Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 22-23/2023
UAE leader welcomes Iranian foreign minister in latest softening of Persian Gulf tensions
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/Thu, June 22, 2023
— The president of the United Arab Emirates met with Iran's visiting foreign minister on Thursday in the latest sign of improving relations between Arab Gulf countries and the Islamic Republic. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have long harbored suspicions about Iran because of its nuclear program and support for militant groups across the region, and have cultivated close defense ties with the U.S. But in recent months they have charted a more independent path, reaching out to U.S. adversaries as Washington increasingly focuses on Russia and China. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian “discussed the importance of building on positive developments to benefit the people of the region and enhance regional stability and prosperity,” the UAE's state-run WAM news agency reported. Iranian state TV said the two met for 90 minutes and discussed further cooperation in different fields. It said the Iranian foreign minister invited Sheikh Mohammed to visit Iran and that the UAE president invited Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi to visit the Emirates. The meeting follows similar recent outreach by Saudi Arabia, which agreed to normalize relations with Iran for the first time in seven years in a deal brokered by China in March. The two countries have since reopened embassies and held high-level official visits. The UAE, home to the futuristic cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is a close U.S. military ally that hosts some 2,000 American troops at the Al-Dhafra Air Base. U.S. forces based there and in other Arab Gulf countries have long been seen as a deterrent to Iran. The UAE was also the driving force behind the so-called Abraham Accords, in which it and three other Arab countries forged ties with Israel. Israel views Iran as its greatest threat and hopes to further isolate it by pursuing closer ties with Arab states. Israel and the U.S. are keen to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials say any such agreement would have to be linked to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

UN puts Russian forces on blacklist for killing children and attacking schools in Ukraine
UNITED NATIONS (AP)/Thu, June 22, 2023
The United Nations put Russian forces on its annual blacklist of countries that violate children’s rights in conflict for killing boys and girls and attacking schools and hospitals in Ukraine, according to a new report seen Thursday by The Associated Press. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the Security Council that he is “appalled” by the high number of “grave violations” against children in Ukraine in 2022, “shocked” at the number of attacks on schools and hospitals, “concerned” by the detention of children, and “troubled” that some Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia. The U.N. chief did not put Israel on the blacklist for grave violations against 1,139 Palestinian children, including 54 killings last year — as supporters had hoped. Instead, he welcomed Israel’s engagement with the U.N. special envoy for children in armed conflict, Virginia Gamba and its “identification of practical measures including those proposed by the U.N." to protect children. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told reporters Guterres “made a big mistake” in not listing the most extreme government in Israel’s history. “It is very disappointing to the Palestinian people and to the Palestinian children,” he said. In the wide-ranging report, the secretary-general said that last year children were disproportionately affected by conflict. He said the U.N. verified grave violations against 13,469 children, including 2,985 who were killed, in 24 countries and one region. “Grave violations” include the recruitment and use of youngsters by combatants, killings and injuries, sexual violence, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals.Guterres said the spread of conflicts to new areas contributed to a 140% increase in grave violations in Myanmar and a 135% increase in South Sudan. An upsurge in activity by armed groups, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State, also caused a severe deterioration of the situation in the central Sahel, particularly in Burkina Faso, leading to an 85% increase in grave violations. Violations also increased in Colombia, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan and Syria, the secretary-general said. While armed groups were responsible for 50% of the grave violations, Guterres said government forces were mainly responsible for the killing and maiming of children, for the attacks on schools and hospitals, and for the denial of humanitarian access.
The countries with the most verified violations were Congo, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Somalia and Syria, he said. By contrast, Afghanistan, Central African Republic and the Philippines saw a decrease in grave violations, and last year’s truce in Yemen contributed to a 40% drop in violations.
The report also lists two new countries of concern for children: Haiti and Niger. Guterres said the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups were listed for carrying out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals, and for killing children, in particular through their shelling and airstrikes on cities and towns. According to the report, 136 Ukrainian children were killed and 518 injured. The secretary-general urged Russian forces to abide by their obligations under international law and their own commitments to protect children, including by avoiding the military use of schools and hospitals, putting in place accountability and reparations measures, and exchanging information with the U.N. on all children in conflict-affected areas. Guterres also urged Russia to ensure that no changes are made to the personal status of Ukrainian children, including their nationality. Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia’s invasion, and the International Criminal Court increased pressure on Russia when it issued arrest warrants on March 17 for President Vladimir Putin and the Russian children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine. The U.N. chief said he is also concerned by the number of grave violations against children by Ukrainian forces and urged them to abide by protections for civilians under international law. According to the report, Ukrainian armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 80 children and injuries to 175 others, as well as 21

Ukraine says Russia fired 'Kinzhal' missiles in overnight air strike
KYIV (Reuters)/Thu, June 22, 2023
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvy Rih, Ukrainian officials said. Ukrainian air defences downed three of the four drones fired in the overnight attack involving three Kinzhal hypersonic and three cruise missiles, the Air Force said in a statement. "...The enemy rockets did not reach their targets in the Dnipropetrovsk region... the occupiers are continuing their terror against the Ukrainian people, attacking Ukraine's critical infrastructure facilities," the air force said.
The drones were shot down over the Black Sea region of Odesa in southwestern Ukraine, but one of them struck a warehouse, regional administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said. In the Kryvy Rih area, a Russian missile strike damaged at least 10 homes, the regional administration said. Russia has regularly carried out long-distance missile and drone attacks since October, and increased strikes in May as Ukraine prepared for a counteroffensive.

A retired US general says Ukraine could recapture Crimea before the summer's out, but only if the US gives it the ammunition it needs
Business Insider/Thu, June 22, 2023 at 6:51 a.m. EDT
Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges told Newsweek that Ukraine could retake Crimea before the summer ends. But Hodges says this is contingent on the US giving the Ukrainians long-range precision weapons. Hodges believes recapturing Crimea would be essential for Ukraine to rebuild its economy. A former US Army general says he thinks Ukraine can recapture Crimea before the summer is over, but only if the US contributes more long-range weapons. "My principal caveat still remains that if the United States were to provide what Ukraine needs, then Ukraine could actually still liberate Crimea by the end of this summer," retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges told Newsweek on Wednesday. Hodges' remarks come amid a rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainians kicked off their counteroffensive in June, and the effort has seen both sides weathering equipment and personnel losses. But Hodges fears that there will be no breakthrough in Crimea if the US does not give Ukraine "long-range precision weapons or other weapon systems that can reach further than they can reach right now." The US has been Ukraine's largest backer since the Russian invasion began. According to the State Department, the US has sent approximately $40 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded them in February 2022. The US in February sent Ukraine Boeing's Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), which has a range of 94 miles. The GLSDB was meant to give the Ukrainians "longer-range capability" to "take back their sovereign territory in Russian-occupied areas," Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in February. Notably, the US military aid packages thus far have not included the US-made Army Tactical Missiles Systems (ATACMS), which has a far longer range of 190 miles. "That would enable them to make Crimea untenable. And that's the key: Make the Black Sea Fleet have to move out of Sevastopol, which would happen if Ukraine was able to put ATACMS inside that harbor," Hodges told Newsweek. "Those ships couldn't just sit there, all the facilities would be destroyed. Same for the airbase in Saki and other facilities," he added. The Biden administration has held back from sending long-range weapons to Ukraine that have the capacity to strike targets in Russia. US officials told Ukraine in February that they weren't able to send over the ATACMS due to insufficient supply, per Politico. For his part, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened to use Russia's tactical nuclear weapons since the war in Ukraine began. He made the threat again on Friday, when he told the audience at an economic forum in St. Petersburg that Russia would use warheads stationed in neighboring Belarus to stave off a "strategic defeat" in Ukraine. "They didn't want to do it, so they continuously came up with excuses like we don't have enough. That's not true. On ATACMS, we're selling them to Poland. The defense industry is not a charity," Hodges said. Russia invaded and annexed Crimea illegally back in 2014. It has since been turned into a forward operating base by the Russians. Crimea was also used as a launchpad for Russian forces when they invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The peninsula continues to serve as a base of attack for the Russian military. Hodges previously told Insider in January that Ukraine will "never be safe or secure or able to rebuild their economy so long as Russia retains Crimea." "They'll be able to launch attacks from Crimea, Ukraine will never be able to rebuild its economy because the Russian navy will be blocking the Azov Sea as well as Odesa and Mykolaiv," Hodges told Newsweek. "How's Ukraine going to have an economy? It's not good for anybody in Europe," he added. Representatives for Hodges and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Ukraine hits bridge linking Crimea to mainland in blow to Russian supply route
KYIV (Reuters)/Thu, June 22, 2023
Ukrainian missiles struck one of the few bridges linking the Crimea Peninsula with the Ukrainian mainland early on Thursday, cutting one of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine as Kyiv pushes to drive them out. Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian-installed administration in occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson province, released video of himself on the Chonhar road bridge, where craters had been blasted through the asphalt. "Another meaningless act perpetrated by the Kyiv regime on orders from London. It solves nothing as far as the special military operation is concerned," he said, vowing to repair the bridge and restore traffic. He threatened to retaliate by targeting a bridge linking neighbouring Moldova to NATO-member Romania: "A very serious response is coming very soon." The Chonhar bridge hit overnight is one of just a handful of access roads to Crimea, which is linked to the Ukrainian mainland by a narrow isthmus. Alternative routes require hours-long detours over roads in poor condition. Russia's RIA new agency quoted Russian-installed transport officials in Crimea as saying repairing it could take weeks. The bridge is beyond range of the battlefield rockets Ukraine has used for a year, but within reach of newly deployed weapons such as British and French air-launched cruise missiles, allowing Kyiv to hit logistics routes Russia had deemed safe just weeks ago.
'PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT'
The strike was "a blow to the military logistics of the occupiers," said Yuriy Sobolevsky, a Ukrainian official on the governing body for the Kherson region. "The psychological impact on the occupiers and the occupying power is even more important. There is no place on the territory of Kherson region where they can feel safe," he said. Russian investigators said four missiles had been fired by Ukrainian forces at the bridge, the RIA news agency reported. It quoted a spokesman for military investigators as saying that markings found on the remains of one of the missiles suggested it had been made in France. Ukraine is attacking Russian supply lines to disrupt Moscow's defence of occupied territory in the south, where Kyiv is in the early stages of its most ambitious counteroffensive of the war. Kyiv says it has recaptured eight villages so far, but it has yet to commit the bulk of its forces to the fight and its advancing troops have yet to reach the main Russian defensive lines. In its latest update on the fighting, Ukraine's military reported "partial success" in the southeast and east. Troops were reinforcing positions they reached after attacking towards the villages of Rivnopil and Staromayorske, said General Staff spokesman Andriy Kovaliov, referring to settlements in a Russian-held area where Ukrainian forces pushing south have so far captured four villages. He also described fierce fighting in the east, where Ukraine says it has been holding off Russian attacks. Russia says it has fended off the Ukrainian counterattack and inflicted heavy casualties, which Ukraine denies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged that progress has been slow so far, but says his troops are advancing cautiously into heavily mined and well-defended areas to minimise losses. Zelenskiy on Thursday accused Russia of planning a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which is in Russian-held territory near the front line. Moscow denied any such plan.

Scholz urges Erdogan to 'clear path now' for Sweden NATO membership
Agence France Presse/June 22, 2023
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden's bid to join NATO. Sweden should "sit at the summit table" as a new NATO ally, Scholz told lawmakers in Berlin. "And I call on the re-elected Turkish President Erdogan to now clear the path for this, as we all decided together last year in Madrid."

Ukraine strike damages Crimea bridge
Agence France Presse/June 22, 2023
A strike has damaged a bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to a region of southern Ukraine partially occupied by Russia, a Russian official said on Thursday. "During the night a strike hit the Chongar bridge. There are no victims," Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, said on Telegram. The bridge connects Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to the Ukrainian region of Kherson. The Russia-installed governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that Ukrainian strikes had hit "bridges" near Chongar, next to photos of what appeared to be gaping holes on a bridge. The strike came as Ukraine wages a counter-offensive to recapture territory occupied by Russian forces. Crimea has been regularly targeted by strikes, mostly using drones, over recent months.

Russia ‘plotting nuclear terror attack’ at Zaporizhzhia plant
The Telegraph/June 22, 2023
President Volodymyr Zelensky claims Ukrainian spies have intelligence that suggests Russia is plotting to release radiation from Europe’s largest nuclear plant. In a video statement, the Ukrainian president said Kyiv was sharing its information with international partners about the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine. “Intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – a terrorist act with a release of radiation,” he said. “They have prepared everything for this.”The Kremlin dismissed the allegation as “another lie”, and said a team of UN nuclear inspectors had visited the plant and rated everything there highly. Mr Zelensky did not say what evidence the intelligence agencies based their assertion on. The six-reactor complex has been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February last year. The two sides have accused each other of shelling it, and international efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have failed so far. “Unfortunately, I have had to remind [people] more than once that radiation knows no state borders. And who it will hit is determined only by the direction of the wind...” Mr Zelensky said. Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, suffered the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986. Mr Zelensky made his statement two days after Ukraine’s military intelligence chief accused Russia of “mining” the cooling pond that is used to keep the reactors cool at the Zaporizhzhia plant. The plant lies beside a huge reservoir where water levels have plunged since a dam across the Dnipro River was destroyed earlier this month, flooding swathes of southern Ukraine. Kyiv blames Russia, which controlled the dam, for blowing it up. Russia says Ukraine sabotaged it. In his video statement, Mr Zelensky said intelligence agencies had gathered new evidence of how Russian forces blew up the dam and other structures at the hydroelectric plant. “It was a completely deliberate, calculated crime,” he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.

Former UN chief says Israel's treatment of Palestinians may constitute apartheid
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)/June 22/2023
Israel is inching toward apartheid and drifting further away from the hopes of creating a Palestinian state alongside it, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told The Associated Press Thursday on a visit to the region. Ban said that throughout his three-day visit, which coincided with a spike in deadly violence in the West Bank, he encountered a bleaker reality than the one he faced while head of the world body from 2007 to 2016. He said he had seen signs, through expanding West Bank Jewish settlements and tighter restrictions against Palestinians, that an apartheid system was taking root.
“I think the situation has worsened,” Ban said. “I’m just thinking that, as many people are saying, that this may constitute apartheid.” He said he was concerned that a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict was ”fading away."
Ban was in the region on behalf of The Elders, a group of statespeople that engages in peacemaking and human rights initiatives around the world. Along with the group's chair, former Irish President Mary Robinson, he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and civil society. It was from local rights groups that he said he heard that Israel was committing the crime of apartheid. Leading rights groups in Israel and abroad have accused Israel and its 56-year occupation of the West Bank of morphing into an apartheid system that they say gives Palestinians second-class status and is designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
In apartheid South Africa, a system based on white supremacy and racial segregation was in place from 1948 until 1994. The rights groups have based their conclusions on international conventions like the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It defines apartheid as “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.”They point to discriminatory policies within Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Hamas militant group since 2007, and its occupation of the West Bank, where it exerts overall control, maintains a two-tier legal system and is building and expanding Jewish settlements that most of the international community considers illegal. Israel rejects any allegation of apartheid and says its own Arab citizens enjoy equal rights. Israel granted limited autonomy to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, at the height of the peace process in the 1990s and withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. It says the West Bank is disputed territory whose fate should be determined in negotiations.
The accusations of apartheid and Jewish supremacy have only heightened under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which is composed of parties that oppose Palestinian statehood, support settlement expansion and a hard line against Palestinian militancy. “It’s clear that now we have a one-state rule and in fact it’s worse than that under the current government," Robinson said, adding that Netanyahu, as on previous visits, declined a meeting. She said they met with Israel's ceremonial president and opposition leader Yair Lapid. The visit comes amid the worst violence in the West Bank in nearly two decades. A monthslong Israeli crackdown on militancy has killed nearly 300 Palestinians since early 2022, while Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed more than 50. This week, an Israeli raid on a flashpoint West Bank city killed seven Palestinians, including a 15-year-old girl. A Palestinian attack on a West Bank settlement killed four Israelis, including a 17-year-old, and triggered a settler rampage through a Palestinian town that left one person dead.
While they condemned the violence, Ban and Robinson said Israel appeared to be using disproportionate force in its raids. “I sincerely hope that the Israeli military authorities should take some deep breath before they really take to lethal weapons,” he said. “There should be some reasonable way of controlling this.”Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.

Israel's gas reserves grew by 40% over past decade -report
LONDON (Reuters)/Thu, June 22, 2023
Israel's natural gas reserves have grown by 40% over the past decade due to increased drilling and exploration activities, an industry report said, even as production soared. The growth came amid five-fold growth in offshore gas production since the start-up of Israel's first major producing Tamar field in 2013, the report prepared by consultancy BDO for the Israeli Natural Gas Trade Association said. Israel's gas reserves grew from 780 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2012 to 1,087 bcm at the end of 2022, while 119 bcm was extracted over the same period, the report said. The growth in reserves was due to several new discoveries, including Energean's Olympus field, which has been renamed Katlan, as well as further exploration activity around hubs including the Chevron operated Leviathan field. The eastern Mediterranean region has seen rapid expansion of natural gas production over the past decade, following the discovery of major resources in waters off Israel and Egypt. The gas is supplied to the region via pipelines and in Egypt is also exported to international markets through gas liquefaction terminals.

Israeli minister pushes for targeted killings, flattening of buildings in West Bank
Arab News/June 22/2023
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Amid calls for an end to the mounting violence taking place in the West Bank, Israel's far-right national security minister on Wednesday pushed for tougher action against Palestinian resistance, including the destruction of their homes. “We need a military operation, we need to flatten buildings, we need targeted killings,” Itamar Ben-Gvir told parliament on Wednesday. “That’s how you act against terrorism,” added Ben-Gvir, one of the hard-right parties in Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition. Other senior ministers in Netanyahu’s government on Wednesday also called for a full-scale military operation across the West Bank. Some other ministers played down the demand for additional measures. “There’s no need for any new decisions, only adaptation of existing ones,” Energy Minister Israel Katz, a member of the government Security Cabinet, told Army Radio.
The calls for tougher action came after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian towns, torching cars and buildings in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen a day earlier. Four Israelis were killed on Tuesday by Hamas gunmen who opened fire on a roadside restaurant near the settlement of Eli. One Palestinian was shot dead during the attack while at least one other was critically injured, Palestinian health officials said. Residents of a number of other Palestinian towns reported settler attacks after the killings and senior ministers in Netanyahu’s government called for a full-scale military operation across the West Bank. Yaqoub Oweis, chairman of the village council of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqeya near Ramallah, said Israeli soldiers and police stood by as a large group of settlers burned a petrol station, orchards, a cement factory and dozens of cars. “The attack was unprecedented and abnormal,” he said. “There was heavy gunfire but we couldn’t distinguish whether it came from settlers or the soldiers because of the darkness.”
Condemnations
The US condemned the settler violence and called “for Israeli authorities to immediately stop the violence, protect US and Palestinian civilians, and prosecute those responsible.” Both Egypt and Jordan, which have diplomatic relations with Israel, condemned the attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned all acts of violence against civilians, “including acts of terror,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement. “It is crucial to reduce tensions and to prevent further escalation. Israel, as the Occupying Power, must ensure that the civilian population is protected against all acts of violence, and that perpetrators are held to account,” Haq said. Violence had flared up after the Netanyahu government stepped up plans for new homes in the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu’s office said Israel planned to add 1,000 new homes to the Eli settlement, defying international calls for a halt to new settlement projects. Palestinians have complained repeatedly of attacks by settlers in the West Bank, an issue that has also drawn mounting international concern. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said the “barbaric attacks carried out by settlers on peaceful citizens, and the destruction of their homes and properties, reflect the burning and killing mentality of Israel.”He added that opening the way for settlers to riot under the protection of the Israeli army “is a recipe for destruction, for which everyone will pay.”There has been no sign of any new effort to find a political solution, however. US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014. Netanyahu’s government includes members who rule out a Palestinian state while Hamas, which advocates armed resistance against Israel, has been steadily expanding its operations in the West Bank. Monday’s military arrest raid in Jenin, the apparent trigger for the killing of the four Israelis, touched off hours of fighting with heavily armed Palestinian militants. Seven Palestinians died, more than 90 were wounded and seven Israeli personnel were wounded. So far this year, 174 Palestinians, most of them militants but several of them civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces. At the same time, 24 Israelis and one foreigner have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank, around Jerusalem and in some Israeli cities. (With Reuters)

Sudanese killed as they flee Darfur: activists
Reuters/Thu, June 22, 2023
Thousands have been trying to flee El Geneina in Sudan's western Darfur. Increasingly they are shot and killed, before they can reach safety. That's according to Mohammed Hassan, executive director of the Darfur Network for Human Rights. "The civilians, the citizens, for more than two months, are not allowed to go out, women go out, they rape and kill them. Men go out of the city, they kill them." War that erupted in Sudan in April has reignited violence in the long-volatile Darfur region. El Geneina has been described by the head of one NGO as a "city of death", and "probably the worst part of Sudan". The violence there has been driven by militias from Arab nomadic tribes, along with members of the Rapid Support Forces. It is the paramilitary faction battling Sudan's army for power, predominantly in the capital Khartoum. The RSF was formed out of the feared "Janjaweed" - Arab militias that help the government crush a rebellion by manly non-Arab groups in Darfur two decades ago. There are warning signs that the atrocities of that period could be repeated. Medical charity MSF said on Monday (June 19) that some 15,000 people had fled western Darfur over the previous four days. Many arrivals, it said, reported seeing people shot and killed as they tried to escape. MSF also reported rapes. "One of the worst things now is that the bodies of the targeted were not removed, still now outside the roads, inside houses. There is a humanitarian crisis, still people (suffer from) lack of food, lack of medicine, lack of treatment and lack of water." RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said on Tuesday that his force would investigate events in El Geneina. He accused the army of fomenting violence by armed tribes. The army blamed the RSF for the death of West Darfur's governor last week and other violence in the region.

What to know about India's ties with Russia
Associated Press/Thu, June 22, 2023
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington in June was expected to reduce India's dependence on Moscow for arms, economic ties and technology as New Delhi and Washington try to strengthen the Quad partnership, which also includes Japan and Australia, to contain growing aggression from China. India considers Russia a time-tested ally from the Cold War era with key cooperation in defense, oil, nuclear energy and space exploration. But that partnership has become fraught since Moscow started developing closer ties with India's main rival, China, because of the war against Ukraine.
Here's where things stand with India-Russia ties.
HOW DID INDIA DEVELOP TIES WITH RUSSIA?
India started building a strong relationship with the then-Soviet Union in the mid-1950s during the Cold War, then strengthened those ties over conflicts with Pakistan.
The Soviet Union helped mediate a cease-fire between India and Pakistan to end the 1965 war over control of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Then, during India's war with Pakistan in December 1971, the Soviet Union used its veto power to support India at the United Nations, while the U.S. ordered a task force in the Bay of Bengal in support of Pakistan. India and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of peace, friendship, and cooperation in August 1971. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was replaced by the Treaty of Indo-Russian Friendship and Cooperation in January 1993.
WHAT'S INDIA'S STANCE ON RUSSIA'S WAR ON UKRAINE?
India has so far avoided voting against Russia or criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Facing pressure from the United States and European nations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Putin in September, "Today's era is not an era of war." He said democracy, diplomacy and dialogue have kept the world together. Modi and Putin met in September on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand.
IS INDIA DEPENDENT ON RUSSIAN ARMS?
India started looking for Soviet arms after its bloody war with China in 1962.
In the early 1990s, the USSR represented about 70% of Indian army weapons, 80% of its air force systems, and 85% of its navy platforms. India bought its first aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, from Russia in 2004. The carrier had served in the former Soviet Union and later in the Russian Navy. India's air force presently operates more than 410 Soviet and Russian fighters, comprising a mix of imported and license-built platforms. India's inventory of Russian-made military equipment also includes submarines, tanks, helicopters, submarines, frigates and missiles. India has been reducing its dependency on Russian arms and diversifying its defense procurements, buying more from countries like the U.S., Israel, France and Italy. But experts say it may take 20 years to get over its dependence on Russian supplies and spares.
HOW MUCH RUSSIAN OIL IS INDIA BUYING?
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States and European nations set a cap of $60 a barrel for Russian oil to control Moscow's rising revenue. India's oil purchases from Russia have risen sharply despite the sanctions.
Indian officials have defended buying oil from Russia, saying the lower price benefits Indian consumers. Russian oil now accounts for nearly 20% of India's annual crude imports, up from just 2% in 2021, according to Indian media reports.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell recently suggested that the EU should take a harder line on India reselling Russian oil into Europe as refined fuel. India says its understanding of the EU regulations is that Russian crude, if substantially transformed in a third country, is not treated as Russian anymore.
HOW ARE INDIA'S TIES WITH THE US AND EUROPE?
India, with the world's second-largest army, fourth-largest air force and seventh-largest navy, is trying to develop into a defense manufacturing hub. But it lacks a strong industrial base for military equipment. India's been acquiring new technologies and reducing reliance on imports. Under Donald Trump's administration, the U.S. and India concluded defense deals worth over $3 billion. Bilateral defense trade increased from near-zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2019, including long-range maritime patrol aircraft, missiles and drones. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed upgrading the partnership with India during his visit to New Delhi in early June. Joint production and manufacture of combat aircraft engines, infantry combat vehicles, howitzers and their precision ordnance were discussed in May at a meeting of the U.S.-India Defense Policy Group in Washington, and a decision is likely to be announced during Modi's visit to Washington.

Tunisia frees journalist held after criticizing penal code
Agence France Presse/Thu, June 22, 2023
A Tunisian journalist arrested after criticizing a law that criminalizes insulting the head of state was released on Thursday, he said after leaving court. Zied El Heni, 59, was kept in custody after being questioned on Tuesday evening over alleged "crimes through telecommunications" channels, his lawyer said at the time. The interrogation took place after El Heni had mocked an article of the penal code related to criticizing the head of state, currently President Kais Saied, during a morning broadcast on IFM radio station. El Heni emerged from court on Thursday morning to say the deputy public prosecutor had decided to let him go, but that investigations against him would continue. "If they think they can silence me, they're wrong," he told journalists. The SNJT journalists' union had called El Heni's arrest a "flagrant violation of the law". In May, journalists staged a protest to denounce the Tunisian government's "repressive" policy, which they say uses the judicial system to intimidate and subjugate the media.Around 20 journalists are being prosecuted for their work in the country, according to the union. Non-governmental organizations have reported a decline in press freedom in Tunisia since Saied launched a power grab in July 2021.

Rescuers comb through rubble of Paris building blast
Associated Press/Thu, June 22, 2023
A strong explosion has rocked a building in Paris' Left Bank, injuring at least 24 people, igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over the French capital's monuments and prompting an evacuation of other properties, authorities said. Police were investigating suspicions that a gas leak caused the blast. The facade of the building in the 5th arrondissement collapsed, and officials said rescuers were searching for two people who might be trapped inside. The explosion happened near the historic Val de Grace military hospital, in one of the most upscale neighborhoods of the French capital.
Some 270 firefighters were involved in putting out the flames and 70 emergency vehicles were sent to the scene. The fire was contained but not yet extinguished Wednesday evening, as Paris bars and restaurants celebrated the summer solstice with a citywide annual music festival. Sirens wailed as ambulances passed through the neighborhood and police initially cordoned off the street, rue Saint-Jacques. By evening, smoke had stopped pouring out of the building where the explosion occurred. "It is possible that overnight we will find bodies or people alive," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said from the scene. District Mayor Florence Berthout said on French TV channel BFM that firefighters were searching for two people believed to have been inside the building at the time of the blast. "The explosion was extremely violent," she said, describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said the building housed a private school, the Paris American Academy. The school was founded in 1965 and offers teaching in fashion design, interior design, fine arts and creative writing. A Paris police official told the Associated Press that 24 people were injured, including four in critical condition and 20 with less severe injuries. The injuries were sustained mainly when people were blown off their feet by the blast, the official said. Jema Halbert, who owns a butcher's shop close to the explosion site, said she went upstairs to fetch something, and "I heard a 'boom'. ... So then I went downstairs, where I found my husband in shock, dust by the till and I thought, wait, there's a problem. So I stepped outside and I saw big flames and I said, it's impossible. I called my daughter. She was crying. She was shocked."
Edouard Civel, deputy mayor of the 5th arrondissement, attributed the explosion to a gas leak, but other officials were more cautious. A judicial official said a gas explosion was one of the possible causes under investigation. Renowned Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras was among the witnesses at the scene ."A huge noise and the house was shaken like this," the 90-year-old told the AP, visibly rattled. ""We thought, what is going on? We thought it could be the sky (a storm). ... It's not something to laugh about."The Paris prosecutor said an investigation was opened into aggravated involuntary injury and the probe would examine whether the explosion stemmed from a suspected violation of safety rules. Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said investigators would seek to "determine whether or not there was failure to respect a rule or individual imprudence that led to the explosion."
Firefighters prevented the fire from igniting two neighboring buildings that were "seriously destabilized" by the explosion and had to be evacuated, Nunez said. The explosion blew out several windows in the area, witnesses and the police chief said.
With more than 2 million people densely packed within the city limits and historic, sometimes ageing, infrastructure, Paris is not a stranger to gas explosions. A January 2019 blast in the 9th district killed four people and left dozens injured.
After Wednesday's blast, a student at the private school said he was in a building about 100 meters (yards) away when the explosion hit. "I was sitting on the windowsill, and we moved 2 meters away from the window, carried by a small blast (from the explosion) and huge fear," Achille, whose last name was not given, told BFM television. "We came down (from the building) and saw the flames," he said. "The police gave us great support and we evacuated quickly."

Titan submersible torn apart by catastrophic implosion, killing all five aboard
The Canadian Press/Thu, June 22, 2023
A catastrophic implosion ripped apart the Titan submersible, killing all five people aboard as it was descending to the bottom of the North Atlantic during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Thursday.
Several pieces of the minivan-size craft, including parts of its carbon-fibre hull, were found in a debris field on an otherwise clear section of the ocean floor, about 500 metres from the bow of the sunken luxury liner, Rear Admiral John Mauger, commander of First Coast Guard District in Boston, told reporters.
"The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," Mauger said at a briefing in Boston. "Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families."Those killed include the vessel's pilot, OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman. "On behalf of the United States Coast Guard … I offer my deepest condolences to the families," Mauger said. "I can only imagine what this has been like for them, and I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time."
OceanGate Inc. issued a statement saying the men who died were "true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure."
"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time," said company spokesman Andrew Von Kerens. "We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."The bleak discovery of Titan's distinctive tail cone and other parts were made Thursday morning by a crew guiding a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that was launched from the MV Horizon Arctic, a large Canadian tug and supply ship. The Titan submersible, operated by Rush's U.S.-based company, lost contact with surface vessels on Sunday morning as it was nearing the Titanic wreckage during a 3,800-metre dive that typically takes about two hours to complete. The remote site is about 700 kilometres southeast of eastern Newfoundland. It remains unclear exactly what happened to Titan, but coast guard experts said the expanse of its debris field indicated that it came apart in the water column above the doomed steamship, which sank on April 15, 1912. In all, five large pieces of the submersible were spotted. A coast guard expert said their location was consistent with where the vessel was expected to be when it lost contact with surface ships on Sunday morning.
As well, Mauger confirmed that the implosion did not happen while the search operation was underway because aircraft dropping sonar-equipped buoys would have recorded that sound. "We had listening devices in the water throughout and did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure," he said, adding that the ROVs on the ocean floor would continue to gather evidence of what happened.
When asked if there was any possibility of recovering the victims' bodies, Mauger said: "This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor .... We'll continue to work and search the area, but I don't have an answer at this time."On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard, which led the search for the privately owned Titan, confirmed that sonobuoys dropped in the ocean by a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora patrol aircraft had picked up "banging sounds" earlier that day and on Tuesday, but Mauger said those unidentified noises had no connection to the grim finds on Thursday. Some experts had suggested the noises could have come from sea creatures or from other vessels in the area.
There was speculation that the massive search effort, which included five vessels on Thursday, had reached a critical stage that day because OceanGate had said Titan's 96-hour air supply could be running low. But that warning assumed the submersible was still intact. Jamie Pringle, a professor in forensic geosciences at Keele University, in the United Kingdom, said the first 24 hours are the "golden hours" for a below-surface search, and after that the chances for success decline sharply. "That's when most people are found in water searches, and after that time chances of survival reduce massively," he said in an interview Thursday, citing low temperatures, declining oxygen and rising levels of fatigue. Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C., said OceanGate's brand of "frontier tourism" is a risky business. Asked about the debris field discovery, Johnston said the find raises questions about making the Titanic off limits to tourists. "I believe that the current accident will probably diminish interest in Titanic tourism and maybe ‘risk tourism’ in general," he said in an interview Thursday. He rejected the notion that these undersea tours are a form of exploration.
"(These are) people who are going down to look at an underwater graveyard," he said. "Who cares how much iron there is in the water column around the ship, or how quickly the rusticles (on the Titanic) grow. To me, that’s of no scientific interest whatsoever .... I think it’s a plaything for wealthy people — a checkbox on a bucket list.”
Meanwhile, some marine engineering experts have come forward to raise concerns about Titan, which was never "classed" or certified by an independent third party to ensure it met certain safety standards.
William Kohnen, president and CEO of the California-based engineering firm Hydrospace Group, has said about 95 per cent of all submersibles are certified. Titan, he said, "is very much an outlier."
Kohnen was part of a group of engineers and industry professionals who wrote to Rush in 2018 to express their concern. Their letter, first obtained by the New York Times, warned that the company’s “experimental” approach to Titan could have “catastrophic” consequences. In a 2019 blog post, OceanGate explained that Titan — made from carbon fibre and titanium — was not classed because the process could inhibit innovation and did not address pilot error, which it said is the cause of most marine accidents. In previous interviews, Rush showed off Titan's many off-the-shelf features, including a steering control made from a video game controller, and cabin lights purchased from a camping store.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2023.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 22-23/2023
Time to invite Ukraine into Nato and the EU
Con Coughlin/The Telegraph/ June 22, 2023
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduces Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky as he appears on the screen on the first day of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on June 21
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduces Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky as he appears on the screen on the first day of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on June 21
The pledges of financial support Ukraine is receiving from the West to repair its war-ravaged infrastructure are all very reassuring. But what the country really needs to secure its future prosperity and survival are cast-iron guarantees that, when the fighting is over, it will ultimately be allowed to join key institutions such as Nato and the European Union.
There was certainly no questioning the generosity of Kyiv’s allies at yesterday’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, as participants wrestled with the challenge of meeting the estimated hundreds of billions the World Bank says will be needed for reconstruction. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced a support package worth 50 billion euros up to 2027, while Britain has pledged £240 million in aid, together with £3 billion pounds in loan guarantees. Germany announced a further 381 million euros in humanitarian support.
In addition, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would give more than $1.3 billion in new aid, including more than $500 million to restore and improve Ukraine’s battered energy grid.
These are significant amounts by any standard and, while falling well short of the World Bank’s estimate, the delegates nevertheless demonstrated the commitment of Ukraine’s Western allies to help get the country back on its feet once the fighting is over.
As with all such commitments, though, the devil is in the detail. While Western governments are clearly keen to see Ukraine receive significant financial support, their preference is for the reconstruction to be funded by private rather than state entities, which is unlikely to be forthcoming so long as the war continues and concerns remain about corrupt practices. Announcing their packages, international leaders also stressed the need for Ukraine to improve its transparency. Investors needed to get the “transparency, fairness and the functioning institutions they need to invest in Ukraine,” Von der Leyen warned, while Blinken highlighted the importance of anti-corruption efforts. The country will need “the strongest possible economy, the strongest possible democracy” in order to attract the investment it required, he warned.
One easy way to pay for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, of course, would be to use the billions of pounds in Russian assets frozen by Western countries since the invasion, although questions remain about the feasibility of implementing such an arrangement.
But while the commitments of financial support, even with their caveats, show the West remains committed to the Ukrainian cause, the continuing failure of Western leaders to provide firm commitments that Kyiv will ultimately be allowed to join Nato risks undermining their contribution to reconstruction.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s saying earlier this week, for example, that no invitation will be discussed for Ukraine to join the alliance at next month’s summit in Vilnius will hardly provide Kyiv with the reassurance about its future destiny it requires. The ambivalence of the West’s position was certainly not lost on President Zelensky when he addressed the delegates by video, when he warned that his country needed action, not just pledges.
“We must move from vision to agreements and from agreements to real projects,” he said. And Western leaders needed to have the “courage” to acknowledge that Ukraine was already a key part of their economic and defence alliances. “We are only waiting for the courage of the alliance leaders to recognize this reality, politically.”
Zelensky certainly has a point about the vital role Ukraine is playing in defending European security. Not only are the Ukrainian forces the beneficiaries of Nato training and weaponry: any success they achieve on the battlefield diminishes Moscow’s ability to threaten other European countries. In that sense, this is now Europe’s war as much as Ukraine’s. Certainly, any suggestion that, rather than rewarding the Ukrainians for their heroic efforts, the West is not fully committed to supporting Ukraine’s reconstruction programme will simply open the way for rival powers such as China, which makes no secret of its desire to expand its influence, to do the job instead. Chinese intentions towards Ukraine were made clear during Beijing’s recent efforts to position itself as a potential peace mediator between Moscow and Kyiv, where it seemed to regard any effort to resolve the conflict as an opportunity to involve itself directly in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, thereby giving it a valuable foothold in Europe.
Given China’s tacit support for Russia’s war effort, Ukraine will be rightly wary of any Beijing’s offers of assistance. But the situation could easily change if Kyiv’s Western allies prove reluctant to act on the pledges of support made at this week’s conference.
The best way, then, to ensure there is no Ukrainian drift towards China’s orbit is to give Zelensky the cast-iron commitments he wants that his country will soon be able to commence membership talks with both Nato and the EU.
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Renewable energy a great opportunity for EU-Gulf cooperation
Arab News/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/June 22, 2023
Relations between the EU and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman — have been robust in several fields, including economic, security and geopolitical. Nevertheless, there exists an opportunity for the EU to further strengthen its ties with the Gulf states through closer cooperation in renewable energy.
The ties between the GCC and the EU are based on the Cooperation Agreement Document, which was signed in 1989 and included several sectors — trade, investment, research and regional cooperation, among other issues. The EU has also established several delegations in the region concerning ties with the GCC, such as the EU Delegation to Saudi Arabia, the EU Delegation to the UAE and the EU Delegation to Kuwait.
In a step in the right direction, the EU-GCC Joint Cooperation Committee last year endorsed another agreement known as the Joint Cooperation Program for the five-year period from 2022 to 2027. The EU appears to have come to the realization that the GCC — which was established with the purpose of strengthening relations between its members, safeguarding their sovereignty and addressing general concerns about their affairs and interests — has become a key international player that is capable of ushering in significant and positive changes, not only in the region but also beyond.
The EU is the second-largest trade partner of the GCC. According to the European Commission, “17.8 percent of the GCC’s imports came from the EU in 2020. The EU thus ranked as the GCC’s No. 1 import partner. In 2020, the EU was the fourth-biggest export partner of the GCC, as 6.9 percent of the GCC’s exports went to the EU. EU-GCC total trade in goods in 2020 amounted to €97.1 billion ($106 billion). The EU’s imports were worth €29.6 billion and they were led by fuel and mining products (€18.6 billion, 62.8 percent), as well as chemicals (€3.4 billion, 11.5 percent). The EU’s exports totaled €67.5 billion and were dominated by machinery and transport equipment (€26.7 billion, 39.6 percent), chemicals (10.4 billion, 15.4 percent) and agriculture and raw materials (€8.9 billion, 13.2 percent).”
The GCC has become a key international player that is capable of ushering in significant and positive changes
But it is important to point out that the European leaders will be keen to find further common ground on which they can build stronger and more positive partnerships in other critical areas, particularly renewable energy and climate change.
This is an opportunity for the EU for several reasons. First of all, while the Gulf is known for its abundance of oil, it is also richly endowed with renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar. For example, located in the center of the so-called sun belt, Saudi Arabia has great potential to produce power from the sun. Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, which are three of the largest cities in the Kingdom, enjoy an average irradiation of 5.78 kilowatt-hours per sq. meter per day, considerably more than the global average.
The second factor is the Gulf nations’ green ambitions and their determination to address climate change and restructure their carbon-driven economies. The region has experienced a shift in its understanding and recognition of the fact that avoiding action on climate change is no longer possible. In addition, there seems to be a growing understanding in the Gulf that technologies such as carbon capture and storage need to be developed to keep the oil industry viable in the long term.
There are also an increasing number of projects and initiatives in the Gulf related to renewable energy. For instance, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have pledged to increase the proportion of their energy mixes that come from renewable sources, while the UAE has committed to a 31 percent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has announced hugely ambitious plans to build NEOM, the world’s first city without roads — a clear signal of its intention to change course in a more environmentally friendly direction. And Sultan Al-Jaber, the chairman of Masdar, has pointed out that the UAE “aims to play a central role in the emerging green hydrogen economy.”
While the Gulf is known for its abundance of oil, it is also richly endowed with renewable energy resources
The EU-GCC Dialogue on Economic Diversification, which has been in progress since 2019, focuses on exchanging expertise and experience in order to help in advancing economic diversification strategies.
This brings us to another key benefit linked to cooperation and investment in renewable energy between the EU and Gulf nations, which is economic diversification. This has been a key goal of all GCC economies since they began pumping oil out of the ground.
Furthermore, cooperation with the Gulf nations in terms of renewable energy will benefit the EU significantly, as it will reduce fluctuations related to the energy process. For example, the pandemic gave us the first glimmer of price fluctuations in the energy sector. This is why the development of domestic, knowledge-based industries has arguably become an urgent economic necessity, rather than a welcome add-on.
Besides, the EU is ranked one of the largest producers of solar power products, while the Middle East is an obvious candidate for the mass deployment of solar panels as a source of renewable energy.
In a nutshell, thanks to the Gulf nations’ green ambitions and their firm determination to address climate change, renewable energy presents a great opportunity and invaluable common ground for the EU to strengthen its cooperation and ties with the Gulf states.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Migration and climate change conspire to dent human certainty
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/June 22, 2023
Last week, like most weeks, we witnessed yet another tragedy of people dying at sea due to their desperate attempt to seek a new life, a new beginning in a relatively safe European land. They wanted to leave behind the fear, uncertainty, poverty and all other types of adversity experienced in large parts of the Global South.
The number of confirmed dead or lost at sea off the Greek coastline was particularly large in this latest incident, which saw a boat full of migrants capsize, shattering the dreams of hundreds for a safer, more stable life.
This tragedy will be added to the many that came before it. At least 28 migrants died after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia in March. A month earlier, at least 93 people perished when a wooden boat carrying migrants from Turkiye crashed on the rocks of Calabria in southern Italy. Many more such deaths are likely to be recorded as the haste to rush north increases, driven by conflicts, wars, civil strife and climate change, which have increasingly challenged the prospect of a secure future for many in their native lands.
Regardless of who is responsible, this trend is set to continue and likely increase in frequency for many reasons. Above all is the sense shared by many in the Global South, especially from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Colombia and, soon, Sudan, that they must jump while they can, as the challenges to a safe and secure existence continue to pile up. They are suffering due to dwindling resources, more frequent droughts and water shortages, and climate change, in addition, of course, to poor governance, corruption and the increasing cost of living.
As the summer months set in, news of water shortages and droughts are no longer an anomaly, even in previously water-rich countries
Between January and March, some 36,000 refugees arrived in the Mediterranean countries of Europe, doubling the figure for the same period of last year. Western governments are racing to address this marginal yet developing trend, explaining the rising trend of countries apportioning the blame on human traffickers or friendly humanitarian groups. This is coupled with many countries’ efforts to tighten their immigration rules and the alleged provision of alternative secure passage for those they deem eligible.
The EU recently reviewed its migration and asylum rules to manage and distribute arrivals. This system requires member states to either take in migrants or make a payment for each relocation they refuse in an effort to ease the pressure on front-line countries, especially Italy and Greece, whose systems are buckling under the weight of new arrivals.
While the US continues to deter more arrivals by blocking its border, in parallel to increased scrutiny and rule changes that make the settlement requirements more difficult to fulfill, the UK has been debating its government’s long-awaited Illegal Migration Bill. If passed, it will make it next to impossible for refugees and migrants to settle in the country, using the threat of deportation to Rwanda for some, while housing others on floating barges, in an effort to send a strong signal to all those hoping to come that the UK is closed. The exceptions are nationals fleeing Hong Kong and Ukraine’s war.
As the summer months set in, news of water shortages and droughts are no longer an anomaly, even in previously water-rich countries. And this is likely to increase, coupled with warnings that 2023 will be the planet’s hottest year on record. Copernicus, the EU Earth observation program, last week declared there had been “a remarkable global warmth” in June, claiming that the first few days of this month breached the landmark 1.5 degrees Celsius increase compared with pre-industrial times. And this is likely to receive a further nudge via El Nino, a naturally recurring phenomenon where sections of the Pacific Ocean heat up, typically causing temperatures to spike across the world. It is expected later this year.
People are spurred to run when they sense their existence and the survival of their loved ones is at stake
Against such a backdrop, water shortages will intensify and harvest disruption will increase, affecting livelihoods and pushing people to seek any means possible to flee to a safer place. Everywhere you look, the warning signs are there. South Africa is short of water and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers continue to shrivel, parallel to reports indicating that the world’s largest lakes and reservoirs are drying up, placing humanity’s future water security at risk due to climate change and unsustainable consumption.
Traditionally, people have moved to ensure their survival for various reasons, including ethnic or religious persecution or loss of land, but never before in the modern world have there been challenges at the scale of the brewing climate crisis. Meanwhile, global governance is in disarray due to both continuing and newly emerging geopolitical discords and conflicts, along with competition between forces vying for absolute political, corporate or technological dominance. People are spurred to run when they sense their existence and the survival of their loved ones is at stake.
In a more interconnected and globalized, yet increasingly cynical, world, in which various protagonists believe in shielding their own and turning a blind eye to the misery of others, the trouble soon will come to a region or place close to you. This could be through weaponized migration or major disasters pushing millions to pack what they can and flee, similar to what the world witnessed with the 2015 migrant crisis, when a confluence of factors, including the rise of Daesh, the Syrian civil war and other instability in the Middle East and Afghanistan, drove record numbers to make the crossing to Europe.
The ramifications of such events are still being felt in host countries in Europe and their environs, through the rise of populists with their empty rhetoric and the calls for more isolationist policies that offer a painkilling tablet to deal with the problem locally, instead of dealing with the root causes that are more complex and require a realistic approach based on multilateralism and transparency, which are in short supply in this era.
*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.

Palestinians: We Prefer Terrorism to Peace with Israel
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/June 22, 2023
The findings of the poll, which was conducted between June 7 and 11, show that the Biden Administration and all those who continue to talk about reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians are living under an illusion. The results of the poll indicate that most Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than making peace with them. The results, in addition, show that most Palestinians want as a successor to their current leader, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has ties to terror.
According to the poll, the largest percentage of Palestinians (24%) believe that the rise of extremist Islamist terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was "the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since the Nakba."
[A] majority of the Palestinians see terrorist groups and the murder of Jews -- not the construction of schools and hospitals -- as their proudest accomplishment over the past seven decades.
More than half of the Palestinians, the poll showed, prefer an "armed struggle" (terrorism) against Israel to negotiations with it.
The only thing that seems to disturb the Palestinian public is the possibility that Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority security forces might go after the terror groups.
The armed terrorists of these groups are regularly hailed by Palestinians as heroes and martyrs.
The Palestinians want the gunmen to remain on the streets and continue their terror attacks against Jews. The vast majority (86%) say that the PA does not have the right to arrest members of these terrors groups to prevent them from carrying out attacks against Israel. This view seems to be one of the reasons that Abbas is reluctant to order his security forces to crack down on these terror groups and confiscate their weapons. Abbas is undoubtedly aware of the widespread support the terrorists enjoy among the Palestinian people. He undoubtedly knows that if he goes against the terrorists, he will be denounced by his people as a traitor and Israeli collaborator. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are already facing severe criticism for conducting security coordination with Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
According to the latest PSR poll, support for the concept of the "two-state solution" stands at 28% and opposition stands at 70%. A poll conducted by the same center three months earlier showed that support for the "two-state solution" stood at only 27%, while opposition to it stood at 71%.
When it comes to choosing their leaders, Palestinians again showed that they prefer a candidate who killed Jews and wants to destroy Israel to anyone who is perceived as being overly moderate towards Israel.
While the Biden administration seems to have confidence in Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, 84% of the Palestinians -- with good reason -- believe that PA institutions are corrupt. Moreover, the level of dissatisfaction with the performance of Abbas, the poll showed, stands at 80%.
The results of the latest Palestinian poll show that the Biden administration and the European Union, by believing that they can promote the idea of a "two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinians, continue to engage in self-deception. The Americans and Europeans appear blithely oblivious to the sentiments of the Palestinian street and prefer to listen only to what senior Palestinian officials tell them behind closed doors in Ramallah. The Palestinian officials are clearly misrepresenting the situation when they talk about the Palestinians' desire to achieve peace and establish a Palestinian state next to Israel. They are saying that because they are hoping to get a state in the West Bank which they could then use as a launching pad from which to attack Israel. This is exactly what the Palestinians did after Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and handed it over to the Palestinian Authority: they started firing rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel.
The radicalization is the direct result of decades of brainwashing and incitement against Israel taking place nonstop in mosques, throughout the media, in schools, on university campuses, in sports, at summer camps and even in crossword puzzles.
If anything, the results of the poll show that the Americans and Europeans are wasting their time trying to convince the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table with Israel.
Are the EU or the Biden Administration putting any pressure on Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to crack down on the terror groups and cease their incessant incitement against Israel? No, instead the EU is sending equipment to the Palestinians to help them illegally build on land to be negotiated. The US, for its part, not only pretends that fighting terrorism is morally equivalent to committing terrorism, but also, in defiance of the US Congress, continues to reward Mahmoud Abbas's "pay-to-slay" "jobs program" with fungible money, still incentivizing Palestinians to murder Jews.
The results of a recent public opinion poll indicate that most Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than making peace with them. A majority of the Palestinians see terrorist groups and the murder of Jews -- not the construction of schools and hospitals -- as their proudest accomplishment over the past seven decades. Pictured: Palestinian terrorists in Jenin on March 8, 2023, at the funeral of fellow terrorists who were killed the previous day when they attacked Israeli soldiers. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden Administration has resumed its efforts to relaunch peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
On June 19, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf arrived in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and met with Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official who serves as Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee.
"Mrs. Barbara expressed the US administration's concern about the security situation [in the West Bank], talked about the US efforts exerted and the intensive contacts that are being conducted to calm the situation, and called on the two parties to return to the negotiating track," al-Sheikh said after the meeting.
On the eve of Leaf's arrival in Ramallah, however, a majority of Palestinians again showed an overwhelming preference for terror against Israel and Jews. They also voiced opposition to the idea of a "two-state solution," often floated by the Biden Administration.
The Palestinians' views were disclosed in a public opinion poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) on the 75th anniversary of the "Nakba" ("Catastrophe," the term used by Palestinians to describe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, when Arab armies initiated -- then lost -- a war to prevent the Jews from having their own state).
The findings of the poll, which was conducted between June 7 and 11, show that the Biden Administration and all those who continue to talk about reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians are living under an illusion. The results of the poll indicate that most Palestinians are more interested in killing Jews than making peace with them. The results, in addition, show that most Palestinians want as a successor to their current leader, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has ties to terror.
According to the poll, the largest percentage of Palestinians (24%) believe that the rise of extremist Islamist terror groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was "the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since the Nakba." Another 21% said that the eruption of the two Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas, in 1987 and 2000, during which more than a thousand Jews were murdered and thousands more wounded in terror attacks, was the most positive thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948. And 9% said it was the establishment of Fatah and the launch of "the armed struggle." This means that a majority of the Palestinians see terrorist groups and the murder of Jews -- not the construction of schools and hospitals -- as their proudest accomplishment over the past seven decades.
More than half of the Palestinians, the poll showed, prefer an "armed struggle" (terrorism) against Israel to negotiations with it.
The Palestinian public's support for various terror groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is not surprising. The only thing that seems to disturb the Palestinian public is the possibility that Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority security forces might go after the terror groups.
More than 71% of the Palestinians say they are in favor of forming armed groups such as the Lions' Den and the Jenin Battalion, the results of the poll showed. It is worth noting that these armed groups have been involved in a large number of terror attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians over the past year. The Lion's Den, based in Nablus, and the Jenin Battalion, based in the Jenin Refugee Camp, have turned the northern parts of the West Bank into a hotbed of terrorism. The armed terrorists of these groups are regularly hailed by Palestinians as heroes and martyrs.
This hero-worship is apparently why 80% of the Palestinians say they are against the surrender of the armed groups' members and their weapons to the PA. The Palestinians want the gunmen to remain on the streets and continue their terror attacks against Jews. The vast majority (86%) say that the PA does not have the right to arrest members of these terrors groups to prevent them from carrying out attacks against Israel. This view seems to be one of the reasons that Abbas is reluctant to order his security forces to crack down on these terror groups and confiscate their weapons. Abbas is undoubtedly aware of the widespread support the terrorists enjoy among the Palestinian people. He undoubtedly knows that if he goes against the terrorists, he will be denounced by his people as a traitor and Israeli collaborator. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are already facing severe criticism for conducting security coordination with Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
Earlier this year, CNN's Christiane Amanpour claimed on television that "the latest polls from the Palestinian side also show that they want a peaceful, two-state solution." The latest poll, like previous ones, show that Amanpour lied to her viewers.
According to the latest PSR poll, support for the concept of the "two-state solution" stands at 28% and opposition stands at 70%. A poll conducted by the same center three months earlier showed that support for the "two-state solution" stood at only 27%, while opposition to it stood at 71%.
When it comes to choosing their leaders, Palestinians again showed that they prefer a candidate who killed Jews and wants to destroy Israel to anyone who is perceived as being overly moderate towards Israel. The results of the poll showed that Marwan Barghouti, and Ismail Haniyeh are more popular than the 87-year-old Abbas and would defeat him if PA presidential elections were held today. Why? Barghouti, a leader of the ruling Fatah faction, is serving five life terms in prison for his role in a series of terror attacks against Israelis two decades ago. Haniyeh is the leader of Hamas, a radical Islamist group that does not believe in Israel's right to exist and whose charter openly calls for jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel.
Revealingly, while the Biden administration continues to engage Abbas and the Palestinian Authority and send its top diplomats to meet with them in Ramallah, the vast majority of the Palestinians have evidently lost confidence in their leaders. According to the PSR poll, 80% of the Palestinian public wants Abbas to resign. This marks an increase of two percent since the previous poll conducted three months earlier. About 31% of the Palestinians say Hamas is most deserving of representing and leading them as opposed to 21% who think Abbas's Fatah faction is the most deserving of leading them. Forty-three percent think neither Hamas nor Fatah deserves to represent them.
While the Biden administration seems to have confidence in Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, 84% of the Palestinians -- with good reason (here, here and here) -- believe that PA institutions are corrupt. Moreover, the level of dissatisfaction with the performance of Abbas, the poll showed, stands at 80%.
The results of the latest Palestinian poll show that the Biden administration and the European Union, by believing that they can promote the idea of a "two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinians, continue to engage in self-deception. The Americans and Europeans appear blithely oblivious to the sentiments of the Palestinian street and prefer to listen only to what senior Palestinian officials tell them behind closed doors in Ramallah. The Palestinian officials are clearly misrepresenting the situation when they talk about the Palestinians' desire to achieve peace and establish a Palestinian state next to Israel. They are saying that because they are hoping to get a state in the West Bank which they could then use as a launching pad from which to attack Israel. This is exactly what the Palestinians did after Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and handed it over to the Palestinian Authority: they started firing rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel.
Poll after poll has shown that these officials -- including Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 18th year of his four-year term in office -- have lost the confidence of most of the Palestinians and for years have not represented the views of the majority of the Palestinian public.
US and EU officials would do themselves a great service to see reality as it is: Most Palestinians are opposed to the "two-state solution" and strongly support terrorism. Most Palestinians irrefutably want terrorists to represent and lead them.
The findings of the poll come as no surprise to those who are familiar with the mood of the Palestinian public. The radicalization is the direct result of decades of brainwashing and incitement against Israel taking place nonstop in mosques, throughout the media, in schools, on university campuses, in sports, at summer camps and even in crossword puzzles. Palestinians are constantly being told by their leaders – falsely – that, for instance, the Jews are "storming" and "desecrating with their filthy feet" the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem; that Israeli Jews "seek to control the world," and that Jews were sending rats into Jerusalem's Old City and wild pigs into the fields to drive Arabs out of their homes, although it is not yet clear how the animals were trained to know which homes belong to Arabs and which to Jews.
If anything, the results of the poll show that the Americans and Europeans are wasting their time trying to convince the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table with Israel.
Are the EU or the Biden Administration putting any pressure on Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to crack down on the terror groups and cease their incessant incitement against Israel? No, instead the EU is sending equipment to the Palestinians to help them illegally build on land to be negotiated. The US, for its part, not only pretends that fighting terrorism is morally equivalent to committing terrorism, but also, in defiance of the US Congress, continues to reward Mahmoud Abbas's "pay-to-slay" "jobs program" with fungible money, still incentivizing Palestinians to murder Jews.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Muslims Chide U.S. Over Past Slavery, Ignore Islam’s Past and Present Slavery
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/June 22/2023
The Council on American-Islamic Relations—which goes by the cloying acronym, CAIR—is again exposing itself for what it is: an Islamist group dedicated to “sabotaging” and “destroying the Western civilization from within.”
Following news that Fort Hood in Texas was changing its name to Fort Cavazos, CAIR exulted in a press release. Originally named after John Bell Hood (above), a Confederate general, and now named after the first Latino to become a general in the U.S. Army, CAIR endorsed the change, since, “American military bases should not be named,” preached CAIR rep, Ibrahim Hooper, after those who sought “to preserve slavery. We welcome this name change and call on all remnants of the Confederacy to be removed nationwide.”
Hooper went on to boast about how CAIR had “repeatedly called for the removal of Confederate names, holidays, flags, statues, and symbols nationwide.”
The rank hypocrisy is so palpable one scarcely knows where to begin.
So let’s begin with Fort Hood itself—the one military base that you’d think CAIR would steer away from lest the public remember its significance After all, it was there that a Muslim-American man—a U.S. Army major and “psychiatrist,” no less—went on a shooting rampage in 2009, murdering 13 Americans (including a pregnant woman) and seriously injuring 30.
While the media and talking heads had offered the same tired reasons to rationalize Nidal Hasan’s terrorism—that he was “picked on,” that he was “mentally unbalanced”—the fact is, the priorities of this “observant Muslim who prayed daily,” which included murdering fellow Americans in cold blood rather than be deployed against Muslims, comport perfectly with several Islamic doctrines (as detailed and documented in this 2009 article).
As to Ibrahim Hooper’s laughable assertion that “American military bases should not be named” after those who sought “to preserve slavery”—where, again, does one begin?
From its inception to the present, for nearly 1,400 years, Islam—beginning with Muhammad—has promoted, practiced, and done everything to preserve slavery. Both the words and deeds of the “prophet” (who had many slaves and sex-slaves), and the Koran—which together establish what is and is not permissible for Muslims—unequivocally permit slavery and sex-slavery (see here and here for copious documentation).
It seems futile to give examples (I have already documented in two books how Muslims enslaved many millions of just European Christians throughout the centuries). Suffice to say, Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, a French historian specializing in slavery, “estimates that the Islamic enslavement of whites far surpasses the transatlantic trade in black slaves.”
As for the specific spectre of sex-slavery in Islam, a report recently appeared documenting how Christian women are sexually abused, raped, and enslaved with great frequency in portions of the Muslim world. Excerpts follow:
Saudi Arabia: “[R]ape and sexual assault are commonplace across Saudi Arabia for the thousands of non-Saudi (especially Asian and African) housemaids across the country who are Christian (or non-Islamic), a position in which they are commonly abused and virtually treated as slaves.”
United Arab Emirates: “House-maids working in the UAE often face sexual harassment or slave-like treatment.”
Yemen: “Christian women and girls risk being sexually abused at the hands of militias due to the concept of ‘anfal’ [Arabic for “spoils”], which permits non-Muslims in some circumstances to be treated as slaves as part of the spoils of war (Quran, Surah Al-Anfal).”
Nigeria: “[Christian] Women and girls have been raped, forced into sexual slavery, kidnapped for ransom and killed.
Democratic Republic of Congo: “Christian women are vulnerable to abduction, rape, trafficking, and sexual slavery, especially by ADF [Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic terror group].
It is further ironic to note that the United States’ first exposure to Islam came by way of Muslims abducting and enslaving American sailors, leading to the U.S.’s very first war as a nation, the Barbary War. Earlier, in an effort to negotiate a release of the American slaves, ambassadors Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with a Muslim ambassador, Abdul Rahman Adja. The Founders later summarized this meeting in a letter to Congress:
We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their [Muslims’] pretentions to make war upon [and enslave] nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners… [dated March 28, 1786].
It goes beyond saying, incidentally, that Islam never took any initiative to ban slavery. Rather, the West, during the much maligned colonial era, compelled Muslim nations to give up the dehumanizing practice, even though it continued then, and increasingly now, to flourish underground—unsurprisingly so, since Islam permits it.
For example, eight of the top ten nations where slavery is most prevalent today are Islamic. Moreover, according to a 2019 report titled, “Black Slavery exists today in Muslim-dominated African nations,”
Today, an estimated 529,000 to 869,000 black men, women and children are still slaves. They are bought, owned, sold, and traded by Arab and Muslim masters in five African countries. This statistic estimates those enslaved in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Sudan. It excludes Nigeria, for which there are no tangible estimates.
Other reports do give a number for Nigeria—where Muslims are waging a genocidal jihad against Christians—and that number is higher than for all the other nations combined: 1,384,000 slaves as of 2018.
But the hypocrisy of CAIR—whose delicate sensibilities caused it to be affronted that an American fort was named after a Confederate—does not end here. All throughout the Islamic world, Muslims regularly celebrate “heroes” whose claim to fame was to have massacred and enslaved countless non-Muslims (“infidels”).
Only recently, on May 29, Turkey celebrated the 1453 conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul), when Muslims slaughtered tens of thousands and enslaved as many as 45,000 Christians for the sole crime of being Christian. Statues and monuments dedicated to the architect of that well-documented atrocity, Ottoman Sultan Muhammad (or Mehmet) II, an open pedophile, litter the streets of Turkey as well as other Muslim nations.
In this regard, what Muslims do is significantly worse than what Americans are accused of doing: naming a military base—which by nature is militant—after a Confederate general is one thing; Muslims, on the other hand, are in the habit of naming mosques—which Westerners naively deem as Muslim counterparts to peaceful churches—after jihadist heroes (terrorists in Western parlance).
Even more recently for example, much hype and fanfare accompanied the reopening of Baibars Mosque in Egypt. A former slave-soldier who assassinated and poisoned his way to the sultanate of Egypt, al-Zaher Baibars (1223-1277) was a notorious persecutor of religious minorities under his sway. He had many Christians and Jews beheaded or burned alive for refusing to convert to Islam, destroyed or converted numerous churches and synagogues into mosques, and enslaved many Europeans. Following his conquest of Antioch in 1268, he boasted in a letter to Christians that if they were there,
You would have seen … your women sold [as slaves] four at a time and bought for a dinar of your [own] money! You would have seen the crosses in your churches smashed …. your Muslim enemy trampling on the place where you celebrate the mass, cutting the throats of monks, priests, and deacons upon the altars, bringing sudden death to the Patriarchs and slavery to the royal princes.
Yet, here is Egypt, spending 181 million Egyptian pounds (not an insignificant sum for the North African nation), to renovate a mosque in honor of this same Baibars. Meanwhile, other Muslims, such as CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper, are lecturing to Americans for having a military base named after a Confederate general who, whatever his “sins,” must be accounted a saint compared to the sorts of men Muslims name, not just their military bases, but mosques, after.
Of course, none of this is surprising: CAIR—who vehemently hates and seeks to censor accurate history—is an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the largest terrorist funding case in U.S. history; a designated “terrorist organization” for nations allied to America; and a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood in America, which, as mentioned, is committed to “sabotaging” and “destroying the Western civilization from within.”
And what better way to do that then get Americans and Europeans to disavow their heritage and its masculine defenders, and instead prop up men-in-drag for “inspiration”—even as the rest of the world continues to be fueled by its militant past and heroes?

بروتوكولات حكماء صهيون في العالم العربي والإسلامي – الماضي والحاضر
يغئال كارمون/ موقع ميمري/22 حزيران/2023
The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion In The Arab And Muslim World – Past And Present
Yigal Carmon/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 493/June 22/2023
Adapted from a lecture delivered at Georgetown University’s Symposium on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on April 24-25, 2023.
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/119393/tyigal-carmon-memri-the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-in-the-arab-and-muslim-world-past-and-present-%d8%a8%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%83%d9%88%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%ad%d9%83%d9%85%d8%a7/
Introduction
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of the oldest antisemitic tropes, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. It has been studied by several pioneering scholars. First, by the renowned scholar Norman Cohn in his landmark book Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and then by Prof. Yehoshefat Harkabi (in his book Arab Attitudes to Israel) and Judge Hadassah Ben-Itto (author of The Lie That Would­n’t Die: The Pro­to­cols of the Elders of Zion). MEMRI follows in their footsteps and continues the research of the Protocols, focusing primarily on the Arab and Muslim world. This article will focus on the Arab world in particular. A more comprehensive 200-page collection of the Protocols in Farsi,[1] in Turkish,[2] and in Urdu[3] has been published separately by MEMRI on our website.
Historical And Spiritual Roots
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are one of two antisemitic conspiracy theories borrowed by Arab and Muslim antisemitism from Western Christian antisemitism (the second is the blood libel). These conspiracy theories draw their legitimacy in the Arab and Muslim world from ancient Islamic and Christian foundations according to which Jews are devious and malicious enemies of God.
In particular, there is a hostile Islamic stereotype of Jews that has its roots in the Prophet Muhammad’s conflicts with the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century. These stereotypes are expressed in the Quran, which describes the Jews as a nation that is guilty of killing God’s prophets (for example, An-Nisa Chapter, Verse 155) and that is destined for humiliation and misery due to their sinful nature (for example, Al-Baqarah Chapter, Verse 61).
The demonization of Jews is also prevalent in Islamic tradition, according to which it was divinely revealed to the Prophet Muhammad that the Jews of the Banu Nadhir and Banu Qurayza tribes in Medina, with whom he had signed treaties, were plotting to assassinate him. This prompted the Prophet Muhammad to exterminate one of these tribes and expel the other.
Over the centuries, Islamic historiography has extensively justified Muhammad’s actions against the Jews by asserting that they deserved it, repeating his messages and actions. It should be emphasized that for Muslim believers, everything that the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have done or said is not merely historically important, but also serves as a normative model of behavior.
In addition, Sunni historians have traditionally placed the blame for the earliest and most traumatic schism in Islam between Shi’a and the Sunna on a secret Jewish conspiracy put into effect by a certain Yemenite Jew, ‘Abdallah ibn Saba’, who outwardly converted to Islam with the intention of subverting it from within. Thus, the most critical event, from the Muslim point of view, in the early history of Islam, was the result of a Jewish plot to corrupt and ruin it. Hence, the idea that the Jews are conspiratorial and evil in nature is not unfamiliar in Islam.
Early Christian tradition also presents the Jews in a negative light. The Jews are guilty of rejecting the divinity of Jesus and of being involved indirectly in his crucifixion, as mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (27:25): “All the people answered, ‘His blood is on us and on our children!'” It is important to note, however, that in 1965, Pope Paul VI promulgated the Nostra aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions), which repudiated the idea that the Jews are guilty for Jesus’ death.[4]
“Fabricated Or Not, The Protocols Describe Reality”
Given these roots, the question of whether the 24 protocols supposedly stolen from the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 are authentic documents or a Tsarist secret police fabrication is of minor relevance within the larger context of Arab and Muslim antisemitism. This is because according to Arab and Muslim antisemitism, the Protocols are not merely a compilation of documents or a book. Rather, they reflect a certain perspective on history and on reality, and they are a key to understanding the past, the present, and – if nothing is done to stop the Jews – the future, as well.
Indeed, the question of the veracity of the Protocols is decades old, and since the Berne Trial of the early 1930s, the conclusion among antisemites has consistently been that whether the Protocols are authentic or not is irrelevant because reality unfolds in accordance with the conspiracies they describe. The same conclusion is reflected in the Arab and Muslim discourse about the Protocols.
According to this worldview, the star actors in this conspiracy were at first Theodor Herzl and the Rothschild family. Over the years, even many wealthy and influential non-Jews such as the Morgan and Rockefeller families (among others) were added to the list of those Jews plotting world domination.
All in all, this Jewish Zionist global conspiracy – thus the theory claims – enjoys terrific success. The Jews indeed control the world. Evil has won over good, and the Satanic forces have overpowered the forces of good everywhere on the planet.
What Is The Role And Function Of The Protocols Conspiracy?
This conspiratorial worldview – with or without written protocols or documents – serves several important functions in the Arab and Muslim world:
Like it did for the Nazis, the Protocols justifies the goal of annihilating the Jews. For the Arabs, it would also justify annihilating the State of Israel.
It resolves two cognitive dissonances afflicting Arab and Muslim societies. First, it explains why the Arabs have failed in their struggle against Israel: were it not for the global Jewish-Zionist conspiracy, Israel would have been wiped out long ago. Second, it explains why Muslim societies are unable to compete with the West – the Jewish conspiracy employs various means to leave them in the dust.
“In the Islamic Republic of Iran, this conspiratorial worldview is at the foundation of the Islamic Revolution’s ideology, according to which the Jew has been transformed from an impure and miserable entity (Najs) to an all-powerful satanic figure that opposes the Islamic world and is at the root of all of the Islamic world’s predicaments. According to the Iranian regime’s ideology, it is necessary to fight the Jews the same way that one fights cancer, and to wipe them and their satanic influence off the face of the earth.
The Prevalence Of The Protocols In The Arab World
Over the years, the Protocols have become increasingly widespread, particularly as there are more global developments that they serve to explain and understand. Indeed, the very prevalence of the Protocols reflects how great the demand is for them.
Like with other forms of hate propaganda, the advent of the Internet and social media – namely Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok – has led to an explosion in the prevalence of the Protocols in the Arab world. In the past, the Protocols were only available in print form and therefore had relatively limited reach.
The social media companies are guilty of at least two great crimes: First, their terrible irresponsibility and failure to implement their own policies against hate propaganda on their platforms; Second, they give antisemites power that they didn’t enjoy when they were dependent on print media alone. It is also noteworthy that copies of the Protocols are available for purchase on Amazon.com.
The plots described in the Protocols have been discussed by many prominent Arab cultural figures. As soon as the Protocols were translated into Arabic in the mid-20th century, they were viewed positively by renowned Egyptian author Abbas Mahmoud Al-‘Aqqad, who was a pillar in the 20th-century Arab intellectual renaissance.[5] He wrote in the foreword to the second edition of the translation: “Whether the Protocols are historic fact or fictional, I can personally testify that there is a huge mechanism in action, from Istanbul to America and South Africa… The Protocols are one of the pieces of evidence proving the existence of a global cabal that is advancing its goals.”
The Protocols have even been accepted by political leaders: former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was the leading figure in Pan-Arabism, told the Indian English-language newspaper Blitz as early as 1958 that the Protocols are a “very important” book that “proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that 300 Zionists […] govern the fate of the European Continent”;[6] in 1977, recently re-elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote, directed, and starred in a play called Maskomya – an acronym for “Masons, Communists, Yahud [i.e. Jews]”, all of whom are guilty in the conspiracies described in the Protocols; in the 1970s, Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal warned – of all people – U.S. State Secretary Henry Kissinger of the danger posed by Jewish-Bolshevik plots similarly described in the Protocols.
At a government museum exhibition about the holy books of the monotheistic religions hosted by the University of Alexandria in 2003, the Protocols were displayed next to the Torah, the New Testament, and the Quran. It was only thanks to a U.S. diplomat in Cairo, who rushed to Alexandria to take a picture of the exhibit, that the story came to light, ultimately resulting in the removal of the exhibit.
Just recently, a copy of the Protocols was visible on display on a table in the waiting room of the Central Council of Palestinians in Germany.[7]
The Protocols have been referred to in schoolbooks, such as the History of the Modern and Contemporary World, Grade 10, which was issued by the Palestinian Authority.[8]
The Protocols are also commonly referred to by Islamic clerics and scholars, they appear in media reports, and they have been dramatized in recent years in family-oriented Ramadhan TV shows such as Al-Shatat and Knight Without a Horse.[9]
For several examples, see the following clip:
https://youtu.be/9d8fRqC6_VA
Holocaust Denial Is An Inseparable Part Of The Protocols Conspiracy
One great difficulty arises, however: the theory of the Jews’ satanic omnipotence is incompatible with the facts of history, and particularly with the Holocaust. How can it be claimed that the evil, all-powerful Jews are so successful in their plot for world domination when in fact one third of world Jewry was wiped out in the Holocaust?
The only way to avoid this glaring contradiction is to deny the Holocaust. Hence, Holocaust denial is an inevitable and inseparable part of the Protocols conspiracy.
Indeed, there are also those who perversely recognize that the Holocaust took place, but justify it. One noteworthy example is recently-deceased Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, pictured being kissed by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Aal-Thani. Al-Qaradhawi said on the Qatari state-run Al-Jazeera Network in 2009 that Allah imposed Hitler upon the Jews as a punishment for their corruption, and that “Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers.”
There are also those who solve the contradiction between the conspiracy and the Holocaust by claiming that the Jews actually collaborated with the Nazis, as was claimed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the introduction to the Arabic translation of his doctorate thesis.
The only other resolution to the contradiction between historical facts and the Jewish conspiracy theory would be to dismiss the conspiracy. Unfortunately, very few individuals choose this path. These notable individuals include: recently-deceased secularist Syrian intellectual Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm, the author of Self-Criticism Following Our Defeat[10]; political advisor to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Dr. Osama Al-Baz, who in 2002 published a series of articles in the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram in which he debunked some of the most notorious antisemitic myths, particularly the Protocols, the blood libel, and Holocaust denial; and Egyptian academic Dr. Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Masiri, the author of the Arabic-language eight-volume Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, who has written a book about the Protocols titled The Protocols, Judaism, and Zionism and who said that the Protocols are inauthentic and “100% laughable and foolish plagiarism.”[11] Notably, a new approach towards Judaism has emerged in the most morally advanced Arab country, the UAE, which in recent years has launched interfaith dialogues.
The following clip further demonstrates how the Protocols are propagated by political figures, popular culture figures, intellectuals, and terrorist organizations such as the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and even the Houthis in far-off Yemen.
https://youtu.be/TesXtdXh2DY
Appendix I – MEMRI Reports Referring To The Protocols
Note: The followings links to MEMRI reports and clips provide the date, speaker, source, summary, and full translation of references to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in MEMRI’s archives, which go back 25 years.
Egyptian Researcher Muhammad Al-Buheiri Discusses Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Blood Libel Which Still Occurs Today
Iraqi Researcher Living in Europe on Al-Jazeera TV: Nobel Prize is Racist; ‘Why Has the Prize Been Awarded to 167 Jews and Only 4 Arabs… All Considered Traitors?’; The Prize Stems from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Saudi Daily Al-Madina Series: Reality Confirms Authenticity of Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Syrians Reject Mehlis Report, Point to Al-Hariri’s Son, Israel & the ‘Free Lebanese Government;’ Independent Syrian Judicial Website: ‘Mehlis’s Mother was a Jewess’
U.S.-Trained Retired Lebanese General on Hizbullah TV: ‘Global Zionism’ Behind London Bombings and 9/11
Qatari Intellectual on the Islamic Roots of Antisemitism and 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
Saudi Armed Forces Journal on the Jews: ‘The Fabricated Torah, Talmud, and Protocols of the Elders of Zion Command Destruction of All Non-Jews for World Domination’
Anti-American and Antisemitic Cartoons in Leading Egyptian Government Weekly Al-Ahram: 1998-2004
Al-Ahram on the Aftermath of a MEMRI Report about the Display of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ at the Alexandria Library
Contemporary Islamist Ideology Authorizing Genocidal Murder
Jewish Holy Books On Display at the Alexandria Library: The Torah & the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’
Harbingers of Change in the Antisemitic Discourse in the Arab World
Egypt’s Response to Accusations of Arab Media Antisemitism
Arab Press Debates Antisemitic Egyptian Series ‘Knight Without a Horse’- Part III
Arab Press Debates Antisemitic Egyptian Series ‘Knight Without a Horse’ – Part II
Arab Press Debates Antisemitic Egyptian Series ‘A Knight Without a Horse’
Columnist for Saudi Daily Al-Jazirah: Jews Use Blood for Baked Goods
Friday Sermons in Saudi Mosques: Review and Analysis
A NEW ANTISEMITIC MYTH IN THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews
Ramadan TV Special: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Al-Ahram, Egypt’s Leading Government Daily: Israel – The Plague of Our Time and a Terrorist State’
Anti-American Statements in the Palestinian Press
Palestinian-Lebanese Historian: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Are an Exact Reflection of Judaism and the Zionist Idea
Columnist in Jordanian Daily: Jews and Peace Are Incompatible; ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ Is ‘Proof That They [Work] To Prevent Peace’
Egyptian Cleric Amin Al-Ansari: The Jews Use Women to Harm Muslim Society
Article in Lebanese Daily: The Arab Spring Coups Are Part Of the Jewish Plot Spelled Out in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Egyptian Researcher Muhammad Galaa Idris: The Jews Are Behind the Spread of Depravity and Sin in the World and Have Brainwashed Europe
Saudi Columnist: Switzerland’s Neutrality Is Part Of Jewish Plot To Control World’s Wealth – As In ‘Protocols Of the Elders of Zion’
Kuwaiti Journalist in Part 2 of ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’ Series: Jews Have Secret Plan For World Domination
Yemeni Columnist: The Uprisings in Arab World – A Jewish Conspiracy Documented in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Kuwaiti Columnist: The Jews Killed Arab POWs following Instructions in ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’
Antisemitic Articles in the Egyptian Government Press: Jews are Descendants of Apes and Pigs; Protocols of the Elders of Zion are Being Realized in Today’s Middle East
Sudanese Cleric Muhammad Tannoun: The Jews Have Invaded the Minds of Some Muslims with Their Constitution – ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’
Egyptian Scholars: ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ is the Constitution of Freemasonry, Whose Goal Is Jewish Domination of the World
A European Plot on the Arab Stage: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Arab Media
Statements of Former Hamas Culture Minister ‘Atallah Abu Al-Subh on America and Jews
Article in Egyptian Government Weekly: Israel’s End and the Annihilation of the Jews by the Muslims – All Prophesied in the Koran, Bible
Egyptian Daily Publishes Antisemitic Dissertation by the Late Al-Azhar Sheikh Tantawi; In It, He States ‘The [Jews’] Abominations Described in the Koran Are Demonstrated Throughout the Ages,’ Recounts Damascus Blood Libel
https://www.memri.org/reports/protocols-elders-zion-arab-and-muslim-world-%E2%80%93-past-and-present