezbollah sees 2006 as an important symbol and believes that saving the Syrian regime, with Iran’s backing, has enabled a new paradigm in the region. Now that the regime is secure and back in the Arab League, Hezbollah feels emboldened.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 20-21/2023
Ottawa's new round of sanctions on Russians includes celebrities, Wagner Group heads
OTTAWA /The Canadian Press/Thu, July 20, 2023
Canada is sanctioning more Russians whom Ottawa accuses of supporting Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and mercenary violence in Africa. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has announced new sanctions against 38 individuals and 25 entities. The list has a focus on the paramilitary Wagner Group, which has sent combatants to Ukraine and across Africa. The sanctions also target Russia's nuclear, drone and cultural industries, in response to that country's attacks on Ukraine's nuclear and cultural sites. The people sanctioned, which include actors and singers, cannot have business dealings with Canadians or travel to Canada. The Conservatives have called on Ottawa to list the Wagner Group as a terrorist organization, but bureaucrats testified in June that doing so might make it harder to prosecute Russia for war crimes.

Israeli army open fire killing Palestinian man in clashes at West Bank shrine
AP/July 20, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near a shrine in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest bloodshed in a cycle of violence that has gripped the region. The months of fighting with rising fatalities have shown no signs of abating and has become the worst violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades. Thursday’s shooting took place as Israeli forces escorted Israeli worshippers, including the Israeli police chief and the head of the local Jewish settler council, to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus. The shrine has long been a flashpoint for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Nablus has also become a central point of violence in the current escalation. The Israeli military said that during the visit, suspects opened fire and threw explosives, rocks and burning tires at troops, who returned fire. Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the man killed by Israeli fire as 19-year-old Badr Al-Masri. It reported that three others were treated for wounds. Fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank intensified early last year when Israel launched near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas in the West Bank in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis. The violence has spiked this year, with more than 150 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Israeli says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed. At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time. Israel says its almost-nightly raids raids across the West Bank are essential to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see the violence as a natural response to 56 years of occupation, including stepped-up settlement construction by Israel’s government and increased violence by Jewish settlers. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Israel MPs prepare divisive bill for final votes amid protests
Agence France Presse/July 20/2023
An Israeli parliamentary committee has adopted a key clause of the hard-right government's controversial judicial reforms, a statement said Thursday, as protests intensified ahead of final votes on the bill. Parliament's law committee approved the proposal, which would limit the "reasonability" clause that allows the judiciary to strike down government decisions, in a marathon debate that ended late on Wednesday. After the panel's endorsement, "with nine Knesset members supporting and seven opposing" according to a statement from parliament, the bill is due for second and third readings on Monday. If approved next week by the full parliament, it would be the first major component of the government's proposed legal overhaul to become law. Opponents of the government's reforms, unveiled in January shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power, view them as a threat to Israeli democracy. Protesters have kept up pressure on the government with a months-long wave of demonstrations. On Thursday morning, demonstrators gathered outside government offices in northern port city of Haifa, organisers said, as hundreds were marching from Tel Aviv to the seat of parliament in Jerusalem. The judicial reforms have split the nation and sparked one of the biggest protest movements in Israel's history, with weekly demonstrations often drawing tens of thousands. Other proposals include giving the government a greater say in the appointment of judges. The reform package has also drawn international criticism, including from Israel's close ally the United States. The government, which includes Netanyahu's extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, argues that the changes are necessary to ensure a better balance of power.Some critics of Netanyahu, who is fighting corruption charges in court, have argued he was seeking to undermine a judicial system he has accused of targeting him unfairly for political reasons.

UN rights chief asked to help halt looming Iran execution
Agence France Presse/July 20/2023
Dozens of rights experts and NGOs have asked the U.N. rights chief to intervene urgently to prevent the execution of an Iranian boxing champion sentenced over his role in 2019 protests. The appeal came after Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani on Wednesday saw his execution verdict confirmed to him before he was taken to a secluded section of the Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashhad where he is being held, according to the letter sent to Volker Turk overnight. "We request your urgent public intervention to save the life of Iranian political prisoner (Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani)," said the letter, which was signed by 85 international rights advocates and groups. A former head of the International Criminal Court, 19 current and former UN officials, former government ministers and seven Nobel laureates were among the signatories to the letter, seen by AFP. The 27-year-old local Mashhad boxing champion was arrested in early 2020 for taking part in anti-government protests the previous November, sparked by a sudden fuel price rise. He was sentenced to death in January 2022 after being convicted of arson and destruction of government buildings, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said at the time.
The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the People's Mujahedin (MEK) opposition group -- both outlawed in Iran -- has said the charges against him included supporting the MEK. The letter to Turk maintained that Vafaei-Sani had been tortured for several months prior to his death sentence for "corruption on Earth." Iran executes more people annually than any nation other than China, according to rights groups including London-based Amnesty International. The pace of the executions has been relatively rapid in 2023, with IHR recently reporting nearly 370 executions since the start of the year. Iran has drawn particular criticism for the growing number of executions in connection with the massive demonstrations following the death in custody last September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic Sharia law. A U.N. fact-finding mission said earlier this month that Iran had executed seven men in connection with the Amini protests, calling on Tehran to stop the "chilling" practice. "These political executions are a callous attempt by the authorities to frighten and silence an increasingly restive population no longer willing to accept their corrupt and oppressive rule," the letter to Turk said. "We ask that you make an urgent public call for the Iranian authorities to halt (Vafaei-Sani's) imminent execution sentence." The U.N. rights office confirmed that it had received the letter. "We have received information on this case and are following up on it and gathering additional information," a spokesman told AFP, without providing further details.

Iran warns against unloading Iranian oil from seized tanker
DUBAI (Reuters)/July 20, 2023
Iran would retaliate against any oil company unloading Iranian oil from a seized tanker, a senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' navy said on Thursday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. In April, the U.S. confiscated Iranian oil on a tanker at sea in a sanctions enforcement operation, three sources told Reuters. The tanker was anchored outside the port of Houston, according to ship tracking data on Thursday. State media cited the Guards' navy commander Alireza Tangsiri as saying that Tehran would hold Washington responsible for allowing the unloading of the tanker's content, without giving further details. Sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, had said Washington took control of the oil cargo aboard the Marshall Islands tanker Suez Rajan after securing an earlier court order. On Monday, the U.S. announced it would send additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, in a bid to monitor key waterways in the region following Iran's seizure and harassment of commercial shipping vessels in recent months. A maritime security firm said Iran had seized a tanker days later in relation after the incident in April.

Video appears to show Wagner's Prigozhin for first time since short-lived mutiny
Associated Press/July 20, 2023
A video released Wednesday appears to show Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for the first time since he led a short-lived rebellion last month, and he is seen telling his troops they will spend some time in Belarus training its military before deploying to Africa. Messaging app channels linked to Prigozhin's Wagner private military company said he spoke at a field camp in Belarus and ran a blurry video purported to show him there, his silhouette seen against the sky at dusk. His gravelly voice was clearly distinguishable. "Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all. Welcome to the Belarusian land!" the video showed him saying. "We fought with dignity! We have done a lot for Russia." Prigozhin's mutiny, which posed the most serious threat to President Vladimir Putin's 23-year rule, was billed by the mercenary chief as being aimed at ousting Russia's top military leaders whom he accused of incompetence. Prigozhin's criticism of the conduct of the fighting in Ukraine was repeated in the new video, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified."What is going on the front line today is a shame in which we shouldn't take part," he said, adding that Wagner forces could return to Ukraine in the future. "We may return to the special military operation when we feel sure that we will not be forced to put shame on ourselves," Prigozhin said, using the same term that the Kremlin calls the fighting in Ukraine.
"We need to wait for the moment when we can show ourselves in full," he said. "That is why a decision has been made that we would spend some time here in Belarus. During that time, we will make the Belarusian army the second strongest army in the world. We will train, raise our level and set off for a new journey to Africa."
In addition to their involvement in Ukraine, Wagner mercenaries have been sent to Syria and several African countries since the private army was created in 2014. Under the deal that was brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin agreed to end his rebellion in exchange for an amnesty for him and his fighters and a permission to relocate to Belarus. Before moving to Belarus, Wagner handed over its weapons to the Russian military, part of efforts by Russian authorities to defuse the threat posed by the mercenaries. Until the video was posted Wednesday, Prigozhin had released only a couple of audio messages after the mutiny — contrasting with an almost-daily barrage of blustery statements before the June 23-24 events. Some saw that as a sign the deal obliged him to cut his rhetoric and stay away from politics. Starting last week, several Wagner convoys flying Russian flags and Wagner insignias have been seen rolling into Belarus, heading toward a field camp that Belarusian authorities had offered to the company. Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press showed a convoy of vehicles at the base near Tsel in the Asipovichy region of Belarus, about 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) southeast of Minsk. The photos taken Monday showed a long line of vehicles coming off a highway. Belaruski Hajun, an activist group that monitors troops movements in Belarus, said several convoys with Wagner fighters have entered the country since last week, including at least 170 vehicles on Tuesday. It estimated that about 2,500 Wagner mercenaries are now in Belarus.
On Monday, a messaging app channel linked to the contractor ran a video showing Russian and Wagner flags lowered at the mercenaries' main home base in Molkino in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. The channel said that the base would close on July 30, and one of the mercenaries in the video declared that Wagner was moving to unspecified new locations. Wagner also has used camps in the Russia-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine. Prigozhin presented the flag to cheering mercenaries in the video posted Wednesday.
Prigozhin said Belarusians met them "not only like heroes, but like brothers" and added to their laughter that "local girls are whispering full of desire that Wagner troops have come. Be accurate not to offend any of them, let's treat them in a brotherly way." Lukashenko has said that his country's military could benefit from the mercenaries' combat experience and rejected claims that their presence could destabilize the ex-Soviet nation. Last week, Belarusian state TV broadcast video of Wagner instructors training Belarus' territorial defense forces. In his revolt that began on June 23 and lasted less than 24 hours, Prigozhin's mercenaries swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot, before moving as close as 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow. The mutiny faced little resistance and the mercenaries downed at least six military helicopters and a command post aircraft, killing at least 10 airmen. Prigozhin had called it a "march of justice" to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who demanded that Wagner forces sign contracts with the Defense Ministry. He ordered his troops back to their camps after striking the deal to end the rebellion, the terms of which have remained murky. Putin has declared that Wagner troops had a choice between signing contracts with the Defense Ministry, moving to Belarus or retiring from service. He said last week that he met with Prigozhin and 34 Wagner officers on June 29 and offered them the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their same commander.

Wagner mercenaries train Belarus special forces near Polish border
Reuters/July 20, 2023
MOSCOW: Mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group have started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the border with NATO-member Poland, the Belarusian defense ministry said on Thursday. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army. “The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner PMC (Private Military Company),” the Belarusian defense ministry said. “During the week, special operations forces units together with representatives of the Company will work out combat training tasks at the Brest military range.”The range is just 3 miles (5 km) east of the Polish border. Minsk posted pictures of masked Wagner instructors, their faces covered in accordance with the mercenary group’s rules, training Belarusian soldiers with armored vehicles and what appear to be drone controls. Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which has been a full member of the US-led military alliance since 1999, said it was prepared for various scenarios and was monitoring the situation at the border with Belarus. “Poland’s borders are secure, we are monitoring the situation on our eastern border on an ongoing basis and we are prepared for various scenarios as the situation develops,” the Polish defense ministry said.Wagner’s failed June 23-24 mutiny has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule that illustrates the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state. The Kremlin rejects that interpretation and says the Russian people have rallied around Putin and the military.
Mercenary plans
A deal was struck on June 24 under which the mercenaries would move to Belarus in return for charges against them being dropped. Putin said the fighters could either leave for Belarus, come under the command of the defense ministry or go back to their families. Wagner has lost 22,000 of its men in the Ukraine war while 40,000 have been wounded and up to 10,000 fighters will end up in Belarus, according to a post by a senior commander which was republished by Wagner’s Telegram channel. Reuters could not confirm what looks like the most detailed breakdown of Wagner numbers for several months. But if accurate they give an insight into the extent of the losses both sides are suffering in the Ukraine war — and of the continued strength of one of the world’s most battle-hardened mercenary forces. The senior commander known by his nom de guerre “Marx,” Wagner’s chief of staff, said in the post that a total of 78,000 Wagner men had participated in what he cast as “the Ukrainian business trip,” 49,000 of them prisoners. Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought Daesh militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with considerable losses on both sides. “Up to 10 thousand fighters have gone or will go to Belarus,” he said. “About 15 thousand have gone on holiday.” The post contradicted remarks by a Russian lawmaker who said that as many as 33,000 Wagner fighters had signed contracts with the defense ministry. “If all the dead and those who went on holiday signed up then I suppose it is possible,” Marx said.

EU takes a stand: Sanctions imposed on Russian officials for human rights violations
LBCI/July 20, 2023
The European Union announced on Thursday that it has imposed sanctions on 12 individuals in Russia, including the prison director where opposition figure Alexei Navalny is being held, in addition to five entities, for their responsibility in "serious human rights violations."The European Union Council stated in a statement that the mentioned sanctions "target those who have arbitrarily used facial recognition technologies to carry out mass arbitrary arrests in Russia, as well as politically motivated decisions against figures in the opposition, activists for democracy, and fierce Kremlin critics."

At least 21 injured in third night of Russian air attacks against southern Ukraine
Associated Press/July 20, 2023
A third night of Russian air attacks targeted Ukraine's southern cities, including the port city of Odesa, and wounded at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. At least 19 people were injured in Mykolaiv, a southern city close to the Black Sea, the region's Governor Vitalii Kim said in a statement on Telegram. Russian strikes destroyed several floors of a three-story building and caused a fire that affected an area of 450 square meters (4,800 square feet) and burned for hours. Kim said two people were hospitalized, including a child. In the port city of Odesa, at least two were injured following a Russian air attack that damaged buildings in the city center and caused a fire affecting an area of 300 square meters (3200 square feet), said Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper. The attacks come one day after an intense Russian bombardment using drones and missiles damaged critical port infrastructure in Odesa, including grain and oil terminals. The attack destroyed at least 60,000 tons of grain. Russia's attacks on southern Ukraine have become more intense this week, after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain to countries facing the threat of hunger. In the Russian-annexed territory of Crimea, "an enemy drone" attacked a settlement in the peninsula's northwest, damaging several administrative buildings and killing a teenage girl, the region's Moscow-appointed governor Sergei Aksyonov reported Thursday.

Iraq expels Swedish ambassador over Quran burning protest
Associated Press/July 20, 2023
Iraq's prime minister ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d'affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm. The diplomatic blowup came hours after protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire. The Swedish Embassy announced it had closed to visitors. Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani said that Iraqi authorities will prosecute the arsonists as well, referring "negligent security officials" for investigation. The man kicked and stood on the Quran during his protest at the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm as Swedish police stood by.

Egyptian researcher leaves prison after pardon
Agence France Presse/July 20, 2023
Egyptian researcher Patrick Zaki on Thursday walked out of prison, his family said, a day after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi granted him a pardon in the wake of an international outcry. Zaki's three-year prison sentence on Tuesday for "spreading false news" had prompted some participants to walk out of a government dialogue aimed at giving the opposition a voice. "Patrick is free," his sister, Marise George, said Thursday on Facebook alongside an image of the 32-year-old outside the Mansoura prison, some 110 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital Cairo. He was jailed over a 2019 article recounting the discrimination he and other members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority say they have suffered. Sisi on Wednesday granted presidential pardons to Zaki and five others -- three men and two women.They include Mohamed al-Baqer, the lawyer for Alaa Abdel Fattah, Egypt's best known political prisoner, according to the decree published on the official gazette. Baqer's relatives on Thursday said they were still waiting for his release from a prison in Cairo.Zaki was studying at Bologna University in Italy until his arrest in 2020 while on a visit to Egypt. Rights defenders have said Zaki was beaten and electrocuted during his detention. Thousands in Italy signed petitions calling for Zaki's release, and the country's senate voted in 2021 in favor of granting him Italian citizenship. Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who speaks regularly with Sisi, in a video message on Wednesday welcomed the news of Zaki's impending release and said "he will be back tomorrow in Italy."

Syrian refugees in Jordan fear being forced to return
Associated Press/July 20/2023
As Jordan hosted regional talks this spring aimed at ending Syria's isolation after more than a decade of civil war, Syrian refugee Suzanne Dabdoob felt a deep pressure in her brain and in her ears, she said, a fear she hadn't felt since arriving to Jordan 10 years ago.Ahead of the meeting, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed that 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan would be allowed to safely return home — a test case for the repatriation of far greater numbers. Jordan's top diplomat spoke only of voluntary returns. But panic spread through working-class east Amman, where Dabdoob and many other Syrians have built new lives in multistory, cement-block buildings."I would rather die right here than go back to Syria," said Dabdoob, 37, whose home was razed by airstrikes in the Syrian city of Homs. She fled to Amman with her five children, her accountant husband, who dodged military service, and her sister, who she said is wanted for abandoning her civil service job. "We are scared that, even indirectly, the Jordanian government will pressure us to leave," she said. As Middle East countries strained by vast numbers of refugees restore relations with Assad, many Syrians who fled are now terrified by the prospect of returning to a country shattered by war and controlled by the same authoritarian leader who brutally crushed the 2011 rebellion. Even as public hostility and economic misery in neighboring countries has squeezed Syrian refugees, few are clamoring to return. The number of registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon has remained roughly the same for the last seven years, according to U.N. figures. Hoping to speed up their exodus, Lebanon and Turkey have deported hundreds of Syrians since April in what rights groups consider a violation of international law.
Now Jordan, a close American ally generally praised for its acceptance of millions of Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees, is also changing.
The "Jordan Initiative" unveiled in May to encourage cooperation with Assad on refugee returns and illicit drug trafficking capped the country's painful transformation, advocates say, from one of the world's most accommodating hosts to one of its biggest proponents for sending refugees home. "Jordan long has said that refugees are welcome. But now the official rhetoric has moved toward supporting their return," said Adam Coogle, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "It's a cause for significant concern."
Human rights groups say it's still too unsafe for refugees to return to Syria given the risks of arbitrary detention, disappearance and extrajudicial killings there. Even the most fortunate returnees encounter bread lines, a currency collapse and electricity shortages after a dozen years of a conflict that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its pre-war population of 23 million.
"My family tells me there is no more war, sure, but there is also nothing left," said Mohammed, a 34-year-old carpenter who fled Syria in 2013 and opened a hand-carved wooden furniture shop in Amman identical to his father's workshop in Damascus. Giving only his first name for security reasons, Mohammed said he hoped never to return, citing stories of Syrian security forces arresting returnees to squeeze thousands of dollars in bribes out of their families. His two daughters, 4 and 10, know no other home. "Here, I know what it's like to live with dignity," he said.
With its reputation as a humanitarian hub — an oasis of relative stability in a volatile Middle East — the kingdom currently hosts an estimated 1.3 million of the 5.2 million Syrian refugees spread across the region, according to government figures. While Jordanian security forces have not ramped up deportation raids in recent months, the government has expelled tens of thousands of Syrians over the years, mostly for alleged crimes or for failing to register with the authorities. As soaring unemployment and inflation stokes anti-refugee feeling among Jordanians and the government speaks more openly about returns, that history now alarms the country's Syrian refugees. "Almost all of us know someone who was kicked out for a reason we don't understand," said Dadoob, whose friend, she said, was shot and killed by government forces in the southern Syrian city of Daraa after being deported in 2016. Jordanian security forces accused him, and many others, of communication with extremist and opposition groups in Syria, according to rights groups.
"With the overreach of security services in Jordan and in the region, there's a lot of distrust now," said Samer Kurdi from the Collateral Repair Project, which provides aid to refugees in Amman. "The re-embracing of Assad doesn't make sense to Syrians here."Since Assad attended his first annual Arab League summit in 13 years this spring, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has described his country's hopes for refugee returns as an inevitable result of Assad's rehabilitation. For Jordan, a large displaced population lingering in the country for generations raises the sobering prospect of the country's 2.2 million Palestinians.
The experience of those refugees, whose families fled or were pushed out during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, has taught Jordan that the longer refugees stay, the less likely they are to return, said Hassan Momani, professor of international relations at University of Jordan. "There's this fear in Jordan's collective memory," he said. Jordan's foreign and information ministries declined to comment on the issue of Syrian refugee returns, pointing only to recent public statements. "We are way above our capacity. We ring the alarm," Safadi told a conference on Syria in Brussels last month.
Earlier this month, he visited Damascus and held talks with Assad. "What we are sure of is that refugees' futures lie in their country," he said. Few Syrians who fled the war for Jordan appear to agree. Just a small number of Syrian refugees in Jordan are voluntarily returning home: 4,013 people in 2022, down from 5,800 in 2021, according to United Nations figures. A U.N. refugee agency survey of some 3,000 Syrian refugees across the region in February found that just 1.1% of refugees intend to return to Syria in the next year even as most say they harbor hope to return one day. Among respondents in Jordan, just 0.8% said they intended to return in the coming year. "This is an important indication that right now, today, conditions are not conducive for returns," said Dominik Bartsch, the UNHCR representative to Jordan. Even as the Jordanian government insists that all refugee returns will be optional, the line between voluntary and forced return can be blurry. After 2016, when Jordan shut its border with Syria following a cross-border suicide attack, authorities refused to let Syrians who had left briefly enter back into Jordan. In other cases, refugees were deported for alleged work violations, and then their relatives who followed them to Syria because of their loss of income were registered as voluntary returnees. "What we see now, 12 years on, is that most of the Syrians in Jordan who really want to return are elderly," said Kurdi, the local advocate. "They return to die."

North Korea not responding to US over American soldier who ran across border
Associated Press/July 20/2023
North Korea wasn't responding Thursday to U.S. attempts to discuss the American soldier who bolted across the heavily armed border and whose prospects for a quick release are unclear at a time of high military tensions and inactive communication channels. Pvt. Travis King, who was supposed to have been heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, after finishing a prison sentence in South Korea for assault, ran into North Korea while on a civilian tour of the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday. He is the first known American held in North Korea in nearly five years.
"Yesterday the Pentagon reached out to counterparts in the (North) Korean People's Army. My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered," Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Wednesday in Washington. Miller said the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department are working together to gather information about King's well-being and whereabouts. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. government will continue to work to ensure his safety and his return to his family.
The motive for King's border crossing is unknown. A witness on the same civilian tour said she initially thought his dash was some kind of stunt until she heard an American soldier on patrol shouting for others to try to stop him. But King had crossed the border in a matter of seconds. King, 23, was serving in South Korea as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division. He could be discharged from the military and face other potential penalties after being convicted of crimes in South Korea. In February, a Seoul court fined him 5 million won ($3,950) by convicting him of assaulting an unidentified person and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul last October, according to a transcript of the verdict obtained by The Associated Press. The ruling said King had also been accused of punching a man at a Seoul nightclub, though the court dismissed that charge because the victim didn't want King to be punished. It wasn't clear how King spent the hours from leaving the airport Monday until joining the Panmunjom tour Tuesday. The Army realized he was missing when he did not get off the flight in Texas as expected.
North Korea has previously held a number of Americans who were arrested for anti-state, espionage and other charges. But no other Americans were known to be detained since North Korea expelled American Bruce Byron Lowrance in 2018. During the Cold War, a small number of U.S. soldiers who fled to North Korea later appeared North Korean propaganda films. "North Korea is not going to 'catch and release' a border-crosser because of its strict domestic laws and desire to deter outsiders from breaking them. However, the Kim regime has little incentive to hold an American citizen very long, as doing so can entail liabilities," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "For Pyongyang, it makes sense to find a way of extracting some compensation and then expel an American for unauthorized entry into the country before an isolated incident escalates in ways that risk North Korean diplomatic and financial interests," he said. "In the best-case scenario, the American soldier will return home safely at the cost of some propaganda victory for Pyongyang, and U.S and North Korean officials will have an opportunity to resume dialogue and contacts that went stagnant during the pandemic." Other experts say North Korea won't likely easily return King as he is a soldier who apparently voluntarily fled to North Korea, though many previous U.S. civilian detainees were released after the United States sent high-profile missions to Pyongyang to secure their freedom.
The U.S. and North Korea, who fought during the 1950-53 Korean War, still have no diplomatic ties. Sweden provided consular services for Americans in past cases, but Swedish diplomatic staff reportedly haven't returned since North Korea ordered foreigners to leave the country at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "What I will say is that we here at the State Department have engaged with counterparts in South Korea and with Sweden on this issue, including here in Washington," Miller said.
Jeon Ha-kyu, a spokesperson of South Korea's Defense Ministry, said Thursday his ministry is sharing related information with the American-led U.N. Command in South Korea, without elaborating. Currently, there are no known, active dialogues between North Korea and the U.S. or South Korea. King's case happened as North Korea has been stepping up its criticism of the United States over its recent moves to bolster its security commitment to South Korea. Earlier this week, the U.S. deployed a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the first time in four decades. North Korea later test-fired two missiles with the potential range to strike the South Korean port whether the U.S.. submarine docked. King's family members said the soldier may have felt overwhelmed by his legal troubles and possible discharge from the military. They described him as a quiet loner who did not drink or smoke and enjoyed reading the Bible. "I can't see him doing that intentionally if he was in his right mind," King's maternal grandfather, Carl Gates, told The Associated Press from his Kenosha, Wisconsin, home. "Travis is a good guy. He wouldn't do nothing to hurt nobody. And I can't see him trying to hurt himself." Carl Gates said his grandson joined the military three years ago out of a desire to serve his country and because he "wanted to do better for himself." King's mother, Claudine Gates, told reporters outside her Racine, Wisconsin, home that all she cares about is bringing her son home. "I just want my son back," she said in video posted by Milwaukee television station WISN. "Get my son home." King's grandfather called on his country to help rescue his grandson.

South Africa: 22 countries have requested to join the BRICS group
LBCI/July 20/2023
South Africa announced on Thursday that 22 countries from around the world have applied for membership in the BRICS group, while other countries have also shown interest in joining. South Africa currently heads the BRICS group (South Africa, Brazil, China, India, and Russia) and will host the 15th summit of these emerging nations from the 22nd to the 24th of August. BRICS has previously indicated its openness to expansion.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 20-21/2023
Spanish election a barometer of the future of tolerance in Europe
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/July 20/2023
Amid the suffocating heat hitting Europe this summer, the far right in Spain might this weekend be on course to further suffocate the outlook for the future of democracy and liberalism both within the country and across the continent. With a general election taking place on Sunday, a far-right success might add more empty rhetoric, discriminatory discourses, xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia, whose manifestations one hopes will not recall the country’s fascist past, which would erode minorities’ rights in an increasingly multicultural Spain.
It is widely expected that a right-wing victory in the country’s snap election would pave the way for more conservative parties to dominate across the EU. The election was called by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after the left was routed in the May 28 local elections (as leftist voters stayed away, it is believed) and the result could see the extreme right take a share of power for the first time since the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco ended in 1975.
Recent polls indicate that PM Sanchez’s bet on a snap election might backfire, as the numbers indicate a likely government coalition of the right-wing People’s Party and the far-right Vox, with its anti-immigration and anti-feminist agenda. Above all, that will mean the further progress of the far right as a force to be reckoned with on the political stage across Europe, which the traditional right and left have failed to contain.
For Sanchez, who has been in power since 2018 at the head of a left-wing coalition, the stakes are high. His position is under threat despite his economic record, with 5.5 percent growth in the country last year and Spain being the first major EU economy where inflation has fallen below 2 percent since the onset of the crisis caused by the Ukraine war, the rising cost of living and the effects of the pandemic years.
The problem of most Western societies and their lurch to the right is due to a series of misconceptions and the malicious weaponization of various factors. These include fears for the fatherland, the over-magnified talk of change in countries’ demographic fabric due to the continuous waves of migrants reaching their shores, talk of poorer economic performance, and a perceived failure among many older people that the central government has lost control due to the somewhat weaker rule of law.
Look around Europe nowadays and you see far-right parties on the rise everywhere, led by so-called patriotic nationalists, religious ultraconservatives, populists and nostalgists bordering on white supremacists. They tend to reminisce about the old isolationist, pre-globalized world, in which societies were largely homogenous (for most European countries, this meant white Christian), and are imbued with neo-fascist roots of different flavors.
Something has happened to cause the breaking of old taboos that date back to the fall of Nazism and fascism in Europe, as increasingly mainstream parties have been showing a readiness to bring those once-marginal forces back into national politics.
The numbers indicate a likely government coalition of the right-wing People’s Party and the far-right Vox.
Since the turn of the century, things have started to change. In 2000, the center-right in Austria agreed to jump into a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party. Today, Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy, is run by a prime minister with neo-fascist roots. Far-right nationalists are also part of the coalition government in Finland. The Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism party, is the second-largest party in parliament and is propping up the coalition government. And the matter is no different in Greece, where three far-right parties have entered parliament in recent elections. Then there is the UK’s Brexit, conceived by a far-right-leaning tribe of the ruling Conservative Party that campaigned to “take back control” and stem the immigration flow from Europe and beyond.
Many have been wondering if this lurch to the right in Europe is a mere vote of no-confidence in the political system and the political establishment — as you often hear far-right politicians calling it — or the result of conservatives complaining that liberalism has strayed too far, as echoed by ultraconservative Republicans’ in the US.
All that is maybe part of why a larger number of people are voting for the right, but it is also because people nowadays are increasingly attracted by the outspoken members of far-right parties — who often sell empty rhetoric that is difficult to implement once in government. This is in addition to most electorates being at the mercy of often malicious digital campaigns, which mislead them to consider black and white options, when the real answers to the problems of our increasingly volatile societies and world lie in a gray area.
Politicians are often not able to allay all fears about the future or remedy the fears resulting from the open borders in Europe, which have sparked questions of identity. This is especially the case as a result of the surge in migration witnessed over the past two decades, accompanied by poor government integration policies that have exposed schisms in the social fabrics of societies, particularly in urban centers, such as seen in France recently. Not to forget, of course, the economic issues and the wrongly conceived belief that globalization has jeopardized the livelihoods of many and has destroyed their pensions and future.
In Spain, Sanchez is still hoping to be able to form a new leftist coalition by mobilizing the undecided. The timing of the election, however, at the height of summer and in the middle of a heat wave, does not bode well for the prime minister and his wishes to keep the far right out of government. Millions are already on holiday and Sanchez must hope that they remembered to vote by post prior to their departure.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist, media consultant and trainer with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.

Renewing NATO/Peace requires deterrence which requires military might
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times
The leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gathered in the capital of Lithuania last week where they declared their commitment to “individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.” That strikes me as a useful reminder of the core values of free peoples at a time when many international organizations dance to the tunes of dictators and despots.
Ukraine was not admitted to NATO at the Vilnius Summit. Nor was it given a firm timeline for accession. That decision would require the unanimous consent of all 31 existing members.
But neither is NATO backing off its commitment to give Ukrainians the means to defend themselves, their homes, and their independence from a brutal imperialist invader. And the final communique added: “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed disappointment, but he understood. When Ukraine does join NATO, he promised, “Ukraine will make the alliance stronger.” Can anyone still doubt that?
Which leads me to think about Finland which became NATO’s newest member in April. Finland’s armed forces are well-trained and adequately financed. No less important: Finns have a unique perspective on Russian aggression.
For centuries, Finland was under Swedish rule. In 1808-09, however, a war between Russia and Sweden ended with Finland becoming a Russian possession.
After Imperial Russia fell in 1917, Finland declared its independence. But the Soviet Union, while marketing itself as anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist, was determined to reclaim the lands the czars had ruled. In the Caucuses and Central Asia, the new Communist empire succeeded.
In August 1939, Communist Russia and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, pledging not to attack one another and secretly dividing up the lands between them.
On November 30 of that year, Soviet forces invaded Finland. Stalin thought conquering his neighbor would be a cakewalk. Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev noted in his memoirs: “All we had to do was raise our voice a little bit and the Finns would obey. If that didn’t work, we could fire one shot and the Finns would put up their hands and surrender. Or so we thought.”
In the event – a 105-day conflict that became known as the Winter War – the Finns fought furiously and courageously against ill-equipped and badly prepared Soviet troops. Cloaked in white, the Finns skied silently through snow-covered forests, tossing Molotov cocktails into Soviet tanks, and sniping from hideouts in the frozen whiteness.
“We soon realized we had bitten off more than we could chew,” Khrushchev recalled. As many as 270,000 Russian troops are believed to have been killed.
In June 1941, Germany reneged on the nonaggression pact and invaded Russia. From then until 1944 – understandably but not admirably – the Finns fought with the Germans against Russia in what is called the Continuation War or the Second Soviet-Finnish War.
Germany’s defeat was also Finland’s defeat. In September of 1944, Finland signed an armistice with Stalin who, after the Nazi invasion of his country, had allied with America and Britain.
The Finns agreed to drive German troops from their territory, pay war reparations, legalize the Communist Party in Finland, and ban political parties the Kremlin regarded as anti-Soviet. They also ceded more than 10 percent of their land to the Russians.
Finland did not become a “constituent republic” of the Soviet Union as did Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Neither did it become a Soviet satellite as did Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. But, during the Cold War, it was not fully independent.
Officially, based on a 1948 “friendship agreement” with Moscow, it was neutral. Unofficially, “Finlandization” became the word applied to any nation that limits its sovereignty to placate a foreign bully.
In 1995, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland joined the European Union. But it remained militarily non-aligned until – shocked by Mr. Putin’s unprovoked war against a neighbor – it saw the logic of joining the world’s most powerful defensive alliance.
Russia’s borders with NATO countries are now twice as long as they were – 830 miles with Finland alone. With the coming accession to NATO of Sweden – a neutral nation for two centuries but one that is militarily and technologically quite capable – the Baltic Sea will become a NATO lake. Kaliningrad, where Russia’s Baltic Fleet is headquartered, will face Alliance nations to its north, south, west, and east.
NATO is being renewed. Mr. Putin deserves the bulk of the credit. But his war against Ukraine is not over. Will it end as did the Winter War – with some territory lost but independence retained, followed by a formal alliance with the West? We don’t know.
Nor do we know the outcome of the wider and colder war being waged against America and America’s allies by Mr. Putin in tandem with Iranian Islamists and led by Chinese Communists – an axis of tyrannies. The Vilnius Communique rightly noted that Beijing’s “ambitions and coercive policies challenge” NATO members’ “interests, security and values.”
Russia’s war on Ukraine at least should reinforce this ground truth: Peace requires deterrence, and deterrence requires military strength clearly superior to that of any adversary or combination of adversaries. George Washington understood this paradox. He told Congress in 1790: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
Is the U.S. doing – and spending – what is necessary to achieve that? No. And of course, too many NATO members still are not contributing adequately to the collective security.
Alliances are tough to maintain. But accomplishing that mission is necessary – if the U.S. is to lead a growing and strengthening free world. The alternative: The U.S. sits on its hands and watches the free world shrink and weaken. Which future do you want for your grandchildren?
*Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. Follow him on Twitter @CliffordDMay. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Palestinians' Summer Camps To Kill Jews
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./July 20, 2023
For more than a decade, the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups have been holding summer camps for thousands of schoolchildren throughout the Gaza Strip. These camps have served as a framework for inculcating an extreme ideology that glorifies Jihad (holy war), terrorism, and armed struggle against Israel with the aim of "liberating Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea."
The camps also provide military training, such as practice with knives and firearms; hand-to-hand combat, and marching and foot drills. The children also stage plays and enact scenes of fighting and capturing Israeli soldiers or firing rockets at Israel.
On July 8, Hamas launched its summer camps for 2023, with the participation of more than 100,000 boys and girls.... The children are being trained to carry out terror attacks and serve as human shields in the Jihad against Israel.
In June 2022, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denied any trace of Jewish history in Jerusalem...
When Hamas talks about "liberation," it is expressing its desire to eliminate Israel, as explicitly stated in the charter of the group:
"Article 11: The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it."
"Article 13: [Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion...."
The summer camp director in Rafah, Muhammad Barhoum, said that the camps are part of Hamas' activities that focus on the [younger] generation "due to its importance as "the generation of liberation and victory." — MEMRI, July 17, 2023
As in previous years, the summer camps focus on familiarizing the youngsters with various weapons, including the AK-47, sniper guns, RPG launchers, mortars and machine guns. The campers practice assembling and disassembling the weapons, holding them and using them, and also train in urban warfare and tunnel warfare.... Terrorists who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis are presented to the campers as role models, and their portraits feature in the camps and in camp activities. — MEMRI, July 17, 2023.
The spokesperson for the Hamas summer camps, Abu Bilal, said that... "the young people have [always] been the ones to carry out armed operations, and were the fuel of the intifadas and uprisings." — MEMRI, June 28, 2021.
This sweeping child abuse by Palestinians is ignored by the Western media, the United Nations and most politicians. The next time Palestinians complain about minors being killed or injured while carrying out terror attacks against Israelis, it would be worthwhile recalling the scenes of children in the summer camps of the Gaza Strip, where the process to transform them into combatants begins.
It is time for the international community, and above all human rights organizations, to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for the child abuse inherent in training their children to become "martyrs," in the Jihad to kill Jews, and in trying to destroy the region's only democratic nation.
This summer, more than 100,000 Palestinian children in Gaza will attend summer camps run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The camps teach the children how to fight Israel and Jews, and provide military training with knives and firearms, hand-to-hand combat, and marching and foot drills. Pictured: Masked gunmen from Hamas' Izaddin al-Qassam Brigades register children for their summer camp, on June 14, 2021, in Gaza City. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
While schoolchildren around the world are enjoying the summer vacation through sports and entertainment, Palestinian children are being taught and trained how to fight Israel and Jews.
The indoctrination and brainwashing of Palestinian children is not new. Palestinian leaders have been raising generation after generation on hatred for Israel and Jews. This incitement has been taking place in Palestinian kindergartens, schools, universities, mosques, the media and even crossword puzzles, for decades. That is why public opinion polls continue to show, unsurprisingly, that Palestinians endorse radical views and support terrorism against Israel.
For more than a decade, the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups have been holding summer camps for thousands of schoolchildren throughout the Gaza Strip. These camps have served as a framework for inculcating an extreme ideology that glorifies Jihad (holy war), terrorism, and armed struggle against Israel with the aim of "liberating Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea."
The camps also provide military training, such as practice with knives and firearms; hand-to-hand combat, and marching and foot drills. The children also stage plays and enact scenes of fighting and capturing Israeli soldiers or firing rockets at Israel.
Recruitment and registration for the summer camps are carried out through Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad websites and social media, and at booths manned by members of the two groups inside mosques and at other public places across the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials regularly attended the camps' opening and graduation ceremonies, where they deliver speeches.
On July 8, Hamas launched its summer camps for 2023, with the participation of more than 100,000 boys and girls. This year's summer camps are being held under the slogan Shield of Jerusalem, implying that the terror group intends to use the children in the fight against Israel. The children are being trained to carry out terror attacks and serve as human shields in the Jihad against Israel. They are being taught that they are being recruited to take part in the battle to "liberate" Jerusalem. Needless to say, the Palestinians do not recognize Jews' rights and history in Jerusalem.
In June 2022, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denied any trace of Jewish history in Jerusalem:
"We are on the outskirts of the eternal capital, the jewel in the crown, the point where heaven and earth meet, the flower of all cities, the object of longing of the hearts of the Muslim and Christian believers who come to it to pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to walk on the Via Dolorosa in order to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which witnessed the signing of the Pact of Umar, in which the Caliph Umar pledged to the people of Iliya [Arabic for Aelia Capitolina/Jerusalem) that no Muslim would pray in their church. [Jerusalem] has Canaanite, Roman, Islamic, and Christian antiquities and is theirs alone, and no one else has any traces in it."
The head of Hamas's Higher Committee for Summer Camps, Khaled Abu Askar, said during a press conference in Gaza's Asdaa Entertainment City, near Khan Yunis:
"We meet today in Asdaa City, which includes simulations of a number of Jerusalem's landmarks, to announce the launch of our summer camps, the Quds [Jerusalem] Shield camps. Let us assure the world that the city of Jerusalem, with its sanctities, is the compass of every free and honorable Palestinian."
Abu Askar claimed that Hamas cares about the young generation and is keen to invest in them. He also claimed that young Palestinians are being systematically targeted to undermine their beliefs, behavior, morals and patriotism. Whom does he blame? Israel, of course.
"The occupation and its collaborators are pumping huge amounts of money and effort to divert the generation from belonging to its religion and homeland," he said. The Hamas official pointed out that his group named its camps Jerusalem Shield "to instill the value of Jerusalem in the hearts of young people and the Palestinians' right to the Holy City, in addition to promoting the national role of the liberation generation and raising their determination."
When Hamas talks about "liberation," it is expressing its desire to eliminate Israel, as explicitly stated in the charter of the group:
"Article 11:
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day or Resurrection.
"Article 13:
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: 'Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.'"
At another ceremony in the Gaza Strip, the chairman of the Rafah Administrative Committee, Jum'a Hassanein, said that "these youth camps are intended to train the generation of liberation and victory."
The summer camp director in Rafah, Muhammad Barhoum, said that the camps are part of Hamas' activities that focus on the [younger] generation "due to its importance as "the generation of liberation and victory."
"As in previous years, the summer camps focus on familiarizing the youngsters with various weapons, including the AK-47, sniper guns, RPG launchers, mortars and machine guns. The campers practice assembling and disassembling the weapons, holding them and using them, and also train in urban warfare and tunnel warfare. Some of the lessons are taught by masked members of Hamas' armed wing, the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, and some are even held in Hamas military bases. A boy at one of the camps gave a demonstration of tunnel warfare for Younis Al-Astal, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council on behalf of Hamas, who toured the camps with other Hamas officials. At some of the camps, Israeli flags were spread on the ground so that the campers would step on them. Terrorists who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis are presented to the campers as role models, and their portraits feature in the camps and in camp activities."
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latin Qanou said that the summer camps launched by his group in the Gaza Strip this year represent an important step in building this generation, instilling the status of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in their souls, and linking them to their "legitimate right to return [to Israel] and liberation." Qanou stated that the slogan Shield of Jerusalem aims to prepare the children for "liberating Jerusalem."
In the past, Palestinian Islamic Jihad held summer camps under the slogan of Revenge of the Free, in which hundreds of boys under the age of 17 participated.
Darwish al-Gharabli, a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said during a graduation ceremony:
"These camps establish a generation that is aligned with the path of Jihad and resistance; believing in this option and that Palestine is the central issue and fighting the Jews is an act of worship. Our jihad against this continues in all arenas. We assure our enemy that this generation will carry the banner and resist with all strength."
In 2021, Hamas's armed wing, Izz al-din al-Qassam Brigades, held summer camps under the slogan Sword of Jerusalem.
According to the website of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, "the goal of the camps is to fan the flames of jihad among the generation of liberation, instill Islamic values and prepare the long-awaited army for the liberation of Palestine."
The spokesperson for the Hamas summer camps, Abu Bilal, said that the camps are being held "out of belief in the role of the young people and a sense of responsibility for the [younger] generation." He added that "the young people have [always] been the ones to carry out armed operations, and were the fuel of the intifadas and uprisings."
This sweeping child abuse by Palestinians is ignored by the Western media, the United Nations and most politicians. The next time Palestinians complain about minors being killed or injured while carrying out terror attacks against Israelis, it would be worthwhile recalling the scenes of children in the summer camps of the Gaza Strip, where the process to transform them into combatants begins.
It is time for the international community, and above all human rights organizations, to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for the child abuse inherent in training their children to become "martyrs," in the Jihad to kill Jews, and in trying to destroy the region's only democratic nation.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
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On Syria Aid, Don’t Bet on the Security Council
Andrew J. Tabler, Anna Borshchevskaya/The Washington Institute/July 20/2023
Seventeen Russian vetoes have hobbled the council’s ability to keep humanitarian assistance flowing, so Washington and its allies should look to the General Assembly instead—or take matters into their own hands on the Turkish border.
After nearly a decade of UN Security Council wrangling over the provision of humanitarian aid to opposition-held areas of Syria, Russia has vetoed a draft resolution to renew the assistance mechanism for the seventeenth time, turning the matter over to its client regime in Damascus. Without a Plan B for aid deliveries, Washington and its partners could be forced to accept this outcome. Earlier today, the acting U.S. deputy representative at the UN General Assembly gathering in New York urged the draft penholders at the Security Council to find a compromise, but this route has little chance of success and would be insufficient even if a renewal option is found.
Instead, the United States should use its political will at the General Assembly to keep aid provision unimpeded and impartial, especially given the region’s ongoing efforts to recover from February’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. At the same time, it should develop plans with Turkey for delivering aid to northwest Syria even without a clear UN mandate, and for pushing back on recent Russian aggression in Syria, which has ramped up in the months since Washington issued a sanctions waiver for earthquake relief.
Russian Veto, Regime Response
On July 11, Moscow vetoed a draft Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border assistance for nine months, while the United States, Britain, and France voted against a competing Russian draft. Two days later, the Assad regime issued a letter granting the UN permission to send aid via the northwest Bab al-Hawa crossing for six months, but only “in full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian Government.” The letter then laid out the terms of this cooperation.
For one, the UN must not communicate with “terrorist organizations...and their affiliated illegal administrative entities in northwestern Syria,” naming the “so-called ‘Interim Government or the Salvation Government’”—a reference to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the jihadist group that controls much of Idlib province. The letter also insisted that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC)—essentially an Assad-controlled parastatal organization—be empowered to “supervise and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid in areas controlled by terrorist organizations in northwest Syria.”
On July 14, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that the regime’s letter provides a legal basis for delivering aid but rejected both of the above demands—a sound conclusion given the impermissibility of placing political conditions on humanitarian aid, not to mention the fact that the ICRC and SARC have not been active in northwest Syria in over a decade. Subsequent private consultations did not produce an alternative, however, so the issue was sent to the General Assembly for discussion earlier today.
Earthquake Waiver Backfires
Since 2014, the United States has rightly made unimpeded aid provision a priority at the UN given the Assad regime’s brutal suppression of the Syrian uprising and loss of control over northern border crossings with Turkey. A Security Council mechanism to enable cross-border aid became acutely necessary given repeated accounts that the regime was manipulating humanitarian assistance in its territory and across lines of control with opposition-held areas.
Today, the necessity for such mechanisms is even more acute. Humanitarian needs in northwest Syria have increased considerably as living conditions in most areas have declined—a situation sharply aggravated by the February 6 earthquake. Washington and its allies responded with a generous six-month waiver of sanctions against the regime and other entities in order to provide disaster relief, but this move came at a substantial diplomatic cost. Some of Washington’s regional partners, most notably Saudi Arabia, apparently read the waiver as a license to engage in feckless normalization efforts with Assad—despite the regime’s continued violations of UN resolutions, atrocities against civilians, and recent foray into Captagon production and smuggling throughout the region.
At the same time, Russia unexpectedly increased its overflights and other harassment of U.S. and allied forces in Syria beginning in February, seemingly trying to push them out of their positions in east Syria and al-Tanf garrison. In response, the U.S. military has repeatedly called on Moscow to cease such actions and deployed potent F-22 jets to deter further aggression.
The blowback from the earthquake relief exemption now looms large over U.S. policy in Syria. The six-month sanctions waiver expires on August 8, and decisionmakers in Congress and abroad are waiting to see if the Biden administration will extend them as the European Union did earlier this week.
Political Will at the General Assembly
Over the years, experts have repeatedly argued that cross-border aid can be delivered into Syria without the Security Council’s authorization. In April 2014, a letter signed by thirty-five leading international lawyers and legal experts stated, “We judge that there is no legal barrier to the UN directly undertaking cross-border humanitarian operations and supporting NGOs to undertake them as well.” That conclusion was reaffirmed earlier this year in another letter that included input from former judges with the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. Both letters pointed out that the UN is already a legitimate humanitarian actor, and that the consent of Syrian opposition groups who control the territory in question is sufficient in certain cases, making permission from the Syrian government unnecessary. They also noted that governments cannot legally withhold consent for inhumane reasons such as weakening the enemy’s resistance or starving out a civilian population—tactics that the Assad regime has used numerous times over the years.
Various scholars have gone on to argue that the General Assembly, rather than the Security Council, could pass an effective and durable cross-border aid resolution (e.g., see persuasive articles from June 2021 and January 2023). As the International Court of Justice observed in July 2004, the Security Council is responsible for matters of international peace and security, but the General Assembly often takes “a broader view” that includes humanitarian issues. Moreover, the assembly has adopted aid resolutions in the past, such as Resolution 60/225 (2005) on assistance to survivors of the Rwandan genocide, and four resolutions last December aimed at “fortifying” the lagging global relief system.
These and other factors give Washington and its allies ample justification for pushing the UN to keep aid flowing to northwest Syria with or without the Syrian government’s consent, at least until Damascus sets aside politicized restrictions like those laid out in its July 13 letter. And if a decisive General Assembly resolution proves impossible, Washington should still work with Turkey on plans to facilitate cross-border aid deliveries.
Syria in the Bigger Strategic Picture
When discussing Russian intransigence on important security issues around the world, many Western policymakers argue that Moscow’s setbacks in Ukraine may increasingly force it to compromise on such matters. Yet Russia’s veto of the Syrian aid mechanism and suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative have seemingly checkmated Washington and its allies once again, highlighting Moscow’s continued ability to weaponize humanitarian issues and achieve its foreign policy objectives in other theaters. This ability will no doubt persist barring anything short of a complete battlefield loss in Ukraine. Only then would the Kremlin be inclined to fundamentally change its calculus and come to the negotiating table with the West.
The latest U.S. National Security Strategy correctly prioritizes competition with Russia and China, but in overlooking Moscow’s approach to theaters like Syria, it misses the global component of this competition. While the West has greatly isolated Russia, the Middle East and Africa remain primary theaters for Moscow’s destabilizing activities. Moreover, the Kremlin’s narratives on Ukraine and other crises resonate in these regions, often with practical policy consequences. For instance, Washington’s Arab partners did not join Western sanctions against Russia following the Ukraine invasion; in fact, they have provided Moscow with a vital economic lifeline. It is no accident that Russia has been waging a charm offensive in these regions for years, and Ukraine has come to recognize the need to step up its own narrative abroad, which is why it is looking to open more embassies in Africa.
To facilitate the broader goal of dealing Moscow a strategic loss, Washington must do more to convince non-Western partners that Russia’s vision of the world order is a losing one. For too long, Moscow has used Syria to threaten NATO, push back on the U.S.-led global order, and portray itself as a great power. Syria is therefore a key arena in which to reduce Russian leverage. A good place to start is by going to the UN General Assembly rather than the Security Council regarding the future of aid deliveries. Discrediting Russia in the eyes of Middle Eastern and African countries is crucial as well, since their UN votes and their support for Russia’s Ukraine narrative have real-world consequences.
*Andrew Tabler is the Martin J. Gross Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Rubin Family Arab Politics Program and former director for Syria on the National Security Council. Anna Borshchevskaya is a senior fellow in the Institute’s Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation Program on Great Power Competition and the Middle East.

Smarter approaches for a cooler planet
The Arab Weekly/July 20/2023
In sweltering countries with poor electricity systems, such as Iraq or Lebanon, the lack of air conditioning is a threat not just to comfort, but to survival.
More than a third of all the electricity consumed in the United Arab Emirates goes to one simple, yet essential task, keeping us cool. That soars to as much as 70 percent during summer. In sweltering countries with poor electricity systems, such as Iraq or Lebanon, the lack of air conditioning is a threat not just to comfort, but to survival.
Climate change is accelerating this challenge. Average UAE temperatures have climbed from about 27.5 degrees Celsius in the 1950s to over 28 degrees in the 2000s, and above 29 degrees in 2021. Iraq has heated up nearly three degrees since the 1980s. The extreme heat events affecting southern Europe, and parts of the United States and China demonstrate that demand for cooler air is only going to increase globally.
Urbanisation, the loss of vegetation and surface water, and the proliferation of brick, concrete and asphalt surfaces that absorb heat and re-radiate it at night, make cities even hotter than the average and give people little relief even when the sun sets.
In the Gulf, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain have committed to net-zero carbon targets between 2050 and 2060, and the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is under increasing pressure to decarbonise. Yet expanding populations, more and bigger buildings and surging middle class lifestyles require more electricity, and gas and oil combustion remains the main means of producing it, burning money to cool homes but heat the planet.
Wealthy GCC states can, and will, grow increasingly reliant on solar, wind and nuclear power. But this is impossible for a country like Iraq, where the population rises by a million each year and where peak electricity production capacity is only 22 gigawatts when 35 GW is needed in summer.
There are about 60 million A/C units in the Middle East today and the International Energy Agency sees that growing to 210 million by 2050. The growth will be even more dramatic in populous countries now reaching middle-income status, such as India and Indonesia. The MENA region certainly needs more air conditioning, but it also needs to be much more intelligent about how it manages its increasingly extreme temperatures.
Four broad approaches can help us keep cool at a reasonable cost to pocket and planet. The first is more thoughtful behaviour; not cooling unused rooms, shading windows from the sun, minimising cooling while away, using fans rather than chillers when temperatures are not too high and not cooling indoor spaces to Arctic levels. Reforming energy subsidies, encouraging consumers to pay a fair price for power and charging more at peak periods are frugal strategies for people, governments and the environment.
Second comes better air conditioning technology. This can be as simple as using the most energy-efficient models on the market. Better control systems can avoid pointlessly cooling empty areas, for example, by connecting a single exterior unit to two indoor units and managing the flow between them intelligently. Many modern units use hydrofluorocarbons, which are powerful greenhouse gases and often leak, but can be replaced with non-warming alternatives.
New ideas are promising. American companies Transaera and Bill Gates-backed Blue Frontier, for example, use salts or sponge-like materials to remove humidity from the air before cooling it, reducing energy use by up to 70 percent. Barocal, developed at Cambridge University, has developed cheap, non-toxic “plastic crystals” that absorb and release heat, instead of gases, when pressure is applied or removed.
Last June, Strata Manufacturing, the aerospace unit of Mubadala Investment Company, revealed a partnership with two German companies, Hyperganic, an artificial intelligence-based engineering system and EOS, an industrial 3D printing company. The intention is to develop the world’s most efficient residential air conditioning system.
Meanwhile, district cooling, where a central plant distributes cold water, is increasingly adopted in new developments in the GCC. It can reduce electricity use by about half and has twice the lifetime of conventional systems. Empower, Emicool and Tabreed are UAE-based district cooling providers that are expanding into Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India. But it is somewhat inflexible, better suited to sites with a high population density and not easily retrofitted to existing buildings.
A third approach is to make buildings more energy efficient. Simple fixes include better insulation around windows and doors, shading exposed areas and painting dark surfaces white. Smart systems can cool ahead of the hottest midday period or before evening when solar generation drops off, effectively using buildings as thermal batteries to limit load on the grid. Innovative paints and materials, such as the optical films developed by SkyCool Systems in the United States, radiate heat into deep space using wavelengths that can pass through the atmosphere, saving up to 40 percent in air conditioning energy use. Finally, we need to reimagine urban spaces, including by drawing inspiration from historic Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cities, with their narrow, shady streets, white-washed facades, shutters, wind towers, flowing open water and greenery. Shelters with solar air conditioning and cooling paints, and naturally cooled walkways and bicycle tracks allow people to get out of their cars and outdoor workers to recuperate even in the hotter months.
Working with nature rather than against it has the advantage of not being totally reliant on technology and on uninterrupted electricity.
Investment in innovative air conditioning is miniscule compared to other green technologies. Last year, just $278 million of venture capital was spent on cooling our indoor spaces, versus $5.4 billion to solar, $3 billion to hydrogen, and even $384 million to electric air planes. MENA, the hottest populous region in the world, will need more investment, and cool heads, to seize the air conditioning opportunity.

What Does Iraq Want From Its Christians?
Hoshyar Zebariو Former Iraqi foreign minister/Asharq Al Awsat/July 20/2023
This has become a pressing question after the recent crisis between the President’s office and the Chaldean Christian Church. If we were to categorize this dispute, we could call it a ‘question of sovereignty’ tied to Iraq’s national security and the foundational principles enshrined in the constitution of the modern Iraqi state. The constitution set criteria for the principles of democracy, civil society, federalism, and universal human rights, and violation of these principles harms Iraq as a whole. Christians have been at the core of Iraq’s modern state, its national security, and its stability.
Like those safeguards, Christians were, and still are, a political, social, cultural, developmental, and spiritual asset for Iraq, all of Iraq. Therefore, every Iraqi institution, regardless of the influence it exerts, should protect this Christian community. First and foremost, they have a duty to serve the Christians of Iraq and further their interests, as they are Iraqi citizens entitled to receive these rights under the constitution. Secondly, they enrich the country as a whole, and their presence has always benefited Iraq.
Iraqi Christians are not merely a demographic statistic or a minority that plays a marginal role in the economy, politics, and the general progress of the Iraqi people. They have been among the most dynamic and vibrant communities in Iraq, one that has an unparalleled capacity to spark change and development that serve Iraq’s interests.
Thus, the Iraqi authorities’ drive to bring the Christian community, its institutions, and its elites into their conflicts is shortsighted. This unwise decision will ultimately cost Iraq more of its cultural wealth and undermine its developmental potential without granting it anything worthwhile in return, neither in the present nor in the future.
Indeed Iraq has lost many of its Christians in the past years. They were pushed out by the wave of violence and the failure of our security and constitutional institutions to protect its citizens. After leaving them at the mercy of vicious terrorist groups, Iraq now has a duty to maintain what remains of its Christian community and safeguard its societal, cultural, economic, and political role. This is nothing less than a supreme national duty. All the institutions and authorities of the country should be judged according to their approach to this question.
Modern Iraq was not built on changing the country’s leadership alone. Rather, the emergence of the modern state means fundamentally reinventing the country’s political identity and, above all, the state’s relationship with its citizens. The old Iraq was a totalitarian military state that used religion to legitimize the rulers’ authority, and the new one should be built in opposition to that model. It should be a democratic, civil, and federal country where the authorities are committed to serving society and safeguarding its diversity at all costs. What it should not do is coerce its most pivotal community to gain an edge in fruitless political struggles that do nothing but aggravate their distrust of the state, as well as leave this community feeling threatened by its institutions and authorities.
There are only two measures that can allow the institutions in Iraq, including its parliament, government, and judiciary, to achieve this objective. One is positive discrimination towards “minority” groups, i.e., bolstering their representation and acknowledging their equality. The second is remaining neutral about their internal affairs, especially questions tied to the public sphere like ecclesiastical and endowment matters. These matters must be left to the members of the respective communities and their traditional/historical institutions, which have survived for many centuries thanks to their success in garnering the trust of these communities and building deep links with them.
By applying these two measures, Iraqi authorities and institutions would give rise to an inclusive state in which no party or community can impose its volition and authority on another. Indeed, an inclusive state is one without hegemony, not even that of the majority or parliamentary representatives. It also means imposing constraints on the exercise of power that apply to every authority in the country. Regardless of its jurisdiction, every authority must be regulated and made to comply with the law. Meanwhile, other domestic institutions must be protected from outside meddling. The decisions and inner workings of ecclesiastical institutions should be left to those who granted them their authority, i.e., the members of the community.
These essential prerequisites do not undermine Iraq’s sovereignty; they add value. Christians, like many of the other communities that Iraq has lost over its modern history, are instrumental in ensuring Iraq’s civic peace and sustainable human development.
This is not a defense of any particular Christian public institution or personality, nor is it a repudiation of another. Rather, the intention is to defend the Iraqi Christian community and, by extension, Iraq. Continuing along the path they have taken in recent years will crush what is left of Iraq’s Christian community, its role, and its contributions. Christians have been left to fend for themselves after being victimized by terrorism and deprived of constitutional or legal equality. Their demands for recognition and protective measures have been ignored. Their representation in parliament and government has been deliberately diminished in pursuit of narrow partisan interests. On top of that, their most intimate and vital institutions and decisions are being interfered with.
Indeed, Christians have played a pivotal role in shaping the contemporary history of Iraq, especially in that cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, and Mosul, fuelling modernization and development. In fact, their contributions to these urban centers are too numerous and significant to be enumerated in any single piece of writing.
As someone who has lived in these regions for many years, bearing witness to their contributions and the experiences they have undergone, I can empathize with Iraq’s Christians and their concerns. All Iraqi politicians and leaders ought to look beyond their narrow interests, as Iraq stands to lose one of its most valuable and meaningful assets.